37 Times When Casting Directors Failed At Their Jobs By Miscasting Actors For These Roles
Interview With ExpertI 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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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.
A 6'5" wall of muscle being played by a guy who couldn't climb up a snake's arsé without using a ladder.
Saw both movies long before I knew some books existed. Not sure if I read one of them. Tom Cruise was actually fairly decent in both movies as an actor - bar the physical presence. Everything else I think he captured as in books.
That seems the be the only issue. I like the movies even having not read the books.
Load More Replies...I think Cruise definitely put pressure on the studio to let him do these. Pet project of his, and his ego was too big (ironic,) for him to realize he was completely wrong for the role.
'And if you say no, I'll set my culty friends on you'.
Load More Replies...I actually liked this take on the character. Like, I know part of Reacher's whole thing is that he's physically intimidating but I like this version that's just as confident and smartmouthy as a big guy, but isn't. Sure, they should not have called this a Jack Reacher film then but i still liked it.
I read all the books before the movies were made. The protagonist is a 6'5" bruiser, a giant of a man, and that's a massive part of what makes the character. I haven't watched any of the movies - why would I want to see a shortarse like that making a mockery of the whole thing?
Me and the wife really like the series but did not care for Tom at all.
Load More Replies...Started reading the books years before the first movie came out. Thought it wouldn't work. And looking past the obvious issue of size he didn't do such a bad job.
I didn't mind him as Jack Reacher. Mostly because he's a decent actor and was able to emotionally pull it off. But I agree he definitely didn't look the part.
Ton Cruise is a wonderful actor, absolutely bugnuts crazy, but a wonderful actor. I feel like through the first movie he was trying to "act" 6'5". Hard to do when your 5'7" (at best!) And it doesn't help that Rosamund Pike is 5'9" and the producers did nothing to try to make her look smaller than Cruise. Also, the way the script was written, keep with the "mountain of a man" premise in how Reacher is described. But it doesn't work because it's Tom Cruise. He did get done of the attitude and humor, but Alan Ritchson, and what Amazon has done with the novels, is so much better.
Steven Seagal as an action star.
C'mon, Under Siege is almost an action movie classic. Did he go nuts over the years? Absolutely.
Action stars are generally poor actors. Van Damme, Stallone, Lundgren etc. If you are referring to Seagal's character as a human being, that is another subject.
When u was younger I actually quite enjoyed his earlier movies and before there was internet and before you knew what a glue sniffing tit warbler he is and was.
Mickey Rooney as Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Twas not a sensitive portrayal, eh? Even given the time period, it was highly offensive.
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.
John Wayne as Genghis Khan.
Not only a terrible movie, but allegedly caused a lot of deaths (including Wayne) by importing lots of radio active sand after they moved the production from a nuclear testing area. Apparently Howard Hughes bought up all the copies so that no-one would ever see the film, such was his guilt.
Nothing alleged about it. 91 out of 220 cast and crew
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Denise Richards, the nuclear scientist in that James Bond movie.
If you're looking for realism in Bond movies, you're going to be disappointed.
Closest the Bond movies ever got to realism was the Wallis Autogyro "Little Nellie" from 'You Only Live Twice'. Built and flown by former RAF Group Captain Barnes Wallis, it was pretty much functional as described. The weapons were loaded with blanks and dummies, but overall it was most convincing.
Load More Replies...I don't think she was the worst Bond girl. Maryam D'Abo was worse.
omg i forgot about this. Although the feminist part of me wants to say that no one would question a good looking actor as being able to pull off a smart character, so it feels like we're judging her for just being pretty. But honestly... the movie was horrible and her role was horrible and she was obviously just there for the bathing suit scene. It's a Bond movie...you aren't supposed to think too hard about it. It's like asking for realism in a Fast and the Furious movie.
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.
