While passing time listening to a random podcast a casual comment jumped out at me, to wit “J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson is the greatest piece of casting in the history of cinema” (J.J.J. is the editor of The Daily Bugle newspaper in the Spider-man comics for those who don’t know).
Leaving aside the “..in the history of cinema” hyperbole*, this choice is not unfounded, as the same actor was chosen to play the same character even when a competing studio was making its own Spider-man film. The interlocutor shot back with his own suggestion, saying Shelley Duvall was surely born to play the character of Olive Oyl in the live action Popeye movie.
To celebrate the fact that this year’s Academy Awards will, for the first time, be handing out an Oscar for “Best Casting”, I thought it might be a liddle bidda fun for us to bash our heads together and come up with some BEST EVAH suggestions of our own.
And it would probably be even more fun to pick some of the worst.
As an aside, one of the things that always amuses me is hearing all the actors who were considered or who turned down iconic roles which are now associated entirely with the chump who got the job.
Most people will be aware of the gem of movie trivia that Frank Sinatra, past his 70th birthday, had first dibs on the character of John McClane in Die Hard, because he had played the same character in another movie (The Detective) decades earlier. But even after Frank passed on the challenge there were a lot of faces considered before they settled on TV’s Bruce Willis.
Kevin Smith tells a story about a dispute during a script re-draft he was doing on Die Hard 4 where, to back him up, Willis got on the phone to an interfering studio bod and said simply “Tell me, who is your SECOND choice to play John McClane?”
Impressive ballswinging, especially when you consider the Bonfire Of The Vanities hitmaker wasn’t originally the fourth or fifth choice for the first film.
Anyway, I digress. I want to know if you have candidates you wish to nominate for outstanding casting throughout cinema (and TV) history, either good or bad (with workings if possible, cos just a list is a bit boring) or anything else to add like Kevin Smith..
(*at least it wasn’t the more usual “greatest of all time” which always rankles, especially when used for something that’s not been around long e.g. “the greatest smartphone of all time”)
I’m shamelessly bumping my own thread -.>
You want a creepy, possibly homosexual henchman to steal the scenes in your long running movie franchise. Call Jazz musician Putter Smith.
The worst casting is Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher.
Amazon got the casting right with the Reacher TV series and Alan Ritchson is absolutely perfect in the role.
I can’t read The Great Gatsby without seeing Robert Redford. I think he was perfect for the role and ruined it for everyone else. Admittedly I haven’t seen the versions with Warner Baxter (1926), Alan Ladd (1949) or Toby Stephens (2000) but I can’t imagine anyone more suitable than Redford. I quite like the Baz Luhrmann film, in some ways better than the one with Redford (which was written by Francis Ford Coppola) except DiCaprio wasn’t Redford. Warren Beatty was the director’s first choice for Gatsby, Jack Nicholson the second, Marlon Brando the third and also Steve McQueen put himself forward for the part. Redford eventually got it, despite producer Robert Evans not wanting him due to his mistaken belief that in the book Gatsby had dark hair.
I don’t think of Stephen Fry as a great actor, but in Wilde he was perfectly cast and seemed born to play the part. Far more than Robert Morley, Peter Finch, Michael Gambon or Rupert Everett, I’d say.
I liked Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly, but I agree with Truman Capote that Marilyn Monroe would have been a better choice in terms of portraying the book’s character.
Most bizarre casting decision: Ian McKellen as Hamlet (2024).
Born to be Wilde, as he quipped on some chat show at the time.
Oh, and I love Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and her casting cannot be as bad as Mickey Rooney’s. I can see Monroe in the Role, but the film makes less of the novella’s suggestion that Holiday and the unnamed narrator (Paul in the film) are essentially a prostitute and a, probably gay, gigolo. The more chaste Hepburn was perfect for the script that was filmed.
I agree, Hepburn was perfect for the script that was filmed.
Another perfect casting of a great character in a novel that comes to mind is Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch.
