Mathilda May-Lifeforce
Natasha Henstridge-Species
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.
Hmmm…Haysbert does carry that same air of intellectual gravity as Brooks…I could live with him as Irons.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Alan Rickman as Alexander Dane/Doctor Lazarus in GalaxyQuest.
I literally cannot imagine anyone delivering those lines better.
Rickman is an awesome actor, and yes, his work in GalaxyQuest is remarkable.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
Bad: Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum in One for the Money.
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).
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.
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.
Oh. God. Yes!
“She’s like the Pele of anal.”