The Casting & Recasting Thread

[HunterHunted]

18 minutes ago, Shannon L. said:

I agree, but I think Ethan Hawke or Joaquin Phoenix would have been decent choices for Dr. Strange and I can John Krasinski doing well with Captain America if Chris wasn't available or passed on it. 

I don't know about Hawke or Phoenix. It's clear that the script wanted Strange to be Tony Stark lite--brilliant, arrogant, & charming. I don't know if either Hawke or Phoenix could manage the charming aspect. People who I think could have managed it are Tom Ellis, Michael Rosenbaum, Walton Goggins, Jon Hamm, Alexander Skarsgaard, Richard Armitage, and Joseph Morgan. The real problem is that some of the actors aren't famous enough for them to top line a film. Hamm and Goggins might be too old. I think James Purefoy would have nailed it, but he's likely too old.

I think Krasinski would have been quite good too as Cap.

[methodwriter85]

Wasn't Jensen Ackles in the running, too? I could have seen that.

[Shannon L.]

11 hours ago, HunterHunted said:

I don't know about Hawke or Phoenix. It's clear that the script wanted Strange to be Tony Stark lite--brilliant, arrogant, & charming. I don't know if either Hawke or Phoenix could manage the charming aspect.

That's true.  Dr. Strange is so much more serious, and at time such an egomaniac,  than the others that I tend to forget the charming aspect of him.

[HunterHunted]

10 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

Wasn't Jensen Ackles in the running, too? I could have seen that.

Jensen would have killed it. 

[methodwriter85]

Supernatural would probably be gine by now if he had been Cap but that show has had an unnaturally long life so I don't consider it a loss. A younger Jensen also would have made a really good Finnick O'Dair but he was too old to be in the running.

[HunterHunted]

I wish someone would pull the Colt on Supernatural and pull the trigger. It's not terrible, a descriptor that I save for Arrow, but Supernatural isn't what it once was. They can pull off one or two really good episodes a year, a handful of good episodes, and a whole lotta meh-ok episodes. 

[UYI]

On 4/18/2018 at 11:11 PM, methodwriter85 said:

Because movies made to be commercial are cast with leads that have to hit a "relatable" spot, meaning that the leads have to be good-looking, but not so good-looking that you can't relate to them. There's a reason why all of the American Sweethearts of the last 30 years- Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, Reese Witherspoon, Kate Hudson, Emma Stone, Jennifer Lawrence- are pretty in a girl-next-door kind of way, but not an exotic "bombshell" kind of way like Angelina Jolie was.

The same thing basically applies to men as well. Leo wasn't taken seriously until he put on weight and wasn't quite so pretty anymore. Tom Cruise was a big box office star, and he had just the right amount of good looks that you like looking at him, but he wasn't so beautiful that he looked like a Ken doll.

I wonder if this is because if someone is too beautiful, they stop being someone you can see in a myriad of situations and that you can mold into what you need for whatever part. Angelina was just never going to be a normal girl next door. Jude Law was never going to be the guy that wasn't distractedly pretty, even when he played white trash in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Halle Berry basically said once that she had to fight for her part in Monster's Ball because casting told her she was just too beautiful to be believable as a ghetto mother.

Margot Robbie, who seems like the current blonde bombshell, downplayed her looks in her movie as Tonya Harding and she got an Oscar nomination and people raving about what a good actress she is. So there is something about that.

I can't help but think about how many movie stars of Old Hollywood would never have made it in romantic comedies in later eras because of the "too pretty" problem (Greta Garbo in particular comes immediately to mind).

[methodwriter85]

17 minutes ago, UYI said:

I can't help but think about how many movie stars of Old Hollywood would never have made it in romantic comedies in later eras because of the "too pretty" problem (Greta Garbo in particular comes immediately to mind).

Somewhere around the 1970's, there was a de-glamorization of movie stars and they started to expect them to be more like regular people. I don't think we've really gotten away from that. Even the 1980's American Sweetheart, in a decade that was known for its glamorous excess, was Goldie Hawn, the cute blonde ditz next door.

[methodwriter85]

On 3/12/2016 at 11:23 PM, Lonesome Rhodes said:

My all-time worst casting choice was Anthony Perkins as Jimmy Piersall in Fear Strikes Out.  Dude literally could not throw a baseball!