At the other end of the spectrum, I have suggested in the past that the casting of Reg Varney in On the Buses was a mistake. He was in his mid-50s and yet there he was, living with his mum and having his hat knocked off and tie pulled askew by amorous 20 year old “clippies”. Robin Askwith, Hywell Bennett, Jim Dale or any number of youngish cheeky chappies of the era would have been far better I’d have thought.
I often think saying an actor is “miscast” is another way of saying their performance is terrible. Within reason a top actor can convince in almost any role.
Only up to a point, Shirley? The Cruiser/Jack Reacher example above seems a powerful refutation..
Well Cruise is not a great actor
I’m reminded of the old Peter Cook and Dudley Moore sketch: the reason you’re not the right man to play James Bond isn’t cos you can’t do the accent, it’s because “you are deficient in the leg department to the tune of one”..
it was Tarzan he was auditioning for …
Cook: Need I say with over much emphasis that it is in the leg division that you are deficient.
Moore: The leg division?
Cook: Yes, the leg division, Mr Spiggott. You are deficient in it to the tune of one. Your right leg, I like. I like your right leg. A lovely leg for the role. That’s what I said when I saw you come in. I said, “A lovely leg for the role.” I’ve got nothing against your right leg. The trouble is – neither have you.
Cook later said it was one of the best sketches he ever acted in, and he wrote it when he was only 17/18.
On a tangent, an old work colleague of mine, a hugely keen and frustrated amateur thespian, used to play a game of ‘Miscasting’ Very silly.
We topped it off and ended the game by casting Norman Wisdom as Saruman.
The casting of the Kemp brothers as the Kray brothers was very astute and extremely successful, in my opinion.
An interesting casting choice was Mackenzie Crook in The Office. Gervais and Merchant have said that when they wrote the character Gareth, they imagined a “John Goodman type” like in The Big Lebowski. Watching The Office with that in mind, it’s very easy to see why they thought of a Goodman type, but I think they made the right decision to go with Crook.
Mackenzie Crook was apparently first up for the role of Tim
(can’t see him as anyone other than Gareth now)
Robin Askwith was 3rd choice for the Confessions Films – Richard O’Sullivan and Dennis Waterman were (apparently) approached by declined the offer.
I think the kicker for Waterman – coming out of The Sweeney, and about to start Minder – wasn’t so much artistic, but maybe he wasn’t allowed to sing then theme toon.
Robin Askwith isn’t actually a terrible actor (maybe just some duff choices), but according to Stan Bowles (who he once shared a flat with), he found a level with the Confessions and stayed there
That chronology doesn’t work.
The Confessions films were early/mid 70s when Waterman was still involved with The Sweeney.
Minder didn’t start until 1979.
I think this observation underplays Askwith’s lengthy and extremely varied career on stage, screen and celluloid. His Wikipedia entry is a real eye-opener (anyone picture him in the title role of a Brecht play? Well, he did – in The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui).
I mainly remember him for his role as the lucky bastard boyfriend of the goddess Sally Geeson in Bless This House.
Soooo…
Robin Askwith – time for a reappraisal? 😉
Interesting idea for a thread.
Here’s a few successful casting choices off the top of my head:
Bogart as Rick Blaine – so much better than Ronald Reagan and George Raft, who, IIRC, were also in the running. Although dare I say that he was maybe a bit too old for the radiant Ingrid Bergman?
James Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, etc. – who could do a better job as Mr Everyman?
Morgan Freeman as God in Bruce Almighty – whatever your religious persuasion (or lack of it), I’m sure many people now imagine that their god sounds exactly like MF.
Zero Mostel as Max in The Producers – he nailed that sweaty/oily crook vibe, and nobody in the remake/stage versions has done it so well. See also Ron Moody as Fagin – whenever I see another one, I inevitably think “He’s good, but he’s not Ron Moody.”
Harrison Ford as Han Solo and Indiana Jones. Although I would have liked to hear Christopher Walken as Han – he apparently had an audition. “IT’S the. Ship. That made. THE KESSEL. Run in. Less. Than twelve! PARSECS!”
