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

Harrison Ford in Mosquito Coast - wrong and not even close to trying to portray the role.

Tom Hardy as Heathcliff was just wrong, Timothy Dalton did a better job.

I always thought John Hurt was terrible in 1984, but as I've got older and looked back I've changed my mind.

Kenneth Branagh as Poirot should be an actual crime.

@SallySycamore

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!

Tonks and Kingsley always felt miscast to me, and while I liked Kenneth Branagh's performance as Gilderoy Lockhart, I felt it would have been perfect to have him played by Hugh Grant playing more or less his character from Paddington 2.

I had no idea Helen McCrory should have been Bellatrix she'd have been great. I like Helena Bonham Carter, but I found her interpretation of the character deeply odd Belltrix is the scion of a wealthy, old wizarding family, described in the novels as rather dignified and stately-looking, so why the oddly Cockney accent, not to mention the mad spiral perm?

@Shodan

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.

Interesting. I've never read the books but love the tv show. I always assumed the casting must have been good. How is she described in the books?

@teezletangler

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.

Apparently Marisa Tomei was in the running for the Andi McDowell part in FWAAF and I think she would have been perfect!

To be fair to AM though I don't really know what went so wrong with it all, I agree she was totally miscast but she's so lovely and likeable in other things, especially Groundhog Day.

Having loved the John Rebus novels I always felt that John Hannah wasn’t right for the role. He just wasn’t what I imagined him to be like, I didn’t like Ken Stott as Rebus either. Nothing against them as actors, they are just not Rebus to me. Perhaps a Scottish version of Billy Campbell (who plays John Cardinal) would be closer.

Also Robert Carlyle as Begbie in Trainspotting was much too slight for the Begbie in my head. I think he is a fantastic actor and did a good job but just wasn’t the right fit for me.

Agree with Olivia Coleman in The Crown. The main problem was the previous actor who played The Queen in the first two series played her perfectly.

Gillian Anderson as Maggie Thatcher in The Crown. She was so brilliant in The Fall but a bit ott in The Crown.

Daniel Craig as Bond. Bond is supposed to be suave and sexy not big and muscly. The late few bond films are too violent and samey. Hoping the next Bond is Cillian Murphy

@goldielockdown2

Kenneth Branagh as Poirot should be an actual crime.

It is.

I always thought Christopher eccleston would have made a fabulous sirius black

Oh I quite liked Tom Cruise in an Interview with a Vampire. I don't think he did a bad job.

I watched Sleepers a few nights ago. Minnie Driver's accent in that was awful.

I am a huge George Clooney fan, but he really was an awful Batman.

And agree with the PP about Hunger Games and Peeta - I was so upset after the first film as it was such bad casting.

I find it so distracting when actors are clearly to old for the role. I watched Wild Rose the other night and Jessie Buckley as a 23 year old was already pushing it a bit, then they had 71 year old Julie Walters playing her mum! Even more unbelievable when they hinted at JW having been a young mum!

Yes, as Margaret Thatcher - Gillian was impersonating an impersonation of an impersonation - so several down the line from someone like Faith Brown who would have actually worked out some of the individual idiosyncrasies etc. It was very poor and more a comedic performance - the acting changed so little from scene to scene and played permanently as if in her dotage.

It is quite common for people to impersonate an impersonation rather than the person. Tony Blair was really quite difficult for anyone to impersonate as he was so bland and then (can't recall which it was)but either Bremner or Culshaw nailed a couple of things about Blair and then everyone since has basically done an impersonation of that impersonation since.

I think Jason Isaacs should have been cast as Asriel in HDM. James McAvoy just didn’t bring the right kind of charisma.

Helena Bonham Carter in just about anything, The Crown and Harry Potter are the first to spring to mind.

I actually think she’s rather brilliant, but she seems to default to a very OTT ‘Helena Bonham Carter version’ of characters. Her Bellatrix is genius, but it is most definitely not the Bellatrix of the books. Her Princess Margaret is also brilliant, but loses much of the understated humanity and complexity of the first 2 seasons and takes the role towards caricature.

I haven’t seen her in the theatre but always feel she’s probably better suited to stage.

Oh, and anything with Tom Cruise post 1986.

I remember Jessie Buckley attempting a Cockney accent on I'd Do Anything years ago, and guest judge Barbara Windsor not being terribly convinced.

Helena Bonham-Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen as the Thenardiers in Les Mis. You were obviously supposed to recognise them rather than their characters.

Robert Redford in The Horse Whisperer. Far too old. I was gutted because I loved that book so much, and Kristin Scott Thomas was perfectly cast.

I know it's been said but Keira in P&P - the woman can't NOT smirk and it makes the whole thing unwatchable.

I love D Radcliffe but his eyes are the wrong colour and in the first film he is the very picture of plump middle class healthy childhood, both in appearance and behaviour. About as far as you can get from the neglected boy who lives in a cupboard. That ruins the whole thing for me as the "contrast" isn't there between the skinny, grubby, unloved orphan and the celebrity - both good and bad - he experiences in the wizard world.

Not a film but a TV series;Caitriona Balfe as Claire in Outlander.It's a no from me.

I surprised myself by really liking Keira in P&P. I actually liked the whole film.

yes I know I'll show myself out now

Sean Connery as Ramirez in Highlander, but then the whole film is utter bonkersness.

Keira Knightly in Love Actually, too. She is far too young to be playing a bride and love interest of two men, it just doesn't scan.

She doesn't look too young though. I never gave it a thought till years later when someone on here commented.

Julie Walters was totally miscast as Molly Weasley, and whoever wrote the scripts also did her a massive disservice. I hated the way they made her nervous and uncertain when she confronts Bellatrix in the film. She was much more like Malcolm In The Middle’s mum in my head, i.e nothing gets past her, takes no shit and her family are (rightly!) terrified of her.