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23 Fantastic Roles That Got Absolutely Ruined By The Wrong Actor
Casting movies and running auditions is an incredibly responsible job. You essentially have to find talented individuals whom you can see bringing the characters and the script to life in the best way possible. Not only that but casting the lead means picking someone who can be the face of the entire franchise. That can mean going through countless rounds of auditions and interviews while you evaluate hundreds, if not thousands, of potential actors.
And even then, after so much trouble, the audience doesn’t always think the actors embody the characters well enough. There’s a disconnect somewhere. The r/AskReddit community was candid about what iconic film roles they personally thought were miscast. Scroll down to see their opinions, and let us know in the comments whether or not you agree with them.
We got in touch with the author of the viral thread, u/LuckyLaceyKS, for a chat about miscast roles. Meanwhile, Bored Panda also reached out to entertainment, pop culture, and lifestyle expert Mike Sington for his thoughts about the challenges that casting directors run into. Read on for both of our interviews!
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#6
Emma Watson as Belle in Beauty and the Beast.
She's got the looks down, but her singing is meh to the point they had to autotune it and it sounds weird. Her acting is also stiff and fretful and she doesn't have any chemistry with any of the other actors, let alone Beast. There were better choices for the role.
#7
Obvious, but necessary mention of Kevin Costner is Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I'd say most of the starring roles were miscast, but none as offensively bad as "Kevin Costner plays....Kevin Costner".
#9
George Clooney in Batman & Robin (1997). Only slightly worse than Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (1995). I don't know what it was about the 90's that every big name was signing up to do a one-off as batman, but that was a bad decision.
#10
Not that iconic but that girl who played Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter movies. One of my fave female characters diminished to a dumbed down wallflower. Zero chemistry with Radcliffe.
#11
Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. Maybe because I liked Rebecca Romijn’s portrayal, but JL didn’t seem right in that role.
#12
Not exactly an iconic role but Cameron Diaz in Gangs of New York. Every else nailed it (especially Day Lewis) but she stuck out like a sore thumb.
#16
Harry Potter’s mom. She’s in like 4 brief blurry flashbacks, can’t you find a red head with blue eyes? (I know it’s green in the book but to match Radcliffe with all the “your mothers eyes” comments).
#17
Ben Affleck as an older, bitter, more violent Batman in Batman V Superman.
Should have been Karl Urban.
#18
Not incredibly iconic from an American perspective (perhaps moreso in Europe), but Cara Delvigne was so over the top awful in Valerian and City of a Thousand Planets that it just destroyed the movie. The dude who played Valerian was a bit better, but not much. I wanted them both to just. stop. talking.
#19
Kyle Reese in Terminator: Genesys.
Michael Biehn took inspiration from Polish resistance fighters in preparing for the role, and he was a shell-shocked, somewhat emaciated veteran.
Nevermind that. Let's hire some beefed-up lughead who would be on the cover of Men's Health, and would honestly be better cast as a Terminator.
#20
I don’t care if it isn’t out yet, i’ve seen all the trailers and chris pratt as mario is just wrong. some actors just aren’t meant to be good voice actors and chris pratt is one of them. he doesn’t sound like mario, he just sounds like chris pratt.
#21
Idris Elba is one of my favorite actors, and was faaaar from the main problem with The Dark Tower, but swapping him and McConaughey would have made a lot of sense to me. I feel like they’d have been a lot better in one another’s roles. McConaughey is an easier sell as a cowboy and I have seen enough to know that Elba will knock any bad guy character out of the park.
#22
Robert Langdon in The DaVinci code was awfully miscast. He should have been played by Sam Neill.
#23
Jamie, what's his face as Christian grey. Wrong guy.
Ian somerholder would have been better.
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