Tab Hunter, who was dating Anthony Perkins at the time, said that he was really trying to get that part. He had already played Jimmy in a t.v. movie version of it and he was super-pissed that he lost the role to him. He definitely would have been more believable as an athlete although I'm not sure the movie-going public would have accepted him in a dark role.

There's a similar problem with Mitch in Dazed and Confused. Wiley Wiggins could not throw the ball. Like, at all. He wasn't very believable as a jock. However, he was pretty believable as a likeable, charming kid.

Edited April 24, 2018 by methodwriter85

[hoosier80]

I couldn't sleep last night, and after channel surfing (mainly infomercials were on), landed on the movie Mame (the musical).   It was where the Man in the Moon scene was on screen.    Bea Arthur was selling it like nobody's business, and for some half awake moment, I was thinking oh Angela Lansbury is about to come on screen.  Ooops, no, it's Lucille Ball.  The scene fell flat when Lucy came on, and it was a comedy scene.  

I watched up to the point of where she meets Beauregard Burnside and they go to meet his mama down south.  The whole 'We Need a Little Christmas' seemed so lackluster.  Lucy sounded like she'd just smoked a carton of Marlboro's and gargled with sandpaper before singing.  Even the 'My Best Girl' song, which is so sweet was awful.  The poor kid couldn't harmonize with Lucy - who could?  He had to carry the melody.  

Now, I love Robert Preston, but his role was beefed up I guess, but he and Lucy had zero chemistry.    Lucy was wooden.  I just kept thinking where is this magnetic personality that is Mame?

I turned it off before they got to the title song.  The whole thing with the close ups of Lucy being done with a vat of Vasoline on the lens was tiresome.  

I just scoured the internet to see why Lucy had been cast, but didn't really find anything.  The Wiki page said something to the effect that it was baffling that the studio passed over Angela Lansbury who had won a Tony (and rave reviews) for her portrayal.  I don't think Angela was older than Lucy, so I don't get it.  Did she piss off someone at the studio or pass on it?

Just miscast horribly.  Woof.

[methodwriter85]

Watching the new Overboard remake reminded me that Hannah Nordberg NEEDS to play either a young Reese Witherspoon or her daughter, since it seems like the actual clone isn't interested in acting.

She even manages to have the sharp chin and the high forehead. I think this is the closest match you could possibly get without using Ava. It's a shame that Reese's character on Big Little Lies doesn't have a middle child in her early teens.

I've thought this since she first played Josslyn on General Hospital and continued with this thought when she played in those Dolly Parton t.v. movies.

[methodwriter85]

I was watching Won't You Be My Neighbor today and I kept thinking that Annette Benning needs to play the wife in the Tom Hanks version. Mrs. Rogers kept making me think of Annette, facial-shape wise.

Edited July 9, 2018 by methodwriter85

[methodwriter85]

All this talk about ScarJo lately made me think about her turn in American Rhapsody, where she plays the daughter of two Hungary  political dissidents who left her behind where she was a baby to flee to the U.S., leaving her to be raised to early childhood by kindly old Hungarians. She's brought to the United States at 6, and then we flip to ScarJo as the angry maladjusted teen who is finally trying to deal with what happened.

It was such a good, juicy part, and the story was very well-written and compelling, but ScarJo just felt so miscast even though it was cool to see a real teenager playing a teen on-screen. She didn't feel the part of a wild, angry teen with a lot of emotional baggage to deal with. The flat effect that ScarJo has has worked very well in movies like Lost In Translation, but I feel like this character should have been played by an actress who had more of a wild, untamed feel about her.

Edited July 15, 2018 by methodwriter85

[ChelseaNH]

Watching Avengers: Infinity War, during the scene between Thor and Rocket, the thought crossed my mind that Chris Hemsworth would make an interesting James Bond.

[GreekGeek]

On 4/29/2018 at 2:15 PM, hoosier80 said:

I couldn't sleep last night, and after channel surfing (mainly infomercials were on), landed on the movie Mame (the musical).   It was where the Man in the Moon scene was on screen.    Bea Arthur was selling it like nobody's business, and for some half awake moment, I was thinking oh Angela Lansbury is about to come on screen.  Ooops, no, it's Lucille Ball.  The scene fell flat when Lucy came on, and it was a comedy scene.  

I watched up to the point of where she meets Beauregard Burnside and they go to meet his mama down south.  The whole 'We Need a Little Christmas' seemed so lackluster.  Lucy sounded like she'd just smoked a carton of Marlboro's and gargled with sandpaper before singing.  Even the 'My Best Girl' song, which is so sweet was awful.  The poor kid couldn't harmonize with Lucy - who could?  He had to carry the melody.  

