# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/81 "2011-02-24T17:00:01Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Looking back though, Robin Givens was the hottie. At that time, she was probably one of the most attractive actresses on the planet plus she married Mike Tyson. At that time, it was perfectly logical to put Givens in the hottie role and Berry in the plain Jane role. I certainly wouldn’t argue that Robin Givens wasn’t hot, but that Halle Barry doesn’t come even close to a plain jane role, so Eddie Murphy isn’t exactly showing any improvement in maturity in selecting Berry over Givens. I tend to think of Whoppie Goldberg in Berry’s role. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/82 "2011-02-24T18:34:22Z")
> [@KellyCriterion](#): > > There’s a scene near the start of the recent **Robin Hood** film (the scene where Crowe is presenting what I think was a crown to some prince). There’s a woman standing in the background that’s clearly had about 9 rounds of plastic surgery done to her face. > > It’s supposed to be the 13th century. Heh. The UL for the Pirates 4 casting call is that they specifically required no plastic surgery and no fake boobs. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/83 "2011-02-24T18:39:29Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Looking back though, Robin Givens was the hottie. At that time, she was probably one of the most attractive actresses on the planet plus she married Mike Tyson. At that time, it was perfectly logical to put Givens in the hottie role and Berry in the plain Jane role. Hollywood logic, not real world logic, of course, as anyone who saw that movie could tell that even as pretty as Givens was (and still is), Berry was (and is) much prettier. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/84 "2011-02-24T19:09:21Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Can you give a cite for this? It seems plausible, but nothing on the internet I’ve yet found supports it. And i was a big reader of _Cinefantastique_ at the time this came out, and they didn’t say a word about it. I’m afraid I can’t provide a cite so I’m only going by my foggy memory of what I remember reading about the movie before it came out. The original script was called “I Am Jane” and was to tell the Tarzan story from her feminist perspective. The finished product still gave Jane more screen time but severely altered the story to fit Mrs. Derek’s “talents” and put Tarzan’s name back in the title. It’s still an interesting approach to the Tarzan story. However, the Burroughs family is notoriously touchy about treatments of Edgar’s most famous creation (as the Dereks found out when they made their craptastic version in 1981). If somebody like, for example, Alan Moore wanted to deconstruct the story, I would advise keeping him to keep his attorney on speed-dial. Anyway, to keep this thread on topic, I’ve always thought Tom Hanks was only half-right for **Road to Perdition**. Bruce Willis would’ve been a lot more effective. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/85 "2011-02-24T19:40:11Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > I’m afraid I can’t provide a cite so I’m only going by my foggy memory of what I remember reading about the movie before it came out. The original script was called “I Am Jane” and was to tell the Tarzan story from her feminist perspective. Okay, NOW I remember where I read it. It was in an Esquire article previewing the 1981 summer movie season. I also remember the article calling it “the most blatant vanity film project” of the year. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/86 "2011-02-24T19:53:10Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Mickey Rooney, Breakfast at Tiffany’s. That was a blight, a stain, an abomination. > [@PunditLisa](#): > > Jonathyn Rhys-Myers had the right attitude as King Henry VIII, but he’s just way too scrawny (and dark) to be taken too seriously. Way. Not to mention he pretty much sucked. That irritated the shit out of me, and it was very irritating that they made no adjustments for his age and weight at all. I think that was pure vanity. And since Henry VIII is probably the best known king in history, and his fat strawberry blondeness is well known, I can’t imagine what they were thinking. Lame. > [@MonkeyMensch](#): > > 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. Oh my god, you are so right. And nice to see the love for that movie, because it’s a great film. (A favorite moment: “I want to move!” - very interesting choice.) > [@Kobal2](#): > > Michael J. Fox in _Casualties of War_. He’s a decent actor, and the film is good but come on. I’m supposed to believe Michael J. Fox, with his cute baby face perched atop a 3 foot tall body, is a mean Marine ? Well, no. You’re supposed to believe he’s an average, actually pretty nice guy who got drafted into this shit war and had to handle being hooked up with Sean Penn, who was completely believable of course. > [@a35362](#): > > Katharine Hepburn and Burt Lancaster in _The Rainmaker_. > [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Care to elaborate? > > Hepburn was probably too old, anyway she looked too old (that type of complexion just doesn’t age well) but I think she made it work. > > And I thought Lancaster was just about perfect for Starbuck. I think this was originally a play, and if so I haven’t seen or read it, but he did seem to nail both the bombast and the vulnerability. > > So do tell, why were they both completely wrong for this movie? Allow me to second that request. Since this is one of my all time favorite films, and I think they were both amazing, absolutely amazing. And I find Lancaster’s performance downright perfect in every particular. I cannot imagine anyone else playing it. > [@kelly5078](#): > > Anyway, my nominee would be Harvey Keitel in “The Piano.” Why? I loved it. I loved the choice of having the less attractive, rougher man be the more appealing one to her. > [@caligulathegod](#): > > I always had a theory about when they cast “Hollywood Ugly”, like Michelle Pfeiffer in Frankie and Johnny This still makes my blood boil. KATHY FUCKING BATES originated the role on stage. ARGH!!! ---
