# Who would you cast in a movie about Lincoln? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 16, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339 "2010-10-16T14:32:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/61 "2010-10-22T02:31:08Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > With some padding and aging [Christina Ricci](http://takesunset.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/christina-ricci.jpg)would be a good [Mary Todd](http://www.old-picture.com/daguerreotypes/pictures/Lincoln-Todd-Mary.jpg) (shown here at approximately the same age as Ricci). It sounds odd and I don’t know of anything else that she’s been in–what about the actress that plays Meredith on The Office. Kate Flannery. Look at that photo of Mary again and think about it. ---
**Author:** ![sco3tt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@sco3tt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sco3tt)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/62 "2010-10-22T02:37:05Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Lincoln actually wore flannel shirts and blue jeans, or something close. Alright, you got me on a technicality. This wasn’t period attire worn for the sake of verisimilitude though… Bear in mind this happened in the mid-90s, when grunge was still de rigueur in the Midwest. Come to think of it he may have even worn a Pearl Jam t-shirt under that unbuttoned flannel. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/63 "2010-10-22T04:31:21Z")
[QUOTE=sco3tt] Come to think of it he may have even worn a Pearl Jam t-shirt under that unbuttoned flannel. 😃 [/QUOTE] I challenge you to find a picture of Lincoln in which you can prove he _wasn’t_ wearing a Pearl Jam t-shirt under his shirt. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/64 "2010-10-22T04:49:37Z")
Almost any Hollywood actor, especially “A-list” ones, will simply be too good looking. Lincoln was one homely guy. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/65 "2010-10-22T05:23:44Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > Danny DeVito and Al Franken. You decide who plays who. I think Danny DeVito would make a great Mary Todd Lincoln. For Abe, I nominate Richard Kiel. For John Wilkes Booth, John Malkovich. For Stephen Douglas, Foghorn Leghorn. For Jefferson Davis, Wallace Shawn. For Frederick Douglas, Eddie Murphy. For Harriet Tubman, Whoopie Goldberg. For General Sherman, Samuel L Jackson, just so he can say, “There are too many motherfuckfuckin’ slave holders in motherfuckin’ Atlanta!” General Grant, Keifer Sutherland General Lee, the General Lee car. I see this movie as a cross among _The Princess Bride_, _Who Framed Roger Rabbit_, and _War and Peace_ ---
**Author:** ![MegaBee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@MegaBee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MegaBee)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/66 "2010-10-22T13:29:52Z")
Vin Diesel. I don’t think anyone else would be convicing in the scene where Lincoln defeats three grizzly bears barehanded. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/67 "2010-10-22T14:19:38Z")
Matthew McConaughey as John Wilkes Booth. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/68 "2010-10-22T15:04:32Z")
I keep coming back to Sam the Eagle as Lincoln and Miss Piggy as Mary Todd. The trouble is obvious. Miss Piggy can handle the tragic Mary Todd well, but Sam lacks the background in drama required for the role. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/69 "2010-10-22T16:43:40Z")
And the stovetop hat keeps slipping down around Kermit’s ears. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/70 "2010-10-22T18:01:33Z")
Ernie and Bert could play Grant and Sherman. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/71 "2010-10-23T05:56:48Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > I keep coming back to Sam the Eagle as Lincoln and Miss Piggy as Mary Todd. > > The trouble is obvious. Miss Piggy can handle the tragic Mary Todd well, but Sam lacks the background in drama required for the role. But Waldorf and Statler occupy the box seats. ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/72 "2010-10-23T07:42:55Z")
John Goodman would make a good Lincoln, provided he wears an Afro. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/73 "2010-10-23T08:16:22Z")
Just saw a movie with [Ray McKinnon](http://upload.moldova.org/movie/actors/r/ray_mckinnon/ray_mckinnon.jpg), an actor perhaps best known for the preacher with a brain tumor in _Deadwood_. He’s 6’2 or 6’4 depending on the source, has the homeliness, and his natural southern accent would probably be easy to tweak into Lincoln’s (a Kentucky born Hoosier with a thick country accent). An actor would probably need to be 6’6 or taller to really give the impression of Lincoln (almost always the tallest man in the room), but I’m assuming angles and standing on risers could accentuate the height as needed. I wonder if [David Thewlis](http://bohemienpoet.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/davidthewlis004.jpg) can do an American accent. If he can’t then he’s one of only two English actors who can’t, the other being Anthony Hopkins. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@Captain\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/74 "2010-10-23T09:42:53Z")
