# Mind Blowing Bad Casting **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 3, 2007, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663 "2007-05-03T20:46:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/21 "2007-05-03T21:57:32Z")
Also, Keanu fucking Reeves in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Jesus H. I’d never heard of him before that came out, and thought he absolutely destroyed something that could have been passable. He was _appalling_. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/22 "2007-05-03T21:59:27Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] “my blood says, take this Tar-tar woman.” [/QUOTE] It’s a rare woman who could not to succumb to such wooing. Very, very rare. ---
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/23 "2007-05-03T22:00:06Z")
Shannyn Sossamon in A Knight’s Tale, she looks so…exotic, seemed a little out of place for the setting. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/24 "2007-05-03T22:00:20Z")
OK, so the thread consensus so far appears to be that Keanu Reeves in _any_ role he’s\* ever\* played, other than a surfer or metalhead, is an appallingly bad casting choice. Nice. :D:D ---
**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:** [May 3, 2007, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/25 "2007-05-03T22:06:51Z")
I thought Brian Dennehy did a lousy job of playing Bob Knight in _Season On The Brink._ He really did not capture the anger and intensity properly. He didn’t really even look that much like him either. I don’t know who should have played Knight, but Dennehy was the wrong man for the job. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/26 "2007-05-03T22:21:59Z")
It always amazez me when Tom Cruise is cast in any movie at all. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/27 "2007-05-03T22:24:50Z")
You mean you don’t think the cops in the future will be dwarves? ---
**Author:** ![StuffLikeThatThere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@StuffLikeThatThere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StuffLikeThatThere)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/28 "2007-05-03T22:26:55Z")
Just a nod for Sophia Coppolla in Godfather III. I don’t know if that movie was good or not. I couldn’t stop dreading her appearance onscreen long enough to pay attention to anything else. Urgh. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/29 "2007-05-03T22:34:48Z")
There are whole categories of bad casting. You shouldn’t step into a role made famous by other people, or even do a bad spin-off from it. Ted Wass in _Curse of The Pink Panther_. Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe in _The Long Goodbye_. (David Soul as Rick in _Casablanca_? Never seen it; can’t imagine it.) You shouldn’t play a role so far out of your ethnic type that it becomes offensive. Rooney may be worst, but he was typical of Hollywood in those decades. What about Swedish Warner Oland, who made a career of playing “Orientals” including Charlie Chan and Fu Manchu. The wonderful but red-haired Myrna Loy was cast as Fah Lo See in _The Mask of Fu Manchu_. Peter Lorre played the Japanese Mr. Moto. So the best of the worst has to be somebody who combined these horrible don’ts: Peter Ustinov as Charlie Chan in _Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen_. ---
**Author:** ![Airblairxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Airblairxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airblairxxx)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/30 "2007-05-03T22:35:14Z")
We’ve made it this far without mentioning Michael Keaton as _Batman_? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/31 "2007-05-03T22:36:28Z")
[QUOTE=KneadToKnow] If anyone can explain to me what Mickey Rooney was doing in _Breakfast at Tiffany’s_, I’ll be happy to hear it. [/QUOTE] With over 20 posts in this thread so far, I knew someone would beat me to this. ---
**Author:** ![Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/32 "2007-05-03T22:38:43Z")
Except for casting Ian McNeice as Baron Harkonnen, and maybe, MAYBE Saskia Reeves as Jessica, the entire cast of the SciFi miniseries version of Dune was terrible. I take particular issue with how they cast Paul and Leto Atreides. The book gives few details of characters’ appearance, but they could have at least cast people with black hair for those two, like the book states explicitly. Children of Dune was especially egregious with the cast of 17 magazine as 9 year olds. :rolleyes: As for the Lynch version, Sting wasn’t a good choice for Feyd Rautha, even if seeing him in that role was a trip. And as much as I like Dean Stockwell’s work, that’s just not how I pictured Yueh. ---
**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:** [May 3, 2007, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/33 "2007-05-03T22:41:31Z")
[QUOTE=Airblairxxx] We’ve made it this far without mentioning Michael Keaton as _Batman_? [/QUOTE] I think he did a great job, and a hell of a lot of people agree with me. But I’ll acknowledge that it’s all a matter of opinion - Daniel Craig’s Bond made me want to puke, but it seems to have made a lot of other people want to beat off. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/34 "2007-05-03T22:42:22Z")
[QUOTE=StuffLikeThatThere] Just a nod for Sophia Coppolla in Godfather III. [/QUOTE] Please do not nod. It will just encourage her to think that people noticed. ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/35 "2007-05-03T22:43:49Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny Hildo] Alan Cumming as a charasmatic pussyhound in _The Anniversary Party._ No. Just…no. [/QUOTE] But…he IS charasmatic! And he’s attractive to lots of women, trust me. I’m one of them, and I know several others. ---
**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:** [May 3, 2007, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/36 "2007-05-03T22:55:54Z")
I have said before that Brad Pitt gets overlooked as an actor - he has impressed me many times in difficult roles…but Achilles? Yikes. And as much as I enjoyed the movie **Rounders** , I simply refused to believe that Matt Damon was the least bit believable as a hardened, wizened poker genius. That role screamed for someone older and scruffier. ---
**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:** [May 3, 2007, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/37 "2007-05-03T22:57:51Z")
[QUOTE=Glory] Shannyn Sossamon in A Knight’s Tale, she looks so…exotic, seemed a little out of place for the setting. [/QUOTE] The David Bowie songs, on the other hand, were entirely authentic. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/38 "2007-05-03T23:10:30Z")
[QUOTE=Morbo] I have said before that Brad Pitt gets overlooked as an actor - he has impressed me many times in difficult roles…but Achilles? Yikes. [/QUOTE] I had a huge problem with him as Louis in _Interview with the Vampire_. I’m not sure who would have been better, but I hated him in that role. Not as much as I hated Tom Cruise as Lestat, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/39 "2007-05-03T23:27:03Z")
Keanu Reeves as Buddha. ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663/40 "2007-05-03T23:29:52Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Keanu Reeves as Buddha. [/QUOTE] Ohhh, man. That was really the weirdest one out of all of his weird, bad casting history. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-blowing-bad-casting/402663.md?page=3)