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BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared
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Subject: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 24 Aug 02 - 05:40 PM Everyone has their unfavorite movies where an actor or actress was grossly miscast... miscast so horribly that the memory burns itself into your retina forever. My nominations for worst miscasting are John Wayne as the Centurion and Pat Boone as the angel Gabriel in The Greatest Story Ever Told. Charlton Heston was pretty unconvincing as a Mexican in the great movie Touch Of Evil.
Any candidates? Of course you can envision our friend Willie Boy Shatner in ANY roll and scare yourself silly..:-) Jerry |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: catspaw49 Date: 24 Aug 02 - 05:49 PM Hi Jerry........Plenty of options but I'll hold by mine on this previous thread of the same topic.....Check this one too And for those not using previous threads because they feel them to be "stifling to current conversation"................. Did anyone see "Teahouse of the August Moon?" It's a cute book and a very funny play by John Patrick about the occupation of Okinawa after WWII and the problems had by a Captain in trying to make a village conform to "American" planning and rules. The narrator is also a character that has a major part but also speaks to the audience. He's the Okinawan interpreter for the Captain and never quite gets it right....a very good role. The movie version cast Marlon Brando in the role of Sakini, the interpreter. Marlon Brando? As a small Japanese guy? Surprisingly, he does okay, but it's one of the worst miscasts of all time...........I mean it wasn't like there were no Japanese actors available. The movie also starred Glenn Ford as the Captain and in true Glenn Ford fashion, his performance was worse than awful which made Brando look somewhat better. This play used to be popular in community and HS/college productions and at least once that I know of, there was a far worse miscast than Brando. This actor was 6 foot tall and weighed about 215 at the time and even with make-up bore no resemblance to anyone oriental...............Me!!! Well, you know how it is when you go all out to get the best part and the drama teacher likes you and all.....................gawd, I was awful. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 24 Aug 02 - 05:56 PM Never Mind.....:-) That's what comes from being fairly new to the Cat. But, I'm glad to see that you posted to this, Spaw. Folks have been wondering where you are. I guess you weren't out selling your contaminated body parts after all, as someone suggested...:-)
I'm going back to read the other thread. And yes, Brando was terribly miscast. I always thought that when it came to expressing anger by clenching your teeth and shaking your jowls, Glen Ford had no peer. Jerry |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: C-flat Date: 24 Aug 02 - 06:01 PM Not so long back I watched a Woody Allen movie(Emmet Ray) starring Sean Penn as a jazz guitarist. It wasn't so much the acting that was at fault, Sean Penn can be fairly watchable, but the guitar miming was so bad as to be distracting! At one point I thought he was going to blow into it! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Clinton Hammond Date: 24 Aug 02 - 06:02 PM We were || this close to having Nick Cage cast as Superman... and man oh man would THAT have sucked or what!?! Kevin Costner as Robin Hood... that movie was so wrong on SOO many levels... Roger Moore as James Bond... Every actor who's EVER played Batman! Just to name a few...
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: GUEST,Fred Miller Date: 24 Aug 02 - 06:06 PM It's silly, but Daryl Hannah as Morticia? Nobody could replace Caroline Jones, but why not that Lilith actress from Cheers? Martin Sheen in Apoc. Now. I think it was Pauline Kael who pointed out that Meryl Streep was making a career of being miscast--she could sing country western note perfect but you don't believe a note of it. Worst feared--Juliet Binoche made such a counterintuitive but brilliant choice for the woman in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, smiling and laughing as a woman for whom life was "heavy"--worst would be Streep in that role. Or if Nick Nolte had got the part as Han Solo. Robin Williams setting out to prove again that every profession is about being a comedian.
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: The Walrus Date: 24 Aug 02 - 06:37 PM In another thread I've mentioned Ryan O'Niell as Barry Lyndon, not only was unconvincing as an 18th Century Irishman, he was a bloody aweful actor in the film (quite spoiled it for me). Glenn Close didn't work in Dangerous Liasons either (at least as far as I'm concerned), visually she just didn't come across as an ancient regime French aristocrat. As for future casting, there was a rumour that Sean Bean was to have been cast as Rudolf Rassendyll in a remake of "The Prisoner of Zenda", unfortunately, IIRC Rassendyll was an early Victorian English gentleman of old family, not a Sheffield "rough" which seems to be Bean's main character (whatever the role)[1], I think the citizens of Ruritania might have noticed. Walrus [1] Take your pick, they all look/sound the same. In that respect, he's a bit like John Wayne |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: GUEST,Fred Miller Date: 24 Aug 02 - 06:58 PM C-Flat, same feeling about Sean Penn, my wife asked me if he learned to play guitar for the part, I said he didn't even learn to look like he was playing guitar.
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Gareth Date: 24 Aug 02 - 07:08 PM Errol Flynn - "Objective Burma! or as the cartoonist said "Excuse Me Mr Flynn - I think you are sitting om some graves". Gareth |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: DonMeixner Date: 24 Aug 02 - 07:15 PM John Wayne As Genghis Khan Britney Spears (And I thought Errol Flynn was fine in objective Burma) But waht do I know, I liked "WaterWorld"
Don |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Gareth Date: 24 Aug 02 - 07:21 PM Actually the casting of Errol Flynn was ok - a crap actor in a crap film. Gareth |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Amergin Date: 24 Aug 02 - 07:24 PM mel gibson as a scotsman.... miles o'keefe as anything.....
