# The best casted role TV or film or biggest casting mistake **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 8, 2013, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139 "2013-04-08T07:23:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/201 "2013-04-25T10:13:17Z")
> [@Noel\_Prosequi](#): > > Jack Black. Black utterly killed the movie stone deader than the universe after the decay of the protons. He just doesn’t have the face to do warm and engaging. Terrible, terrible casting choice. Have you seen _Bernie_? ---
**Author:** ![Molesworth\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@Molesworth\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Molesworth_2)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/202 "2013-04-25T11:18:18Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Kevin Costner as Robin Hood - even without the awful accent, he was not convincing. I wasn’t even planning on saying who I thought was bad in their role, but then you went and reminded me of that absolute travesty of a casting selection. Kevin Costner playing Robin Hood was a complete and utter abomination. Focusing on the good side: Edward James Olmos as Commander Adama in Battlestar Galactica Alan Rickman as Severus Snape. Ioan Gruffudd as Horatio Hornblower. He was far too good-looking for the role as it was portrayed in the books, but damned if he didn’t nail the the character anyway. I also saw him in a series called “Warriors” about the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia in the 90s and he’s absolutely one of the best actors I’ve ever seen. It’s really unfortunate that he didn’t go on to greater things. I don’t know if he turned his mind to other things, but in a just world that guy should have had a couple of Oscars by now. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/203 "2013-04-25T17:30:29Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/204 "2013-04-25T20:18:50Z")
Good: Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in “Alien.” Nailed it. Became the model for the tough female heroine. Bad: The earlier complaint about Rosie O’Donnell as Betty Rubble reminded me of how miscast O’Donnell was as the female cop in “Exit to Eden.” Granted, “Exit to Eden” was badly conceived on every level, and poorly executed on every level, but O’Donnell just plain sucked the sexy right out of the movie every time she was in it. She even made the scene of wrestling half-naked with Imam not sexy! How do you even DO that? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/205 "2013-04-25T21:14:56Z")
Gene Wilder as Willie Wonka was absolutely wonderful. Johnny Depp as Willie Wonka as positively dreadful. Could anyone be more Chandler than Matthew Perry? And Allan Arbus as Sidney Freeman on M_A_S\*H was perfection. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/206 "2013-04-26T00:24:11Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Could anyone be more Chandler than Matthew Perry? We saw what you did there. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/207 "2013-04-26T01:03:04Z")
I think more accurately that would be, “Could anyone _be_ more Chandler than Matthew Perry?” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/208 "2013-04-26T02:33:53Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I think more accurately that would be, “Could anyone _be_ more Chandler than Matthew Perry?” 😃 Ah, so more properly, I’d say “How _you_ doin?” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/209 "2013-04-26T03:11:04Z")
> [@Noel\_Prosequi](#): > > There were four romantic leads. Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet and… Jack Black. Black utterly killed the movie stone deader than the universe after the decay of the protons. He just doesn’t have the face to do warm and engaging. Terrible, terrible casting choice. :o I thought he was really cute in it. “ARE YOU EMBARRASSED??” in the video store? Just the perfect goofy foil that made Kate happier than the slick handsome guy she thought she wanted. ---
**Author:** ![Archeonomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@Archeonomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archeonomist)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/210 "2013-04-26T17:15:33Z")
Good: Nigel Hawthorne as Sir Humphrey Appleby in Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister Very, very bad: Henry Goodman as Sir Humphrey Appleby in the 2013 version of Yes Prime Minister ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/211 "2013-04-26T17:25:08Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > People say this all the time, but whatever character Heath Ledger was playing was _not_ the Joker. Jack Nicholson was and still is the best. Just as there is no authentic Batman who doesn’t dance the Batusi, there is no authentic Joker who’s not wearing a Cesar Romero mustache under his whiteface. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/212 "2013-04-27T03:27:02Z")
> [@arnesw](#): > > Very, very bad: Henry Goodman as Sir Humphrey Appleby in the 2013 version of Yes Prime Minister What? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/213 "2013-04-27T05:57:42Z")
