Movies that are ruined by actors from other vehicles

I was just trying to watch (out of boredom) John Carter on Netflix. Within the first 20 minutes, I saw Jimmy McNulty (The Wire), Mr. White (Breaking Bad), Julius Caesar and Marc Antony (Rome). These were signature roles for these actors and series that were well-loved by me. No matter how hard I try, I can’t see these guys living on Mars in what appears to be a really mediocre movie, and spouting the silliest dialog.

What movies have been ruined for you in this manner?

Not ruined, but certainly distracting: I recently watched the first MCU Captain America movie, and for the entire first half, every time Hugo Weaving was on screen all I could think was “this isn’t a flashback to World War 2 - Captain America is trapped in the matrix with Agent Smith”. I found his Red Skull getup in the second part of the film required less suspension of belief.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is not, IMHO, the best of the Star Trek movies (though certainly not the worst, either); but one minor issue I have always had with it is seeing Christopher Lloyd as a wily and dangerous Klingon, and NOT seeing him as Jim Ignatowski. Always makes me wonder how you say “What… does… a… yellow… light… mean?” in Klingon.

Or Hugo Weaving in the Fellowship of the Ring.

“Hobbits are a virus, Mr. Baggins”

that happens to me in animated series all the time …like i can always pick out greg cipes voice in any cartoon and say "beast boy "!

Everytime I see Yoda in Star Wars I start think “are any other Muppets going to show up?”.

They totally should have done a crossover with the land of Gorch. The Mighty Favog could have been Yoda, and Scred would have been a lot better than Jar-Jar Binks.

Shall we mention the appearance of Ed Sheeran in Game of Thrones? An appearance so hated that they even wrote a horrible death for the character in the next season even though he wasn’t onscreen again after his one scene.

I seriously cannot hear Yoda without thinking of Fozzie Bear.

When John DeLanice showed up on Breaking Bad, I had a hard time seeing past that previous role of his.

When he entered Jane’s house after she had died, and walked around in a daze, I said to my wife, “can’t he just snap his fingers and bring her back to life?”

Don’t forget Polly Walker, who played Atia of the Julii. I still hear the distant wailing of her enemies sometimes…

Atia of the Julii, I call for justice!
Atia of the Julii, I call for justice!
Atia of the Julii, I call for justice!

Worse, they let him live but horribly disfigured.

“Did you hear he came back with no eyelids?”
“How do you sleep with no eyelids?”

Some little kid sitting close to me in the theater said *Mom, he sounds like Fozzie!
*

Not me. I love trying to spot actors from other roles. I think it’s a shame when people can’t see past a character an actor has played in the past, preventing the actor from doing something new and earning a living. The saddest stories are those of actors losing parts because casting directors can’t see past their previous roles. It’s driven some to suicide. My wife is an anglophile, so I pretty much have to watch a lot of British shows. It’s so different there. They have, like, twenty actors and they play anything and everything. Rowan Atkinson can play a role as iconic as Mr Bean and then play a detective in a murder mystery series.

I’m not usually too bothered by seeing familiar faces in other shows, but it took me several seasons to stop thinking of Littlefinger on Game of Thrones as being the mayor of Baltimore on The Wire.

I keep reading and re-reading this but I can’t parse it in a way that sounds good, and I think you meant it as an example of a good thing. But to me it sounds completely awful.

nuq jatlh wIy SuD?

Seeing Empire Strikes Back for the first time, I literally said “It’s Grover!”

Fozzie? I always thought Yoda sounded closest to Grover.

Another vote, here, for hearing Grover in Yoda’s voice, moreso than Fozzie.

My other two nominees have already been mentioned: Christopher Lloyd as a Klingon in Star Trek III, and Hugo Weaving as Elrond in The Lord of the Rings.

Are you sure their appearances is what ruined that movie? And not, you know, the terrible writing/premise?

But yeah, I see your point. Netflix had some old wwII news reel movies fairly recently all by John Huston and all I could think of is Gandalf. Gandalf talking about the horrors of the holocaust.

(And yes, I know he did those movies long before The Hobbit. But I had seen The Hobbit hundreds of times long before I even knew what WWII was)