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: DonMeixner Date: 24 Aug 02 - 07:27 PM Oh Gareth. Next thing you'll say is Bob Dylan was good in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. And he writes a heck of a song too. :-) Don |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 24 Aug 02 - 08:03 PM I love James Cagney, but as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream??????????????????????????? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: GUEST Date: 24 Aug 02 - 08:30 PM I thought Mickey Ronney played Puck. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: DonMeixner Date: 24 Aug 02 - 08:31 PM James Cagney was Bottom, Micky Rooney was Puck, |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: DonMeixner Date: 24 Aug 02 - 08:39 PM And Victor Jory was Oberon, filmed in 1935. The credits say the story is by Sam Goldwyn ( I think) based on a play by William Shakespeare. Don |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Sorcha Date: 24 Aug 02 - 09:04 PM Sean Penn as Hamlet............shudder. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: GUEST,Fred Miller Date: 24 Aug 02 - 09:15 PM Michael Douglas as something besides an asshole. Pat Garret and Billy the Kid--watch the hats. There were continuity problems because Bob Dylan kept wanting different hats. "But I woulda had time to chaaange my hat" Dylan kept arguing. They pared it down, but you still get the impression "Alias" must've dragged a bunch of hats around everywhere. I want Benicio Del Torro to play me. Who do you want? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Amergin Date: 24 Aug 02 - 09:15 PM bob dylan as a musician.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: NicoleC Date: 24 Aug 02 - 10:55 PM Walrus, I though Glenn Close was perfect in "Dangerous Liasons," whereas John Malkovich just isn't good looking enough to make him a believable Valmont. But Annette Bening in "Valmont" was an awful choice... she's just not good enough at being mean. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: GUEST,Fountainfox Date: 24 Aug 02 - 11:16 PM Heard or read a few years back that someone in a position to bring it off was going to cast Sylvester Stallone as Jesus Christ; don't know why it fell through if, indeed, this was on the level. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Jimmy C Date: 25 Aug 02 - 12:13 AM Edward. G. Robinson in The Ten Commandments. He is an okay actor as a hood or detective, but as a jew with an american accent - awful. There should be another commandment" Thou shalt not miscast ".. I agree with others, John Wayne as Gengid Khan was the pits. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Genie Date: 25 Aug 02 - 01:03 AM How about Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus in "The Bible?" Elizabeth Taylor as "Cleopatra." In the 1950's movie "David and Bathsheba," the actor playing King Saul was about 5' 6" (or so it seemed) and quite chubby. Saul, according to the Biblical account, stood "head and shoulders above" the men in his army. Also, when the 1950s movie version of "The Brothers Karamazov" was filmed, utimately starring Maria Schell as Grushenka, Marilyn Monroe desperately wanted the part and, I understand, was seriously considered for it. I'm told also that Ronald Reagan was the first choice of the studio to play Rick in "Casablanca." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Genie Date: 25 Aug 02 - 01:18 AM a few more: How about Natalie Wood as the Puerto Rican Maria in "West Side Story?" Didn't Rock Hudson play an Apache in "Taza, Son Of Cochise," or some other of those old 1950s/early 60s movies about the cowboys and the Indians? Not really miscasting, but in the film "Carmen Jones," the studio, in their brilliance, chose to dub the voices of Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge with some operatic sounding voices, instead of using their own fine voices. Not only was the dubbing totally unnecessary, but the voices didn't fit the actors (or the feeling of the script) and it was done very badly, to boot. Almost every actress who has ever been cast in a movie version of "Jane Eyre" has been too pretty to really do the role of the "plain" heroine convincingly.
