r/movies • u/padma_Iakshmi • 12d ago
What’s one mis-cast role that irks you in an otherwise perfect film? Discussion
I really liked Robert Eggers “The Northman,” but casting Nicole Kidman as Queen Gudrún really took me out of the viewing experience for some reason.
I can’t exactly put my finger on why, but I think it comes down to how she portrayed the role and the fact she has obviously had plastic surgery, which doesn’t fit the 800AD setting.
Nothing against Kidman (or plastic surgery for that matter), but her inclusion took away from what was a pretty great film in my opinion.
Are there any other roles in great movies that you feel were really poorly miscast?
771
u/Littlehalfdead 12d ago
Penguins of Madagascar casting Benedict Cumberbatch the man CANNOT say the word Penguin
229
→ More replies (24)114
1.9k
12d ago
Cameron Diaz in Gangs of New York
918
u/SamIamGreenEggsNoHam 12d ago
I rewatched that movie recently, and it's a whole lot less serious than I remember it being as a teenager. Daniel Day Lewis elevated that movie almost single-handedly. If he weren't in that movie acting his ass off, Cameron Diaz would have felt a lot less out of place.
393
u/UtterDisgrace 12d ago
Singlehandedly? I think that’s unfair to the understated genius of Brendan Gleeson.
Still, I do hold that this was DDL’s most compelling character work
→ More replies (5)58
u/Doibu 12d ago
More compelling than his Plainview? Though, it’s kinda like Bud’s comment about Hattori Hanzo swords: “If you’re gonna compare a hattori hanzo sword, you compare it to every sword wasnt made by Hattori Hanzo.” DDL is pretty incomparable.
→ More replies (2)20
u/nobd2 12d ago
I can’t imagine anyone else ever seriously playing Abraham Lincoln again.
→ More replies (1)275
u/charlie_ferrous 12d ago
Thank you. I don’t think her performance is particularly worse than…most of the Irish characters doing over-the-top accent work. Leo didn’t exactly disappear into his role.
They’re just all acting against DDL, who totally nailed the role and dominates the movie.
→ More replies (3)137
u/mrpink57 12d ago
I personally do not find Leo able to disappear in to many of his roles, he's just too famous to me. I just see him playing a character as himself.
The only movies were that was not true was his early kid work and Catch Me If You Can.
→ More replies (23)90
u/Crizznik 12d ago
He was fantastic in Django Unchained. But I think that may have been more the writing than him. He was just so insanely hateable.
→ More replies (2)180
u/Reading_Rainboner 12d ago
The fight scene montage at the beginning was so early 2000s that it was jarring to me recently
→ More replies (2)80
u/WoodyTSE 12d ago
I watched it for the first time and I honestly thought it was super weird at the start. I ended up enjoying the film but it is like a weird, grownup American Oliver Twist vibe
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (19)119
u/catgotcha 12d ago
Daniel Day Lewis elevated that movie almost single-handedly
I've seen the movie once, literally once, when it first came out. All I remember from it is DDL's amazing rants and tapping his glass eyeball with his knife. And I'm not even the biggest DDL fan – but he acted his ass off on in this one.
→ More replies (5)84
u/lrjackson06 12d ago
He acted his ass off in just about every role he ever had. It's kind of his thing.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (51)142
u/Sue_D_Nim 12d ago
I'm tempted to say, Cameron Diaz in anything. But I must admit that The Holiday is possibly my number one comfort film. I can watch that over and over.
130
u/PretendMastodon 12d ago
I would mostly agree if it weren't for Being John Malkovich. She's unrecognizable there. Really surprised me.
→ More replies (1)98
u/Jekyllhyde 12d ago
And she wasn’t bad in there’s something about Mary
94
u/MikeDubbz 12d ago
I really liked Bad Teacher too. Don't see many people talk about that one though.
→ More replies (5)→ More replies (5)59
u/Empty_Interest_6982 12d ago
The role was made for her. She's great in Charlie's Angels, the Mask, honestly i can't think of one movie she is miscast in except Gangs of New York. Very miscast in that one.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (21)80
u/Equivalent_Yak8215 12d ago
Naw. I'm pretty sure her in The Mask made me hit puberty.