Bad casting choices are too numerous to mention, and usually down to producers signing up the star who’s hot at the moment without thinking whether they are actually right for the role. Also, practically any American cast as an Irish person who ends up doing an Oirish accent.
Brad Pitt was pretty good in Snatch..
So rumour has it…hurr!
Family thread!!
Wasn’t it also the case that Tom Selleck was the first choice for Indiana Jones, and only declined due to his contractual obligations on Magnum PI?
Casting directors, eh? Clueless at times.
Alan Rickman was a great actor.
But he was not well cast as Hilly Kristal in the film “CBGB” (2013).
True. Although whoever cast him as Snape in the Harry Potter films deserves a tip of the hat. As somebody who hadn’t read the books, I was incredibly moved by the end of Snape’s story, and a lot of that was down to Rickman’s range as an actor.
The Guardian recently ran some nice anniversary tributes to him from people who knew him well, and the majority mentioned his generosity. He would regularly pay for somebody’s meal or put a friend up in a swanky hotel, and if they protested about the expense, he would wave away their offer to pay and say something like, ” Don’t worry about it. ‘Harry Potter’ is paying.”
A class act.
Actually, thinking about that film “CBGB,” there was another bit of dodgy casting.
Cheetah Chrome, lead guitarist of New York’s Dead Boys, was played by Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley out of the Harry Potter films). Yikes!
Christopher Reeve.
Well said. No-one else in the role has come close. I recall someone online saying that the first time Reeve’s Clark Kent takes off his glasses, you basically see Superman appear out of nowhere – and all he’s done is take off his glasses.
The fact that I don’t even need to mention which performance speaks volumes. 👌
It’s two roles in one, he completely nails both and every subsequent version of the character has been deep in his shadow. Legend
I was going to make the same nomination so I’ll add Adam West to the list. I’m fairly sure the comics at the time were published before he was cast.
The miscasting of Mike the Cool Person in The Young Ones was covered in Alexei Sayle’s book and everyone seems to agree that he was a weak character and miscast.
I’m not so sure. I really can’t imagine him being played by anyone else. It was probably good that Chris Ryan wasn’t a budding stand-up comedian because he played it straight, taking direction and delivering the lines. The end result was that he was this uniquely weird presence in the group – much older than the others, a completely unconvincing bullshitter and with no authority or charm. No back story or context is offered. But he was in the group and was largely respected by the others, rather than ridiculed or attacked. I think this kind of phenomenon does occur in real life. The weird mate.
I think Ben Elton would have spent the whole time mugging to the camera.
It was supposed to be Peter Richardson wasn’t it..? I can imagine that quite easily, the way he plays Mr. Lovebucket in Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door is basically it. Although not the New Romantic look.
Yes I believe that’s right. I think he’d have been competitive- so the Mike we ended up with was perfect.
Tis true. The real story is unclear. Either a falling out with Paul Jackson (most likely) or busy with Channel 4/Comic Strip business.
Ben Elton has spent his entire career miscast as a comedian.
Thanguverymuch laysungenmun, my name’s Boneshaker. Good NIGHT!!!!
Knob joke, fart joke, little bit of politics, Mrs Thatch.
Give him some due (and his autobiography does seem to confirm this) he knows he was a bit full-on lefty, and laughed at himself doing Benny Elton (the Benny Hill pastiche) on Harry Enfields Television Progamme
He’s got something of an Australian accent these days after living there for decades. I was never convinced by his stand-up, but enjoyed his writing for sitcoms. Read one of his novels and thought it was terrible, and he seemed to abandon his “left wing” politics and contrived working class position to write the Queen musical “We Will Rock You”
Wasn’t it also the case that Tom Selleck was the first choice for Indiana Jones, and only declined due to his contractual obligations on Magnum PI?
Casting directors, eh? Clueless at times.
Oops! Wrong thread!
Actually Ben Elton was first choice for Indiana Jones, but he refused and they had to go with the inferior Harrison Ford. Somehow it was still a success ….