The problem with Lincoln is that he was very unique looking. He had a very long face and a lean, tall body. He was actually much taller than most people of his generation, and is still the tallest President (Kerry would of had the honor if he won the Presidency). So you have to cast a tall, lean, not muscular perse but someone with strong hands, with a similar facial feature, which some scientists and historians state came from a genetic disorder. Someone who looks like him and is an A List Hollywood actor. I am sure a Lincoln movie now has to have a homosexual character (or imply that Lincoln is homosexual), an interracial liason, beaten, abused blacks, and other modern themes that sell tickets and twist history. Hell, have General Grant smoke a blunt with his horse. That’s a 2011 type film. The American public wont care anyway since few even now who the hell he is besides the funny lookin’ white man who freed the blacks… ---
**Author:** ![Edwardina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Edwardina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edwardina)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/75 "2010-10-23T11:45:19Z")
[Adrian Brody](http://www.wallpaperbase.com/wallpapers/celebsm/adrienbrody/adrien_brody_3.jpg). Lord knows, the man can act. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/76 "2010-10-23T12:23:05Z")
> [@Edwardina](#): > > [Adrian Brody](http://www.wallpaperbase.com/wallpapers/celebsm/adrienbrody/adrien_brody_3.jpg). Lord knows, the man can act. [Heddy Lamar]Hmm… too Jewish.[/Heddy Lamar] ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/77 "2010-10-23T12:33:53Z")
> [@Captain\_Midnight](#): > > I am sure a Lincoln movie now has to have a homosexual character (or imply that Lincoln is homosexual), an interracial liason, beaten, abused blacks, and other modern themes that sell tickets and twist history. Hell, have General Grant smoke a blunt with his horse. That’s a 2011 type film. The American public wont care anyway since few even now who the hell he is besides the funny lookin’ white man who freed the blacks… Harvey Fierstein’s 6’4 by some accounts and can grow a beard, but may be a bit burly. For the abused black, it’s pretty much a given that the movie will be narrated in flashback by Morgan Freeman because it’s been a couple of years since he did that and we want people to know the movie is serious. While obviously I have no problem with Teh Gay, I don’t see anything like overwhelming evidence to suggest Lincoln was actively homersexicle. I’ve mentioned before that I think he had extremely deep feelings for Joshua Speed and would be surprised to learn they experimented (straight guys still do upon occasion and I would imagine it was more common then when casual sex with women was a lot more difficult) but I think he probably was getting plenty of nothin’ after he stopped having sex with Mary Todd and for much of the time before (it’s known they practiced birth control due to the severe physical problems she had during pregnancy and abstinence was the only reliable birth control at the time). And while it’s possible that Lincoln was gayer than Clay Aiken singing Streisand at Tommy Tune’s AIDS Quilt Fundraiser Luau Brunch it’s impossible to know, so I really hope they don’t go there. On the other hand, the script is written by Tony “Angels in America” Kushner, so it might. I hope it deals realistically with the issue of race. The greatness of Lincoln wasn’t that he saw things with 100% clarity or that he naturally made Solomon-like decisions but the fact that he could and did change when better evidence presented itself, and his views on race were a lot like this; he wasn’t much more liberal if any than most members of the non slaveowning small farmer class when he became president, but as he became more exposed to blacks who weren’t slaves or unskilled laborers he came to realize he was wrong. (Ironically Frederick Douglass said he never once sensed racism from “Madame Hellcat”, the daughter of a wealthy slaveowner [and abolitionist] and a woman not much known for her grace and humility in the best of situations; of Lincoln he basically said that he didn’t like him at first but came to respect him greatly.) ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/78 "2010-10-23T17:59:43Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > With some padding and aging [Christina Ricci](http://takesunset.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/christina-ricci.jpg)would be a good [Mary Todd](http://www.old-picture.com/daguerreotypes/pictures/Lincoln-Todd-Mary.jpg) (shown here at approximately the same age as Ricci). And for a young Abe, how about [Eric Balfour](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Eric_Balfour_in_2010_cropped.jpg/220px-Eric_Balfour_in_2010_cropped.jpg)? Only 6’2", but he has that lean, angular look. ---
**Author:** ![wayward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a87d85/32.png) [@wayward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wayward)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/79 "2010-11-19T22:33:30Z")
> [@Gukumatz](#): > > I’m putting my stakes with Daniel Day-Lewis. > > Unfortunately, Mr. Spielberg isn’t returning my calls. Of course, the poor chap probably can’t afford the long-distance call fee. We have a winner! [link](http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=29535) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339/80 "2010-11-19T23:12:47Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I challenge you to find a picture of Lincoln in which you can prove he _wasn’t_ wearing a Pearl Jam t-shirt under his shirt. [Done.](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/411PJY4YTBL._SL500_AA300_.jpg) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-cast-in-a-movie-about-lincoln/557339.md?page=5)