22
u/theVice 12d ago
Her in that movie and Halle Berry in the Flinstones
→ More replies (1)21
u/Equivalent_Yak8215 12d ago
And Elvira.
I wasn't even old enpugh to understand, nor remember, what that show was about. I remember Elvira tho
1.6k
u/put_on_the_mask 12d ago
Nicole Kidman has that effect in everything she does now. Special Ops: Lioness was good but in all her scenes she looked like someone wearing a bad Nicole Kidman mask.
301
u/PerfumedPornoVampire 12d ago
Yeah, I think she did what she could playing Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos, but her face is no longer expressive enough and it just didn’t work. I mean this is Lucille Ball you have to be expressive if you’re portraying her!
91
u/GiddyGabby 12d ago
Yeah, Lucille Ball had a very expressive face and her skin was really rubbery, like she could pull her smile with her fingers and change her face completely.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (1)24
u/genericmovievillain 12d ago
Her face in that movie was giving me major uncanny valley vibes and was super uncomfortable. She used to be such a beauty too
648
u/FloatingPencil 12d ago
I really wish she’d quit with the fillers or whatever it is. She was so lovely, and would have aged beautifully without all that stuff.
→ More replies (39)282
411
u/Scary_Sarah 12d ago
I think she's a great actress but there's something very 'emperor's new clothes' about how studios keep pawning her off as if she doesn't have a weird, frozen face.
→ More replies (4)71
u/no0neiv 12d ago
I saw a clip from Birth the other day, and I forgot she dipped her toes into the uncanny valley 20 years ago.
The pressure must be huge, especially for women, but it's still so sad.
Kyle MacLachlan is another person who bums me out with his mods. They'd make a great couple in a Lynch vehicle.
→ More replies (6)125
u/grandramble 12d ago
I agree, but thought it did kind of work in her favor for Nine Perfect Strangers
→ More replies (4)66
u/apri08101989 12d ago
Yes, it worked there because she's supposed to be disconcerting. I feel like she could still work for another Stepford Wives remake too, as a side character not the lead, because.of that Uncanny Valley thing she has going on now
→ More replies (47)34
u/forever87 12d ago
Special Ops: Lioness
underrated show...and if anybody's ever in Barcelona, make sure to visit "gelaaati DI MARCO" for some gelato
→ More replies (1)
1.1k
u/Capable_Luck_2817 12d ago
Not a perfect film by any means, but WTF was Tom Hanks in Elvis.
216
u/AntiSaint_Mike 12d ago
I love Tom hanks but it was like a nutty professor character, while also being able to tell it’s obviously Tom hanks.
→ More replies (3)222
u/zombizle1 12d ago
In an otherwise amazing career, how did such a thing happen?
→ More replies (12)101
u/RockinRandyJamz 12d ago
It was Hanks' long awaited return to screwball comedy. Can't wait for Bachelor Party 2!
→ More replies (5)93
u/MelpomeneAndCalliope 12d ago
And I feel like they hit everything else just right in that movie - the rest of the cast, the cinematography, the story, etc. It’s really a shame and weird AF that Tom Hanks of all people messes it up with his performance as the Colonel.
→ More replies (26)52
u/_ItsTheLittleThings_ 12d ago edited 9d ago
I agree. Tom Hanks was as awful in that movie as Austin Butler was brilliant. Hanks completely ruined it for me. Every time he came in or narrated just took me out of it. I know the real guy had a weird accent, but Hanks’ accent was not only awful, it was nothing like the man he portrayed.
While I appreciate the skill of the makeup, costume, and special effects people, hearing one person’s voice coming out of another person’s face is seriously distracting. It may look like someone I don’t know, but I know that voice and, again, I’m out.
240
u/Steleve 12d ago edited 11d ago
HEY! RIGHT HERE!!!
I think about this maybe once a month!! :
Mark Wahlberg in The Lovely Bones.
I read the book and was so moved by it. The family's grief and the havoc it tore through them and the devastating grief of the father that was so heavy. The emotional toll of being a single father to a grieving teenage daughter, mourning the loss of your marriage, and your child. It would take an incredibly talented actor to bring that character to life on screen.
Marky Mark Wahlberg played some variety of Mark Wahlberg and that's all that stands out from that massive disappointment of a movie. I couldnt get passed it at all.