I am a fan of Keanu and I still think he was a bad cast in this movie. He had the innocense but people are right.... that accent! ugh
Same. I love the man but he just isn't a fantastic actor. He's definitely gotten better over the years. But he's still a little stiff if you ask me. You can always *see* him acting, you know what I mean? But, hey, he's entertaining to watch in action roles. And for all intents and purposes he seems to be a nice guy so I'll root for him.
Load More Replies...Yeah, not his best work. It didnt help that he was right alongside legends like Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins
His English accent wasn't great but I've seen worse on film. I don't think he was as exceedingly bad in the film as critics said at the time. His performance doesn't stand up again Gary Oldman's but that's a really steap comparison. I think he portrays the confused Victorian clerk that's subjected to horror and trauma reather well. Jonathan Harker seems like a real person dropped into this gothic romance of hightened characters and drama.
He's says that he was dead tired from working non stop before this movie. Not that's it's an excuse, but maybe if he had the energy he would've been half decent.
Gary Oldman is really the exception to the casting rule in this movie. The rest give quite terrible performances.
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.
Johnny Depp as Tonto in *The Lone Ranger*.
As much as it sucks, I'm not sure that having a Native would have helped the film
This movie got a lot of flak. There is nothing wrong with a little mindless entertainment to take our minds off the real world.
Casting a white guy as Tonto is what made me decide not to go see the film.
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
That movie was TERRIBLE. I only watched about 20 minutes of it though. CGI and script nightmare.
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Shia Leboeuf in Indiana Jones. I don’t think they knew what they wanted to do and he exemplifies that.
I didn't think he was so bad in the role but I agree that they didn't know what direction to take it.
He’s a fine actor, but belongs in the Chris Brown camp of “why does he keep getting second chances?” If anyone deserves cancellation…. Well both of them do.
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."
The entire cast of 50 shades of grey
I think the story is more of a problem than the cast.... I haven't read the books but have read enough reviews to know that the B.D.S.M community hates these books.
The main problem of this franchise is that it confuse B.D.S.M with abus!ve relationships + it romanticize it
Load More Replies...I felt bad for the actors having to perform this. That scene of her breaking into the most awkward dance of all time still haunts me.
Jesse Eisenberg in [Batman v Superman].
Wigs should be banned in movies. Nothing takes me out of a film ore than a bad wig or a bad accent. Every time I watch a movie that's based in Boston I know I'm probably going to stop half-way through because I won't be able to take the bad fake boston accents. Same with bad wigs. If John Travolta would have stopped wearing bad wigs in ever movie in the 2000s he'd still be at the top of his game.
James Corden in any movie musical.
Me too, I want to name a cat Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All.
Load More Replies...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.
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.
There was a Daredevil movie, like based on the same thing as the Daredevil series that I am very disappointed is no longer on Netflix? (It's one of my favorite series. And the guy who played Daredevil was amazing. Great fight scenes.)
The series is so much better than the film. And don't even get me started on the Electra spin off!
Load More Replies...That movie was SO ridiculous. I could make a YouTube review showing each individual stupid thing and I would have to break it up into several hour long parts. For example, the crime scene at night where the journalist somehow knows to drop a lit cigarette on the ground to ignite the "DD" that shows up in flames. Why in the world would Daredevil stop and spread out some kind of accelerant on the ground to spell out his initials, hoping someone would light it up? WHAT?!!! There are so many WTF moments in that movie. Incredibly stupid.
Kristen Stewart- Snow White and the Huntsman
Not a great actress by any means, but I still manage to enjoy movies she has been in, like the above and On The Road
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!
Even without seeing it I'm sure we call agree Chris Pratt shouldn't be playing Mario
I know I'm alone in this but I like the hoskins movie. They took the basic premise e the game and wrapped a crazy but fun adventure story around it. It may not have been art but it was a fun watch for me.
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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).
Never saw this, but Emilia Clarke is a goddess of light and exuberance as a person. 😊💖
Is that really what we're looking for in Sarah Connor, though?
Load More Replies...I agree, T2 was the best, 5 and 6 should never have been made.
