Roles you really can't imagine any other actor doing?

Cafe Society
1

The actor who played Donnie Darko is so distinctive and slightly sinister and unconventional looking that it’s almost easy to forget that roles are played by actors who have seperate lives. It’s almost as if Jake (Gyllenhaal) IS Donnie Darko. It’s as if he was born for that role. And when you see him in another film you find yourself slightly surprised that he is an actor and not Donnie Darko.

On a side note I’ve only ever seen the directors cut, and I’m told it’s much better than the other cut. I only know the directors cut so my positive assesment of this film is based on that.

So my submittal Jake Gyllenhall as Donnie Darko.

2

On a side note I just watched the cast&crew interviews, and failed to find out that Donnie Darko’s big sister is played by Jake Gyllenhaal’s big sister!
Creepy.

3

Alan Rickman as Severus Snape. JK Rowling has expressed dismay that he’s been TOO good in the role, and turned a real git into a complex character.

(Sidenote on Donnie Darko: An obsessed friend swears by the theatrical version, complaining that the Director’s Cut dumbs things down too much and the mystery of the movie, the compulsion to watch it umpteen times is lost when it’s so easily understood.)

4

Can you honestly see anybody else but Patrick Stewart playing Jean-Luc Picard? :slight_smile:

5

Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I’m not even kidding about this. She was perfect, perfect, perfect for that role. It still stuns me that she and Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia) originally tried out for each other’s roles.

6

Peter Lorre as … just about anyone he played. The psychopath in M, of course, but also Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon and, on a much lighter note, Dr. Einstein in Arsenic and Old Lace

7

Clark Gable as Rhett Butler.

Errol Flynn? Ronald Colman? Edward Everett Horton? I think not.

(Well, maybe Edward Everett Horton . . .)

8

Peter Falk, Columbo.

9

Don’t you be dissin’ my boy Edward Everett Horton!

10

Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch.

11

Leo McKern as Rumpole of the Bailey. He’s done the role on the PBS series and on audiotapes for three different companies. I’ve heard others do it, but no one else really captures the character.
Paul Scofield as Sir Thomas More in A Man for all Seasons. Nobody else in this play or others (Anne of a THousand Days) seemed to get the spirit of the character.

Jimmy Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey. He owned the role, and performed it onstage, in the 1950 movie, and again on television in his later years.

12

I can’t imagine anyone else but:

Vivien Leigh as Scarlett
Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands or Captain Jack Sparrow
Ian Mckellan as Gandalf.

In addition, I questioned Elijah Wood’s casting as Frodo, but now I try to think of another actor for the role & I just can’t

13

Gloria Swanson as Nora Desmond

14

Sir Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and Red Dragon.

Tim Curry as The Butler in Clue.

Rick Moranis as Seymour Krelborne in Little Shop of Horrors.

Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump.

15

Norma Desmond, sweetie, a lot of musical fans would disagree with that.

Speaking of musicals:

Jerry Orbach as El Gato and Billy Flynn

16

I’m watching that right now. I was going to submit but decided not to have too many posts in my own thread. Look how that’s turning out!

Tom Hanks owns pretty much every role he does. Forrest Gump is one of my all-time faves.

“That kid sure is a runnin’ fool!”

17

I’m really hoping that is proven wrong in my eyes this weekend when I see it on the stage. For now, I agree with you.

18

Bill Murray as Dr. Peter Venkman. :stuck_out_tongue:

19

LOUD SCREAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. Sorry, it will be alright. Tom Hanks plays Tom Hanks acting like [insert character here] in every movie, every time. Sorry for the hijack, I’ll slink off now, but…

Not to steal it completely though, William Shatner as T.J. Hooker in Showtime. Nobody but him.

20

Peter Sellers as Jacques Clouseau.