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: bob jr Date: 25 Aug 02 - 01:58 AM how about the father son team of yul bryner (ok he wasnt bad) and tony curtis(always terrible) in the cossack classic "tarus bulba" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Genie Date: 25 Aug 02 - 02:56 AM Actually, Tony wasn't too bad in "The Boston Strangler." Then there was the medieval-set film where Tony delivered the famous line "Yonder lies my foddah's castle," (or something like that, in perfect Brooklyn accent), and the film "The Viking" where he played Kirk Douglas's brother Einar. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: ard mhacha Date: 25 Aug 02 - 07:09 AM And Van Morrison as a murderer of folk songs. Ard Mhacha. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: John MacKenzie Date: 25 Aug 02 - 08:09 AM Omar Sharif and Julie Andrews, in The Tamarind Tree. They are like poached eggs and, syrup. i.e. His eyes and her acting. Is there a hole I can be sick in?.....Giok |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Rick Fielding Date: 25 Aug 02 - 08:52 AM Genie, that was "Da Black Shield of Falworth" that you're referring to. I saw a second time a few years ago, and you know...maybe we were a bit hard on Tony....Yes, he DID speak like a Knight from Brooklyn, but he was nowhere near as bad as Richard Burton doing an American Southerner. The ALL TIME WORST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR (outside of porn films) has to be DELORES TAYLOR in th BILLY JACK movies. Seriously if anyone has seen her, you'll know what I mean. I have no idea what Tom Laughlin, her husband (and Billy Jack) was thinking. Perhaps her family were rich, and financed the series of films....or maybe EVERYONE took drugs in the sixties, and she didn't seem so bad then. Rick |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: DonMeixner Date: 25 Aug 02 - 08:56 AM Rick, Did you ever notice that among the other supporting actors in The Black Shield of Falworth is Clint Eastwood and Hamilton Camp? Don |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Morticia Date: 25 Aug 02 - 09:00 AM The whole cast of Brigadoon ( the musical)...I still need therapy to get over that one. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 25 Aug 02 - 09:01 AM And Rick, speaking of girlfriend nepotism, think of all the Clint Eastwood movies where the romantic "interest" was Sandra Locke. I thought that she was passable in The Heat Is A Lonely Hunter (one of my very favorite books that was made into a pretty good movie, because of a FOLK SINGER, Alan Arkin.) But, other than the Clint Eastwood movies, Sandra pretty much of a non-career. A potential leading lady for William Shatner? :-) Once Clint moved on, I don't remember her ever being in another movie... Jerry |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 25 Aug 02 - 09:02 AM Woops! The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter... Jerry |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Allan Dennehy Date: 25 Aug 02 - 09:03 AM Tom Cruise in "Far and away" nearly made me puke. And I only saw 2 minutes of it............... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: The Walrus Date: 25 Aug 02 - 09:20 AM Nichole,
Re: Glenn Close in Dangerous Liasons I'd forgotten John Wayne as Gengis Kahn - AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHH!!!!! Walrus
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: The Walrus Date: 25 Aug 02 - 09:23 AM One quick question Has anyone else ever noticed that in film of "West Side Story", the male lead runs through Spanish Harlem shouting "Maria" and only ONE woman looks out? W |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Peter T. Date: 25 Aug 02 - 11:07 AM Just saw "Captain Blood" the other night for the first time, and I was surprised how good Errol Flynn was when he was young, before he got mannered. As I have said before, Mia Farrow as Daisy Buchanan in the Great Gatsby is my low. Robert deNiro as the Frankenstein monster in Branagh's Frankenstein was pretty close. I am told that Nicole Kidman (wearing a prosthetic nose) is coming this Christmas as Virginia Woolf in "The Hours". This could be a new one for the list. On the other hand there are some recent films with unerring casting -- Harry Potter seems to me to be just about perfect, even though I personally retch at the thought of Richard Harris. yours, Peter T. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: alanabit Date: 25 Aug 02 - 11:14 AM Why has nobody mentioned Dick van Dyke in "Mary Poppins"? The fake Cockney accent still hurts my teeth. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Mudlark Date: 25 Aug 02 - 02:23 PM Great thread! I nominate Nicolas Cage in Corelli's Mandolin...a wonderful book, but Cage made the movie totally unbelievable to me. Also, Branagh playing Woody Allen--cant remember the name of the movie, Allen directed, and tried to turn Branagh into Allen, with disastrous results. Branagh must wince every time he thinks of that role! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Genie Date: 25 Aug 02 - 02:36 PM LOL, Walrus! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Allan Dennehy Date: 25 Aug 02 - 04:34 PM Is Corellis Mandolin film as bad as they say? Haven't seen it but loved the book. Didn't see the film because of the reviews. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: GUEST,Chris B (Born Again Scouser) Date: 25 Aug 02 - 05:20 PM Nicholas Cage as an Italian Army officer? Not one of his action roles then... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 25 Aug 02 - 08:31 PM And, speaking of West Side story, how about Richard Beymer? Not exactly a career-making role. Ever see him in another movie? With Beymer, I don't think it was miscasting. I just don't think that he could act in any role. Thank God for the dance routines and them Porto Ricans. Rita Morena and George Chakiris made the movie. Jerry |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Genie Date: 25 Aug 02 - 08:56 PM Yeah, Jerry, I did see Beymer in another movie, one that came out before West Side Story. It was a Disney movie starring Hal Stalmaster (?), Luanna Patten, and Richard Beymer, called "Johnny Tremaine." It was about some young people involved in the "Sons Of Liberty," and the American colonies' fight for independence. He didn't have the title role, but played Johnny's buddy, so it wasn't really a miscasting, but his performance wasn't especially memorable. (The only reason I even remember the film is that I was young and had not seen all that many movies by that time in my life.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Genie Date: 25 Aug 02 - 09:00 PM And, Jerry, I agree about Rita Moreno and George Chakiris "making" West Side Story. (I don't know that Russ Tamblyn was all that convincing as a street hood, now that I think about it.) But, while Rita is Hispanic, George, I think, is of Greek heritage, isn't he? Genie |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 25 Aug 02 - 09:52 PM Yes Genie, I think Chakiris is Greek. Not that he had much of a career after West Side Story... not for a lack of talent. The movies that Beymer did after West Side Story were: Black Belt, Cross Country, Free Grass, The Longest Day, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Better Watch Out!, The Stripper, Twin Peaks '90 and Under Investigation. A little thin for a Lifetime Achievement Award. :-) Jerry |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Mudlark Date: 25 Aug 02 - 10:48 PM Allen: Save your money and buy another great book, Possession (by A.S. Byatt), which is now being made into a movie, which I find hard to credit.
