Now that Salinger is dead, Catcher in the Rye might maybe finally be made into a movie. How many actors would have been good at one time, but are way too old to play the role now?
I’ll start by nominating Leonardo DiCaprio.
Well, you took the obvious one.
Ed Norton, maybe. I think he wasn’t as good an actor when he was younger, though.
I also think you could make a Marlon Brando movie out of the book (not that I’d necessarily want to see it).
More recently, maybe Jake Gyllenhall (sp?)
Ethan Hawke a la Dead Poet’s Society. It would be nice to see him play the other side. He was so nice, sweet for most of Dead Poet’s Society… then he grew a backbone. Holden would almost be the natural progression for his character. I could see him hating the phonies that got his mentor kicked out…
For that matter, a young Robert Sean Leonard would be great, too.
Kieran Culkin (Igby Goes Down may be the closest we come to a film adaptation). Just surly enough, just preppy enough.
Once upon a time James Spader might have been a good choice.
The kid from Terminator 2: Judgment Day could’ve done a decent job back in the day, I think. So could Johnny Depp or River Phoenix, although they’re not my mental picture of Holden.
Totally.
Daniel Day Lewis, maybe?
James Spader is too awesome to play such a whiny character.
You’ve obviously never seen any 80s movie starring James Spader. The man is lucky he still has all his teeth after all the whiners he played.
Robert Downy Jr.?
I’ll always remember him as Steff from Pretty in Pink which is about the most un-Holden Caulfield like character that there is. Also in Less than Zero, where he played the same kind of character. I’ve never seen him play a whiner.
Johnny Depp.
That’s exactly the character I’m referring to. Steff was an asshole who constantly worried about what other people were doing, all the while holding himself up as some paragon of what’s real. Exactly like Holden does (except Holden does it with way more style so you actually like him).
If it had been done 20 to 25 years ago, maybe Matthew Broderick (although he might’ve been a little too short and snarky for the role).
If it had been filmed within a few years of the book’s publication (which, due to the existence of the Production Code during that time, would’ve likely come out really castrated), Montgomery Clift might’ve been an interesting choice. However, he would’ve been too old to play the role at that point.
Early 50s Brando already would’ve been too old, too intense, and too virile. This was shortly after he just played Stanley Kowalski. To go from that character to a whiny virginal 16-year old probably would’ve been too much for even the best actor of his generation to handle.
From the hindsight of nearly 60 years, James Dean would’ve been the best–if obvious–choice for the time. However, he probably would’ve been a little too moody and intense.
How about some of the other characters in the book? For Holden’s sister Phoebe, Salinger himself envisioned Margaret O’ Brien. Aside from Dakota Fanning, I can’t really think of anyone right now.
When I read “Catcher in the Rye” in high school in 1981, I kept seeing Robin Williams as Mr. Antolini even though this was years before he actually played a prep school teacher in Dead Poet’s Society. As for now, Williams is probably little too old.
Mr. Spencer, the old teacher who flunks Holden, reminded a lot of John Houseman. If they were casting the role now, you could go with Anthony Hopkins or any other 70+ actor who’s old, distinguished, and can play crotchety,
Any ideas for Sally Hayes, the giddy and pretentious chatterbox Holden takes out on a date? The actresses who I keep seeing playing that character are now all too old.
I disagree that Steff ever held himself up as a “paragon of what’s real.” The idea of being “real” (unpretentious and unique) versus being “phony” (conformist and lacking individuality) was never something that would have entered Steff’s mind. Steff didn’t give a shit about that stuff. He was a rich boy born into an aristocratic lifestyle. He has a great deal of resentment for Molly Ringwald’s character for two reasons: she comes from a lower social class, and she rejected his advances at the beginning of the movie. Steff, indignant that someone like her who was far beneath him financially and socially would reject him, comes to hate her. Steff also grew to hate his own best friend because he viewed him as slumming by going out with Molly Ringwald’s character (and also giving him less attention.)
I do not think this situation is in any way comparable to the motivations of Holden Caulfield.
Josh Harnett. He did a good job in The Virgin Suicides.
I hadn’t thought of him… good idea…
River Phoenix, a year or two after Stand By Me.