False Casting in Movies
Stars are made through their movies, and movies are made through their stars. Yet time after time there are falsely casted actors playing a movie character, who is not truly theirs. Which movie in your opinion has showcased the most popular false casting ever?
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- DirectorNunnally JohnsonStarsJoanne WoodwardDavid WayneLee J. CobbA doctor treats a woman suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder.Judy Garland had been intended for the main part by Nunnally Johnson, but proving unreliable he picked then barely known Joanne Woodward and imposed her on the studio executives. Winning the Best Actress Academy Award for her role, Woodward became the first actress to win an Oscar for portraying three different personalities.
- DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsJamie FoxxChristoph WaltzLeonardo DiCaprioWith the help of a German bounty-hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal plantation owner in Mississippi.Will Smith, Idris Elba, Chris Tucker,Terrence Howard, Michael Kenneth Williams, and Tyrese Gibson were all considered for the role of Django. Quentin Tarantino actually wrote the role with Smith in mind, and Smith's agents and manager wanted him to accept it, but Smith ultimately decided to pass, because "Django wasn't the lead" and Smith allegedly told Tarantino "No, Quentin, please I need to kill the bad guy!". Tarantino then offered the part to Jamie Foxx, who accepted.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsMatthew ModineR. Lee ErmeyVincent D'OnofrioA pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.Army movies are generally referred as birth givers to upcoming heart-throbs and leads. When it was announced that director is set to be Stanley Kubrick, the casting list has been extended. Denzel Washington was considered for the role of Eightball and has said that it is a role that he regrets missing out on. R. Lee Ermey went to Kubrick and asked for the role of Gunnery Sgt. Hartmann. In his opinion, the actors on the set were not up to snuff. When Kubrick declined, Ermey barked an order for Kubrick to stand up when he was spoken to, and the director instinctively obeyed. Ermey got the role.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsJack NicholsonShelley DuvallDanny LloydA family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.Stanley Kubrick first cast Robin Williams as Jack Torrance, but decided that Williams was just too psychotic and too on-the-nose for the part. Then guess whom did Kubrick find less psychotic and off-the-nose for the role? A very normal, not-that-psychotic Jack Nicholson(!). A decision which then became a hundred and eighty degrees of career changing revolution for Nicholson.
- DirectorFrank DarabontStarsTim RobbinsMorgan FreemanBob GuntonOver the course of several years, two convicts form a friendship, seeking consolation and, eventually, redemption through basic compassion.Kevin Costner was the first actor considered and was approached to play the lead role of Andy Dufresne. Costner's stubbornness and optimistically never giving up kind of star character was a faithful inspiration. But Costner turned down the role because he was working on another film with his good friend the director Kevin Reynolds. Then Andy Dufresne part was given to Tim Robbins, a stand-in understudy back in the day, for whom being Kevin Costner or being offered with a role that was offered to Kevin Costner was more than a plausible dream to come true. In that particular case all must understand that no success in America is peanuts, but the opportunities that are available to Macadamia nuts are also available to those peanuts.
- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsMichael J. FoxChristopher LloydLea ThompsonMarty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.Originally cast as Marty McFly, Eric Stoltz was fired for being too serious. When he stood in a duo with Christopher Lloyd, Stoltz has made him look like he needs a Nobel Award to prove he really invented a time travelling device. Director Robert Zemeckisinsisted that the time travel adventure kid must have no idea about the time travel concept but still is willing to take the adventure at any cost, some star character who is less thoughtful about his actions who never questions his attitudes so he could also not question why would he risk his life getting on a nuclear energy driven ride via a time machine made out of a DeLorean. A perfect setting for a characterization that also story-designed itself for the rest of the franchise. Part II and Part III are solely inspired by Marty McFly's character weakness who always pays the price of his wrong-doings but still lacks autodidactic self-development an idea of which picks Michael J. Fox for the cast.