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Ian Darby Date: 25 Aug 02 - 11:19 PM alanabit You beat me to it Bob Hoskins said he'd have given anything for the part. My nomination is for Ralph Maccio in 'Crossroads' I love the film, but he just doesn't hold the guitar like someone who actually plays one. Creeping just a bit, I love the line in 'Robin Hood Prince of Thieves' where Kevin Costner, arriving at the cliffs of Dover (200 miles away) says "Tonight we dine with my father in Sherwood." What was he on? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: bob jr Date: 25 Aug 02 - 11:26 PM i forgot about the movie "che" which is bad to begin with omar shariff in the title role...but jack palance (!!!) steals the show as castro |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Hrothgar Date: 26 Aug 02 - 04:59 AM Mick Jagger as Ned Kelly. You don't have to believe me, but try. It did happen! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: The Walrus Date: 26 Aug 02 - 06:28 AM Hrothgar, "...Mick Jagger as Ned Kelly..." The main problem that film was that Mick didn't spend enough of the film with his head in that bucket. Walrus |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Kim C Date: 26 Aug 02 - 10:58 AM Reba McEntire as Annie Oakley in Buffalo Girls. That's all I'm going to say as I will not subject you all to my treatise/rant on this particular role. Burt Lancaster in Valdez is Coming. Julia Ormond in First Knight. WAY too young, for King Arthur or Lancelot!
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: GUEST,Just Amy Date: 26 Aug 02 - 12:48 PM Some corrections. Nicholas Cage is Italian. His real last name is Coppola. Yes, that family. He changed it so they wouldn't cry nepotism, but his first film had him listed as Coppola. He was most miscast in "Valley Girl" and I thought he was the worst in "Peggy Sue got married." I couldn't understand why she liked him let alone married him. Sondra (with an O not an A) Locke has been producing and directing which is why you haven't seen her acting (which is good since she is a horrible actress). |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: alanabit Date: 26 Aug 02 - 01:43 PM Ian, I guess if our Kevin was in time for supper with his Dad that night, he must have been on the Inter City from King's Cross... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: katlaughing Date: 26 Aug 02 - 02:24 PM George Clooney in OBWAT...it was a tough transition for his ER fans to accept him as an exaggerated buffoon and we know he didn't sing it! Come to think of it, I don't think he's made any good movies...one of those who should probably stick to television. My daughter and I liked Corelli's Mandolin, BUT we were being sentimental...we liked the fact that it was loosely based on a true story. We did think Cage was miscast...there was obviously no way he was capable of playing and his attempt at an accent really sucked, but there was enough charm there, as well as a bit of history we didn't know about, to keep us watching. Of course, we hadn't read the book, either. Usually I find the book is always better than whatever movie they try to make of one. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Kim C Date: 26 Aug 02 - 03:06 PM I believe there's no H in Nicolas Cage. :-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: GUEST,Fred Miller Date: 26 Aug 02 - 04:03 PM Richard Gere in the Cotton Club as someone who can't act was an example of what G.B. Shaw called "stereoscopic realism." Redford as a military man in The Last Castle, or anywhere else. I was afraid when I heard Holly Hunter would play an Australian in The Piano, then found out the character was mute. Whew. She managed a few lines in voice-over--they must've digitally removed the accent. Robert Blake as a killer in In Cold Blood--um, nevermind. The cookie monster as Yoda. Hmgggmm? Jeremy Irons as Humbert Humbert--he tried not to do it, saying he'd done the European Weirdo enough. Good instinct. Should've tried Malkovitch, his style. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: alanabit Date: 26 Aug 02 - 04:15 PM I usually prefer the book too Kat. To be fair though, books and films do different things. For a start, you spend far less time with the film, so there is less time to get the ideas across. Lord of the Rings was already a long film, so it is difficult to see how they could have made time to get in the part of Tom Bombardil.... But I'm thread drifting too. I thought David Niven (a passable screen actor) was seriously miscast as Sergeant Miller in "The Guns of Navarone". It's also worth noting that in the book, that character was an American. I guess we were at least spared the ordeal of Niven attempting an American accent... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Kim C Date: 26 Aug 02 - 05:52 PM Fred, if there's one thing on this Earth I can't stand, it's Holly Hunter's little mouse-squeak voice. Although, she was very good in Raising Arizona. And about The Piano... I've said this before, and I'll say it again. If we have to see a completely naked man in the movies, why in the SAM HILL does it have to be HARVEY KEITEL????! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: GUEST,Pete Date: 26 Aug 02 - 06:32 PM Whatever Kevin Costner was on it enabled him to walk from Dover to Nottingham via Hadrians Wall. I could do with some of that. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 26 Aug 02 - 06:50 PM How About Robert Redford in Out Of Africa. Could someone explain to me how it won an Oscar for Best Picture? There must have been intense lobbying by the popcorn syndicate.:-) What a waste of money.. it would have been wiser to turn all that film stock into Frisbies. At least they would have flown. Jerry |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: beachcomber Date: 26 Aug 02 - 06:55 PM One of my all-time miscastings would be Fred Astaire and that rediculous "brogue" that he adopted for "Finian's Rainbow" but then it was a musical I suppose. That reminds me that none of 'youse lousers' ever gave me the full lyrics for "Look to the rainbow" the song from that musical?????????????????. I've asked n' asked to no avail(The chords too please) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Dave the Gnome Date: 26 Aug 02 - 07:40 PM A few Mudcat miscasts Catspaw as the softly spoken lover... Gargoyle as a diplomat... Dave the Gnome as the hero... Any more??? Cheers DtG |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Genie Date: 26 Aug 02 - 10:33 PM How about 95% of US actors and actresses who have ever been cast as "southerners?" They pretty much all sound like Foghorn Leghorn. The few real "southerners" are exceptions--except sometimes they's from Nawth Caholahna and they's cast ez Tay-yux-uns. Genie §;-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: katlaughing Date: 26 Aug 02 - 10:47 PM I think Karenspaw might have a different view of that, DtG! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: DonMeixner Date: 26 Aug 02 - 11:06 PM Gee Kat, Look at Clooney in Three Kings, The Peace Maker and The Perfect Storm, great, probably not but certainly pretty OK. Kim, I thought Burt Lancaster was fine as Roberto Valdez. But I prefered him in The Flame and The Arrow, The Crinson Pirate, His Majesty O' Keefe, and The Train. Come on people, suspend disbelief! It's only entertainment, loosen up and have fun and escape for 2 hours. Don |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 26 Aug 02 - 11:35 PM And I thought that Clooney was hilarious, and charming in Oh, Brother. But then, I loved the movie (and the music.) Jerry |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Hrothgar Date: 27 Aug 02 - 05:20 AM I thought Clooney really fitted the part of someone convicted for practising law without a licence. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: GUEST,Fred Miller Date: 27 Aug 02 - 09:29 AM Genie, Robert Duval once urged southern actors to take arms against those who tried to play them. My father once told me about a movie he'd seen where someone played an inarticulate mountain man, and was absolutely believable. I said was it Robert Duval? Turned out it was, Tomorrow, based on the Faulkner story. Kim C, you're so funny. I love Holly Hunter, but don't think she can get around the accent. The reason we have to see Harvey Kietel naked is a contract he has with our government, like the one that Depardeau has wherein he must appear in every French movie. Keitel plays Houdini in a movie called Fairy Tale--and isn't naked. (I saw Long Riders again, Dennis Quaid as Dennis Quaid as Ed Miller. He seemed more like some other actor playing him playing the character.) The urban kids in Larry Clark's Kids were individually believable, but not in groups. Very odd, all comfortable, tribal. Chloe Sevigny as a woman who gets a social disease the first time she has sex, in Kids, also in Last Days of Disco, and somewhere else, I've heard. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Kim C Date: 27 Aug 02 - 10:02 AM You're right, Fred, Holly Hunter is one of the few real Southerners in the movies! It isn't the accent that bothers me, it's just the sound of her voice. Maybe it vibrates on a frequency my eardrums find irritating, I don't know. Julia Roberts is from Georgia, but you wouldn't know it. Genie, we have a state senator here in Tennessee, who is a Real Southerner, and my nickname for him is Senator Leghorn. He really does talk that way! And he's not the only one. Most of us, though, sound more like the actress who played Ainsley on West Wing. She's real, too. :-) The thing is, there's more than one Southern accent. Some are more immediately identifiable than others. And some actors have an ear for accents, while others don't. Something I still think is funny, is that English accents are still used in movies about non-English-speaking Europeans. I know, it supposedly comes from the early actors being trained in Shakespeare or something like that, but it still makes me snicker. Don, I liked Valdez is Coming, it was just hard for me to get around Burt Lancasters white-ness. And of course my favorite line is "You tell them.... Valdesssssss isss cominkk..." 'Course, back then, white men played Indians too. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Dave the Gnome Date: 27 Aug 02 - 10:20 AM Just spotted this gem on my MSN homepage hollywood gossip link... Has his recent brush with the Mob made Steven Seagal lose his marbles? The actor, who normally stars in cheesy action flicks where he can attempt to lend credibility to his regular boasts of genuine martial prowess, has been touting two unlikely projects around Hollywood. One is what Seagal hopes will be a magnificent bio-epic about Mongolian marauder Genghis Khan (played by Seagal, natch), which Seagal hopes to persuade someone like Ang Lee to direct. Don't get your hopes up, Stevie. The other is a biopic of 1960s guitar god Jimi Hendrix. Great idea – nobody's done it before, he's a fascinating mixture of astounding creativity and wanton self-destruction and the soundtrack's a sure-fire bestseller. There is one problem, however. Slicked back, pony-tailed, white, 51-year-old Seagal wants to play the shock-headed, LSD-soaked-bandanna-wearing, black, 28-year-old rocker himself! Lay off the crack, Steven! I would love to see it myself. "Purple Haze is in my brain" Smash, bang, wallop:-) Cheers DtG |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Kim C Date: 27 Aug 02 - 01:15 PM I heard today that Michael Jackson is taking acting lessons because he wants to play Edgar Allan Poe in a movie. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 27 Aug 02 - 01:22 PM I heard the same thing, Kim. I wonder if he'll moon walk?:-) Jerry |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: alanabit Date: 27 Aug 02 - 04:13 PM Sure. If he goes to the moon and stays there he'll make a lot of people happy. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: GUEST,Fred Miller Date: 27 Aug 02 - 05:44 PM I want to write a Poe-like story in which Michael Jackson wants to play Poe in a movie. Dan, I also find Steven Seagal entertaining. Someone described his concoction of mysticism and blue-collar sentiment: He's the mysterious presence at the backyard barbeque. Some comedian used to do a bit about Tony Danza cast in The Godfather. Everytime I think Hey, I'm out, they pull me back, y'know, in. I mean, c'mon!