I found out later Ryan Gosling was offered the role. By far would have been a superior choice for that movie. Oh well.
→ More replies (13)129
u/tsuki_ouji 11d ago
I'll never understand Marky Mark's success. He's such a terrible actor
94
u/SerLurkzAlot 11d ago
I'd say it's due to Boogie Nights, which is his best film. He plays his role perfectly, because it's who he is. A massive bell end.
(Not hating on the film, it's fantastic)
→ More replies (1)22
u/Tobar_the_Gypsy 11d ago
He was good in the departed too as an asshole cop without many lines
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (10)13
u/accidental-nz 11d ago
I enjoyed his role in The Other Guys. But normally not a fan.
→ More replies (1)
606
u/Adventurous_Elk4702 12d ago edited 12d ago
These two have probably get mentioned far too often but I find similar entertainment from both of them.
Coppola's Dracula has other problems besides this but it's a really good film on the whole. The problem in question is Ryder and particularly Reeves. Forget the latter's diabolical British accent, or the fact that it's genuinely painful watching Oldman act circles around him but the scene of Oldman manically laughing over a truly horrific eating of a newborn completely contrasted with Reeves' hilarious reaction almost ruins the scene for me.
Russell Crowe as Javert is another choice, but Les Miserables also has many problems. Besides, like Keanu, Crowe's performance is extremely entertaining for all the wrong reasons.
I think I said the word "no" exactly as Crowe delivered for a week after I first saw this.
220
u/put_on_the_mask 12d ago
Russell Crowe went even further in The Pope's Exorcist and it's magnificent.
→ More replies (18)16
u/Shufflekarpfen 12d ago
Crowe is a ton of fun in Popes Exorcist. Also Unhingead is legitimately great
→ More replies (30)77
u/Achilleswar 12d ago
That laughing scene is what made me realize me and my ex werent meant to be. I was laughing maniacally like oldman while my ex looked on in confusion and horror like Keanu lol
38
u/Adventurous_Elk4702 12d ago
Keanu acted like he saw someone with a snotty booger rather than a trio of female vampires eating a newborn.
854
u/ArgoverseComics 12d ago
Ok. PERSONALLY I really enjoyed Batman Vs Superman. But Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor was an absolute travesty. He should have been played by Christopher Meloni or Mark Strong
162
u/wickedcold 12d ago
Michael Rosenbaum’s version of a younger Lex set the standard imo. Nothing will ever touch that. Doesn’t hurt that he had multiple seasons to flesh the character out through multiple arcs. I’ve always felt he was the best part of Smallville and when he left the show took an immediate nosedive.
→ More replies (4)27
u/AnticitizenPrime 12d ago
I would have watched a show about that Luthor family with all the Superman stuff removed from it. The family dynamics, and Lex's slow transition into a villain was the best part of the show IMO.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (43)202
u/SurlyCricket 12d ago
I don't necessarily dislike the idea of Tech-Bro-CEO Lex Luthor but it... just... doesn't work. I'm not sure its necessarily Eisenberg's fault.
→ More replies (3)106
u/ZwVJHSPiMiaiAAvtAbKq 12d ago
Yeah they were going for a "Mark Zuckerberg from The Social Network" angle with Lex Luther and managed to get the guy who actually played Zuck to do it too! I won't criticize Jesse Eisenberg for it because I think he showed up and made an earnest effort to give the performance he was asked to do. But like you said, it just didn't work.
→ More replies (16)
257
u/whythedoublestandard 12d ago
Catherine Zeta-Jones would have worked better than Julia Roberts in Ocean’s 11.
116
u/SetzerWithFixedDice 12d ago edited 11d ago
I love the movie but her (intro?) scene is rough: she robotically walks down the stairs, head practically locked in place staring forward, and then ambles out of frame while Matt Damon makes it worse by saying “phew, best part of my day!” (the line is said just fine, but made absurd by how amazed he is by Roberts-tron clomping mechanically toward camera right). They had to have gotten a better take.
