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

Gal Gadot as Wonderwoman. I know it's all magic anyway, but she's way too slender/Hollywood for a superhero. And a bit wooden. And running in wedges.

Henry Cavill is great in the Witcher if fantasy / gaming is your thing.

Armie Hammer in Call Me By Your Name, he just looked too old, so it turned what should have been a nice film into something that came across as seedy.

Beyonce etc in the ‘live action’ Lion King, its set in Kenya, possibly Tanzania, the animals should not have had American accents.

Michael Nyqvist in the Girl with the dragon tattoo, Blomkvist is meant to be very good looking and charismatic.

Nicole Kidman in anything, her face does not move.

Apparently, the lad who played Michael in ‘My Family’ was considered favourite to play Harry Potter at one point.

Tilda Swinton should have been Dr Who

Every single member of the cast of both Mamma Mia films.

The entire thing is so utterly wrong I'm just surprised it wasn't set in Alaska.

@MrsEricBana

Andi McDowell in Four Weddings & a Funeral 😫

Yes, came on here to say this. Just so wrong. I know they wanted to appeal to the U S market, but there must have been better options available!

I feel a bit sorry for Andi, I thought she was OK but she'll only be remembered for that line about the rain, and I doubt anyone could've rescued that mother of all cringe.

@avamiah

Who remembers this film, Beauty and the Beast (Emma Watson as Beauty )? Firstly, before I get negative replies 🙃I went to see this premiere at the Odeon in Leicester Square with my daughter and her friends all dressed as Beauty and they loved it but if I’m being honest I didn’t think she was that great in the part ??

Completely agree. Emma Watson shouldn't have been Hermione either, she just can't act.

I hated Emily Ratajkowski as Andie in Gone Girl. Totally wrong. Andie was supposed to be a young cute slightly daffy student. Emily was too model looking and intense!

Aiden Gillen playing Phil the pathologist in the Tom Thorne tv series. In the books he's Mancunian, over 6ft tall, bald, tattooed, many piercings and openly, happily gay. Not 5ft summat with a wandering accent.

YY to Andie McDowell, but I find her intensely irritating whatever she's doing.

Agree with Ann Hathaway on One Day. In my head I had someone like a young Kelly McDonald. Not sure why

Kevin Costner as Robin Hood was preposterous

And having devoured Stephen King's 11/22/66, I was appalled to see a james Franco cast as Jake Epping.

As an aside, if they ever adapt A Little Life into a film and Harold isn't played by Mandy Patinkin, I'm giving up.

Kenneth Branagh as Poirot. But then I'm not a Branagh fan.

Tilda Swinton should have been Dr Who

Yes, a thousand times.

Molly Ringwald as Frannie and Jamey Sheridan as Flagg in The Stand. Both terrible.

But Colonel Dashwood is much older than Marianne Dashwood in the book. She’s 16, he’s 35. I think Alan Rickman was perhaps a miscast in the film because he was too nice... I’m not sure that ‘book marianne’ would be as happy in her marriage as the film one.

Emma Thompson and High Grant are the same age (well- she’s 61, he’s 60). I remember reading an interview with her in which she said lots of people thought she was too old to be paired with him in S&S. Which perhaps says more about how much we’re used to seeing young women paired with older men one screen?

I agree that pretty much everyone in Harry Potter is wrong.

Idris Elba in ( pretty much anything ) The Dark Tower, he is not and never could be Roland Deschain.
Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates.
Elijah Wood in Green Street.

Javier Bardem as Florentino Ariza in Love in the Tome of Cholera.
Far too good looking!

Most of the cast of The Watch - poor Terry Pratchett must be spinning in his grave!
Richard Dormer as Vimes 😳 ? He was brilliant in GoT as Beric Dondarrion but bloody awful as Vimes.

@PatchworkElmer

But Colonel Dashwood is much older than Marianne Dashwood in the book. She’s 16, he’s 35. I think Alan Rickman was perhaps a miscast in the film because he was too nice... I’m not sure that ‘book marianne’ would be as happy in her marriage as the film one.

Emma Thompson and High Grant are the same age (well- she’s 61, he’s 60). I remember reading an interview with her in which she said lots of people thought she was too old to be paired with him in S&S. Which perhaps says more about how much we’re used to seeing young women paired with older men one screen?

I agree that pretty much everyone in Harry Potter is wrong.

Absolutely. And 35 would have coded as far older than today — in fact Colonel Brandon is only just younger than Mrs Dashwood — and is presented by the novel as a flannel-waistcoated father-figure, and ultimately a ‘safe’ consolation prize for a young woman who’s risked compromising herself with a cad. Austen doesn’t even pretend Marianne feels any more than respect and esteem before they marry.

The film basically flips the moral of the novel on its head because the novel is so contrary to modern tastes. The novel says sense is right, sensibility is wrong — Marianne is wrong, lucky not to have wrecked her life, and needs to learn to be more like reserved, practical Elinor — whereas the film rewards Marianne with sexy A Rickman, and depicts Elinor breaking down in an emotional Marianne-like way when an Edmund Ferrars made much more likeable by Hugh Grant proposes, and suggests more of a middle way.

@GenderApostate19 - absolutely. It was a complete travesty with no reverence for the source material.

@GenderApostate19 - that's exactly what I thought when I saw this thread. The whole cast is bonkers. I'm not a fan of the show Miranda, but that's what Sybil should look like. She is not a young, slim, kick-ass character.

Helen Lewis did a really good blog post on this:
helenlewis.substack.com/p/the-bluestocking-terry-pratchett

Exactly @HelloPudding - she's described as a galleon in full sail. Not a skinny woman at all.

Tom Cruise in Interview with a Vampire. Totally wrong. Not beautiful or graceful enough. It makes me angry just thinking about it!

My first thought was Andi McDowell, who almost managed to single handedly ruin the greatest rom com of all time. However to be fair to her, she is mostly OK until the rain scene. I can imagine Julianne Moore doing a stellar job in that role, but she wasn't yet a star at the time.