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Ian Darby Date: 27 Aug 02 - 08:31 PM alanabit/guest pete Whatever Kevin was on he can't have been using the woolly jumpered toothy balloonist/condom merchants train service. It cost me a hundred and forty quid for a day return from Wigan to London in February. What would that have been worth to the Sherriff of Nottingham in old money? (It didn't go by Hadrian's Wall either.) While we're at it, what about Brad Pitt in 'Snatch' I thought he did a great job though I only understood a few words. Dave the Gnome, Thanks pal, I'll probably have to sleep with the light on for the next few weeks. What next, David Carradine as Eric Clapton? (cut to misty flashback of milky eyed Shaolin Slaphead monk...) "Your top E is out of tune Grasshopper, consider the sound of the fork upon the plate." Can't wait to see Chris Rock in the 'Buddy Holly Story.'
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 27 Aug 02 - 10:53 PM Back in the 50's when I was living in Wisconsin and the Milwaukee Braves were in their prime, someone started a rumor that Eddie Matthews was going to play Tarzan in a new movie. When he came to bat, he'd be greeted with the Tarzan call... Ahhheeeyahhh! Apparently Eddie was sense of humor deprived, because it really got to him...:-)
Actually, not a bad casting choice, come to think of it. :-) Jerry |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Genie Date: 28 Aug 02 - 12:52 AM Well, had she not been under contract to another studio, Shirley Temple would have been cast as Dorothy in "The Wizard Of Oz." It's hard to imagine that movie being the classic it is with Shirley Temple in that role. Worse than that, had Judy Garland not been "Dorothy," the world might never have had "Over The Rainbow" to embrace. Even with Judy singing it, L.B. Mayer and others tried to "kill" the song (thinking it made the movie drag and was not a very singable tune); I'm told they did several releases of the movie with that song cut out. If it had been Shirley Temple singing it in her little-girl cutie-pie way, instead of Judy's soulful rendition, I doubt that this wonderful song would have survived. Genie |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Ian Darby Date: 28 Aug 02 - 07:02 AM That was a close one, somehow being a 'friend of Shirleys' doesn't have quite the same ring to it.. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 28 Aug 02 - 08:56 AM And then, of course, Buddy Ebsen was signed to be the Scarecrow and actually filmed part of the movie before he was replaced by Ray Bolger. I wonder who was originally cast to play the Wicked Witch? Mae West? Jerry |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Peg Date: 28 Aug 02 - 11:29 AM wow, interesting thread. Being a film critic has its disadvantages, I have seen too many movies. Briefly: I hated John Malkovich in Dangerous Liaisons (he looked ridiculous in the period clothing, too bow-legged for those trousers), but loved Annette Bening in Valmont. Go figure. I liked her added vulnerability and thought she did mean just fine... re: Jane Eyre, my favorite version is the one with Susannah York and George C. Scott; she does carry off the "plain Jane" thing pretty well. Nice music in this version, too. I did not like the one with William Hurt and Charlotte Gainsbourg; she was fine but her French accent was really problematic. Hurt was very good if a bit too handsome. Nic Cage just might be starring in the remake of The Wicker Man...generally speaking I think he is extremely overrated. I did like him in Birdy, Racing with the Moon, Wild at Heart, and Moonstruck, however. Kevin Costner. Terrible actor. re: Larry Clark's Kids, most of the "actors" in it were not really actors. Harmony Korine, who wrote the script, and is now a filmmaker in his own right, tends to do this, but does use some real actors from time to time, including Chloe Sevigny (his girlfriend) in Gummo and in julien donkey-boy with Ewan Bremner. Angelica Huston seems miscast in almost everything except maybe Ever After. She is always GOOD (loved her in The Addams Family) but her looks and mannerisms are unusual and off-putting if she is not cast well. And if I never have to see Harvey Keitel's naked ass again I will die a happy woman. Jane Campion must be stopped from casting him and allowing his naked ass to be shown in her films.