“Ooh, little bit of archaeology there”.
John Candy and Steve Martin in Planes, Trains and Automobiles – they would be pretty irreplaceable, wouldn’t they? Almost classic roles for those two.
John Candy in anything is great casting. He lights up average films.
Did a great turn in “Uncle Buck”.
Great movie!
If a sign of great casting is that the character and the actor in the public eye become merged then the two that stand out are Leonard Nimoy as Spock and Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator. Let’s not forget we had a killer robot from the future in a Hollywood movie….with a thick Austrian accent
Mr Fuzzy as Lassie. None of the later animals had his sheer charisma and his signature “look quizzically at camera” move has never been equalled.
Not even by Martin Freeman in The Offìce?
The human version would be the Harry Hill “TV Burp” side-eye.
Mystifying miscasting in an otherwise fine movie:
Pete Postlethwaite as Kobayashi in “The Usual Suspects”.
A whole host of other actors were considered for the role of Del Boy Trotter (including Jim Broadbent), but David Jason – 40 at the time it started – brought it to life brilliantly. I cannot believe any other actor could’ve done it as well as he did.
In terms of miscasting, Christoph Waltz as Blofeld was dire beyond belief – he was about as effective as an aspirin canoe. He delivered a classic paycheque performance and looked vaguely embarrassed to be there. Mind you, I didn’t like Daniel Craig as Bond, so others may disagree.
I think Steve Martin in Roxanne is brilliant casting. He brings a sense of grace and movement to the film that is almost balletic. And, being Steve Martin, he is very funny as well. Falling out of the tree, climbing up the house – so beautifully done.
Back in the 70s Sean Connery was totally miscast as a Saudi Arabian sheikh. The film was atrocious and he shpoke in hish ushual voish throughout.
I’ve just looked it up, it was called The Next Man.
The Nexsht Man, shurely?
Yesh, you’re absholutely right. Shorry.
In answer to the O.P, the entire cast of This is Spinal Tap.
None more great.
Everyone was perfect in The Wizard of Oz. Especially Toto.
We’re they appearing at a popup Festival just outside the City?
No – they were on the bill, but caught in the rain in Africa
I thought they missed that.
The good. Ben Gazarra.
The Bad. Steven Seagal.
The Ugly. Klaus Kinski.
Basil Rathbone IS Sherlock Holmes
Wilfred Brambell IS Albert Steptoe (and Harry H Corbett, ‘Arold)
Jack Nicholson IS Randall McMurphy
Tom Cruise is nobody. Utterly unconvincing. Just an actorbot. No wonder Hollywood is thinking AI these days.
I like this game.
Disagree.
While Cruise is by no means a great actor (rather a movie star – the two are different things), he was perfectly cast in 1989’s Rain Man.
There’s an ongoing argument* that Cruise was robbed of the best supporting actor Oscar that year, amidst a relatively weak field. Hoffman, of course, took Best Actor, but if you watch the movie, it’s really Cruise doing all the heavy lifting.
*Not by me – Kevin Kline won the category for his superb turn in A Fish Called Wanda, and very little in life beats Kevin Kline in that movie as far as I’m concerned.
Jeremy Brett is Sherlock Holmes!
Disagree. Basil Rathbone is Sherlock Holmes. Those cheekbones, the coldness in his eyes, the calm measured authority in his voice.
@Hamlet is right.
William Hooker Gillette (July 24, 1853 – April 29, 1937 is Sherlock Holmes.
I’m much more invested in the idea that Nigel Bruce is the most accurate Doctor Watson. Even those who enjoy the Rathbone/ Bruce movies can get annoyed by Bruce’s clowning, but I like to think that, because the cases are written in the first person by Watson, it is amusing to believe that he was in reality an absolute buffoon who happens to be quite a sober writer and capable, retrospectively, of making sense of Holmes’ work.
When Hugh Laurie’s tv show House began it was described as Holmes if he had to solve perplexing medical cases.