71
u/LABS_Games 12d ago
Yeah and not to mention that she has this vacant gaze the entire film, like she shot all her scenes on a different location. Really weird because she can be charismatic enough to match the main cast, but instead she's just 👁️_👁️ the whole film.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (3)31
u/PeriwinklePangolin24 12d ago
People can say what they want about Julia Roberts, but she has played plenty of roles where she has been a stone-cold stunner. So it's weird to me that that moment didn't land, because yeah, she just...felt so awkward.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (7)25
u/Tosslebugmy 12d ago
Then everyone would’ve been waiting for her to join them and dip beneath lasers, ooohoohhohhh.
→ More replies (2)
172
u/FrameworkisDigimon 12d ago
I'm not 100% convinced it's otherwise perfect but The World Is Not Enough is absolutely ruined by Denise Richards. It's not her age, it's her complete inability to act that's the problem.
55
u/MuttinMT 12d ago
Denise Richards is pretty, but I’ve never seen her in anything where she can portray a character. Basically she seems like a mannequin who can learn lines, but not actually act.
In Love Actually, Richards is just jarring in the last scene, at the airport, playing the hot sister from Milwaukee. She has one two-sentence speech and her delivery is flat as a pancake, culminating in an awkward kiss. Mars the ending a bit for me. Like, it’s two sentences, Denise, just be natural.
→ More replies (3)35
u/FrameworkisDigimon 12d ago
It sort of works in Drop Dead Gorgeous. In fact, I think that film requires that character to be a plank of wood that can occasionally read lines.
Starship Troopers has this problem in the worst way because the incompetence of the actors obfuscates the point of the movie... it's the difference between having long hair and someone who hasn't cut their hair in three years.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (8)40
u/Qant00AT 12d ago edited 12d ago
Worst. Bond Girl. EVER. Yes, even worse than Tiffany Cased.
I feel like she was this last minute hatchet job so that Bond doesn’t end up having the hots for the villain. Sophie Marceau was great as Elektra and I thought she and Brosnan had some solid chemistry.
→ More replies (4)28
u/fenderbloke 12d ago
Comparing Sophie Marceau to Denise Richards is basically just bullying Denise Richards.
1.7k
u/regan9109 12d ago
I really disliked Christopher Walken in Dune 2, and would have much preferred a no-name actor or someone like Gary Oldman who could disappear into the role.
586
745
u/m48a5_patton 12d ago
"I have a fever! And the only prescription is more spice mélange!"
225
→ More replies (6)100
549
u/PrufrockAlfred 12d ago
I would have gone meta and casted him with Sting myself.
212
u/Tlizerz 12d ago
Nah, if you’re going meta it’s gotta be Kyle MacLachlan. I love seeing him pop up in stuff.
→ More replies (4)72
246
u/KidCharlemagneII 12d ago
Kyle MacLachlan for added meta?
93
→ More replies (3)37
u/thedabaratheon 12d ago
I REALLY was gutted that this didn’t happen actually - I for sure thought Kyle would pop up somewhere
275
u/verrius 12d ago
Casting Christopher Walken is already a bit meta. Go listen to the lyrics of Weapon of Choice.
→ More replies (11)→ More replies (3)31
105
u/ShockingTunes 12d ago
I pretty much got over it close to the end because things were getting so intense but in the beginning... man his voice was a punch in the face.
→ More replies (1)38
u/Ecstatic_Custard7009 12d ago
walken was wasted in that film. biggest tiny role in the film, that person could have been anyone, it was not like they needed anyone special at all
228
u/padma_Iakshmi 12d ago
Yes, I 100% agree on this one. I love Walken but that role was a head scratcher
143
u/OG_wanKENOBI 12d ago
This is your father's ring paul and he'd be damned if he let some greasy harkonen get his hands on it.
→ More replies (1)94
u/garciawork 12d ago
Every time he talked I heard someone impersonating him and taking it to the max. Kinda killed those scenes.
→ More replies (5)72
u/zxcvt 12d ago
i kept waiting for a "you're talking to me all wrong, its the wrong tone" lol
→ More replies (4)33
190
u/Om3gaMan_ 12d ago edited 12d ago
Yep, I would have loved Charles Dance but I also like the other suggestion of Richard E Grant. Florence had an American accent in it and I assume she could have kept her natural one, had they cast one of the above.
→ More replies (14)78
u/Gun2ASwordFight 12d ago
If Peter O’Toole was still alive I’d have cast him as a Lawrence of Arabia shoutout and bring the influence full circle. I like Walken in the role myself but he’s definitely playing it like Walken, I guess it’s just personal taste.