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Kim C Date: 28 Aug 02 - 11:51 AM Y'know, in an odd way, I liked Dangerous Liaisons. I thought Glenn Close's hatchet face, and Malkovich's innate weirdness, added a lot to those two characters. But that's just me. Mister and I rented Shadow of the Vampire awhile back - talk about a strange, quirky little movie! It's a fictional account of the filming of "Nosferatu" back in the 20s. John Malkovich plays the weird (of course) director, and Willem Dafoe plays the actor who plays the vampire, who turns out to be a real vampire. Now, I'm just a lay person when it comes to movies, but I have to say, Willem Dafoe in this role is one of the single most brilliant pieces of acting I have ever seen, anywhere. He is creepy and fascinating and disgusting and oddly funny all at the same time. Here's one being filmed now that gives me serious willies: Cold Mountain is being filmed in Romania, with Jude Law in the role of Inman. Let's see... they went to Romania to film a movie about Civil War North Carolina, and cast an English actor in the lead. Why on earth am I skeptical? Can't wait to see what his Southern accent sounds like. Peg, has Harvey's naked ass been in other movies?!!!?! There ought to be a law. Actually, I like Harvey. I really do. I get so tired of all these pretty boy actors, I really appreciate a manly man. I just don't want to see him naked. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 28 Aug 02 - 12:25 PM I thought Angelica Houston was fine in The Grifters.. so far, I've enjoyed Harvey Keitel in one movie... Smoke. Either he's as disguting in real life as he is in almost every movie and he acted up a storm in Smoke, or the reverse... He's a nice guy who is brilliant in playing disgusting characters. I was flipping around channels and stumbled upon The Bad Leitenant. I watched about threee minutes of it and felt like vommiting. What an actor. Now, Richard Widmark and Robert Ryan could play really mean bastards and I could identify with them, because they made a lot of memorable wise cracks in the process. Keitel reminds me of the Huey Lewis song. Sometimes Bad Is Bad. Jerry |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Airto Date: 28 Aug 02 - 01:01 PM Anjelica Huston is superb in The Dead. Can't say the same for George Bush in his role as a world statesman. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: GUEST,Fred Miller Date: 28 Aug 02 - 01:31 PM Peg, I understood about the kids in Kids, but there were elements about them in groups that I think was way off--too many of them were too comfortable with each other. I think Clark was projecting a Gaugin-like thing onto them--something you didn't see in Gummo. Some actors seem t.v. sized. It seemed odd to me in Saving Private Ryan, here we are in war-torn France, and hey--there's Ted Danson. Some actors commit more to bigger-than-life, cartoony roles. Tim Curry--he just doesn't look or act right in real-ish drama. Michelle Pfieffer should try more over-sized roles; Catwoman was the only thing I've seen where it didn't feel like she was turning in her work for a grade. Pretty good sometimes, but tiring. Malkovitch is the only actor I can think of who I can see "acting" and doing a good job of it, even showing off at it, but it doesn't intrude, just adds a playing tension. That's why he'd be good in a Nabokov story. The Luzhin Defense with John Turturro was okay, but lacked that sense of play. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Genie Date: 28 Aug 02 - 01:35 PM Then there's James Traficant's rug badly miscast in the role of hair. ;-) Back to movies. How come Yul Brynner's accent always sounded the same whether he was playing a Siamese king, a French pirate, an American cowboy, a Russian profligate, a Russian prince, or any other character he played? Genie |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Wesley S Date: 28 Aug 02 - 01:55 PM Jerry - I heard that the only reason Buddy Ebsen was replaced in the Wizard Of Oz was because he had a nasty allergic reaction to the makeup he had to wear. I think it even put him in the hospital. But it wasn't an acting problem. When I saw "The Majestic" recently I kept wondering how good the movie would have been if Jim Carey hadn't been cast in it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: GUEST,Just Amy Date: 28 Aug 02 - 01:58 PM I also hate the southern accent thing. I was born in North Carolina and have travelled in Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Northern Florida (The farthest south the accent goes is about Jacksonville, then it starts to get yankee and by Miami it is New York) and Verginia. The accents are all completely different. Kind of like "Steel Magnolias" where the women from the same town all had different accents. Bad By the way, Kevin Costner isn't an actor. He has a degree in Finance. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Kim C Date: 28 Aug 02 - 02:00 PM Traficant's hair!!!!!! :-D Too funny!!! About Yul Brynner.... it's probably because he was a Man's Man and could do anything he damn well pleased. ;-) Fred, I liked your comment about some actors being tv-sized. I never thought of it that way, but you're right. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Peg Date: 28 Aug 02 - 02:08 PM Fred, I see your point about Kids... Jerry, I hear Harvey Keitel is actually a VERY nice man and has helped a lot of beginning writers and filmmakers get a big break... Kim, his butt appears naked in Taxi Driver, The Piano and Holy Smoke, as far as I know... re: The Wizard of Oz, Buddy was not allergic to make-up; that was the first actor hired to play The Tin Man; who nearly died I believe from asphyxiation because of that silver-paint based make-up...Bert Lahr took over and presumably they found safer alternative. I cannot recall what happened with Ebsen but I think it was a last minute injury of some kind...