There’s a new show called Watson, in which a contemporary American Watson – recently deprived of his Holmes, has to solve perplexing medical conundrums – effectively a remake of House!
As Holmes was based by ACD on Dr Joseph Bell who he studied under in Edinburgh who used methods of deduction and observation to diagnose the illnesses of his patients, and to disclose their background before he had assessed them suitably.
It’s quite circular.
Oh yes. Good point, well made. The BBC show Murder Rooms was a good take on this, elevated by Ian Richardson as Dr Bell. I’d rewatch this before I’d watch any more of Watson..
Cruise is underrated as an actor, particularly as his focus on franchises seems to have taken prominence over his wide and interesting range of roles in the 80s and early 90s in particular.
The Colour Of Money, Born On The 4th Of July, Rain Man, A Few Good Men, all demonstrate a pretty versatile talent. And even his ‘movie star’ roles in the Top Gun and Mission Impossible series are not easy to repeat over time with the same levels of intensity and conviction as he does. So fair play to the much-maligned weirdo.
I’ve got a lot of time for him. He’s a multiple Oscar nominee and still a major movie star 40-plus years since he started. Fair dos to him.
But what really won me over to his corner, apart from his actual films, was hearing a podcast interview where he came across as quite humble and unassuming, and passionate about movies of every kind to an impressive degree. He is winningly obsessed with the movies – being in them, making them, and watching them.
And by all accounts he’s a decent sort on set, apparently working closely with all the crew and making sure they get whatever they need to do their job.
He was good in a few movies I will grant him. I think he knows his range is limited though, and he decided to head for the easy money at some point
He does seem to treat the crew etc well as long as they don’t waste his valuable time, but his weird cultish scientology beliefs and sometimes bizarre behaviour, put me right off him.
That’s me told. I’ll get my coat.
Magnolia and the wonderful Jerry Maguire too. You know for sure* that if he’s in it then at least it won’t be a turkey.
*The last MI movie was a hot mess, mainly I think due to a desperate attempt to retrofit all the plot arcs in the franchise into one neat bundle. Honourable fail.
I agree about the last MI movie, which ended up being a bit too complex for its own good, but the stunts with the biplanes were astonishing. Even if Cruise did nothing else in his life, he should have a hearty handshake for those scenes.
It’s one of those films that makes me think “How did nobody die when they were making this?” See also the John Wick movies and the brilliantly OTT Ballerina.
I have always regarded Nicol Williamson as Merlin in the otherwise perfectly cast Excalibur as the worst clanger of casting. He’s somewhere between panto and a pisstake of classical Shakespearean acting.
I was also hugely disappointed with the casting of the otherwise wonderful Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox. Panto scale BIG acting was required and he was really flat.
As for great casting, I think the Commitments takes some beating as an ensemble. All really credible in their roles.
Also Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry was iconic.
On TV, Ardal O’Hanlon was just perfect as Father Dougal.
A very good ensemble cast in “Father Ted”.
Ditto in “Blackadder”, once it got into it’s stride with better scripts.
“Black Books” too.
Much like Spinal Tap, the casting for Father Ted’s occasional characters was also exceptional e.g.:
Bishop Brennan
Father Stone
John & Mary
Father Dick Byrne & Damo
Godawful casting – Anne Hathaway as Emma in One Day (the film)
Brilliant casting: Rafe Spall as Emma’s husband Ian
The Emma character (when I read the book) was either Catherine Parkinson (most likely) or Helena Bonham-Carter (at a push).
And this is why I don’t get the job of casting director …
Ah, my take on Emma was someone a bit more rough around the edges, someone who was both bolshy and vulnerable, idealistic but cynical.
The Harris Hawk in Hamnet.
Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious in Sid & Nancy was a triumph – but the actor playing Johnny was a definite miscast.
