To ask for your worst TV and movie castings

[LydiaBennetsUglyBonnet]

For me it’s Alan Rickman (who I absolutely love in everything else) as Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility. He came across so unbelievably creepy and repulsive and not the gallant kind soul he is in the book.

Leonardo in Titanic
Totally miscast.
A child to KW's woman.

Interesting, as I thought the casting was one of the better things about it to be honest! (Sadly the same can't be said about the plot).

This was on purpose because Titanic was such a massive hit and Leo became ultra famous overnight. Before Titanic he was mainly in artistic, indie films. So he (and his people, the PR team) decided to lay low for a while, otherwise audiences would have got bored of him from too much Leo exposure.

Bad- Russell Crowe as Noah. Ray Winstone as Tubal-Cain in Noah. It was as if 2 rival East End gang bosses had taken up am dram and been cast in a Biblical epic, Grant and Phil Mitchell would have been better casting. The film was dire generally (and Emma Watson was in it)

Good-Liam Neeson is Schindler's List, Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth also.

Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury. Freddie had such presence which Rami lacked - and he didn't have Freddie's height.

Came on just to say this 😂

Dakota Johnson in Persuasion. The film is awful anyway but she makes Anne look like a Mean Girl and a Girl Boss.

Also she’s too pretty for the part. I actually dislike most castings of classic novels actually. Anyone who looks like they know what a text message is shouldn’t be cast in period dramas.

Bonnie wright as Ginny Weasley in Harry Potter

Jared Leto in pretty much everything.

Dude is a terrible actor and from what I’ve read about him is a bit gross as a human being too.

Agree. He was praised for his portrayal of Freddy but all the time I was thinking that he looks more like Mick Jagger.

Gal Gadot as Linnet Ridgeway in Death on the Nile. Beautiful though she is, she doesn't pass for 20 (I think she was 35 when it was filmed) , and her age is integral to the plot.

She is supposed to have gone to school with Emma Mackey, who was a great cast as Jackie.

Andie McDowell was terrible in FWAAF but I still love her in anything! And to be fair, her role wasn’t exactly very well developed or scripted.

Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese in Terminator Genesis. Like Kyle Reese is supposed to be this brave future war hero sure he’s just a regular every man grunt. He’s not this muscle dude with a quick quip. It was just all wrong.

Cameron a Diaz in Gangs of New York - her attempt at an Irish accent alone is like nails on a chalk board. Gah. Awful.

The full cast of the most recent The Crown. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every series but this one is just dreadful.

Oh and Nicolas Cage as Captain Corelli. He ruined that movie.

He’s part Italian but can’t do an Italian accent for a start!

Put him in an action movie or let him play a drunk and he’s perfectly fine. Have him play an Italian soldier and no, it just doesn’t work.

I didn’t like some of the cast in S4 of the Crown. I hated Gillian Anderson as Thatcher. She spoke like she was biting her cheeks and performed like she was in a live Spitting Image sketch. She was dreadful.

She made a terrible Eleanor Roosevelt in First Lady too. She was all teeth and nothing else. Viola Davis as Michelle Obama was worse though. Sucking in her cheeks and pouting. First Lady could’ve been so awesome but it was appalling.

I have never got over this.

I hated Gillian Anderson as Thatcher. She spoke like she was biting her cheeks and performed like she was in a live Spitting Image sketch. She was dreadful

omg no I thought she nailed the part

Agreed. She was like some weird slo-mo parody. It was actually her acting in it that made me stop watching. Likewise The Fall. Loved her in her brown coats in the X Files, but ever since- bizarre over-acting.

Disagree about Ruth Wilson as Jane Eyre. I thought she was fantastic in that role, one of the best I've seen.

Cate Blanchett is beautiful, talented and has an incredible portfolio of work to her name. But I thought she was wrong for Galadriel.

Strange about Gillian Anderson. She played two roles previously acted by Diana Rigg, and next to Rigg's huge gravitas as an actress anyone would look pedestrian. As Lady Dedlock in 'Bleak House' she didn't work for me: Rigg's performance was so stellar I couldn't imagine any other actress in that role. But as Danvers, she held her own pretty well in an otherwise lousy adaptation. Rigg, of course, was also brilliant.

Agree about Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma. Doesn't work.

Andie McDowell: 'comes a point when you're so wet you can't get any wetter'. You said it, And ...

Unsurprised to hear people weren't impressed with Knightly's Elizabeth, but I also wasn't keen on Judi Dench as Catherine de Bourg. Barbara Leigh Hunt did a far better job!

People likely won't agree with this, but Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle. Too wooden, atrocious cockney accent and couldn't sing. Julie Andrews with her charisma, vitality and incredible singing would have nailed that role so much better.

Atonement, I'm not so sure. Both the film and the book and both are such complex, layered narratives: hard to translate onto screen. Cecelia and Robbie are a bit Constance and Mellors, and I've never particularly liked D H Lawrence. On the other hand, James McAvoy's in it and as far as I'm concerned he can do no wrong.

PS: @LydiaBennetsUglyBonnet thanks for some brilliant threads chewing the fat over literary/film characters. I've loved them!

BloodandFire, good call, I had forgotten my utter rage over the casting of Sandra Dickinson as Trillian. Ruined it.

Agree with Kevin Costner's dire, humourless Robin Hood. And John Malkovich is OK in Dangerous Liaisons but IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALAN RICKMAN.

Ellen Page in Inception.

All the cast of Mrs Brown's Boys, well in fact there was casting for the disgrace.

I felt despite her best efforts, Emma Thompson was not right for The Remains of the Day.

Have to disagree on the Leonardo DiCaprio hate, because he’s brilliant.

Emily Blunt was good in The Girl on the Train but they really ruined it by not setting it in Britain (see also High Fidelity) and it should have been someone more unassuming, like Shirley Henderson.

Renee Zellweger was fine as Bridget Jones but they should really have cast Jessica Hynes (or Stevenson as she would have been then) but no, she only got Magda.

Wrong casting for me includes Kiera Knightley in P&P (her constant weird chin thrust annoys me in the way Kristen Stewart’s does and she just doesn’t look like Elizabeth in my mind), Kristen Stewart in On the Road, Jean Seberg in Bonjour Tristesse, Daniel Craig in Knives Out/Glass Onion (McConaughey would have nailed that, Texas is easy to adapt to Louisiana) and as fabulous as Jeremy Allen White was in The Bear, I wanted him to be Jake Johnson. Mostly because there should be more Jake Johnson in the world.

Also, Andrew Garfield was the best Spider-Man.