**Author:** ![beartato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9d8465/32.png) [@beartato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beartato)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/87 "2011-02-24T20:12:15Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I’ve said it before - Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio had zero chemistry in “Titanic” mostly due to the fact that she looked / carried herself like his older aunt. Come to think of it, they weren’t all that much better in “Revolutionary Road” though I adore them both individually. It did sort of work in Titanic, if you told yourself it had to do with how they were raised and all that - she’s upper class prim and proper, he’s a free spirited artist. But it did not work at all for me in Revolutionary Road. At this point in her career, Winslet has this all powerful screen presence that few can stand up to. Formerly a fantastic actress, she seems to overact quite often these days. And DiCaprio can’t match that, he doesn’t have the screen presence or appear to have the stature to balance her on screen. I don’t believe he’s a short guy, but he seems so small on screen compared to her in that movie. And watching the movie, it’s like the two of them were unaware the novel wasn’t set in the present day. Nothing about the two of them said 'mid ‘50s Connecticut’ to me. I had high hopes for the movie, but it was miscast and the acting was emotionless. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/88 "2011-02-24T20:29:49Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > …Allow me to second that request. Since this is one of my all time favorite films, and I think they were both amazing, absolutely amazing. And I find Lancaster’s performance downright perfect in every particular. I cannot imagine anyone else playing it… Okay, well, I was thinking that Lizzie was supposed to be _much_ younger (Hepburn was in her late 40s), no older than late 20s at the outside. Lancaster was in his _early_ 40s and while I suppose you could have a Starbuck who was _younger_ than Lizzie, it seems wrong: he’s supposed to be the charming con man who’s been around the block a time or three. I’m not saying the _performances_ were bad, although I just can’t buy Hepburn playing a timid woman any more than I can buy Barbra Streisand as a woman who is insecure about her looks (_The Mirror Has Two Faces_). I think an older Lizzie would have long since accepted the fact that she was not going to get married and would have made her peace with that and wouldn’t even look twice at some pretty-boy traveling salesman. Plus she would know better than to pin all her dreams on some dishonest huckster. See also _The Glass Menagerie_ and _The Music Man_. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/89 "2011-02-24T23:30:23Z")
One of my favorite movies is _Victor/Victoria_. It’s a scream from start to finish. The dialogue is snappy, the music is fantastic, and Robert Preston is a god. I also happen to adore Julie Andrews. But I can’t see her as sexy. Maybe it’s just too much of a departure from her normal screen personae…I don’t know. But I just couldn’t buy tough guy King Marchand (James Garner) falling for her while she’s in drag. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/90 "2011-02-25T00:21:30Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Well, no. You’re supposed to believe he’s an average, actually pretty nice guy who got drafted into this shit war and had to handle being hooked up with Sean Penn, who was completely believable of course. Even at the height of the draft, you weren’t just randomly drafted into the Marines - Marine recruiters picked the guys they wanted from the line of draftees. That being said, I don’t really know why I get such a hangup on Michael J. Fox The Marine when I don’t bat an eyelid at Charlie Sheen in _Platoon_. I think it may have to do with his big scene, when he confronts Sean Penn (who just tried to frag him). He’s supposed to go all out at him with all the rage, despair and frustration in the world; but he comes out as a whiny brat to me, somehow. In spite of the fact I’m (naturally) rooting for him. _shrug_. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/91 "2011-02-25T00:45:59Z")
> [@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. Poker is, for the most part, a young man’s game. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/92 "2011-02-25T00:49:00Z")
