# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/161 "2013-04-10T05:35:53Z")
Mathilda May-Lifeforce Natasha Henstridge-Species ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/162 "2013-04-10T12:31:08Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > Love some of the replies thus far. One thing I’ve noticed is many folks go with the casting of a character they have known for literature or perhaps the comic book genre. I don’t know why, but I rarely get caught up in the casting of an actor from a written work I’ve already read through. Not sure why, as I always get a mental picture of the person I’m reading about. > > The only person from the top of my head that I can think of that I hated in a movie after reading the book was Trevor Howard as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With The Wind. I hated the choice, and he almost single-handedly ruins the movie for me. Leslie Howard. And after reading the book, I think he’s better cast than prior to reading the novel. Ashley is a sour puss, a Southern aristocrat whose purpose is to be a Cassandra - explain that the South will fall, lament that it is falling, and to tell us that it has fallen. He’s supposed to be weak, ineffectual, and a bit of a stick-in-the-mud, especially in comparison to Rhett Butler. And my hatred of Laura San Giacormo in regards to her Nadine Cross has nothing to do with her looks. Nadine Cross, in the book, was a slightly-frightened virginal schoolteacher who, outwardly, was not the sort of person one would think of as being “bad.” She was the anti-Larry, a person, pre-Captain Trips, that, had you been asked where they would end up, Boulder or Vegas, you would have said Boulder without giving it much thought. (With Larry, you would have said Vegas - he was an asshole through and through.) Otoh, LSG played her like she was a drugged out psycho bitch, completely missing the entire point of the character. ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/163 "2013-04-10T13:06:21Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I wouldn’t have minded Dennis Haysbert. Hmmm…Haysbert does carry that same air of intellectual gravity as Brooks…I could live with him as Irons. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/164 "2013-04-10T13:17:33Z")
Ooh, thought of a great one that’s an original character, not adapted from a book.comic/what-have-you. Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman in _Breaking Bad._ Christ, everyone on that show is amazing…even characters people hate, like Skylar\*, are hated because the actor’s are good at making you hate them. \*Though I think most people’s hatred of her has mellowed the last season/season and a half. ---
**Author:** ![montag01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@montag01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/montag01)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/165 "2013-04-10T13:21:21Z")
Now that I think about it, we have a verifiable example of worst-casting-that-almost-was in the example of Warner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo. In the movie, Klaus Kinski plays the main character. Not surprising, considering how often he worked with Herzog. But Herzog originally cast Jason Robards in the role and there are several outtakes of his performance. I always liked Jason Robards as an actor, but he was woefully miscast as Fitzcarraldo and I think everyone realized it pretty fast. Luckily Herzog switched to Kinski. ---
**Author:** ![montag01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@montag01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/montag01)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/166 "2013-04-10T13:30:12Z")
Missed the edit window. I guess everyone DIDN’T realize Robards’ unsuitability really fast. I went looking for more info on the movie and found that Herzog had shot almost half the movie with Robards in the role before the actor took ill and could not complete the picture. So I guess Herzog thought the performance was just fine. I still think the outtakes show a bland performance on Robards part. He just didn’t have the insanity needed for the role. Kinski had that insanity in spades and it made for the much better performance in this case. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/167 "2013-04-10T14:00:46Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Mathilda May-Lifeforce > Natasha Henstridge-Species You didn’t say best or worst. I’ll guess best. Because, boobs. > [@JohnT](#): > > And my hatred of Laura San Giacormo in regards to her Nadine Cross has nothing to do with her looks. Nadine Cross, in the book, was a slightly-frightened virginal schoolteacher who, outwardly, was not the sort of person one would think of as being “bad.” She was the anti-Larry, a person, pre-Captain Trips, that, had you been asked where they would end up, Boulder or Vegas, you would have said Boulder without giving it much thought. (With Larry, you would have said Vegas - he was an asshole through and through.) > > Otoh, LSG played her like she was a drugged out psycho bitch, completely missing the entire point of the character. Her looks also reflected her character. I agree with everything you said above. I also think she should have looked beautiful but pure. Beautiful so that anyone would be shocked that she was a virgin who had never had a relationship. I think of someone like Natalie Portman. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/168 "2013-04-10T15:23:06Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > You didn’t say best or worst. I’ll guess best. Because, boobs. > > Her looks also reflected her character. I agree with everything you said above. I also think she should have looked beautiful but pure. Beautiful so that anyone would be shocked that she was a virgin who had never had a relationship. I think of someone like Natalie Portman. Apologies..best yes…classic natural hotness. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/169 "2013-04-10T16:32:09Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > Alan Rickman as Severus Snape. Alan Rickman as Alexander Dane/Doctor Lazarus in _GalaxyQuest_. I literally cannot imagine anyone delivering those lines better. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/170 "2013-04-10T16:37:35Z")