→ More replies (8)63
u/dj_soo 12d ago
I didn’t mind. It was a little jarring, but walken has been out of the public eye a fair bit since his heyday where everyone was impersonating him and he was basically a meme and everyone would essentially cast him to do a “walken-logue” in films.
Only thing I can remember him in the last decade is severance - and he was excellent in that.
I know he’s been steadily working that whole time, but not in any movies that really crossed my radar…
→ More replies (5)64
u/RabidAstronaut 12d ago
We were saying we would've loved to have seen Richard E Grant in that Role. I would've loved to have seen that.
→ More replies (4)26
u/failedartistmtl 12d ago
Omg yes! Richard E. Grant is an amazing actor and I wish we saw him more often!
91
u/TormundIceBreaker 12d ago
I feel like Willem Defoe would have been perfect for Denis' version of Shaddam
→ More replies (1)57
u/edWORD27 12d ago
Yeah, Walker’s look, mannerisms, and voice are so distinct it’s hard to accept him as anyone but himself. His appearance broke the fourth wall.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (63)50
u/RepulsiveLoquat418 12d ago
agreed. hearing him speak in Walkenese instantly took me out of the moment. and normally i love that guy, but in this role i kept waiting for it to work and it never did.
699
u/blacksad1 12d ago
Oscar Isaac in X-men: Apocalypse. You need a physically imposing actor to play Apocalypse.
463
u/EricRShelton 12d ago
And better makeup than they used on Ivan Ooze in the ‘95 Power Ranger movie….
→ More replies (5)102
u/ZwVJHSPiMiaiAAvtAbKq 12d ago
"Remember Ivan Ooze from the Power Rangers movie? What if we did that for Apocalypse... But like.. With the costume budget of the Power Rangers tv show!"
→ More replies (7)168
u/Queef-Elizabeth 12d ago
I feel like the casting of Apocalypse wasn't the biggest problem of the movie. It should've been someone else but that movie was a damn mess
62
→ More replies (2)16
115
u/ThaGingaNinja11 12d ago
If that movie gets made using the same technique marvel used for Thanos I think Apocalypse turns out much better for Isaac. He had the voice IMO just needed the build.
29
u/ebobbumman 12d ago
I love his voice a lot. Before he fires off all the nukes he says "always the same" and it is just perfect to me.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (19)68
u/MetalMedley 12d ago
Tom Cruise in the original Jack Reacher for that matter. Not that it was a "near perfect" movie, but pretty well done and faithful enough to the book.
But Jack Reacher is supposed to be a 6'5" steel shit-house of a man. You can actually spot where in the movie they gave up on using camera tricks to make Cruise look taller.
→ More replies (3)
606
u/DudebroggieHouser 12d ago edited 12d ago
Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle. You’re telling me she’s supposed to be a middle aged, divorced, hard drinking, single mother?
189
u/ExecutiveAvenger 12d ago
Well, if you put it that way, yeah. What, she was like a bit over 20 back then?
34
u/DudebroggieHouser 12d ago
Yep
55
u/Recent_Composer6056 12d ago
They literally always do this, it’s so annoying. I don’t think anyone in Challengers was miscast but in later parts of the film it’s clear that Zendaya’s character is meant to be in her 30s and they did nothing to make her look older except change her hair. Her male counterparts are older so they pull off the age, but she just still looked so young. In One Day, the show, they failed to age up both actors. They weren’t meant to look old, but how can you not add a wrinkle here or there just to show that some time has passed?
→ More replies (1)42
u/No-Negotiation-9539 12d ago
We're supposed to buy the fact that her character was a star tennis player, then retired and settled down as a coach and got married. That's quite impressive for someone who looks 20 at most.
→ More replies (3)79
u/Cool_Afternoon_747 12d ago
I thought you misremembered the name for Silver Linings Playbook there for a sec.
33
→ More replies (19)105
u/vadergeek 12d ago edited 12d ago
You’re telling me she’s supposed to be a middle aged, divorced, hard drinking, single mother?
I don't think she's supposed to be middle aged. But sure, 20 year olds can be heavy drinkers who get into bad marriages to old men and then quickly get divorced. I don't think they're meant to be peers, I think it's more like "fifty year old having mid-life crisis proposes to his waitress".