> [@corkboard](#): > > Jodie Foster as Madeleine White in **Inside Man**. She’s normally a great actress but she just couldn’t pull off that role. She acted it like a kid who is told to act “important and powerful”- and, ACTION! Oooh, good one. “Inside Man” is a terrific film, very underrated, but Foster is shockingly poor. For such a great actress, she is just unremittingly terrible every moment she’s on screen. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/93 "2011-02-25T03:40:24Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Michael J. Fox in _Casualties of War_. He’s a decent actor, and the film is good but come on. I’m supposed to believe Michael J. Fox, with his cute baby face perched atop a 3 foot tall body, is a mean Marine ? Yeah, because in the real world a guy with a cute, baby-face perched atop a 5’5" could never be a bad-assed marine. [Right?](http://images.art.com/images/products/regular/10103000/10103822.jpg) Another example of where Reality Is Unrealistic. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/94 "2011-02-25T04:45:05Z")
Stephen King once said something very telling about [The Shining](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081505/). He said that, while Jack Nicholson is a fine actor, he was totally wrong for the role of Jack Torrance. The film is supposed to be about Torrance’s slow descent into madness, as the book was. But, from the moment that you see Nicholson on the screen, you can see that he’s nuts. I’m inclined to agree with him. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/95 "2011-02-25T05:04:47Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Stephen King once said something very telling about [The Shining](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081505/). > > He said that, while Jack Nicholson is a fine actor, he was totally wrong for the role of Jack Torrance. The film is supposed to be about Torrance’s slow descent into madness, as the book was. But, from the moment that you see Nicholson on the screen, you can see that he’s nuts. > > I’m inclined to agree with him. [Seems like a nice guy to me.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmkVWuP_sO0) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/96 "2011-02-25T05:15:13Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Poker is, for the most part, a young man’s game. !??!??!?! Only recently, with the advent of the internet and the super high speed learning curve that it permits. Prior to that, it took a long time to get the experience to be good, and it was grownups that were kicking ass. ---
**Author:** ![markdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/97 "2011-02-25T05:33:31Z")
What the hell. Ian McShane as Tai Lung. Maybe I’ve watched too many episodes of Deadwood but his voice was distracting at best and just flat-out wrong at worst. Odd, because so many of the other voice actors in _Kung Fu Panda_ were perfectly cast. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/98 "2011-02-25T23:31:44Z")
> [@Long\_Time\_First\_Time](#): > > Bruce Willis and Tom Hanks in the Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Hanks wasn’t exactly the Sherman McCoy I pictured from the book; he was too nice and not quite as arrogant or powerful looking. I personally would have cast William Hurt in that role. But Hanks made it work, in a quirky way. Bruce Willis, however, was horridly miscast. His character in the book was supposed to be a slovenly, pretentious, alcoholic British journalist who hated and looked down on everything about America and New York society specifically. They also cast the schlubby Saul Rubinek as Assistant D.A. Kramer, a character who was much more featured in the book than in the movie; this character is described as muscular and physically imposing, and balding. In other words, a role that would have been perfect for…Bruce Willis. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/99 "2011-02-26T00:06:08Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > Okay, well, I was thinking that Lizzie was supposed to be _much_ younger (Hepburn was in her late 40s), no older than late 20s at the outside. Lancaster was in his _early_ 40s and while I suppose you could have a Starbuck who was _younger_ than Lizzie, it seems wrong: he’s supposed to be the charming con man who’s been around the block a time or three. I’m not saying the _performances_ were bad, although I just can’t buy Hepburn playing a timid woman any more than I can buy Barbra Streisand as a woman who is insecure about her looks (_The Mirror Has Two Faces_). I think an older Lizzie would have long since accepted the fact that she was not going to get married and would have made her peace with that and wouldn’t even look twice at some pretty-boy traveling salesman. Plus she would know better than to pin all her dreams on some dishonest huckster. > > See also _The Glass Menagerie_ and _The Music Man_. You probably have a point about Hepburn’s age; that part in the stage play was played by Geraldine Page, who was 17 years younger than Hepburn. But by that standard, you could only object to Lancaster’s age compared to Hepburn; if the actress had been younger, his age was just right. And for all reasons already mentioned, he was nearly perfect for that role. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110/100 "2011-02-26T01:12:21Z")
> [@DooWahDiddy](#): > > [Seems like a nice guy to me.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmkVWuP_sO0) > > 😃 Maybe so, but Jeffrey Dahmer had to be able to charm people into his apartment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excellent-actors-who-are-completely-wrong-for-a-movie/572110.md?page=4)