Dick Van Dyke is setting the record straight.
The 99-year-old actor recently addressed rumors that he was offered to play the role of Willy Wonka in 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, a now-iconic role that ultimately went to Gene Wilder.
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And while Van Dyke certainly has played a number of iconic roles in his life, Willy Wonka was never one of the options.
“I wasn’t offered Willy Wonka,” the actor confirmed during a Q&A session at Aviator Nation Dreamland in Malibu, Calif., last month, PEOPLE reports. “I would like to have, but [Wilder] did a beautiful job.”
After shutting down the rumor, Van Dyke went on to say that he probably wouldn’t have been able to pull off the role like Wilder did.
“What he did, it was subtle. I am not very subtle,” he said of Wilder, who died in 2016 at age 83 following complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
But even without adding Willy Wonka to his portfolio, Van Dyke has no shortage of notable characters under his belt, including his roles in Bye Bye Birdie (1963) Marry Poppins (1964), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and many, many more.
