# Poor casting choices **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 27, 2004, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379 "2004-05-27T17:40:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Just1Lurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c0e974/32.png) [@Just1Lurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just1Lurk)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2004, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/61 "2004-08-21T18:49:55Z")
Seems to me we have here the cast for W.S. Anderson’s next epic. As for miscasting, I always had a problem with Tobey Maguire in _Seabiscuit_. He’s a good actor, but he can pass for ten years younger than he is. The real Red Pollard looked 50 at 25. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2004, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/62 "2004-08-21T23:06:56Z")
> [@kung fu lola](#): > > Madonna as anyone in anything.\* > > No one should ever put that woman on the big screen, unless they can find a way to resurrect Lee Strasbourg, and then construct an Acting Boot Camp where Madonna can be imprisoned for the next 4 years (with Sargeant Strasbourg). Do you think Madonna will end up learning anything at the end of the four-year period, or do you just want Madonna to be locked up somewhere – ANYWHERE – for four years? ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/63 "2004-08-23T13:27:47Z")
How does a thread 3 months old come back like this? Was it linked to in a recent thread or did **vanilla** actually go that far back to read posts? ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/64 "2004-08-23T16:46:51Z")
> [@ReleaseTheMeat](#): > > The casting in Harry Potter has ruined the movies for me. > The kids are perfect but the adults are all so old! Snape shouldnt be a senior citizen. If he was 15 years younger he would have been perfect for the part but now hes too old and jolly. I thought Snape was a bit too old, but in terms of facial features and general demeanor, Alan Rickman was perfect. The whole movie was well cast, IMHO. Nobody seemed terribly out-of-line with what I imagined. I’ve only seen the first movie, so I can’t comment on Lupin or Sirius. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/65 "2004-08-23T16:51:13Z")
BTW, I don’t see why you thought Snape was jolly. I thought that Snape was every bit as stern as humorless as he should be. ---
**Author:** ![dasgupta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@dasgupta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasgupta)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/66 "2004-08-23T18:16:54Z")
> [@LifeOnWry](#): > > \ > > Me again, **RX** - while I agree that it was decidedly odd to cast Cruise in the role, he could have done a lot worse with it. What was truly appalling about Interview was this line, from Louis, toward the beginning: “My wife had died in childbirth…” > > HELLO!?!?! Anne Rice wrote this screenplay her very own self, so there’s just no excuse. That one line completely diminished the entire character of Louis, who in the book blames himself for the death of his saintly brother, and assumes that he is therefore already doomed to hell. To replace that with something as plebian as a dead wife was inexcusable. > > \ Please, let us not forget Antonio Banderas as Armand. I mean, of course a 34 year old Spaniard with long black hair can _easily_ portray a 17ish year old Russian with curly auburn hair and the face of a cherub. :smack: Speaking of ol’ Antonio, who the hell cast him in **[The 13th Warrior?](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0120657/)** Could they not find someone a tad more Arabic to play Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan Ibn Al Abbas Ibn Rashid Ibn Hamad? :wally ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/67 "2004-08-23T18:45:32Z")
I will second Val Kilmer as Batman. Hint: If you want someone to play Bruce Wayne, don’t cast someone with an unusually distinct upper lip. The Bat-cowl has a way of drawing attention to that part of a man’s face. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/68 "2004-08-23T19:37:30Z")
> [@Tiramisu](#): > > Max Von Sydow as Evil Commandant Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told! > > Sorry, couldn’t resist. And as Evil Kommandant Father Lankester Merrin in THE EXORCIST and the Evil Kommnadant Crusader-Knight Chess Player against Death in THE SEVENTH SEAL. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/69 "2004-08-23T20:23:32Z")
The crowning moment in the tragic history of miscasting Keanu Reeves as anything other than a stoned-surfer dude has to be Bertolucci’s “Little Buddha” in which Keanu (dude!) plays … the Buddha! (Whohohoa, man!) And as far as “Red Dragon” (the remake / “prequel”) - was I the only one who thought it odd that a movie that supposedly takes place BEFORE “Silence of the Lambs” shows us a Hannibal Lecter as played by Anthony Hopkins, twelve years AFTER “Lambs” ? (Ergo, Lecter is at least twelve years older in “Dragon,” than he was in “Lambs.”) And Mickey Rooney in “Breakfast At Tiffany’s.” Un-p.c., and just plain not funny. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/70 "2004-08-24T01:27:27Z")
