# Most Stunning Miscasts Of All Time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 26, 2003, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644 "2003-05-26T22:20:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2003, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/1 "2003-05-26T22:20:38Z")
What movies or TV shows have featured the most bizarre miscasts? I have to hold out for “The Conquerer”, starring John Wayne as Ghenghis Khan. The sound of John Wayne drawling out the bizarre psuedo-classical dialogue the script saddled him with is almost unbearable. Who exactly thought John Wayne would make a good Ghenghis Khan? Yes, John Wayne could ride a horse. That’s about his only qualification. Not to mention that the movie was shot on a location that had been used as a nuclear test site, and most of the cast and crew eventually died from cancer. The movie is listed in the IMDB database here: [http://us.imdb.com/Title?0049092](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0049092) What are your candidates? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Wrong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@Mr.Wrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Wrong)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2003, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/2 "2003-05-26T22:27:09Z")
An early vote for Tom Hanks in _Bonfire of the Vanities_. ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2003, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/3 "2003-05-26T22:33:55Z")
Bonnie Bedelia as Bruce Willis’s wife in _Die Hard_. Too ugly William Holden in _Picnic_. Too old. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2003, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/4 "2003-05-26T22:34:26Z")
In Billy Wilder’s _The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes_, Christopher Lee was cast as Sherlock’s brother Mycroft. I like Lee, but he would have needed to gain about 200 pounds for the role. By the way, wouldn’t Adrien Brody (who just won the Oscar for _The Pianist_ make a good Sherlock Holmes? Certainly has the nose for it. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Wrong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@Mr.Wrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Wrong)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2003, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/5 "2003-05-26T22:40:01Z")
Oh, and Tony Curtis in (I think) \*Spartacus[/]: “Dere is da home of my faddah, da Caliph.” ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2003, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/6 "2003-05-26T22:40:14Z")
Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder are individually both pretty bad in Francis Ford Coppola’s _Dracula_, but I find their scenes together hilarious: it’s like they’ve flown in from California for the day. I’ve not seen it but Peter Bogdanovich’s film of Henry James’s _Daisy Miller_ starring Cybill Shepard sounds appalling and was widely ridiculed at the time. And pretty much anything featuring Sean Connery as anything other than Scottish or James Bond. And Kenneth Branagh in just about anything. His Frankenstein was even worse than Sting’s attempt at the role. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2003, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/7 "2003-05-26T23:47:24Z")
Frank Morgan as the Wizard in “The Wizard of Oz”. That role was written for W. C. Fields, and as the character and dialogue stood, anyone but Fields was doomed to fail in it. ---
**Author:** ![bobkitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2003, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/8 "2003-05-26T23:51:39Z")
Why is it that the first post wasn’t “Tom Cruise as Lestat”? How about potential miscasts? I think Stuart Townsend would’ve been nightmarish as Aragorn- thank the gods Peter Jackson rethought that one. -BK ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2003, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/9 "2003-05-26T23:58:25Z")
George Clooney as Batman. Casper Van Dien as Johnny Rico (or anyone else he’s ever played) Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock/Daredevil ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/10 "2003-05-27T00:02:08Z")
> [@](#): > > George Clooney as Batman. Also Val Kilmer as Batman… man they really screwed up that series after Keaton left. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/11 "2003-05-27T00:06:47Z")
Keanu Reeves in every role that required speaking. Who did he blow to get non “Bill And Ted” roles? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/12 "2003-05-27T00:07:41Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by bobkitty_ > How about potential miscasts? I think Stuart Townsend would’ve been nightmarish as Aragorn- thank the gods Peter Jackson rethought that one. I see your Stuart Townsend and raise you Nicholas Cage as Superman. Thankfully the whole project fell through. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/13 "2003-05-27T00:12:16Z")
I believe that it is physically impossible to be any more miscast than Geena Davis was in **Cutthroat Island**. Watching this movie is a strange experience; it’s like you’re watching a pirate movie, and somebody has gone and spliced in scenes of Geena Davis from a completely different movie using **Forrest Gump** technology. You’ve got all these filthy brigands going, “_Arrr, arrr,_” and smack in the middle of it all is lovably pop-eyed, chirpy Geena Davis from **Beetlejuice**. Another pirate movie miscast that springs to mind is the masterfully incongruous Walter Matthau in **Pirates** , in which he displays not only the oddest “pirate acting” ever, but possibly the oddest performance in the history of acting. Not that this makes it an unenjoyable movie; quite the contrary, it’s a hugely entertaining cheesefest. But don’t watch it back to back with **Cutthroat Island** , or you could hurt yourself. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/14 "2003-05-27T00:15:11Z")
Keanu Reeves has been perfectly fine in quite a few movies, but no one’s ever seen his best roles, unfortunately. My vote is for Barbra Streisand in [All Night Long](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0082001). It’s a nice little comedy, but Barbra plays a mousy little housewife (think George Engle in the “Mary Tyler Moore Show”) and nothing about Barbra is mousy. > [@](#): > > Frank Morgan as the Wizard in “The Wizard of Oz”. That role was written for W. C. Fields, and as the character and dialogue stood, anyone but Fields was doomed to fail in it. Morgon was terrific in the role; Fields would have turned the wizard into a joke and ruined the entire film (and I say this as a big fan of his). > [@](#): > > An early vote for Tom Hanks in Bonfire of the Vanities Also for Bruce Willis in that film. However, if they had switched parts, it would have been fine. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/15 "2003-05-27T00:54:33Z")
Kevin Costner as Robin Hood in _Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves_. He was just _ridiculous_! ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/16 "2003-05-27T00:58:54Z")
Jennifer Love Spewitt in _The Audrey Hepburn Story_. She cast HERSELF in the role! Talk about hubris! ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/17 "2003-05-27T01:10:48Z")
Sophia Coppola in anything. An obscure one: Oliver Reed as Patrick Standish in Take A Girl Like You. He’s supposed to be a breezy superificial type of guy, but Reed has this brooding, hidden-depths, thundercloud-browed style of acting that completely undercuts the script. Not that anybody would care I guess 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/18 "2003-05-27T01:24:08Z")
Dennis Hopper as Victor Drazen in the first season of _24_. Yeah, Dennis Hopper can do a passable cookie-cutter psychotic heavy. Asking him to attempt a _Yugoslavian_ psychotic heavy is just ridiculously beyond the man’s range, though. Embarrassing to have the character’s sons talking in their native tongues while Daddy interjects in English with a Boris-and-Natasha-quality Eastern-European accent. Ugh. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/19 "2003-05-27T01:31:58Z")
Vy you arre dissink Borris and Natasha? ---
**Author:** ![survivorology.com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/0ea827/32.png) [@survivorology.com](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/survivorology.com)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644/20 "2003-05-27T01:54:28Z")
Secret Storm circa 1970. Joan Crawford, then about 70, fills in for her daughter Christina. Mommie Dearest portrayed a repressed, twenty-eight year old housewife. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-stunning-miscasts-of-all-time/177644.md?page=2)