Now, I love Robert Preston, but his role was beefed up I guess, but he and Lucy had zero chemistry.    Lucy was wooden.  I just kept thinking where is this magnetic personality that is Mame?

I turned it off before they got to the title song.  The whole thing with the close ups of Lucy being done with a vat of Vasoline on the lens was tiresome.  

I just scoured the internet to see why Lucy had been cast, but didn't really find anything.  The Wiki page said something to the effect that it was baffling that the studio passed over Angela Lansbury who had won a Tony (and rave reviews) for her portrayal.  I don't think Angela was older than Lucy, so I don't get it.  Did she piss off someone at the studio or pass on it?

Just miscast horribly.  Woof.

Ball got a lot of flak for her singing in Mame, but she defended it as right for the character. According to Ball, since Mame drank, smoked, and stayed up all night, she couldn't be expected to sound like Julie Andrews. The fox hunt scene in the movie was very similar to one in I Love Lucy, so maybe that was the reason she was cast, although her days as an adorable ditz (and superb physical comic) were long behind her. I don't know why Lansbury didn't get the role. My guess is that she was considered a "character actress" and great in supporting roles, but not big box office enough to open a big budget movie.

[methodwriter85]

On 8/15/2018 at 11:27 PM, ChelseaNH said:

Watching Avengers: Infinity War, during the scene between Thor and Rocket, the thought crossed my mind that Chris Hemsworth would make an interesting James Bond.

I think they're sticking to actors who are from the UK, but maybe they'll make an exception.

As a casting "what if", I read somewhere that Spike Lee had wanted Vanessa Williams for the part of Jane Toussaint in School Daze, but she turned it down because she didn't want to do a sex scene given that she was still trying to rehabilitate her image after the 1984 Miss America slut-shaming scandal. He picked out Tischa Campbell because of her doo-woop bits in Little Shop of Horrors. Vanessa Williams is prettier(and she has real blue eyes), but I did really like how immature and little-girl-in-mom's-clothes Tischa was in that part. It fits with Julian saying that he's dumping her for being too young and clingy- he does look too old for her. When he does dump her, Jane's baby face and immaturity really work for that scene. I don't know if we would've gotten that same effect with Vanessa- she was 25-ish by then and already had a pretty mature face.

[Ceindreadh]

15 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

I think they're sticking to actors who are from the UK, but maybe they'll make an exception.

 

For James Bond?  You mean like George Lazenby or Pierce Brosnan?

[methodwriter85]

5 minutes ago, Ceindreadh said:

For James Bond?  You mean like George Lazenby or Pierce Brosnan?

Hmm. I guess the Commonwealth is good enough. I guess Chris could still be in.

[Ceindreadh]

3 minutes ago, methodwriter85 said:

Hmm. I guess the Commonwealth is good enough. I guess Chris could still be in.

Ireland hasn't been in the Commonwealth for 70 years. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

16 minutes ago, Ceindreadh said:

For James Bond?  You mean like George Lazenby or Pierce Brosnan?

 

10 minutes ago, methodwriter85 said:

Hmm. I guess the Commonwealth is good enough. I guess Chris could still be in.

Though born in Ireland, Brosnan grew up in England.

And Sean Connery was born in Scotland.

Edited September 8, 2018 by GHScorpiosRule

[methodwriter85]

Timothee Chalamet is surprisingly good casting for Steve Carell's son.

I never would have thought it, but good job, casting directors. It's totally believable.

Edited November 4, 2018 by methodwriter85

[dusang]

On 11/3/2018 at 11:05 PM, methodwriter85 said:

Timothee Chalamet is surprisingly good casting for Steve Carell's son.

I didn't find Steve Carrell particularly handsome until he went full silver fox (I think around the promotion of Foxcatcher?) but awww, look at little Stevey!

[methodwriter85]

I mean, she was too young when that movie came out, but seeing Jennifer Nettles in this clip just reminds me of what Donna in Mama Mia should have been. And Lily James was absolutely spectacular as the younger Donna. So yeah, Meryl Streep shouldn't have done the part but it's whatever at this point. When they inevitably reboot the movie in the 2030's we can hope for an Adult Donna who's both age-appropriate and can belt out a tune instead of one that's 20 years too old and can carry a tune alright.