- DirectorDon SiegelClint EastwoodStarsClint EastwoodAndrew RobinsonHarry GuardinoWhen a man calling himself "the Scorpio Killer" menaces San Francisco, tough-as-nails Police Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan is assigned to track down the crazed psychopath.When Universal allowed its option on the film and characters to lapse, Warner Bros. purchased the rights with a view to cast Frank Sinatra. Sinatra was interested, however he had broken his wrist eight years previously, and during contract negotiations, he found the large handgun too unwieldy. Additionally, his father had recently passed away, and Sinatra decided he wanted to do some lighter material. After Sinatra dropped out, Warner Bros. considered Marlon Brando for the role, then Steve McQueen and then Paul Newman, both of whom turned it down. McQueen didn't want to do another cop movie and Newman felt the film was too right-wing. Newman however suggested Clint Eastwood as a possible star who was not in the casting list.
- DirectorPeter JacksonStarsRachel WeiszMark WahlbergSaoirse RonanCenters on a young girl who has been murdered and watches over her family - and her killer - from purgatory. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.Ryan Gosling was concerned that he looked too young for his role as Jack Salmon. So he aimed to gain 60 pounds by drinking melted Haagen Dazs bars. His characterization still didn't fit director Peter Jackson's vision, resulting in the part being recast with Mark Wahlberg instead, not the best pick of a caring family father.
- DirectorGeorge ArchainbaudStarsIrene DunneRicardo CortezJill EsmondA young woman plots astrological revenge on schoolgirls from her past.Long long ago before the teen slasher genre was invented, this was what RKO Radio Pictures used to separate A-list actors from B-list ones. A separation which is not always easy to accept for starlets and stand-ins like Peg Entwistle, Florence Eldridge, Harriet Hagman, Phyllis Fraser, Betty Furness, Julie Haydon, and Violet Seton.
- DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsJohn TravoltaUma ThurmanSamuel L. JacksonThe lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.The role of Vincent Vega that revitalized John Travolta's career, has been primarily offered to Michael Madsen, who has turned it down to play Virgil Earp in Kevin Costner's Wyatt Earp.
- DirectorJohn HughesStarsMatthew BroderickAlan RuckMia SaraA popular high school student, admired by his peers, decides to take a day off from school and goes to extreme lengths to pull it off, to the chagrin of his Dean, who'll do anything to stop him.In the age of the idols and the icons, once again, a surprising drop-out from a favourite role gave a lead to a stand-in upcoming star. After Johnny Depp turned down the title role at a very bad timing, the role eventually went to Matthew Broderick granting him hundreds of millions of fans and meanwhile saving Depp from becoming a predictable baby-faced teen heartthrob, a decision which no poster-collecting fans and teens of 80s could ever understand why.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsChristian BaleHeath LedgerAaron EckhartWhen the menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham, Batman must accept one of the greatest psychological and physical tests of his ability to fight injustice.Replacing a major character with a different actor in a second of the series of a franchise is a risk you wouldn't want to take. The recasting of the role of Rachel Dawes should have taken with more serious care. Where was Katie Holmes when Maggie Gyllenhaal was replaced with her? If you are leaving a Batman behind, you should be going for a Superman. But did she?
- DirectorPeter JacksonStarsNaomi WattsJack BlackAdrien BrodyA greedy film producer assembles a team of moviemakers and sets out for the infamous Skull Island, where they find more than just cannibalistic natives.Even this film is the first time you are seeing Jack Black and Adrien Brody in your life, you would still scratch your head thinking... Wasn't there anybody else seriously, serious to play these leads, unless King Kong is a Chinese panda?
- DirectorDick PowellStarsJohn WayneSusan HaywardPedro ArmendárizMongol chief Temujin battles against Tartar armies and for the love of the Tartar princess Bortai. Temujin becomes the emperor Genghis Khan.What is Spaghetti Eastern?
a) The Easter holiday food fest hosted by a poor family who can only afford to cook spaghetti
b) The Chinese Spa saloon located in the city of Ghetti, South China
c) John Wayne casted to play Genghis Khan, a Mongolian war commander, in a Western taking place in China - DirectorSam Taylor-JohnsonStarsDakota JohnsonJamie DornanJennifer EhleLiterature student Anastasia Steele's life changes forever when she meets handsome, yet tormented, billionaire Christian Grey.If a billionaire is primarily being introduced with many other adjectives other than being rich, then there has to be a character depth within him. Not a shallow and straightforward character player as Jamie Dornan.