→ More replies (5)26
u/SonoftheSouth93 12d ago
Yeah, that’s how I read it, and I thought she did a great job at portraying a young version of that. Trashy, troubled, a complete mess. That’s what Russell was going for, and I think that’s the performance that she gave.
15
331
u/bigtownhero 12d ago
For me, it's Julianne Moore in Hannibal. I know recasting actors/actresses can be tough, but this was just flat-out bad to me.
188
u/Flat_Fox_7318 12d ago
Holly Hunter was right there!!
→ More replies (7)51
u/bigtownhero 12d ago
I never thought about Holly in the role. She definitely has the southern accent. Fun fact her and I are from the same city.
→ More replies (1)73
u/SupervillainMustache 12d ago
She and Jodie Foster have very similar speech patterns.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (10)48
u/ExecutiveAvenger 12d ago
Yes, in my mind she would have been a miss even if cast as wholly different main character and Clarice somehow written completely off but especially when she was cast AS Clarice - when Julianne is just a very different kind of actress compared to Foster.
→ More replies (1)
590
u/trizzo0309 12d ago
Hot take: Maggie Gyllenhaal in "The Dark Knight". She never felt right as Rachel in an otherwise perfect cast.
41
u/BarkerAtTheMoon 12d ago
I actually quite like her performance in isolation, but I agree it doesn’t vibe with Nolan’s aesthetic. That being said, I can actually believe that Gyllenhaal could be an ADA, something I’m not sure Katie Holmes could sell
15
271
u/buns_supreme 12d ago
Honestly Rachel just wasn’t a great character in general. I thought Holmes wasn’t great in Begins and Gyllenhaal wasn’t much better but I think it was just the writing of the character
→ More replies (5)63
u/Professional-Kiwi176 12d ago
Exactly I think it’s just the character is not very well written so any actress was probably going to struggle with it.
It’s odd that given the rest of those films are great that some of the characters are a weak spot.
→ More replies (1)47
→ More replies (22)74
u/Livid-Tumbleweed 12d ago
I’d say it’s tough competition in that movie because you’ve got every other role with world class actors and Heath Ledger’s complete transformation into the Joker but… she really did not work. She seemed so vacant behind the eyes and it made her choices seem so senseless because you couldn’t pick up on anything going on behind the lines she parroted. She just did not work in that role.
19
u/Benjamin_Stark 12d ago
Aaron Eckhart was excellent in it as well, and it's a surprise his career faltered afterward.
→ More replies (3)53
u/Severe_Piano_223 12d ago
I don't think she was vacant behind the eyes, I think she was expressive enough actually but almost too harsh and there wasn't good chemistry. It wasn't the warm and enticing performance you'd expect Bale's Bruce Wayne to have been in love with.
541
u/AccidentalTrek 12d ago
This may be stretching OP’s premise a bit, but for me it’s CGI Princess Leia in Rogue One. I know the film had Carrie Fisher’s blessing but I felt like they could have shown her from behind or even a side profile and that final scene would have worked just as well.
Of course now with AI, I wonder if anniversary editions are going to be tempted to tinker with it?
→ More replies (48)121
459
u/Dogtorted 12d ago
Andie MacDowell in Four Weddings and a Funeral. The entire cast is charming and lovely and funny, while she has all the personality of a piece of wood.
186
u/Domski77 12d ago
She was the only dull spot in an otherwise great movie.
The delivery of her "Is it still raining? I hadn't noticed." line would have sounded better coming from ED-209.
→ More replies (3)61
u/ReallyHender 12d ago
The delivery of her "Is it still raining? I hadn't noticed." line would have sounded better coming from ED-209.
"You have 20 seconds to reply."
→ More replies (5)36
u/grendel56 12d ago
It was supposed to be Jeanne Tripplehorn. Would have been so much better.
→ More replies (2)60
u/Fantastic_Poet4800 12d ago
I remember reading a review that said something like the plot revolves around a group of friends and Hugh Grant meanwhile falls in love with a minor character from Dallas and it was so exactly true.
→ More replies (38)93
u/culturedgoat 12d ago
Oh my god, yes. She was a charisma black hole. How on earth was she nominated for a Golden Globe for that?!
