# Excellent actors who are completely wrong for a movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 21, 2011, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110 "2011-02-21T13:34:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/21 "2011-02-21T20:16:00Z")
Robert Redford in _Out of Africa_. Some of my favorite films have him in a starring role, but those roles fit him; he doesn’t have the range to make himself fit a role. I guess it was a good thing that Sydney Pollack didn’t even try to convince Redford to put on an English accent. The results may have been Dick van Dyke-level awful. Denys Finch Hatton is an aristocratic, cynical British ex-pat living in British East Africa and Redford doesn’t even come close to fitting that description. Nevertheless, _Out of Africa_ remains one of my favorite movies. Most of that is due to Meryl Streep and a terrific supporting cast, including Michael Kitchen as Berkeley-Cole. He plays the role of the British ex-pat perfectly. The other reason it remains one of my all time favorites is that I can magically project Jeremy Irons face and voice over Redford’s for the entire movie. Irons would have been perfect as Finch Hatton without ever breaking a sweat. Oh well. Bygones. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/22 "2011-02-21T20:23:31Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Christine Baransky was absolutely wrong for her role as Mary Sunshine in **Chicago**. If you saw the stage production, you’d know why. To be fair, it would be impossible to cast that role properly on screen. Those who would fit the part would have killed the joke; at best, you’d need to cast a complete unknown. I saw Chicago on Broadway a couple of years ago. Having only seen the movie before that I thought the twist for Sunshine was something they had come up with for that production. I didn’t realize that it was standard for the character. Even on stage however, her looks were suspicious. It was only her incredible the voice work that gave me doubts. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/23 "2011-02-21T20:29:36Z")
> [@carlb](#): > > Why in the name of all that’s holy did anyone cast Albert Finney as an alcoholic NYPD detective? Funny, before I even read your OP, Albert Finney is who came to my mind as well. In my case it was for _Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead_, though. I thought he was great in _Big Fish_ but really horrible in _Devil_. And that thing he does where he leaves his mouth hanging open was really distracting, too… ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/24 "2011-02-21T20:46:38Z")
What’s the twist for Mary Sunshine in the stage version? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/25 "2011-02-21T20:48:15Z")
I would be most actors in Twilight are pretty good, but all are totally miscast. It’s one of the worst cast movie series ever. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/26 "2011-02-21T21:00:35Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I would be most actors in Twilight are pretty good, but all are totally miscast. It’s one of the worst cast movie series ever. I guess if you cared about the book. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/27 "2011-02-21T21:21:27Z")
Michelle Pfeiffer, a fine actress in general, played the waitress Frankie in _Frankie and Johnny_, a role written for a middle aged plain-Jane and originated on stage by (pre _Misery_) Kathy Bates. Nobody would believe Michelle as a plain Jane or as a woman likely to fall in love with a penniless ex-con played by middle aged Al Pacino. If TV series count, I think _The Tudors_ holds some sort of record for truly awful casting of talented actors, none moreso of course than Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII. At 50 the most famous morbidly obese, erectile dysfunctional, barely-able-to-walk-from-numerous-ailments and generally gross and prematurely old monarch in the history of the world still has visibly delineated abs, a handsome face, a youthful countenance and tight buns. (The real Henry is alleged to have had an official ass wiper by this time due to his inability to care for his most basic hygiene.) ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/28 "2011-02-21T21:25:50Z")
Colin Firth in [Valmont](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098575/). He might not have been particularly “incorrectly-cast”, but the guy who had the same role a year earlier in [Dangerous Liaisons](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094947/) (John Malkovich) **owned** his movie, and Colin suffers for the comparison. Don’t think Annette Bening and Meg Tilly were all that well-cast either (in _Valmont_). ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/29 "2011-02-21T21:26:43Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > What’s the twist for Mary Sunshine in the stage version? Male actor in drag. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/30 "2011-02-21T23:20:59Z")
Pretty much the entire cast of _The Ten Commandments_. It’s not just that most weren’t Jewish or that they didn’t look Middle Eastern so much as they were mostly too old (Anne Baxter especially), the fact that Yul and Charlton had been raised as brothers but one had a thick accent and bald head and the other looked like Charlton Heston and neither sounded like their English father, and don’t even start on Edward G. Robinson. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/31 "2011-02-21T23:49:35Z")
I had real trouble with Matt Damon and Ed Norton in **Rounders** as poker wizards who knew the poker underworld and all those hardened characters that orbit in it. Those roles screamed for older actors. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2011, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/32 "2011-02-22T01:20:35Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > I guess if you cared about the book. 😃 What do you mean? ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2011, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/33 "2011-02-22T01:37:46Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > George Clooney as Batman. Because he wasn’t prepared. (d&r) ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/34 "2011-02-22T01:42:29Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > …and don’t even start on Edward G. Robinson. I’ll start on Edward G. Robinson all I want. "Nyah, see? Nyah! Now doncha gimme no crap else I’ll moida ya, see? Nyah! ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2011, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/35 "2011-02-22T05:53:32Z")
To be fair, he actually \*was \*Jewish. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2011, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/36 "2011-02-22T09:32:59Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > To be fair, he actually \*was \*Jewish. I thought he was one of the Egyptians? ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2011, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/37 "2011-02-22T09:43:58Z")
Natalie Portman is often overhyped as a nympho-waif sex goddeas, when she is better served as a straight actress. She has been miscast in most of her rolls. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2011, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/38 "2011-02-22T09:46:24Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > I had real trouble with Matt Damon and Ed Norton in **Rounders** as poker wizards who knew the poker underworld and all those hardened characters that orbit in it. Those roles screamed for older actors. Not sure I understand this one? If they had been older actors, then it would have been harder to accept them making some of the basic mistakes that Damon and Norton showed in the movie. An older actor, playing somebody experienced in the poker underworld, would never have played above his bankroll like Damon did at the beginning of the movie, or have cheated so obviously as Norton did at the Cops poker game. The role needed younger actors, full of themselves and learning the hard way. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2011, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/39 "2011-02-22T10:13:31Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Not sure I understand this one? If they had been older actors, then it would have been harder to accept them making some of the basic mistakes that Damon and Norton showed in the movie. An older actor, playing somebody experienced in the poker underworld, would never have played above his bankroll like Damon did at the beginning of the movie, or have cheated so obviously as Norton did at the Cops poker game. > > The role needed younger actors, full of themselves and learning the hard way. Norton’s character should have been older, imho, but due to the plot, Damon’s character had to be a college age student. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2011, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/40 "2011-02-22T10:16:59Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > I guess if you cared about the book. 😃 For me, another “if you cared about the book” example is Michael Gambon as Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series. Actually, I don’t even really care _that_ much about the book, and “Harry Potter” is something I try not to get worked up about, but I think Michael Gambon is absolutely awful as Dumbledore. Because of his acting, to me the book Dumbledore and the movie Dumbledore come across as two completely different characters. People who haven’t read the series wouldn’t notice any difference, however, and so your broomstick mileage might vary. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110.md?page=3)