Or as Breaker Morant.
Mads Mikkelsen gave an excellent, terrifying take on Hannibal - I think I even prefer it.
Agreed on the others though.
I think some other actors could do it, but not Keanu. He never comes across as particularly bright and he’s waaay too nice.
Tom Selleck also would have looked really disturbing kissing Carrie Fisher. Harrison Ford was a lot older than her but was believable as a love interest, where Selleck, specially if he’d kept the tache, would have looked like an abuser.
Ryan Reynolds do it though, if he weren’t already a different superhero (in a different cinematic universe, but still).
Agreed, he was born for that role.
My fanwank for it is that it was machines deciding who would blend in, and they didn’t really understand humans well.
Another Marvel actor who absolutely nailed the role was Chris Hemsworth as Thor. I expect some other actors could do it in a completely different way, but his version is now the one to beat. Tom Hiddleston initially auditioned for Thor and it’s really hard to imagine him in that role.
Well, okay, but try picturing Kate Mulgrew.
Yes, I know you’re still picturing Katharine Hepburn.
William Shatner as The Big Giant Head.
Robin Williams in any role he played ever. That man was an acting genius in both comedy and drama.
None, really none. While there are definitely wrong actors for roles, separating the character from the actor playing it is almost impossible. RDJ is a good Iron Man because he did it well, but we don’t know what the movie would be with someone else doing it, maybe Idris Elba would’ve crushed it and we’d say “I can’t see anyone other than Idris Elba playing Iron Man, not even RDJ, c’mon, he’d be good, but no Elba good.” RDJ is very good at being RDJ in Iron Man, but we simply cannot know what Iron Man would have been with someone else if everything was the same; there is no control group.
There is no Piccard that isn’t Stewart, even the actor who play young Piccard play young Stewart, not young Piccard out of the blue.
Heh. The closest thing to it, though, may be this: picture a movie star playing a cocky rich guy who talks women into bed in between casually running the worldwide company he inherited from his celebrity CEO father. Okay, now picture him taking a while to get the hang of a powered exoskeleton before eventually kicking ass with it. And now picture him iconically gesture-working hologram-controls for some futuristic-looking computer display. Now picture him trying his hand at being a racecar driver. Now picture him reacting to news of an alien invasion. Now picture him smugly talking down to various military officers. Now picture him tinkering with robot drones and doing astronaut stuff. And so on.
That entire audition is pretty much just “Tom Cruise movies”, right?
1980 Popeye
I can’t see anyone but Shelley Duval as Olive Oyl.
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Capote.
Sorry, I can only picture Kate Mulgrew as Captain Janeway. Applying the word “regal” to KM just doesn’t cut it. Whereas Hepburn wears “regal” like a pair of custom-made gloves. She may be her husband’s prisoner, but she’s still every inch a queen and never lets you forget it.
(Quoting post 81)
No. James Garner as Maverick. Brett Maverick. And Jack Carter as his brother Bart.
Garner is also the only one to play Jim Rockford.
William Munny - John Wayne is dead so no one had the grizzled gunslinger cred to pull this role off but Clint Eastwood.
Only a few years ago I would have said only Mel Gibson could be Mad Max, but Thomas Hardy crushed it out of the park.
It’s hard to judge unless somebody else has actually tried to play the character. I nominate:
Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman.
I thought Gal Godot was wonderful in the role, but…let’s put it this way: it took them 40 years to put WW on screen again. Hopefully it doesn’t take another 40 years, but if it does, people in 2060 are going to be judging the current WW against Lynda Carter, not Gal Godot.
Same goes for Christopher Reeve as Superman.
I’m not even sure who plays Superman in the more recent movies. Andrew Garfield? Or was he Spiderman? [looks it up] Whaddaya know? Bryce Larkin, Daniel Shaw, AND Colonel Casey have played Superman in one form or another. (That’s Matt Bomer, Brandon Routh, and Adam Baldwin of Chuck fame). But I digress…
Thinking on Tom Selleck as Indy: maybe it would have worked. He would have been a very different Indy, though. The size differential alone would have changed the whole dynamic. Tom Selleck was an imposing 6’4” slab of beefcake. Harrison Ford was more regular-sized. But the more I think about it, the more I can see why he was a finalist for the role. But it went to the right guy in the end.
You couldn’t be more wrong if you covered yourself in post-its each stamped with “I’m the Wrongest” and led a parade the wrong way down a one-way in Wrong Town.
Jerry Lundegaard - William H. Macy (Fargo)
This entire movie was basically perfectly cast, but William H. Macy is Jerry Lundegaard.
Walter Peck - William Atherton (Ghostbusters)
The 80s’ premier “jerk” actor. Also see: Die Hard, Real Genius.
Johnny - William Zabka (The Karate Kid)
The 80s teenage version of William Atherton. Also see: Just One of the Guys, Back to School, European Vacation.
James Garner.
Marnie Nixon
Well, I guess I’m wrong, then. 