Rickman is an awesome actor, and yes, his work in _GalaxyQuest_ is remarkable. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/171 "2013-04-10T17:12:49Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > Ed Furlong is miscast in everything. He’s a freaky looking guy, with no coordination. Something is off with him, because he gives me the jeebies in everything I’ve seen him in. Maybe he’s too effeminate or something, but he runs very oddly, (check him out in American History X), and he’s not believable in other roles (he played opposite Willem Defoe in a Prison movie that I can’t recall. Also a bad John Connor, and e also played a psychopathic reality TV star that was also a bad choice. I thought he did pretty well, considering. He was just some kid in a video game arcade spotted and cast because he had Linda Hamilton’s eyes. He was completely starstruck and they nearly fired him because he couldn’t act in front of Arnold or Hamilton. Eventually he got his act together. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/172 "2013-04-10T20:02:33Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Leslie Howard. And after reading the book, I think he’s better cast than prior to reading the novel. Ashley is a sour puss, a Southern aristocrat whose purpose is to be a Cassandra - explain that the South will fall, lament that it is falling, and to tell us that it has fallen. He’s supposed to be weak, ineffectual, and a bit of a stick-in-the-mud, especially in comparison to Rhett Butler. I agree with everything you said, except liking the choice, of course. Because in the book, he was also a dashing example of southern aristocracy, and had the women of South Carolina falling at his feet, including one Miss Scarlett. In the book, he has a certain “je ne sais quoi”, something that all women wanted, and all men wanted to emulate. And it wasn’t just his money, education, or looks. People seemed to be attracted to him as a leader, someone the men would follow into battle. And yet, Howard portrays none of that. He’s a milksop. A toad. I wouldn’t follow him across the street, yet alone into battle. He inspired no confidence in me, and I think that’s what he was missing from the book character (at least for me). Howard’s portrayal nailed what you described, but he did that from the beginning of the movie. He was a walking depression case, not someone that would conjur up feelings of strength and loyalty, or any other qualities of a “gentleman”. ---
**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 10, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/173 "2013-04-10T20:25:08Z")
> [@Chanteuse](#): > > Doug Hutchison totally nailed the character of Percy Wetmore in _The Green Mile_–he was the perfect little weasel! The casting director of The Green Mile must have fallen off the chair when Malcom Clarke Duncan walked in. John Coffey was not an easy role to cast. While Sidney Poitier was better know at the time, Rod Steiger totally took over the movie of In The Heat of the Night. He won an Oscar for his portrayal of Chief of Police Bill Gillespie. In terms of historical accuracy, having Louis Armstrong sing a duet with Barbra Streisand in Hello, Dolly was just plain ridiculous. ---
**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 10, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/174 "2013-04-10T20:50:56Z")
John Travolta in _Grease_. Not only too old (the same is true of most of the rest of the cast), but he is painful to watch in the dance sequences. The man could barely dance then. ---
**Author:** ![Skypist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skypist/32/169_2.png) [@Skypist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skypist)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/175 "2013-04-10T21:01:02Z")
Bad: Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum in _One for the Money_. ---
**Author:** ![Ms.Pumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@Ms.Pumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms.Pumpkin)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/176 "2013-04-10T21:26:41Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > And my hatred of Laura San Giacormo in regards to her Nadine Cross has nothing to do with her looks. Nadine Cross, in the book, was a slightly-frightened virginal schoolteacher who, outwardly, was not the sort of person one would think of as being “bad.” She was the anti-Larry, a person, pre-Captain Trips, that, had you been asked where they would end up, Boulder or Vegas, you would have said Boulder without giving it much thought. (With Larry, you would have said Vegas - he was an asshole through and through.) > > Otoh, LSG played her like she was a drugged out psycho bitch, completely missing the entire point of the character. I agree about San Giacomo being miscast, but feel the need to point out that “Movie-Nadine” was actually a combination of two characters from the book (a bad decision right there). Nadine (of course), and the woman Larry left NY with (Rita?), who _was_ kind of a drugged out psycho(she ended up OD-ing shortly after they made it through the tunnel, IIRC). ---
**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 10, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/177 "2013-04-10T22:22:21Z")
Good: Mickey Rourke as Marv in Sin City. Bad: Jessica Alba as a stripper in Sin City. Her acting was fine, but call me a purist, a stripper should at some point take her clothes off. But in Sin City, that’s reserved for Marv’s parole officer. What the hell, it was based on a comic book. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/178 "2013-04-10T22:40:08Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > John Travolta in _Grease_. Not only too old (the same is true of most of the rest of the cast), but he is painful to watch in the dance sequences. The man could barely dance then. No one was worst-cast in Grease than Stockard Channing. She LOOKED older than most of the people in the card, including Sid Ceasar. Not sure who the oldest actual “high school” student was, but my guess would be her. Or that older dancer that hooked up with Travolta at the National Bandstand thing. I’ve seen less wrinkled necks on a chicken. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/179 "2013-04-10T22:47:52Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > No one was worst-cast in Grease than Stockard Channing. She LOOKED older than most of the people in the card, including Sid Ceasar. > > Not sure who the oldest actual “high school” student was, but my guess would be her. > > Or that older dancer that hooked up with Travolta at the National Bandstand thing. I’ve seen less wrinkled necks on a chicken. Quick IMDB check proved I was right with Stockard. She had 4 years on Cha Cha! Stockard was born in 1944, which made her a 34 year old high school student in Grease. I still like the movie, but the casting WAS brutal. Except, I never seem to think of anyone’s age when ONJ comes out in those black skin tight pants at the end. So she flunked a few grades? Who cares! Oh, and ETA from my post above about GWTW and Trevor Howard. He was supposed to be from Georgia, I believe, not South Carolina. I think with the exception of Rhett Butler, the principals were all living in Georgia. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139/180 "2013-04-10T23:21:01Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > H. Jon Benjamin’s casting as [Sterling Archer](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1486217/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) is the finest casting in the history of all mankind. Oh. God. Yes! “She’s like the Pele of anal.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-casted-role-tv-or-film-or-biggest-casting-mistake/655139.md?page=10)