Miscast Movies

[paula]

Everybody in Scooby Doo.  Freddie Prinze Jt. as Fred, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne, Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, and Linda Cardellini as Velma.  Horrible - all of them.  Not within a country mile of acting like the characters from the animated show.

Oh come on!  Matthew Lillard was a good choice for Shaggy.  I thought he looked and protrayed character quite well.

Linda Cardellini as Velma.  Well, as a woman who keeps tabs on other women, i don't know if she was particularly that bad, but i know she wowed people when she finally took that turtleneck off...she looked good in a bikini!

[Skull]

I agree with Samuel L Jackson as Mace Windu... I think its the most disapointing role for Samuel L Jackson since he didnt do anything for the movie and his death sucked! Although the Star Wars prequels sucked because the storyline wasnt worth the 20 years wait. Gees baby vader made C3-PO in his free time... Really?

[AndyC]

Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance in The Shining.

I think that's kind of a stroke of genius.  

I agree. She was nothing like the Wendy in the book, but she suited Kubrick's movie perfectly.

[Skull]

I think the cast for the Scooby Doo Movie was perfect, it looked almost like the cartoon... :)

[Newt]

Completely agree on the casting of the various Batmans.

I fully expect to be told how wrong I am (since Reeve seems to have become iconic in the role), but I could never understand casting Christopher Reeve as Superman, Marlon Brando as Jor-El and Margot Kidder as Lois Lane in Superman (1978): what were they thinking???  So Kidder's hair was the right colour and Reeve's facial profile looked the part?  Ish. Just Ish.  They did better with the villains.

[AndyC]

I think the cast for the Scooby Doo Movie was perfect, it looked almost like the cartoon... :)

I thought Lillard was an excellent Shaggy. The others were all right. I'm not sure if they would have been my picks, but they fit the roles well enough. I wasn't impressed the way I was with Shaggy though.

With John Wayne as Ghengis Khan, it's not so much that they cast whites as Asians. That sort of thing happened all the time in those days. The problem was that Wayne was not actor enough to sell it. Ghengis Khan came across as 100% American cowboy, just like every other John Wayne character. Wayne was the Schwarzenegger of his day, basically playing the same guy under different names in different settings. Nothing wrong with that, but if you asked him to play something totally different, he just couldn't do it. If I were casting The Conqueror, I'd have put Yul Brynner in the part. He had the skill, he had the attitude, he could play tyrants, and he could obviously play Asians. Of course, with The King and I and The Ten Commandments coming out the same year as The Conqueror, Brynner was probably already booked up playing tyrants and Asians elsewhere.

[Mr. DS]

Ok heres one that will get no responses because no one here watches these movies.  However I have to point out Robert Patinson as Edward in Twilight.  Thanks to my wife, I've had to sit twice through his awful acting and complete lack of chemistry with any of his on screen counterparts.  I mean the story of Twilight is horridly written enough, why make it worse? 

[vukxfiles]

Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson in the Spiderman movies. Shouldn't MJ be hotter?

[BoyScoutKevin]

Everyone who has played Batman since Adam West

Will Smith as James West

Nicholas Cage in anything

I'd agree with Will Smith as James West, but I'd also add Kevin Kline as Artemus Gordon and Salma Hayek as Rita Escobar. No chemistry at all, that I could see, between the three stars. And while we are on the subject of miscasting, Kenneth Branagh as Dr. Loveless, a fine actor, but not in this role, especially when you compare his performance with Michael Dunn's as the original Dr. Loveless. But he was certainly better than Ted Levine as General McGrath in the same film.

[JaseSF]

Pretty much the entire cast of the 1998 Lost In Space movie but especially Gary Oldman as Dr. Smith. Jack Johnson too as Will was bland when compared to Bill Mumy's Will full of intelligence and wonder.

Halle Berry as Catwoman. Every other lady who played the part did it much better but none compared to Julie Newmar.

Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl too.

[BoyScoutKevin]

John Wayne as Genghis Khan in "The Conqueror."

How wrong was that? Wrong on so many levels. I think Andrew's nailed it as far as the worst miscast actor goes...

I agree ~ the sad thing is the making of that film probably cost The Duke his life years later because of the place where they shot the film. 

Not only John Wayne, but how many different types of cancer are there.

Director Dick Powell - cancer of the lymph glands.

Susan Hayward - brain cancer.

Agness Moorehead - uterine cancer.

John Hoyt - lung cancer.

Pedro Armendariz - the only reason he didn't die of cancer is because he shot himself, when he found out he had cancer.

Of course, that is out of fourteen people, which would include the director and the thirteen most important actors in the film.

[Skull]

John Wayne as Genghis Khan in "The Conqueror."

How wrong was that? Wrong on so many levels. I think Andrew's nailed it as far as the worst miscast actor goes...

I agree ~ the sad thing is the making of that film probably cost The Duke his life years later because of the place where they shot the film. 

Not only John Wayne, but how many different types of cancer are there.

Director Dick Powell - cancer of the lymph glands.

Susan Hayward - brain cancer.

Agness Moorehead - uterine cancer.

John Hoyt - lung cancer.

Pedro Armendariz - the only reason he didn't die of cancer is because he shot himself, when he found out he had cancer.

Of course, that is out of fourteen people, which would include the director and the thirteen most important actors in the film.

its very sad but I heard something like 90 people got cancer from the location while making the movie.

[Skull]

The screenplay was written before John Wayne became involved in the project. The writer had Marlon Brando in mind for the role. According to Harry Medved and Michael Medved's 1984 book "The Hollywood Hall of Shame", Wayne's casting in this film came about during a conversation with director Dick Powell. Wayne was about the make the last film of a three-picture deal for RKO Radio and Powell had been assigned to direct. They were going over various scripts in Powell's office when the latter was called away for a few minutes. When Powell returned, he found Wayne enthusiastically looking over a script that Powell had intended throwing in the waste basket. It was the screenplay for "The Conqueror". Powell tried to talk him out of it, but Wayne insisted that this was the film he wanted to make. As Powell later summed it up, "Who am I to turn down John Wayne?" ~ imdb

It seems that John Wayne wanted the role... although I'm surprised they were looking for Marlon Brando

[RCMerchant]

good info

[retrorussell]

There's probably a case for all the actors/crew on the set of The Conqueror except for Wayne.  He was a lifelong smoker and drinker.  He was doomed anyway.