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Genie Date: 28 Aug 02 - 03:38 PM Kim C, don't get me wrong. I love Yul Brynner --even though he played himself in everything he did (like John Wayne). Jerry and Wesley, don't forget that Buddy Ebsen started his career as a vaudevillian song-and-dance man. I don't think he'd have been at all bad as the scarecrow. (Peg, I think you meant to say Ebsen was replaced by Ray Bolger. Bert Lahr played the cowardly lion.) Genie
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: GUEST,Fred Miller Date: 28 Aug 02 - 05:07 PM Starting on my short-story about Michael Jackson playing Poe. The working title is Fall of the House of... Uh, Sure. Keitel is also naked in Bad Leutenant, but that wasn't the problem. Again, Fairy Tale A True Story is very good Keitel, as Houdini, who used to go around exposing psychic frauds and such. A couple of small girls took their father's camera and photographed fairies. Experts couldn't detect fakery, it was a big story. They were challenged to do it again, and did, in a matter of minutes. A nice movie, a riddle with an elegant solution. Hope that makes somebody have to see it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Peg Date: 28 Aug 02 - 07:22 PM no, no I did mean Bert Lahr! Bert Lahr replaced the actor (whose name I forget) who originally was going to play the Tin Man..because of the toxic silver make-up. Still can;t recall why Buddy Ebsen was replaced by Ray Bolger. And it is possible the silver make-up thing is an urban legend, i do not have hard fast evidence on that... thought of another one: Robin Williams in just about anything lately...
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: JJ Date: 28 Aug 02 - 08:07 PM MGM would have loved to have had Shirley Temple, the #1 box office attraction of 1935, 1936 and 1937, as Dorothy in THE WIZARD OF OZ, but she belonged to 20th Century-Fox, and Darryl Zanuck refused to loan her out. Ray Bolger was originally to be the Tin Woodman, but begged off, saying he was too fluid a performer. What he really wanted was to play the Scarecrow, but Buddy Ebsen had been cast in that role. (Rent CAPTAIN JANUARY sometime and watch Ebsen and Temple dance in "At the Codfish Ball.") Eventually, Bolger would play the Scarecrow, although how he managed this trick is uncertain; Ebsen would be replaced as the Tin Woodman by Jack Haley two weeks before shooting began; and Bert Lahr would play the Cowardly Lion. What Ebsen suffered was probably an allergic reaction to the pure aluminum dust which had been powdered onto his face and head. He spent two weeks in the hospital under an oxygen tent, his skin at first bright blue, then spent a month recuperating. Haley's makeup was painted on, not powdered. The above from THE MAKING OF THE WIZARD OF OZ, by Aljean Harmetz |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: GUEST,colwyn dane Date: 28 Aug 02 - 08:24 PM Using some of the above comments as hooks and with thanks to A. Halliwell: "Aren't you tired, Spence, of always playing Spencer Tracy?" ---"What am I supposed to do, play Bogart?" "After the 'Wizard of Oz' I was typecast as a lion, and there aren't all that many parts for lions." ---Bert Lahr.
"I was a thirteen-year-old boy for thirty years."
Clark Gable was thought of for Tarzan and Greta Garbo was asked to play Dorian Gray as a woman. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 28 Aug 02 - 08:34 PM Anybody remember Julie Harris as a thirty-year old thirteen year old in Member of the Wedding? She kind of ruined the movie for me. Sandra Locke did the same turn in another McCullers movie, The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter. But, that's the way Holloywood has always done it. John Travolta as a teenager in Grease. I don't think there was a teenager in Rydell High. They were all in their thirties. Jerry |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 28 Aug 02 - 10:55 PM Genie: Yes, I've seen Buddy Ebsen sing and dance, and I think he would have been fine as the Scarecrow or the Tin Woodsman. I just think that it would be difficult to equal Ray Bolger. It seemed to be the perfect role for him. I don't think that he would have been as good as the Tin Man.
Here's a creepy thought. What if they did a movie that was a life story about Ray Bolger and had Jim Carrey play him? Jerry |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Genie Date: 29 Aug 02 - 12:13 AM Peg, you mean Bert Lahr was hired to play the Tin Man and then later recast as the lion? Jerry, I never did "buy" Olivia Newton-John as a high-school student in "Grease." I found out later that she was 31 when the movie was made. Seems to me that many movies made in the 1930s and 1940s had actors/actresses in their mid-twenties or older cast as 18-year olds. When I look back at my high school and college yearbooks and see how young we all looked, and then I look at who Hollywood thinks is believable playing the same, it's laughable! JJ, I know MGM wanted Shirley Temple. We should all be grateful that folks don't always get what they ask for! The TV shows that are based on popular films are often prime examples of bad casting. "Mash" comes to my mind first. Alan Alda's "Hawkeye" was just not the same character as Donald Sutherland's -- and not nearly as irreverent. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: katlaughing Date: 29 Aug 02 - 12:50 AM I only say Keitel's butt in the piano and then it wasn't near enough!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst Miscasting: Actual and Feared From: Kim C Date: 29 Aug 02 - 10:15 AM Kat, Harvey showed a lot more than his butt in The Piano. A lot more than I really needed to see. I saw Taxi Driver but I don't remember Harvey's butt. Maybe I was relieved that it was only his butt and promptly forgot about it. (talk about a strange movie...) Y'know, you're right... Yul Brynner WAS always Yul Brynner! But he was so good-lookin it didn't matter! |