Wrong Casting?

[GuildfordGal]

As I read The Shipping News for the 250th time, I'm reminded again that Gerard Depardieu (questionable person, brilliant actor) should definitely have been cast as Quoyle.

The rest of the cast - Julianne Moore and Judi Dench were perfect. Kevin Spacey was all wrong ('a great, damp loaf of a body')

Which other film roles have been so completely miscast as this brilliant example

Most of the cast in the HP films- the adults are generally too old for their characters, and Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and the girl who played Ginny just weren’t/aren’t good actors.

There’s some good casting- Kenneth Branagh as Lockhart and Brendan Gleeson were fantastic, but for the most part it’s not great.

@Shosha1

Very much so

Ruth Wilson in The Little Stranger. I love her in most things, but that character is supposed to be sturdy, muscular and plain, and she's slim and attractive. I always visualised Caroline as looking a bit like a slightly less tall Miranda Hart!

Yes to all the Harry Potter examples that have been mentioned, and I would like to also put forward Michael Gambon as Dumbledore. I know they had a hard job to fill Richard Harris' shoes (I thought was perfect in the role), but Gambon wasn't avuncular enough and he somehow just didn't look right. I would have liked to see Ian Holm in the role perhaps.

Agree with the pp who said Renee Zellweger was all wrong for Bridget Jones- I guess they had to have an American name for box office. I really wanted Bridget to be played by Kate Winslet- she had a real vulnerability at that age which she could have brought to Bridget; not as "polished" as she is now.

The other one would not have been possible, but I can dream... Brandon Lee from The Crow died in 1993. IMO he would have made a better Sirius Black than Gary Oldman- that dark sexiness. The Prisoner of Azkaban was released in 2004, so Brandon Lee a decade older would have been spot-on.

@avamiah

Just thought of another ridiculous casting . Does anybody remember the film RED 2 with Bruce Willis ? It was a great film then Catherine Zeta Jones comes in as a Russian CIA Agent( acting all sexy etc ) and the whole film loses its credibility . Anyone remember it?

Yes, it was like she doing an impression of Ivana Humpalot from Austin Powers!

Q

Sorry! Didn't mean to type that

Brenda Blethyn as Vera. Her accent is wrong.

Morgan Freeman as Alex cross in kiss the girls/along came a spider. Just didn’t work.

Ruined the whole book series for me as I now read his narrative in Morgan freeman’s voice.

@PloptheBarnOwl

Agree with the pp who said Renee Zellweger was all wrong for Bridget Jones- I guess they had to have an American name for box office. I really wanted Bridget to be played by Kate Winslet- she had a real vulnerability at that age which she could have brought to Bridget; not as "polished" as she is now.

The other one would not have been possible, but I can dream... Brandon Lee from The Crow died in 1993. IMO he would have made a better Sirius Black than Gary Oldman- that dark sexiness. The Prisoner of Azkaban was released in 2004, so Brandon Lee a decade older would have been spot-on.

Oh wow he would have been perfect!

And totally agree with Kate Winslet as Bridget - that would have been great.

I absolutely hated Emma Watson in BatB - she absolutely ruined the whole movie. She also can't act for shit.

Everyone in HP was terribly miscast (or just terrible. I'm looking at you Radcliff and Watson).

Winslet in Titanic didn't work either.

Also the Winona Ryder version of Little Women - the guy who played her love interest just didn't work for me at all.

The kids in Harry Potter as they grew up became progressively more dreadful and, to make matters worse, they were surrounded by some of the best actors if their generation. Poor Daniel Radcliffe being acted off the screen by Alan Rickman... 🙈
Emma Watson is so miscast in Beauty and the Beast. I think they wanted someone who came across as an intellectual but she also should be kind and warm and EW is more smug and sneery.
I thought Elizabeth Debicki was a bit miscast in The Night Manager. She was great but looked a bit too punky/edgy for either of the male leads to be lusting after.

Tom bloody cruise as reacher- still very angry about that!

Pretty much the entire cast of Twilight bar the wolves.

I got two minutes into Beauty and the Beast and gave up on the grounds that Emma Watson can’t sing. If they must make live action reboots of classic cartoons, with A listers in the roles, at least dub the bloody singing like they did in the old days of movie musicals.

Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan in Fifty Shades of Grey. Neither were who I imagined from reading the books.

I agree Kate Winslet in Titanic. Didn't look anywhere near 17 and an odd match with Leonardo Di Caprio.

John Travolta in Grease. Never liked him. Apparently the actor who played Kenicky went for the role, I think he would've been much better.

I couldn’t get past the second episode of Normal People because Marianne was far too beautiful and Connell looked about 37.

I’ve never seen any of the Harry Potter movies all the way through, but I was surprised when I started reading the books with my children to realise the character of Snape was only in his 30s. I’m sure Alan Rickman was brilliant but much too old.

I didn't like the castng of the TV version of Thorne, the book series by Mark Billingham. Twas all wrong.

@Selkiebride

I didn't like the castng of the TV version of Thorne, the book series by Mark Billingham. Twas all wrong.

Yes! David Morrissey was not the right choice at all! Although MB said he’s who was in his mind when creating the character I saw him in more of a Robert DiNiro esque vibe.

James Franco in planet of the apes, I found him so unbelievable in that role.
Emma Watson as Meg in little women, not how I saw her in the book at all.

I'm rewatching Buffy for the umpteenth time and everyone is great then along comes Amber Benson as Tara and she's just awful. Season 5 is amazing apart from her, she's actually embarrassing on screen.

@BalloonSlayer

I would add practically every Jane Eyre I have ever seen and definitely every Blanche Ingram I have ever seen.

Jane is supposed to be the plain, mousey, honest and kind heroine.

Blanche is the beautiful, rich, fashionable utter bitch.

Filmmakers always cast a beautiful Jane and a plain Blanche, or a beautiful Blanche whom they try to make look ugly.

They just can't get over their dogma that unpleasant = ugly. You would think the film industry of all environments would contain some people who have observed that, once or twice, really good looking and rich people can be quite sneering about people who are poorer and not so handsome as themselves.

Yes, and the same goes for Rochester, who isn't supposed to be handsome. I think filmmakers think that audiences won't be interested in seeing plain people falling in love or something 🙄

Way back, but Tom Hanks and Melanie Griffith as the leads in Bonfire of the Vanities.
They were both Big names at the time, hence the casting, but both totally different than the characters in the book.

Pretty much all of Harry potter. There were only a few i felt they really got right.

Putting aside all the kids - apart from luna, the top of the worst for me was Alan Rickman as snape. He was too chubby, too old, and just... Bad. He just wasnt good enough to portray it.

Sirius and lupin were incredibly badly cast as well. Sirius is meant to be good looking, although thin. They cast the missing beegee brother.

David Thewlis as Lupin in the Harry Potter films.

I just didn't imagine the character in the book being so bloody wet. Absolutely hated the characterisation in the films.

@ShesMadeATwatOfMePam

Snap

Much as I love James Mcavoy in anything he does, I felt he was miscast as Lord Asriel in His Dark Materials Tv series. He just didn't seem to fit quite right, he wasn't quite authorative enough and I didn't believe he would have ever been with Mrs Coulter she'd have sqaushed him! Everyone else was cast perfectly.