> [@Noel\_Prosequi](#): > > Black utterly killed the movie stone deader than the universe after the decay of the protons. He just doesn’t have the face to do warm and engaging. Terrible, terrible casting choice. > [@gigi](#): > > :o I thought he was really cute in it. “ARE YOU EMBARRASSED??” in the video store? Just the perfect goofy foil that made Kate happier than the slick handsome guy she thought she wanted. Just seconding what gigi said - Black really worked for me, as a contrast to Rufus Sewell’s slimey guy and just his general … American-ness, I guess you could say. Speaking of Sewell - at first, I didn’t quite buy him as the bad guy in Knight’s Tale because he was so perfect as the romantic lead in Dangerous Beauty. But it turned out to be very good casting indeed, I hated him by the end of it. ---
**Author:** ![Archeonomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@Archeonomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archeonomist)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/214 "2013-04-27T17:19:33Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > What? Yes. Do you like him? To me, he is remarkably unfunny, and I don’t believe in him at all as the grand master schemer. A reviewer at the IMDB was spot on - “Gone is the restrained diffidence, it is replaced with theatrical ‘mugging’. Sir Humphrey’s new incarnation has 100 times the facial expressions of the original, yet conveys 100th of the gravitas.” ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/215 "2013-04-27T17:29:22Z")
> [@arnesw](#): > > Yes. Do you like him? To me, he is remarkably unfunny, and I don’t believe in him at all as the grand master schemer. A reviewer at the IMDB was spot on - “Gone is the restrained diffidence, it is replaced with theatrical ‘mugging’. Sir Humphrey’s new incarnation has 100 times the facial expressions of the original, yet conveys 100th of the gravitas.” You miss my meaning. A more verbose version of my post would have been something like: What? They’ve remade _Yes, Prime Minister_? How dare they sully the memory of the brilliant, perfect original. Someone must die! ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/216 "2013-04-27T18:10:59Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > In \*\*The Wire \*\*I thought most of the thugs were well cast, particularly Omar, Slim Charles and Marlo Stanfield. They had the right look and the acting skill to create believable characters. Some of them, like Snoop, were actual thugs. ---
**Author:** ![67java89](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/aeb1de/32.png) [@67java89](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/67java89)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/217 "2013-04-27T18:51:32Z")
Good casting: Everyone in the first 2 Godfather movies (it fell apart in the 3rd one) Joe Pesci and Marissa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny Jason Alexander as George Costanza ---
**Author:** ![turner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@turner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/turner)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/218 "2013-04-27T19:40:14Z")
Basil Rathbone was THE Sherlock Holmes. And after paging through two pages (out of 5 so far), I can’t believe anyone hasn’t said R. Lee Ermey for Gunnery Sargent Hartman ---
**Author:** ![Archeonomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@Archeonomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archeonomist)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/219 "2013-04-28T02:51:29Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > You miss my meaning. A more verbose version of my post would have been something like: > > What? They’ve remade _Yes, Prime Minister_? How dare they sully the memory of the brilliant, perfect original. Someone must die! Ahh, I see. Watching this remake has actually made me dumber, it seems 😃 ---
**Author:** ![StuffLikeThatThere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@StuffLikeThatThere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StuffLikeThatThere)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/220 "2013-04-28T04:20:33Z")
> [@Molesworth\_2](#): > > Ioan Gruffudd as Horatio Hornblower. He was far too good-looking for the role as it was portrayed in the books, but damned if he didn’t nail the the character anyway. I also saw him in a series called “Warriors” about the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia in the 90s and he’s absolutely one of the best actors I’ve ever seen. It’s really unfortunate that he didn’t go on to greater things. I don’t know if he turned his mind to other things, but in a just world that guy should have had a couple of Oscars by now. I love him as Horatio. I wish there were more episodes. He was in Amazing Grace awhile ago and just appeared on an episode of Castle. But I don’t know why he’s not everywhere either. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139.md?page=12)