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

People mentioning Jane Eyre - I was impressed by the stage version shown on Sky Arts recently - Rochester was quite odd-looking and Jane, while certainly not unattractive in her way, was not the conventional big-eyed beauty you tend to see in film versions.

Richard E Grant in Jack and Sarah which is a romcom about a widowed dad falling in love with the baby’s nanny. He’s a fantastic actor, but all wrong in that film.

Ben Affleck in Gone Girl irritates me so much. He is too old and paunchy. Nick is meant to be a blond, handsome, clean cut All-American sporty type - too wholesome looking to be a murderer, which is the point. Rosamunde Pike is all wrong too, she just isn't complex enough as Amy.

Nicole Kidman in The Goldfinch. And most things.

Tom Cruise in anything since Risky Business.

Totally miscast but then totally owning it Sean Bean in Sharpe. He's supposed to be a dark haired Londoner.

Someone else (I think a Mcgann) was cast and something happened to make him pull out at the last minute.

Bernard Cornwell has said since he started writing to match Bean.

Julia Stiles in Riviera.

Dakota Johnston in 50 Shades.

Ben Affleck as Batman
Tom Holland as Spiderman
Matthew Mcfadyn as anything (especially Mr Darcy).

HC in The Witcher is perfect hardly any acting required just throw that sword around occasionally like a matchstick.
Also Keanu in the Matrix no acting required beautiful moody face to look at and plenty of fight scenes perfect casting
Not perfect is Lily James in Mamma Mia 2 I just found her over acting silly naive girl on her travels really annoying.

Re: Martin Compston in Line of Duty...its his accent! Why couldn't they have let him use his own? This has got to be my main bugbear with alot of wrong castings....

Not a film, but Catriona Balfe as Claire in the Outlander series, not least because she doesn't match the physical descriptions of her in the books (which I've read many times! ). Her accent is off too.

It doesn't quite ruin the series, but it feels very jarring.

I didn't watch the Bridget Jones films for ages because I felt so strongly that Sally Philips should have been cast as Bridget
Stopped watching series of unfortunate events series because of Violet Baudelaire. Not sure if casting exactly. I suppose I just pictured her differently and couldn't enjoy it.

Matthew Mcfadyn as anything (especially Mr Darcy).

I have to defend him, actually. I think he's terrific in Succession and in Ripper Street (so human and vulnerable in the latter). And I liked him very much in The Pillars of the Earth and Any Human Heart too. I will say I haven't seen the P&P with him as Mr Darcy though.

@ShesMadeATwatOfMePam

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

So you don't think Gary Oldman looks like a beegee?

Actually barry gibb would have been more convincing. Go on. Have a little Google of a young Barry.

I had a quick google, but I’m not really seeing it I’m afraid

He was really too old (as someone previously mentioned) but I think he’s good as Sirius and good looking enough to be Sirius even though he’s old enough to be my grandfather.

Keira Knightley as the code breaker Joan Clarke in The Imitation Game. Too young looking, too gorgeous, not convincing as a towering intellect and unworldly mathematician.

Tom Holland as Spiderman
oh no I really like Tom Holland in that part.

Natalie Portman as Jane in Thor though - this has always baffled me. I don't know who would be right for it but she just doesn't seem to fit in the film. She is a good actress in general, but she just seems too straight for the role. Casting clearly thinks otherwise as she'll be in the new one...

Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt were cast the wrong way round in Interview With The Vampire. Brad would have been a stunning Lestat.

@Tillygetsit you do!

Armie Hammer couldn't have been more wrong for Maxim de Winter, what were they THINKING?

100% Ginny Weasley. She was nowhere near pretty enough in the films and there was no spark between her and the other leads. And even Daniel Radcliffe, though I like him, just didn't look like Harry Potter to me.

Molly Weasley played by Julie Walters was absolutely perfect casting. Exactly who I saw in my mind while reading.

Can I have Olivia Coleman for The Crown?

And actually pretty much anything she has been in recently. She needs to stop being OC and start acting.

All three main leads in The Other Boleyn Girl.

Good thread! Agree with much that has been said, although I think Tom Holland makes a great Spiderman. He's supposed to be very young and geeky.

The 2015 BBC version of And then there were None is ^perfectly^ cast. Charles Dance as the judge is particularly brilliant and Aiden Turner too.

The adult Harry Potter lot mostly fitted the characters well (apart from Jim Broadbent, and Tonks didn't look right to me), but some should have played them 10-15 years earlier. I wouldn't have minded Sirius, Lupin and Snape being mid-late 30s rather than early 30s, but I think they were all in their 40s and 50s.

A PP mentioned Helen McCrory not seeming right for Narcissa; she was actually supposed to play Bellatrix, but had a baby.

Anne Hathaway in Ella Enchanted was completely wrong, although in fairness to her the film was so far away from the book I don't think I'd have liked anybody!

I agree with most of the older cast of HP. Snape, Harry’s parents and the marauders were all too old. Harry’s parents were only 21 when they died, part of what made it so tragic. So snape and the mauraders would have only been 32 in the first film and 38 in the final.

When Harry meets his parents in the forest using the resurrection stone at the end of the final book, they should have looked the same age as him, which would have made it all the more heartbreaking. Instead they looked as though they could actually have an 18 year old son.

Rickman, Oldman etc are fantastic actors but too old. And Gary Oldman looks far too groomed and suave! Sirius is supposed to be a good looking man completely gone to seed through years of starvation and neglect. He’s described as looking terrifying, with waist length matted hair and a haggard face. Instead he looks very groomed and handsome. He looks all wrong.

I feel sorry for the actress playing Ginny, she was given nothing to work with. In the books she is feisty, funny, smart and really cool. This didn’t come across in the films at all and she just spent the final 3 films mooning about saying nothing. That’s on the writers, not the actress. She was given no material to work with.

Yes Tilda Swinton would have been a good Dr Who for sure - playing Orlando on film was certainly good prep for the role through different eras and different sex for sure. Not that I like Dr Who at all or watched it, but Tilda would have added a whole new dimension

Antonio banderas as Armand in interview with a vampire.
Everyone in the twilight films, except Jacob.
Daniel Craig as Bond
Ben Affleck IS NOT BATMAN