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Actors in roles that weren't all that convincing

277 replies

Blahbie · 12/10/2023 23:21

And this is not an actor/actress bashing thread, an actor can be hit and miss depending on role,dialogue and other factors. And it's ok to agree to disagree.

OP posts:
Mistressanne · 13/10/2023 07:44

Maureen Lipman in Educating Rita, woeful.
Keira Knightley in Love Actually looked out of her depth to me. Tbf though the love triangle felt slotted in and unnecessary to the film. She was perfect in Bend it like Beckham.

SecretVictoria · 13/10/2023 07:46

Nicholas Lyndhurst as Freddie the Frog in the OFAH prequel ‘Rock & Chips’. Just doesn’t convince as a hard-man gangster type.

I’ve read that the role of Emily in Friends was offered to Patsy Kensit but she turned it down as she didn’t want to be filming in the US. She was married to Liam Gallagher at the time and was apparently afraid he’d be unfaithful.

Lily James in the Mamma Mia prequel, as Donna is shown to be American in the original film. Cher was great fun but was said to be dead in the original.

AlecTrevelyan006 · 13/10/2023 07:56

minipie · 13/10/2023 00:31

Hugh Grant in About a Boy. Toni Collette and Nicholas Hoult were awesome and then there’s Hugh being… Hugh.

Hugh Grant has gone on record saying that the character he is most like in real life is the one he played in About a Boy.

spitefulandbadgrammar · 13/10/2023 07:59

Kate Winslet in The Holiday. Excruciating, I want to hide behind the sofa in embarrassment for her whenever it’s on

loseweightpleasegod · 13/10/2023 08:01

Kirsten Stewart Twighlight Saga

ErrolTheDragon · 13/10/2023 08:08

Hugh Grant has gone on record saying that the character he is most like in real life is the one he played in About a Boy.

I've somehow not seen that. I've always rather suspected the films with 'Hugh being Hugh' may well be him acting just as much as any others are - one of the earliest films I saw him in was An Awfully Big Adventure so I never made the mistake of thinking he was a one-trick floppy haired pony.

Squiblet · 13/10/2023 08:10

tigerbear · 13/10/2023 00:00

Renee Z in Bridget Jones. Should have been Kate Winslet’s part!

No, Sally Phillips!

My choice: Jennifer Ehle in the TV version of Pride & Prejudice. She really smirked her way through the role - got it all wrong.

MariaVT65 · 13/10/2023 08:15

Another vote for Kevin Costner in Robin Hood! Please at least an attempt at an accent 😂

I have to say I love Dick Van Dyke, I didn’t care about his cockney accent as a kid and I still don’t now 😁

Tortiemiaw · 13/10/2023 08:16

Emma Watson in Beauty and the Beast. Bloody awful. And you just knew she was probably really snotty and 'don't come near me' to the rest of the cast.

I can't abide her in anything!

Squiblet · 13/10/2023 08:16

minipie · 13/10/2023 00:11

Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love. Her neck does most of the acting as I recall. Cannot believe she won a blooming Oscar for it.

At least it matched her co-star's, Joseph Fineness. At the time we called it Giraffes in Love 😁

Mrsjayy · 13/10/2023 08:22

Mistressanne · 13/10/2023 07:44

Maureen Lipman in Educating Rita, woeful.
Keira Knightley in Love Actually looked out of her depth to me. Tbf though the love triangle felt slotted in and unnecessary to the film. She was perfect in Bend it like Beckham.

Kiera Knightly was a teenager in Love Actually wasn't she? so definitely out of her depth .

Martin Freeman playing an "agent "in Marvel films is just odd !

Cityzen74 · 13/10/2023 08:22

tigerbear · 13/10/2023 00:00

Renee Z in Bridget Jones. Should have been Kate Winslet’s part!

Yes I agree - I love Bridget Jones but I just don't think Renee is her. Kate Winslet would have been brilliant!

LookItsMeAgain · 13/10/2023 08:24

Fairyliz · 13/10/2023 06:19

Sean Bean in anything at all. He doesn’t actually act just plays himself.

One Million percent THIS!!! 👆

LookItsMeAgain · 13/10/2023 08:26

Kirsten Stewart in anything - even back when she was in Panic Room with Jodie Foster, she was in to her heavy breathing and an 'oh shit, I'm in trouble again' look.
When I talk about the heavy breathing, the final scene in Snow White & The Huntsman is a perfect example of this, but it happens in every single movie she is in.

JE17 · 13/10/2023 08:27

BravelyThroughTheDragonsEye · 12/10/2023 23:45

Nicholas Cage in Captain Corelli's Mandolin. It's a bad film in which everyone is bad, but he is especially bad.

I came here to say this too.

Mrsjayy · 13/10/2023 08:28

I don't think Kirsten Stewart is a great actor also see Robert Pattison imo they just got lucky.

Squiblet · 13/10/2023 08:31

Also, weirdly, Harrison Ford in any romantic role. He is so cool as an action hero, but I just couldn't buy into him at all in Working Girl, Regarding Henry, etc.

HippyChickMama · 13/10/2023 08:34

Tom Cruise in Rock of Ages, cringeworthy

Mrsjayy · 13/10/2023 08:34

HippyChickMama · 13/10/2023 08:34

Tom Cruise in Rock of Ages, cringeworthy

Oh god he's horrific!

muchalover · 13/10/2023 08:35

I agree about the modernising of Jane Austen. The newest Persuasion (my fav novel) is awfully miscast and directed. It's just Fleabag. There is none of the tension, constraint and suffocating society that makes it a good story. The women are all far too attractive and the men all kind of weird looking (Anne is supposed to be ordinary and lost her 'bloom' of youth to show that love can happen for plain women).

I shall need to rewatch the first one to reset myself. The middle one is poorly cast too with Sally Hawkins. Keira Knightly is poorly cast as the voluptuous but poor, sex on a stick character in P&P she is supposed to portray.

Casting is usually affected by flavour of the month which is why Emma Wooden Watson has jobs.

OrangesLemonsLimes · 13/10/2023 08:40

Speaking of Nicholas Lyndhurst, I’d say the second of his 1990s wives in Goodnight Sweetheart. The writing for the 1990s scenes had become slightly ridiculous and the actress was wooden. However, I did like this programme, and rewatched it recently on ITVX.

In the pilot of Cagney and Lacey, the role of Cagney was not played by Sharon Gless and the episode was inferior. I wonder whether the show would have had the global success it did, if Gless had not been brought in.

Emma Watson is one of those people who struck lucky with pretty modest talent. She’ll always be just “ok” in everything.

JesusMaryAndJosephAndTheWeeDon · 13/10/2023 08:44

Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher

Lovethatforyouhun · 13/10/2023 08:47

Jessica Chastain as Tammy Faye.

One dimensional, no inner life.

Awful prosthetics need their own thread.

bumtrumpet · 13/10/2023 08:47

AJ and Curtis Pritchard in Hollyoaks

LuisVitton · 13/10/2023 08:50

Hugh Grant was brill as Jeremy Thorpe on the TV prog. Inhibited toffs is his best role.