The series was great though. Too bad it got cancelled, the cliffhanger from the last episode was INSANE.
Load More Replies...They must have really messed up if Emilia Clarke came across as charisma-less.
Just a bat film. No one in it was very good because the script and screenplay sucked.
How has no one said George Clooney as Batman
I agree. Clooney was fine. He would have been a decent Batman in a good film. The Batsuit was horrible. Ice skate blades that pop out of the bottom of his and Robin's boots? The nips on the suit, the unending cringeworthy one-liners from Arnold Schwarzenegger's Mr. Freeze. It was a horrible film by Joel Schumacher.
Load More Replies...And they didn't even shoot bullets like the Fembots did. What a waste!
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Vincent Chase as Pablo Escobar.
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.
The film was bad and Cara was awful, but I didn't expect much as she's a model rather than a serious actress. Dane Dehaan was really disappointing though as he actually is a good actor, when he has a good script to work with.
Load More Replies...It totally pulled me out of the film. He's supposed to be an experienced Colonel, but looks like a skinny 14-year-old. None of the characters point this out.
the main problem is that these two had ZERO chemistry with each other, otherwise i find this a delightful movie
Which is very telling. It was big, big budget and was supposed to be THE summer blockbuster of 2017. It was awful. Mostly because of the casting of Dane DeHaan and Cara Delavigne, who had negative chemistry.
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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.
Wow that would have been so much better but would not have fixed the awful plot twist.
Mark Wahlberg in Transformers. The buff guy from Mass is an inventor in Texas?
Mark Wahlberg in anything that doesn't require a buff guy from Boston.
Mark Walberg is generally miscast. He should just embrace the buff villain roles and be done with it. Stop trying to be a teacher or a scientist. Just be a big dumb jock. It's fine.
I think she’s a wonderful actress but Cameron Diaz was way off for Gangs of New York.
The whole cast was. Yes, even Leo and DDL. The worst overacting I’d ever seen until 12 Years A Slave had Michael Fassbender chewing the scenery to bits.
Yes, definitely but also a totally unnecessary character in an otherwise great film.
Obviously, Sofia Coppola in ‘The Godfather part III’.
But she is a really good director, Lost in Translation is still one of my favourite movies.
Load More Replies...Winona Ryder dropped out of the role at the last minute, so Francis cast his daughter in desperation.
She didn't even want to be in the film. Winona Rider backed out literally days before filming began due to health reasons (it's why she was latter in Dracula directed by Coppala). Coppala could've postponed production to recast (there were several actresses interested in the part) but he was broke AF and had taken the job for the money and didn't want to go over budget or schedule. So he Essentially forced his teenaged daughter into the role even though she'd had a total of 10 minutes of acting experience in short appearances as a child actor in his pervious films, didn't want the part and was extremely anxious and uncomfortable with the romantic scenes between herself and the much older Andy Garcia.
Both Sully and Drake from Uncharted were woefully miscast. The lackluster script certainly didn’t help.
Nathan Fillion...that's all (yes I know he was old at that point).
I would say Mark Wahlberg brings down the quality of almost any movie he is in. He is okay in some comedies I guess. No idea how he became a big star.
When I first saw the idea of Tom Holland as Nathan Drake, I thought it was a joke making fun of the fact either Holland or Chalamet were like in EVERY movie from that time period.
Kristen Wiig as Cheetah in the Wonder Woman sequel.
The whole film is a dumpster fire of questionable decisions and bad writing.
It was like a direct to DVD sequel made with no input from the original film.
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Gary Oldman as a dwarf in Tiptoes, also starring Peter Dinklage.
Would it have been just as funny if they'd actually hired an actor with dwarfism for the role, or was the comedy contingent on having an average-height man on his knees?
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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.
I met Tom Parker once, and Hanks nailed it.( I was bringing him a royalty check from William Morris Agency, in Beverly Hills, to the RCA building in Hollywood. )
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.