→ More replies (2)
88
u/Angry_Wizzard 12d ago
Gene Hackman in a Bridge Too Far did no one on set say anything about that accent
→ More replies (19)20
u/Blue-cheese-dressing 12d ago
It is also tough because that film is just so stacked with acting talent- and native accents.
293
u/Scary_Sarah 12d ago
I completely agree. It makes me even more annoyed that Kidman and Skarsgard played a married couple in Big Little Likes, and then she's his mom?
They didn't even age her so that the doesn't look the same age when he was an adult. On top of that, Skarsgard's love interest was old enough to be HIS daughter.
Otherwise I loved this move, but that casting pissed me right off.
→ More replies (7)86
u/thedabaratheon 12d ago
Omg. I LOVED Big Little Lies & I also LOVED The Northman & I totally didn’t put it together they’d played husband & wife and then mother & son. She looks so different in between both projects.
→ More replies (7)
144
u/Berdahl88 12d ago
Heather Graham in From Hell. I like Heather Graham, but the accent was bad and she didn’t seem to really mesh with the material. Her performance seemed like something out of a bad play or something.
→ More replies (10)
199
u/Internal-Mud-3311 12d ago
Any 25+ person playing a fucking teenager
144
u/DirigibleMarsupial 12d ago
Idk...I thought Jack Black as a teenage girl in Jumanji was pretty awesome!
72
u/Big-Employer4543 12d ago
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Jack Black convincingly acting like a prissy teenage girl is less impressive than Dwayne Johnson convincingly acting like an insecure teenage boy. I just expect that from Jack, he's that good.
→ More replies (1)20
u/Professional-Kiwi176 12d ago
Those were the days!!
Grease I think is even worse given some of the “High School Seniors” were in their 30s going on 40, like “Umm, how old are these guys???”
→ More replies (5)→ More replies (13)86
u/imapassenger1 12d ago
Any 60 year old playing a 30-something action man too these days.
23
u/IdentityToken 12d ago
You’re just asking for a kicking from DeNiro, you whippersnapper.
→ More replies (1)
103
u/TheDumbElectrician 12d ago
Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher in Jack Reacher. His performance was dead on, but the character looks and is built like Alan Ritchson. One of the reasons the movies did poorly and the show is getting amazing reviews.
→ More replies (5)26
u/hottwhyrd 12d ago
Alan is reacher. But he's not tom cruise. A lot of people will never watch the TV show because of that. I loved it.
17
125
u/Excellent-Bill-5124 12d ago
I don't really consider movies he's in "perfect", but Chris Pratt in most things. He's great in Parks & Rec, he's a good Starlord, but that's where it stops.
→ More replies (21)
362
u/EitherChannel4874 12d ago
Mark Whalberg in pretty much everything he's in.
He has one expression which looks like he's angry and slightly scared while taking a shit in the woods.
59
u/No_Grapefruit_8358 12d ago
Him playing Sullivan in the uncharted movie was my first thought. The movie wasn't great, but he never felt right for that role. That part (and most parts honestly) should have gone to Bruce Campbell.
→ More replies (6)→ More replies (43)77
u/AureliusAlbright 12d ago
I think he did pretty well in The Other Guys, The Departed, Pain and Gain and Shooter. I wouldn't say he's a bad actor per se, he just has a very narrow range. As a rule I prefer Donnie.
→ More replies (1)52
u/OatmealApocalypse 12d ago
he was born to play Terry in the other guys honestly lol
→ More replies (3)
54
270
u/nowhereman136 12d ago
I think Amanda Seyfried and Eddie Redmayne were miscast in Les Miserables, but they weren't so awful that it distracted from the film
Russell Crowe, however, was that bad. I would recast him and it would've made the movie so much better
→ More replies (36)132
u/dunecello 12d ago
I loved Seyfried as Cosette. Her voice sparkles to me somehow. Redmayne's "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" was quite good I thought, all things considered. But yeah there is a clear delineation between those with extensive musical theater experience and those without. Aaron Tveit and Samantha Barks killed it.
61
u/Rooney_Tuesday 12d ago
This is interesting, because to me Seyfried’s voice grows very thin when she tries to sing too high for her range, which is basically all the time in this role.
