Lucille Ball as Mame. Oh. My. God. I mean, I love Lucy (heh!) but that was so not her role. It’s a MUSICAL, for Og’s sake! That means she has to sing!
Lucille Ball croaks. She does not sing. Besides, at that point, she was already far too old to be playing Mame.
The ideal would have been Lucille Ball in the original movie and a miraculously rejuvenated Roz Russell in the musical…
How about the not-Middle Eastern Eddie Alberrt as Hakim the peddler in Oklahoma ?
I recall when Robert Altman’s Nashville came out, our local paper had one critic that thought it was the greatest film ever made, and another who declared it to be Worst. Movie. Ever. The paper printed their reviews side by side.
“Henry Gibson, stunningly cast against type…”
“Henry Gibson, woefully miscast…”
After Mary Poppins, he had his British Accent Liscence revoked.
And not to quibble with the thread title, but the worst examples of miscasting is a little of a double negative. The worst example would be the person who fit the
role best. Aren’t we actually looking for the best examples of miscasting?
St. E., H.M.S.H. who is more than a little anal this morning
Ben Affleck as (anything, really) Jack Ryan in Sum of All Fears (The character [in the book, let’s not talk about the hack job of film adaptation] is supposed to be the effective second in command of the CIA for Og’s sake). For that matter, shoulda stuck with Alec Baldwin throughout the franchise.
-DF
Tara Reid has been miscast in every role she’s ever played. Except maybe Josie and the Pussycats, because her character in that film was supposed to be an idiot.
In the same vein, Denise Richards as a Ph.D. biochemist in that James Bond movie.
OK, we get it. You don’t like Charlton Heston.
Frankly, I think he was excellent in the three of these movies I have seen, within the limits of the genre ('50s era period piece). Sure he was playing an American… but what actor in that time and place and genre didn’t?
Seeing him in modern dress (Earthquake, Airport 1975 just doesn’t work for me.
As for the “smug” part… I suggest that your disdain for his politics may be coloring your judgement…
On the same note, David Carradine as a Chinese? Tibean? in “Kung Fu”. For years, I wondered what in the hell an American was doing in a 19th century Shaolin monastery. Then I read that Bruce Lee had conceived of the show and was orginally slated to star in it before the producers decided that he was “too Chinese” for the role.
B-ZARE.
And not only did Wayne look monumentally wrong as a Mongol, his kiln-dried delivery of the horribly cliched dialog puts the film in the geographical center of “so bad it’s gone past good and back to bad again” territory.
I thought he was perfect in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, though. Awkward, bombastic machismo to cover up insecurities was exactly what that role called for.
Stranger
I’ll try to challenge that with John Cleese as Sheriff John T. Langston, Turley in Silverado.
Anthony Hopkins, as an American black man passing for white, in The Human Stain.
Nicole Kidman as a white trash milkmaid, in The Human Stain.
Denise Richards as a scientist, in The World is Not Enough
Elisabeth Shue as a scientist in The Saint.
Keanu Reeves as a scientist in Chain Reaction.
(see a trend developing?)
In similar fashion, Jeanne Crain as a biracial passing for white, in Pinky.
Still isn’t Prefect a bright red haired white dude? WTF were they thinking?
No, no, no, no… Rosiland Russell is to Mame Dennis what Vivian Leigh was to Scarlett O’Hara or Sean Connery is to James Bond or Alistar Cooke is to Ebenzer Scrooge. She IS the ideal.
“as a biracial woman passing for white…” :smack:
Alistair Sim?
I’m on board with that. Roz in the original movie AND a miraculously rejuvenated Roz in the musical!
That would make my world SO perfect…
D’oh! Alistar Sim, Yeah. I knew something was wonky about that sentence…
Neither Anthony Hopkins nor Jeane Crain is completely out of the question as blacks passing for whites, though, if you assume they’ve altered their appearances somewhat and deliberately adopted non-ethnic mannerisms and modes of speech.
What I’ve found incredulous was airheaded Nicole Richie as the daughter (adopted or biological) of R&B pillar Lionel Richie.
Hell, I even buy Danny Masterson as a brother before that!
William Hurt as Duke Leto Atreides in the Dune mini-series.
:eek:
I can’t agree. I did agree before I saw the movie, but I think Keaton did an excellent job.
You think that’s bad, try James Mason and Burgess Meredith as Chinese people in The Yin and Yang of Mr. Go. At least casting Jeff Bridges as an American hippie worked out.
James Whitmore in Black Like Me. I know, he was supposed to be a white man passing as black, but I can assure you that Mr. Whitmore has no rhythm whatsoever.
In the producers…defense…the character was supposed to be half-American. Quai-Chang Caine…and part of the backstory was that he was searching for his American mother. It was still wrong. Should’a been Bruce Lee.
