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

All the older generation in the Harry Potter films were a good 25 years too old. Harry's parents were 20 and 21 when they died IIRC which means Snape, Sirius Black, Lupin would have been 31 when Harry started Hogwarts, mid 30s when they died. Rickman in particular was mid fifties when the series started mid sixties when it ended.

Another Harry Potter one - young Lily, her eyes were the wrong colour and it was important as they mentioned how Harry had his mother’s eyes. Really ruined it!

Helen mccrory as Narcissa in Harry Potter wasn’t what I’d imagined

@MrtwiceKnightly I agree on Mcavoy. I didn’t like the child they case either. He seemed too young (although I know he’s not) and she seemed too old. Lyra isn’t willowy and lanky. She’s also blond. Ruth Wilson was perfectly cast though.

@LizB62A
@SusannaMorvern

Apparently Tom Cruise bought the film rights to the Jack Reacher books so he produced the film and cast himself in the lead role. Despite the fact that Reacher in the books was explicitly described as a man mountain of getting on for 7 ft tall, while Cruise is about the size of an eight year old schoolboy.

Ego the size of a planet.

Leo DiCaprio in The Beach. Richard was English, not a particularly attractive bloke (certainly not a pretty boy like Leo!). I had an image of John Simm in my head when I read the book. The film was all wrong.

Leo DiCaprio in The Beach. It should have been Ewan McGregor.

@MrsEricBana

Andi McDowell in Four Weddings & a Funeral 😫

Oh god yes, this.

I love that film but she is so poor. Julia Roberts would have been good. Tho Hugh should just marry Kristin and have done.

Tho @MrsEricBana Eric Bans is soooooo well cast in The Time Traveller's Wife yummmm

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

I did actually watch the whole thing and I liked it. But totally with you re Daisy Edgar -Jones being absolutely stunning looking and the Marianne in the book describing herself as looking like 'vermin' and having wonky teeth. And yes although Paul Mescal was about 23/24 he looked way too old to be stuffed into a school uniform in the first few episodes. In later episodes at Uni he did look 30+.

All this talk about HP and EW in BatB I'm really surprised no-one has thought of Daniel Radcliffe in The Woman in Black. Maybe that's just me. Surely not?

I thought young Lily Potter looked like Ginny when we recently re-watched the films.

Sorry read the whole thread now. I do not rate Emma Watson I'm afraid so not seen B&B live action, suspect I would not like it.

Agree with everyone re Bridget Jones, so annoying when RZ put on weight to play a role where we know the heroine us never more than 9st7 which unles she is 5ft nothing us pretty slim, and in fact when she gets to her goal weight of 8st 7 everyone says she is too thin.

RZ looked good when "fat" but she was a lot bigger, clearly, than BJ ever is. Bridget is the only person who thinks she us overweight, that's the point.

And in Tinker Tailor, Jerry Westerby is a bubble-permed Steven Graham. It's only a tiny role but so wrong as to make you think it must be some kind of a joke. The character is a posho (later to appear as The Honourable Schoolboy) not a scouser.

[quote OnGoldenPond]@LizB62A
@SusannaMorvern

Apparently Tom Cruise bought the film rights to the Jack Reacher books so he produced the film and cast himself in the lead role. Despite the fact that Reacher in the books was explicitly described as a man mountain of getting on for 7 ft tall, while Cruise is about the size of an eight year old schoolboy.

Ego the size of a planet.[/quote]
Aha , this has always baffled me.

Jennifer Lopez in the wedding planner. She can't act and I cringed all the way through

Yeah definitely Tom Cruise as Reacher - absolutely ridiculous. Also, randomly, I watched Snow White and the Huntsman on Netflix once when I was bored. I thought it would be absolutely rubbish but was surprised to find it actually quite enjoyable! The worst thing was that Kristen Stewart was cast as Snow White and she was truly dire. Half the time she looked thoroughly bored and the other half she spent biting her lip and gurning. Luckily the rest of the cast were pretty good and carried it for her.

Hugh Grant in Sense and Sensibility. What a wet drip ! He would never have been a match for Emma Thompson's Elenor . It just was all wrong . ( And yes Emma Thompson was too old as Elinor and Alan Rickman definitely too old for Kate Winslet's Mariannne but I can forgive all that due to their great acting.

Ginny weasley. The book Ginny is amazing, strong and a real feminist icon. Film Ginny is a knob

@YesItsAPeacock

There are loads in the Harry Potter films who seem wrong to me (but then the films are quite poor) - none so miscast as Jim Broadbent as Slughorn. He’s clearly a camp, lush of a man. If Richard Griffiths hadn’t been miscast as Mr Dursley he’d have been perfect - Slughorn is Uncle Monty and they made him into Mr Chips.

Yes! Slughorn is described exactly like Richard Griffiths - down to the belly proceeding him into the room.

The Dursleys were too old like most of the adult cast.

Tom cruise in jack reacher, nothing like the books.
Nicholas cage in most things, ghost rider of particular note.

Totally disagree about Alan Rickman, a little older than the character was supposed to be but nevertheless a perfect snape in my view. J.K. Rowling always wanted him to be snape if her books were ever made into a film, and wrote the character with him in mind.

@ShesMadeATwatOfMePam

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 is OK, but Gary Oldman and Alan Rickman are magnificent.

@MrtwiceKnightly

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.

I was about to write exactly this. However re everyone else being perfectly cast, while I love Lin Manuel Miranda, I already had an ideal casting for Lee Scoresby and it was Adam Rothenberg from Ripper Street. I couldn't agree less with the poster who doesn't rate Amber Benson on Buffy though, I think Tara is great.

Another vote for Andi McDowell in Four Weddings. Love the film, Apart from her part.

@midsomermurderess

Leo DiCaprio in The Beach. It should have been Ewan McGregor.

Apparently Ewan McGregor and Danny Boyle fell out for a number of years because EM was going to the lead in The Beach but he was replaced by Leo as he was American and younger.

John C Reilly as the dad in We Need to Talk About Kevin. Always struck me as an odd casting