> [@Neurotik](#): > > I was watching _Band of Brothers_ on the Hitler channel the other night. At the end of the episode, Easy Company is about to head into Bastogne with not enough food and not enough ammunition to hold it against the Germans. In the meantime, a parade of brutally wounded, completely stunned and dazed soldiers come marching out of the area and going the opposite way. One of the Easy Company soldiers pulls one aside and asks what the hell is going on and the wounded soldier sort of stares at him semi-vacantly and says, “The Germans…surrounded us. They slaughtered everyone, you need to get out of here.” So the Easy Company guys start getting really worried about what they’re heading into and start taking the ammo from the retreating wounded since they don’t have enough. > > Heavy scene, right? Lots of tension and dramatic buildup and you’re getting into it when who comes riding up in a jeep with extra ammunition? Jimmy freaking Fallon. > > I hear his voice and immediately I get taken out of the entire scene and think, “Is that Jimmy Fallon?” And it is! And he’s got that stupid Fallon smirk on his face and you can tell he’s desperately trying not to start laughing in the middle of his scene as is his wont. > > It was just a bit part and maybe 30 seconds of screen time, but it was so jarring that it took me out of the show for the remainder of the episode. Just terrible casting. Who made that decision? Hadn’t they seen Fallon’s attmepts at acting before? > > Yeesh. Wellllllll, Jimmy Fallon is attempting to put together a legitimate acting career. I don’t begrudge you your reaction to seeing him in “Band of Brothers”. However, I have to ask: did you see “Almost Famous”? He was the band manager, almost unrecognizable. ---
**Author:** ![Atticus\_Finch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Atticus\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atticus_Finch)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/71 "2004-08-24T02:55:43Z")
Kevin Spacey as Quoyle in _The Shipping News_. It’s integral to his character that he be a big fat ugly guy with a huge chin. Instead, he’s an inoffensive, average-looking kind of guy. Nicholas Cage in any role outside of creepy weirdo, but especially as Cap’n Corelli in _Captain Corelli’s Mandolin_. He’s ten to twenty years too old, kinda creepy and putting on the worst Italian accent I’ve ever heard. ---
**Author:** ![EsotericEnigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e274bd/32.png) [@EsotericEnigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EsotericEnigma)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/72 "2004-08-24T03:27:04Z")
> [@Kaspar Hauser](#): > > Brad Pitt. Achilles. Wow, Pitt was fantastic as the stuck up, superstar-ish Achilles. Not only that but he pulled off the fight scenes so well that he really sells the legendary warrior part of Achilles too, though he had help from some incredible choreography. He did an overall wonderful job in the movie. The only bad part was the infamous “Immortality, take it, it’s yours” line, which was dreadful, and there was nothing he could have done with it. Note that I do see the pointlessness in replying to a 3 month old post, I choose to ignore it. As for my own opinions of miscast stars, Tom Cruise as Lestat was a perfect example, I can’t beat that. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/73 "2004-08-24T03:53:22Z")
Harpo Marx as … Sir Isaac Newton. [No, really.](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0051016/combined) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/74 "2004-08-24T04:23:40Z")
Johnny Depp as Hunter S. Thompson in _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_. Depp is often great in his roles, but he was just wrong for that one. And Benicio Del Toro as Dr. Gonzo was nearly as bad. ---
**Author:** ![gyt\_fx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@gyt\_fx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gyt_fx)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/75 "2004-08-24T06:13:49Z")
Johnny Depp was great in his role, as was benicio in **Fear and Loathing** Johnny Depp is a great casting choice for ANY role; except one taht calls for a bad actor 😉 Ashton Kutcher - **Butterfly Effect** Anyone from - **Alien Vs. Predator** ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/76 "2004-08-24T12:26:23Z")
Antonio Banderas was insufficiently Arabic in _The 13th Warrior_? He was born in Málaga on Spain’s southern coast. As an Andalusian, he may well have Moorish and/or Arabic blood. I’ll cast another vote **for** Johnny Depp in _Fear & Loathing_. I found him quite convincing–& HST seems to like him. Since I haven’t said anything snide yet, please let me mention Julia Roberts in _Michael Collins_. No real attempt at an Irish accent–and her performance went downhill from there. ---
**Author:** ![JoeSki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@JoeSki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeSki)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/77 "2004-08-24T12:39:53Z")
> [@Bridget Burke](#): > > I’ll cast another vote **for** Johnny Depp in _Fear & Loathing_. I found him quite convincing–& HST seems to like him. I thought it was a great performance when I hadn’t even read the book. After I read the book, I thought he did a perfect Hunter S Thompson. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/78 "2004-08-24T12:47:25Z")
I don’t think you can blame Star Wars on the actors. I hear they didn’t have much in the way of dialogue to work with. ---
**Author:** ![dasgupta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@dasgupta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasgupta)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/79 "2004-08-24T14:23:36Z")
> [@Bridget Burke](#): > > Antonio Banderas was insufficiently Arabic in _The 13th Warrior_? He was born in Málaga on Spain’s southern coast. As an Andalusian, he may well have Moorish and/or Arabic blood. Okay, you’ve got a good point there. But the heavy spanish accent didn’t help the role any. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379/80 "2004-08-24T14:48:57Z")
> [@Kilt-wearin' man](#): > > Roger Moore as James Bond - yeah, the first couple’a movies were ok, but they just got worse and worse until finally they got rid of “Gram’pa Bond” a good 10 years too late. File that one under “Irony.” Moore was Ian Fleming’s choice for Bond. ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070328/trivia](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070328/trivia)) He didn’t get it because of his “The Saint” contractual obligations. So, when Connery’s contract ran out, Moore was available. But alas, nearly ten years later than he ‘should’ have been. So, if you look at it from Fleming’s side of the fence, Connery was the one miscast. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-casting-choices/247379.md?page=5)