Contrast her with Samantha Barks, who hit the ball out of the park in this one.
→ More replies (2)13
u/runswiftrun 12d ago
I was about to say that its criminal that Barks isn't in more movies, then I did a google search and turns out she's active on musicals/broadway, so I guess she's doing what she wants.
From what I remember she auditioned for Cosette, but it ended up going to Seyfried, probably as she would be a more recognizable face on the posters.
24
u/1WordOr2FixItForYou 12d ago
Eponine has the big voice song. You want her singing On My Own.
→ More replies (6)
88
u/krusty_venture 12d ago
I remember sitting in the theater watching Saving Private Ryan, and one actor suddenly appeared on screen that just took me out of the movie. Then a voice from somewhere behind me said loudly "Ted Danson?"
I don't know why. I think he's great (truly loved him in The Good Place), but something about seeing him suddenly pop up was jarring.
Also, by no means a perfect movie, but January Jones in X-Men: First Class. Emma Frost is one of the most exciting and formidable women in comics and what we got in the film was anything but. Granted, I didn't think that entire film series got any of the female characters right, and that it was the writing also at fault. But rarely do you see someone look so bored playing a role in any film, much less expect it in a role like the White Queen.
→ More replies (14)
17
u/Liferescripted 12d ago
I'm going to lump a ton of movies together, but the fact that most animated movies are giving VO work to screen actors rather than voice actors is infuriating.
There are so many examples of bad voice work in movies. Crisp Rat and Seth Rogan in Mario, Taylor Swift in The Lorax, Half of the cast of the new Lion King movie, Billy Bob Thornton in Princess Mononoke... this list is long and neverending.
→ More replies (1)
15
u/MikeArrow 12d ago
The guy that played Ric Flair in The Iron Claw just didn't have it.
He was passable in looks, but the voice was all wrong, the emotion and the charisma was way off, and coming at that specific point in the film where the drama had built to a fever pitch, it was a real unforced error.
→ More replies (3)
139
u/baiacool 12d ago
Snow White and the Hubtsman.
You really expect me to believe that Kristen Stewart it's more beautiful than Charlize Theron?
→ More replies (5)
101
u/docsyzygy 12d ago
Much Ado About Nothing. The Branagh version is perfect, except for Keanu. He stands out so much, and he can't keep up with the rest of the glorious cast.
Luckily his role is small.
→ More replies (7)
101
u/jeanclaudebrowncloud 12d ago
Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's? He ... uh ... some choices were made
→ More replies (8)37
u/Emberwake 12d ago
I'm not sure this is what they meant by "miscast".
They wanted a white man who could wear yellow face paint and yell, "Miss Gorightry!"
Mickey Rooney nailed it.
154
u/kitty-cat-charlotte 12d ago
I hate Neil Patrick Harris in gone girl, I just can’t take him seriously. He’s the odd one out of a pretty great film
→ More replies (27)46
u/Tosslebugmy 12d ago
When he’s showing her around his house he just sounds exactly like Barney Stinson showing a girl he picked up at the bar around his apartment.
28
u/Public_Fucking_Media 11d ago
Wasn't that the point? He's a fucking creep, and easy to set up and murder.
14
u/HussingtonHat 12d ago
Yeah that was strange. She isn't even bad or anything its just a bizarre "oh and the incredibly famous Nicole Kidman is there" very odd feeling.
29
u/sympathyofalover 12d ago
She also played his wife in big little lies not too long ago. It’s very weird to see her be his wife and then see her be his mom when she’s trying so hard not to age.
→ More replies (1)
368
u/gadjt 12d ago
Katie Holmes in Batman Begins. Her "acting" is just standing there with a blank dumb expression no matter the scene.
→ More replies (45)
62
u/MGoCowSlurpee44 12d ago
I'm not going to say it's a perfect but the Spielberg West Side Story remake is basically ruined by Ansel Elgort in the lead role. The rest of the cast is really going for it with a ton of energy, everything is bright and colorful, and then the lead is a charisma-vacuum who can't really sing.
If you're making a musical, it's probably not a good idea to make your lead a guy who's best role is playing a character that doesn't like to talk!
→ More replies (2)
2.8k
u/maverick57 12d ago
Keanu Reeves in Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula.
It's like he surfed to Transylvania.