[topanga]

On 9/8/2018 at 2:44 AM, methodwriter85 said:

I think they're sticking to actors who are from the UK, but maybe they'll make an exception.

As a casting "what if", I read somewhere that Spike Lee had wanted Vanessa Williams for the part of Jane Toussaint in School Daze, but she turned it down because she didn't want to do a sex scene given that she was still trying to rehabilitate her image after the 1984 Miss America slut-shaming scandal. He picked out Tischa Campbell because of her doo-woop bits in Little Shop of Horrors. Vanessa Williams is prettier(and she has real blue eyes), but I did really like how immature and little-girl-in-mom's-clothes Tischa was in that part. It fits with Julian saying that he's dumping her for being too young and clingy- he does look too old for her. When he does dump her, Jane's baby face and immaturity really work for that scene. I don't know if we would've gotten that same effect with Vanessa- she was 25-ish by then and already had a pretty mature face.

Plus, School Daze really launched Tisha’s career, so I’m happy she was in it. 

I agree that Tisha Campbell gave Jane a vulnerability and naivety that Vanessa wouldn’t Jane been able to pull off. 

[methodwriter85]

I don't think the character of Jane would have worked as well as with Vanessa Williams at the helm. She was too poised and mature. The reason why Jane works so well is that it's so transparent how desperate Jane is to come off as a future society lady with the way she dresses and acts, but Jane's too immature to really pull it off. Vanessa Williams was of course Miss America for a reason, and I don't think she could have conveyed that like Tisha did. So, yeah, sometimes there's something to be said about having a 19-year old girl playing a 19-year old girl. She was definitely the saddest character for me in the movie. I feel like Jane probably wound up getting passed around the fraternity until one of them put a ring on it. She strikes me as someone who wouldn't have the courage to stand up for herself or break away from what people expect of you.

And Giancarlo Esposito is like 10 years older than Tisha and it really, really showed in that movie. The effect worked nicely.

Edited January 7, 2019 by methodwriter85

[VCRTracking]

Will Smith tells why he turned down the part of Neo in The Matrix:

[topanga]

On 2/14/2019 at 5:17 PM, VCRTracking said:

Will Smith tells why he turned down the part of Neo in The Matrix:

The movie wouldn’t have been as enjoyable IMO. Keanu Reaves gave Neo the vulnerability and cluelessness that made Neo’s transformation compelling. 

Edited February 18, 2019 by topanga

[Trini]

I would have liked to see Smith as Neo; but I agree with him that then Morpheus would not have gone to Fishburne; so it's fine the way it turned out.

[methodwriter85]

This is fucking hilarious. I can't believe they even bothered to audition him because he already was a has-been by 2007-ish,

Dominic Cooper isn't much of a singer but he did have smoking hot chemistry with Amanda Seyfried. (They dated for a couple of years.)

Edited March 11, 2019 by methodwriter85

[Morrigan2575]

On 2/15/2019 at 7:50 PM, topanga said:

The movie wouldn’t have been as enjoyable IMO. Keanu Reaves gave Neo the vulnerability and cluelessness that made Neo’s transformation compelling. 

Agreed. 

[Irlandesa]

4 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

Dominic West isn't much of a singer but he did have smoking hot chemistry with Amanda Seyfried. (They dated for a couple of years.)

I think you mean Dominic Cooper.  Dominic West (The Wire/The Affair) is much older.

[methodwriter85]

Corrected.

[Silver Raven]

Mark Hamill is the voice of Chucky in the upcoming Child's Play remake.

https://deadline.com/2019/03/childs-play-mark-hamill-tar-wars-joker-chucky-orion-1202585616/

[Spartan Girl]

Wow. Still have no interest in the remake, but Mark Hamill can do a good evil laugh.

[Athena]

Mark Hamill is an amazing voice actor and this may be an unpopular opinion, but my favourite Joker. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, Athena said:

Mark Hamill is an amazing voice actor and this may be an unpopular opinion, but my favourite Joker. 

This is unpopular? Not with me!

[Spartan Girl]

Nor me!

[GHScorpiosRule]

A sample...

[GHScorpiosRule]

I was really hoping to find the one where Bats gets Joker, and he's floundering in the water, and whining: "Baaaaatmaaaaaan!" Or was that when he was hanging above a vat of acid?😅

[Spartan Girl]

2 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I was really hoping to find the one where Bats gets Joker, and he's floundering in the water, and whining: "Baaaaatmaaaaaan!" Or was that when he was hanging above a vat of acid?😅

It's in this.  Enjoy!

