Specifically, Kevin Kline’s work in “Fish Called Wanda” has destroyed the film of “Sophie’s Choice” for me. We rewatched “Wanda” recently & enjoyed it again, esp. Mr. Kline (“Don’t call me stupid!”). Then last night attempted to watch “Sophie” with my daughter. Couldn’t get past Kline’s first goofy scene. Totally saw his Wanda character instead. Granted, his Sophie character is supposed to be nuts, but not in exactly that funny way.
Anyway, I’ll give up trying to explain - if you’ve seen the movies, you know what I mean. But seriously, “Sophie’s Choice” is totally wrecked as a movie for me now.
Has this sort of thing ever happened to anyone else?
Continuing down the chain, I couldn’t help but hear Willy Wonka’s dad go “You could have stopped eating candy willingly, but instead you have chosen the way of … PAIN!”
Well, since seeing Pirates of the Caribbean, I haven’t been able to listen to or watch the movie version of Evita without the mental image of Governor Swann being seduced by Madonna. Damn you, Jonathan Pryce!
The worst is when I only know an actor from one role in a TV show and then see them in a movie or something. I rented Kate and Leopold soon after watching the first two seasons of The West Wing on DVD, and seeing Brad Whitford completely threw me out of it.
A very talented actor friend of mine did two back-to-back shows last summer, one a goofy comedy and one a dark and disturbing musical.
He was hilarious in the comedy. Really memorable facial expressions, great physical shtick and some deliveries that turned decent lines into catch-phrase quotables.
Then he did the musical. Every night, he opened the musical with a solo number. And every night as he walked out, and people would start to giggle. The audience was peppered with season-ticket holders who had just seen him as a goof, and it was all they could think of as he began his performance of a dark and tortured character.
In the wider world…
When Jeff Conaway joined the cast of Babylon 5, I couldn’t help but think “Hey, Bobby got a regular gig!”
Ever since seeing Leslie Nielsen in Airplane! (which I can’t believe came out 25 years ago) I can’t take his previous work as a more straight-laced actor seriously. He played the ship captiain in the original Poseiden Adventure which was on cable not too long ago and I kept expecting him to be funny, which he wasn’t.
A friend of mine refused to see Silence of the Lambs for fear it would ruin “C.S. Lewis” in Shadowlands for her. (C.S. Lewis and Hannibal Lector both being played by Anthony Hopkins. Having seen both movies, I don’t blame her for not wanting to see Silence of the Lambs*, but I thought her reasoning was funny.
Well, I just had a hard time with the last episode of Season 2 of Deadwood - everybody in the show has been tiptoeing and conniving and everything around George Hearst’s agent all season, right? So the man himself arrives! Powerful, wealthy man. A force to be contended with.
Roger Lloyd-Pack plays Owen on The Vicar of Dibley. I had a difficult time seeing him as Barty Crouch in the new Harry Potter movie. I kept waiting for him to start telling Harry about his three-legged cows.
And similarly – Watching Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World, my first thought on seeing the character Bonden was “there’s a Hobbit steering the ship!”
This is a little more literal than the OP and most of the replies, but…
The first thing I thought of was Sean Penn’s performance in The Assassination of Richard Nixon. For whatever reason, god help him, he kept lapsing into his character from I Am Sam.
It was jarring, disengaging, disappointing… Ah, you get the picture. Totally ruined the film.
First off, I think Tommy Shaw is a complete ass, and I never really like Styx too much either.
I heard him totally trash his former band and material when he played in Damn Yankees. You’re pretty cool, now aren’t ya? Torch that bridge!
Now I get a real kick seeing him hopping around stage playing moldy old Styx tunes on Fester-rock tours. Whatsa matter, Tommy? Didn’t invest all that Damn Yankees money? Suck it up and swallow it down, you hick.