Gary Oldman in most things is a triumph …
re: Sid & Nancy, the whole choice for the Pistols was pretty wrong
(especially Paul Cook, who later turned up in You Rang M’Lord)
A whole rollcall of miscasting can be seen in the dreadful Bowie ‘biopic’ Stardust
Speaking of rock biopics, Remi Malek is far too distinctive-looking to play Freddie Mercury (it was Freddie’s teeth that bulged, not his eyes). Sacha Baron Cohen was suggested, and would have been perfect, but they took so long making what turned out to be a pretty awful film that he was too old by the time the cameras rolled.
The casting director deserved an Oscar for The Big Lebowski.
Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Sam Elliott, David Thewlis, Ben Gazzara – and Flea!
David Huddleston as the other Big Lebowski was also perfect. But he nearly wasn’t. From Wikipedia:
“Before David Huddleston was cast as “Big” Jeffrey Lebowski, the Coens considered numerous actors for the role: Robert Duvall (who did not like the script), Anthony Hopkins (who was not interested in playing an American), Gene Hackman (who was taking a break from acting at the time), Jack Nicholson (who was not interested, he only wanted to portray Moses), Tommy Lee Jones (who was considered “too young”), Ned Beatty, Michael Caine, Bruce Dern, James Coburn, Charles Durning, Jackie Cooper, Fred Ward, Richard Mulligan, Rod Steiger, Peter Boyle, Lloyd Bridges, Paul Dooley, Pat Hingle, Jonathan Winters, Norman Mailer, George C. Scott, Jerry Falwell, Gore Vidal, Andy Griffith, William F. Buckley, and Ernest Borgnine. The Coens’ top choice was Marlon Brando.”
Anybody think any one on that list would have done a better job?
Thats just, like, your opinion, man.
David Huddleston really tied the movie together.
Apparently the leading roles in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” were written with Mick Jagger and David Bowie in mind.
It was only due to the fact that their schedules couldn’t work with the filming that they were replaced by Steve Martin and Michael Caine. *
*I heard this fact on a Danny Baker radio show
Jaws. Every single role in Jaws in perfectly cast.
Except for the shark
And Michael Caine.
Tim Curry as Frank N’ Furter. Especially for when he turns to the camera and goes “It’s not easy having a good time”.
And let us not forget his unique delivery of “Antici……………pation.”
He has always been a memorable performer who seems to give everything to a role – see his work under what looks like a tonne of prosthetics in Legend, and him holding everything together in Clue.
I read a lot about him recently as he was promoting his autobiography. He comes across as a really decent sort who has lived life to the full and been dealt a really bad hand with a debilitating stroke (during a simple massage, IIRC). Good luck to him.
I remember him being brilliant in a 1970s BBC Play for Today where he was a sleazy pop radio DJ. I think his character was called Johnny Brazil.
And he was good in Rock Follies.
And excellent in Twin Peaks, of course.
The definitive Pennywise as well
102 comments – does this mean I’ve got some Frey Bentos and Corsair Chicken on the way? I’ve never come within a mile of getting a hamper before..
When you cook a Frey Bentos pie, you need to be sure that “the heat is on!”
Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate is spot on (the story of Robert Redford being first choice is very well-known).
Michael Plain is always a delight, including in Small Prophets, but he is playing a 90 year old World War Two veteran when he is obviously younger than that.
The film is pretty faithful to the book, but the casting did need one change, albeit an off screen detail. In the book Benjamin is an American football star in college, something that no one would mistake Hoffman for, so he was made a track and field athlete instead. Also, while he is great isn’t he rather old to be a college graduate?
The one that springs to mind is William Shatner in Boston Legal. It’s a role you just can’t see anyone else pulling off and he is quite superb. James Spader must get a nod here too. A great double act.
Good choice, and a very good series. I was never a fan of our heroes breaking the fourth wall, but overall it was really entertaining and the finale was exactly how it should have ended.
Spader doesn’t get enough credit. While WS was obviously the big draw and the big character, Spader kept everything from getting too silly, and there was a bit of darkness or edge in his performance that worked very well when Denny was off shooting a client or whatever.
The only problem now is that every time I see Shatner in something, I almost expect him to say, “Denny Crane!”
There’s a bit of darkness and/or edge to everything that James Spader does…