[GHScorpiosRule]

It’s clear this dude didn’t watch all the B:TAS OR The New Batman/ Superman Adventures because he messed up with the name of the episodes. He called “World’s Finest” “Killing Superman” and even had it listed as such.😒😒😒 Then referred to and titled “The Man Who Killed Batman” as “Without Batman, crime has no punchline” when that’s just the actual line!😒🙄🙄🙄😒😒😒

[Spartan Girl]

54 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

It’s clear this dude didn’t watch all the B:TAS OR The New Batman/ Superman Adventures because he messed up with the name of the episodes. He called “World’s Finest” “Killing Superman” and even had it listed as such.😒😒😒 Then referred to and titled “The Man Who Killed Batman” as “Without Batman, crime has no punchline” when that’s just the actual line!😒🙄🙄🙄😒😒😒

Yup but at least the clips were good.

[GHScorpiosRule]

10 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Yup but at least the clips were good.

They were. But I wish they'd let Joker whine the "Batmaaaaan!" Or showed the one where he's dumped back into prison, he changes the channel, then Ivy changes it back, and he mutters about how they're all a bunch of stupid, whiny, something or other...I'm at work now, but I'll find it and post it in the Batman: The Animated Series thread, as we've gone off-topic here! Sorry @Athena!

[methodwriter85]

Adam Brody playing the super hero version of Dylan Jack Frazer's character in Shazam has to be quite possibly one of the best castings I've ever seen. I'd put it up there with Christine Taylor playing Marcia Brady, which truly was perfection.

[Dejana]

Of these five, I would go with Austin Butler. Ansel Elgort is a hard no, a guy who played John Lennon (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) probably isn't right for Elvis too unless it's some AU thing, and Harry Styles should be playing Mick Jagger if he's going to do a music biopic. I know The King had a bit of a snarl but Miles Teller seems to top people's lists of actors with punchable faces.

But I'm not sure that I'd want anyone I really like in a young Elvis biopic, in today's era it would just face a bunch of attacks about cultural appropriation and the origins of his relationship with Priscilla. Some directors could manage that tightrope pretty well but I don't know if that's Baz Luhrmann's strength, as opposed to OTT spectacle.

Edited July 2, 2019 by Dejana

[methodwriter85]

I was watching this clip of the Bee Gees from 1967, and I thought to myself, "Wait, Blake Jenner could totally play circa 1967 Barry Gibb. Just make him grow his hair out."

I pretty much ignored the Glee TWOP fan forum by the time his character came around on the show but I wonder if anyone else ever noted that resemblance.

[Morrigan2575]

On 4/1/2019 at 9:59 AM, Athena said:

Mark Hamill is an amazing voice actor and this may be an unpopular opinion, but my favourite Joker. 

I thought that was an actual fact? 🙂  LOL

He's almost always topping favorite joker or best joker lists, Top 2 at least.

I just found out (within the last 1-2 months) that Hamill was the voice of Fire Lord Ozai in Avatar:The Last Airbender, he really does amazing voice work

Edited July 3, 2019 by Morrigan2575

[methodwriter85]

Austin Butler got cast in the part of Elvis and he's already doing method.

Dude, we get it. I like the guy and I've been rooting for him since he was on Ruby and the Rockits, but this is just weird. I really hope a good media agent sits him down. I don't foresee any backlash from this, but right now I'm getting weird-ass Joe Calderone vibes and he needs to cool it until he's promoting the movie.

[Popples]

Even though I'm not going to watch the remake of Lady and the Tramp, I love the dogs they're using for the title characters, especially Lady. It was going to be difficult to find a dog that's a really close match to Tramp since he's a mutt.

 

[methodwriter85]

Damn, I'm loving the actress/take they seem to be going with for the Amy in the new Little Women:

The weak link for me in the 1994 Little Women has always been Samantha Morton's Adult Amy. She felt like such a wilting wallflower and I didn't buy her as being the grown-up version of Kirsten Dunst's Amy. I don't know if it was on Samantha Morton or the writing or both.

Amy grew up during the Civil War and saw instability all around her. And they made it cannon that Aunt March keeps telling Amy she's her family last hope because Meg chose to marry poor. I love this little speech because it makes it clear that Amy doesn't just want to be rich because she wants pretty dresses and balls to attend- she doesn't want to end up on the streets alone and impoverished like Mrs. Hummel and ton of other widows.