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35 Times When Casting Directors Failed At Their Jobs By Miscasting Actors For These Roles
I once read a quote, “Plot is what keeps you going when you read a story; character is what stays with you.” Honestly, that resonates so well with any tale because imagine a character that hypnotizes you, but then it’s played by an actor least suitable for the role.
Sounds disappointing, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, quite a few such epic characters have been played by actors who were obviously miscast, and netizens couldn’t help but call them out for ruining the story. You might even agree with some of them, so just scroll down to check them out!
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#1
Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher. Overall I enjoy the Jack Reacher movies but Cruise isn't anywhere near the right physical presence. This was only more exacerbated by having Alan Ritchson play him in the Amazon series and crushing it.
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When one single person can ruin the story, you know how important it is that the right actor is cast for a role. After all, it's the character that's going to have a real impact on any tale. To get a deeper insight into the matter, Bored Panda got in touch with Akashneel Duttasharma—a director and writer—for an interview.
Speaking about the criteria typically used to determine whether an actor has been miscast in a role, he said that it's really important that the actor feels just right. "They should naturally blend into the role, and their screen presence should shine through the character they embody. When you, as the audience, are drawn to the character intrinsically, you know they are just right for the film," he added.
#5
Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker in Dracula, although part of me thinks he might have been able to pull it off if they just made the character American and didn’t make him put on that horrendous accent.
Akashneel further elaborated that it is very, very jarring when an actor is miscast. He also noted that you are constantly taken out of the immersive experience of a film when the actor is out of sorts with the overall tonality.
"A badly cast actor can give the audience a completely different understanding of the theme or narrative of the film. With the wrong cast, the audience might go down paths the creators never dreamt of!" he explained.
#7
Not because of any personal history of hers, but Amber Heard in Aquaman. Every single word she spoke was a cheesy one liner that made me physically cringe
#8
Shia Leboeuf in Indiana Jones. I don’t think they knew what they wanted to do and he exemplifies that.
Our expert claimed that, unfortunately, for many producers, star power is the most important thing, as for marketability and revenue generation, it's crucial that the buzz starts even before the movie is made.
Akashneel expressed, "Having a star guarantees eyeballs. More than often, this leads to the star taking over everything. Then, we only see the star and not the character. Acting should be a service to the story. A star must forget about his stardom when stepping into the shoes of his character."
#12
Ben Affleck as daredevil. The script was bad and that can take a lot of the blame. However Affleck still moves around like his spine is fused, while trying to portray one of the more nimble characters in marvel.
Akashneel believes that it's very rare that a star can throw off his personal baggage and typecasting, but it happens, and when it does, it's magical.
He gave helpful examples to prove his point: "Look at Robert Downey Jr., who truly became Iron Man despite being shunned for years for his off-screen shenanigans. Shia LaBeouf is someone whose eccentric personality constantly overshadows his brilliant acting skills."
It's sad, but casting directors have to be very careful because audiences are just so clued into the lives of actors via social media nowadays, he added.
#14
Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates. But only a complete nutter would remake Psycho in the first place.
We also had some fun with our expert by asking him to reveal any actor that he thinks has been miscast.
Akashneel revealed, "My personal unpopular opinion will always be Quentin Tarantino casting himself in his own films! I quite hated him in From Dusk Till Dawn and Pulp Fiction. It just seemed unnecessary and overindulgent."
"He is outshined in every scene by his very talented co-stars, and despite the success of both films, if he had cast a real actor, it would have been an even better experience. Especially because he's brilliant at directing actors!" he concluded.
Well, our expert definitely gave us something to think about, didn't he? That's it from our end, dear readers. Now we want to know your thoughts, so don't hesitate to share which actors you think have been miscast. Leave them in the comments!
#16
To me, the granddaddy of them all is Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor.
So….SO wrong. Too short, no charisma……
—
(Full disclosure: I consider anything other than T1 and T2 to be an abomination BY DEFAULT anyway).
#18
Dane DeHaan in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017) who's attempts at appearing as a bada*s space cop were laughably bad.
#19
James Franco as the Wizard of Oz/Oswald in Oz the Great and Powerful. Such a vacuum of charisma when you need someone with charm to pull off the role. Sam Raimi should have done what he could to keep RDJ in the role.
#23
Both Sully and Drake from Uncharted were woefully miscast. The lackluster script certainly didn’t help.
#27
Tom Hanks in Elvis.
I feel like Werner Herzog would have killed it. Or Stellan Skarsgard. Hanks was just...not right for the role, and it brought the whole movie down.
#28
Not a movie, but Lin Manuel Miranda in 'His Dark Materials'. He plays a character clearly inspired by wild west/Texas cowboy and is unsurprisingly bad.
For reference, Sam Elliott played the same character in the movie version. Much better casting, even if he was a little old for the part.
#30
I used to think Jeremy Renner was miscast as Hawkeye for the longest time. I didn't hate him but he didn't feel like the Clint I was familiar with from the comics. But the Hawkeye show completely changed my mind on that and now I think he's great.
#31
Almost the entire cast of the The last Airbender movie..
Edit: Leave me alone with that Dragonball movie, I'm not watching it and never will!!
..I agree that it could've made a decent movie if it wasn't for M.N.Shyamalan as director, but Idk. I found the whole bending and the effects were actually not bad (except firebending that looked awful to me) and I also liked the soundtrack. But compared to the nickelodeon show it's..well..can't be compared.
Edit 2: omg chill yall I never said the earth bending was a masterpiece. I liked the water and airbending most. Effects were good that's all I'm sayin.
#32
Paul Rudd as the [jerk] husband in Night at The Museum.... If you watch that movie while imagining that Ben Stiller and Paul Rudd's roles were reversed, it would be so much better. Night at The Museum is secretly a Paul Rudd movie.
Edit: the husband wasn't an [jerk] character. I misremembered. His only crime was too many pagers 😂
#33
On the same train as “not miscast but poorly used”, I’d like to remind everyone of Zachary Levi as the borderline nonexistent Fandral.
#34
Malekith and Kaecillius.
They could have cast nobodies, but they wasted some pretty good actors on one-offs.
#35
Mads Mikkelsen but not for the reason you might think. I don’t really like Kaecilius. I think he is the weakest villain of Phase 3. He is cool but unlike other villains he isn’t developed enough so he is kinda weak in that movie. I also think Mads is a really good actor and I think he would’ve been perfect for a role as Doctor Doom and it always gets me sad when I realize we will never see him as Doctor Doom.
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