Agreed. And he was in the series far too much as well. But overall, the BBC adaptation is great.
Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes in The Dark Knight.
She was okay. Definitely better than Katie Holmes. The character was a little insufferable so she did her best.
I agree that she's not classically "beautiful." But to me she has something that makes her watchable.
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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.
I didn't have any preconceptions as who Hawkeye should be, not having been a comic book fan, but he was my favorite Marvel superh--- well, hero. Other favorites include Tom Holland as Spiderman, Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, and Gary Cooper as Captain America. (You didn't know that Pride of the Yankees was the Captain America origins story? Go back and tell me that they didn't base Captain America on Gary Cooper's Lou Gehrig.)
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.
Nothing, NOTHING will top the OG cartoon but at least the Netflix version has some solid cast.
The kid who played Zuko absolutely nailed it. I think I heard he had coaching from Dante Basco, and if so it really paid off.
Load More Replies...This person is insane, it was cast amazing and was ten million times better than the poopy movie
Paul Rudd as the asshole 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 asshole character. I misremembered. His only crime was too many pagers 😂
On the same train as “not miscast but poorly used”, I’d like to remind everyone of Zachary Levi as the borderline nonexistent Fandral.
Malekith and Kaecillius.
They could have cast nobodies, but they wasted some pretty good actors on one-offs.
Agreed. This is Thor:The Dark World and Doctor Strange, for anyone wondering. Christopher Eccelstone and Mads Mikkelsen respectively. And I think it applies a LOT more to the Thor movie. Ecclestone was WAY under utilized.
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.
I feel like he peaked as Hannibal Lector. He's done a lot of good movies but he'll never not be Hannibal. Nothing since has felt as good.
Yes. He would've been the perfect Victor von Doom. I suspect he wasn't interested in one of MARVEL's multi picture contracts but was wiling to take the decent paycheck as a third tier antagonist.
I came here looking For Rusell Crowe in Les Miserables... Worst.cast.ever.
i can't believe zoe saldana as nina simone didn't make this list. it shoulda been No. 1. if you have to put an actress in blackface and add a prosthetic nose, they are not right for the part! PERIODT! zoe-as-nin...81ec8c.jpg
especially when michaela coel was RIGHT THERE! michaela-c...bb0ad9.jpg
Easily half of the movies in the list are poor from the start and I cannot really see the "miscast". Any actor would have been poor in them.
was he miscast or was it that the movie SUCKED. Cuz I like his movies and Kevin Kline, Salma Hayek, Kenneth Branaugh. And that movie SUCKED.
Load More Replies...Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards in the upcoming Fantastic 4 . I like him, but he is so not a fit for that role.
they are trying for 1960s space race zeitgeist. So I see your point. Is there ever going to be a Fantastic 4 movie that isn't doomed from the beginning?
Load More Replies...Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana in ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’. Both completely wrong as they nowhere near matched how the characters are described in the book. Really píssed me off.
I came here looking For Rusell Crowe in Les Miserables... Worst.cast.ever.
i can't believe zoe saldana as nina simone didn't make this list. it shoulda been No. 1. if you have to put an actress in blackface and add a prosthetic nose, they are not right for the part! PERIODT! zoe-as-nin...81ec8c.jpg
especially when michaela coel was RIGHT THERE! michaela-c...bb0ad9.jpg
Easily half of the movies in the list are poor from the start and I cannot really see the "miscast". Any actor would have been poor in them.
was he miscast or was it that the movie SUCKED. Cuz I like his movies and Kevin Kline, Salma Hayek, Kenneth Branaugh. And that movie SUCKED.
Load More Replies...Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards in the upcoming Fantastic 4 . I like him, but he is so not a fit for that role.
they are trying for 1960s space race zeitgeist. So I see your point. Is there ever going to be a Fantastic 4 movie that isn't doomed from the beginning?
Load More Replies...Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana in ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’. Both completely wrong as they nowhere near matched how the characters are described in the book. Really píssed me off.
