In the Jack Reacher-Tom Cruise thread, I argued that
But I’m hard-pressed for an example of a movie casting a short actor in a role calling for a tall guy (or vice versa), though it would obviously be doable, and an interesting tour-de-force. I guess Olivier (or any white guy) playing Othello would qualify, but what are some more examples of actors playing roles that present physical challenges for them?
I think the casting of Linda Hunt as the male Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously, for which she won an Oscar, is the ultimate example of this. In fact many of the roles that Linda Hunt, who is only 4’9", plays fit into this category, since they often are unrelated to her height.
But Billy Kwan wasn’t supposed to be especially tall, was he?
Casting Linda Hunt as a woman who has trouble getting dates because she’s so damned big, and doing so by building teeny-sets around her, and casting even smaller women (and men) into roles around her in the movie is more like what I’m talking about. I know set designers have discussed making under (and over) sized sets, but I’m not aware of the movies that used this device.
How about Johnny Depp playing a Native American in the Lone Ranger movie.
I don’t think “race” is going to make it–there are plenty of implausible caucasians cast in ethnically-absurd roles, which are mostly for economic reasons. I’m really talking about tall/short, I guess.
John Wayne as Genghis Khan.
I haven’t seen it, but the reportedly terrible movie *Tiptoes *has Gary Oldman (who is 5’10") playing a dwarf.
Lots of examples of this in the* Lord of the Rings* movies and The Hobbit.
One such example is the 6’1" John Rhys-Davies playing the dwarf Gimli.
Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Dude’s 6’2". Wolverine’s supposed to be a runt.
Not sure this really qualifies but Danny DeVito, all 5’0’’ of him, rarely plays a short guy.
His diminutive stature notwithstanding didn’t prevent him playing the role of real life agent George Shapiro in Man in the Moon. Not sure of Shapiro’s actual height but I imagine it’s a bit taller.
But that’s beside the point. DeVito’s height is rarely the focus of attention and looking at the extremely varied list of roles he’s taken there really isn’t much he can’t play.
Interestingly, he was enough taller than all of the Hobbit actors that they could film him with them and not have to do any forced-perspective stuff, so there were some rewrites to take advantage of that once they got the casting done.
Well it doesn’t involve special effects, so I’m not sure if this is what you’re looking for, but Joe Pesci is a very short, not particularly athletic looking fellow who is most famous for playing tough guys who beat people up. He seems to pull it off quite convincingly.
You beat me to it. I would add that Orlando Bloom, who played Legolas, is 5’10.5".
Beautiful Charlize Theron playing unattractive and murderous Aileen Wuornos in Monster.
Concerning gender-bending performances, Cate Blanchett’s character is easily my favorite of the six incarnations of Bob Dylan in the 2007 movie I’m Not There.
The well-endowed Jennifer Love Hewitt playing the slender Audrey Hepburn.
Michelle Pfeiffer playing a plain ordinary looking woman in “Frankie and Johnny”.
In “Grand Prix” Brian Bedford played a race car driver even though he could barely drive. Yves Montand and Antonio Sabato weren’t much better. James Garner, on the other hand, was so good that his driving instructor Bob Bondurant felt he could be on the F1 circuit if he had started early enough, although not a champion.
I remember Geena Davis saying that when she was cast as a great hitter in “A League of Their Own” she could barely hit a baseball. Director Penny Marshall had her take all kinds of swings while Marshall kept pacing, chain smoking and muttering “C’mon Geena, one lousy home run, just hit one”. Then when Davis finally connected and hit one over the fence, Marshall said she couldn’t use the shot because Davis looked so surprised and this was suppose to be routine for her.
Henry Winkler, The Fonz, is only 5’6".
Conversely, I remember seeing an interview with Julia Roberts in which she was suitably impressed by the enhancement provided by the costume department when she played Erin Brokovich.
Fat guy Philip Seymour Hoffman as skinny, delicate southern dandy Truman Capote.
I’ve often admired him for this. I haven’t seen all his films (not even close), but Twins with Arnie is the only time I’ve noticed his stature being a running gag, where his size was one of the important plot points.
Thought of one other possible example sort of – A gratuitous one-line joke at the end of Throw Momma From The Train.
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