Movie Role Recast: What actor ruined a good movie for you? Who should have replaced them? (1 Viewer)

[Ilov80s]

What are some movie performances that you thought were all wrong and ruined what was or could have been a good movie?

I have 2 obvious ones

1. Put Winona Ryder back into the Godfather and get Sofia Coppola out of there. I don't know the exact details as to why Ryder backed out of playing Mary Corleone but I sure wish she hadn't.

2. Any time Quentin Tarantino appears in one of his own movies. I think he's an interesting person to see interviewed but I can not stand him as an actor. But what I don't know is who should have gotten all those early QT roles in Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, etc.?

What else you got?

 

[tjford]

Any nerd who has read Judge Dredd comic books knows how bad Sly Stallone was for the first Dredd movie. Too much helmet off and too far from the source material IMO. The only thing that Stallone gets right is the jawline. That said, there's no need for me to suggest a recast as Karl Urban is widely regarded for his portrayal in the remake. However at the time, Schwarzenegger was considered. The accent wouldn't have worked for me although the build makes sense.

Another nerd point to weigh in on would be Hayden Christiansen as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. He has gotten more credit as the years have gone on but at the time, he was not a popular choice. Interestingly enough, Heath Ledger and Paul Walker were reportedly close to getting the part. I wouldn't say that Christiansen ruined the movie but episode 2 was a pretty wooden performance as I saw it. Tough to find a youngish actor to cover the range that the role required but knowing what we know about Ledger's Joker performance, I wonder how his Anakin Skywalker would have looked like.

 

[TLEF316]

It's one of my favorite movies regardless...but Maggie Gyllenhaal was insufferable in The Dark Knight. Just obnoxious delivery and facial expressions right up until they blew her up.

Katie Holmes isn't exactly winning any Oscars but she was 10x better in the same role.

 

[Ghost Rider]

I still like it a lot, but Old School would have been 50 times better if almost anyone else had played the role of Mitch. Luke Wilson is just terrible.

 

[lsutigers]

I still like it a lot, but Old School would have been 50 times better if almost anyone else had played the role of Mitch. Luke Wilson is just terrible.

Funny, just rewatched this last night and was thinking the same thing. Owen Wilson is also not winning any acting awards (and I'm not nominating him for this replacement either), but his dude chemistry with Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers was so much better.

 

[KarmaPolice]

What are some movie performances that you thought were all wrong and ruined what was or could have been a good movie?

I have 2 obvious ones

1. Put Winona Ryder back into the Godfather and get Sofia Coppola out of there. I don't know the exact details as to why Ryder backed out of playing Mary Corleone but I sure wish she hadn't.

2. Any time Quentin Tarantino appears in one of his own movies. I think he's an interesting person to see interviewed but I can not stand him as an actor. But what I don't know is who should have gotten all those early QT roles in Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, etc.?

What else you got?

I could see someone like Buscemi doing his Pulp role.

 

[need2know]

What are some movie performances that you thought were all wrong and ruined what was or could have been a good movie?

I have 2 obvious ones

1. Put Winona Ryder back into the Godfather and get Sofia Coppola out of there. I don't know the exact details as to why Ryder backed out of playing Mary Corleone but I sure wish she hadn't.

2. Any time Quentin Tarantino appears in one of his own movies. I think he's an interesting person to see interviewed but I can not stand him as an actor. But what I don't know is who should have gotten all those early QT roles in Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, etc.?

What else you got?

I mean the tarentino ones are always super short. Does it bother you that much?

 

[fruity pebbles]

Ted Danson in Saving Private Ryan yanks me right out of the movie every time.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Edward Furlong did his best to sink Terminator 2. But the movie's awesomeness was sufficient to overcome.

 

[Major]

Any time Quentin Tarantino appears in one of his own movies. I think he's an interesting person to see interviewed but I can not stand him as an actor. But what I don't know is who should have gotten all those early QT roles in Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, etc.?

Dusk Til Dawn was the one that bugged me the most as he was a co-star. Clooney was in there running circles around him.

 

[Barry2]

did not like seeing Mike Myers in Inglorious Basterds.

 

[brun]

Robby Benson - Ice Castles
Could barely stay up on skates
Just replace him with someone who can skate

Vince Vaughn - Hacksaw Ridge
Just never believable for me
Replace with someone under 8 ft tall

 

[matttyl]

Jonah Hill in Moneyball.

 

[zamboni]

did not like seeing Mike Myers in Inglorious Basterds.

Did not like not seeing Mike Myers in Halloween III.

 

[Ilov80s]

What are some movie performances that you thought were all wrong and ruined what was or could have been a good movie?

I have 2 obvious ones

1. Put Winona Ryder back into the Godfather and get Sofia Coppola out of there. I don't know the exact details as to why Ryder backed out of playing Mary Corleone but I sure wish she hadn't.

2. Any time Quentin Tarantino appears in one of his own movies. I think he's an interesting person to see interviewed but I can not stand him as an actor. But what I don't know is who should have gotten all those early QT roles in Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, etc.?

What else you got?

I mean the tarentino ones are always super short. Does it bother you that much?

It doesn't ruin the movie but it's annoying takes me out of the world of the movie. Put someone like John McGinley in there who can funny, serious, can play an dhead. It just fills in a small little leak in some of QT's movies.

 

[Major]

That kid pitcher in Dazed and Confused. What an annoying little ****. I'm glad Ben Affleck beat his a**.

 

[Ilov80s]

Edward Furlong did his best to sink Terminator 2. But the movie's awesomeness was sufficient to overcome.

Yep he is annoying but like you said the rest of the movie is great enough to carry him. I guess Leo would have been the obvious choice to replace him though I don't know how good of an actor Leo actually was in 1991.

 

[zamboni]

That kid pitcher in Dazed and Confused. What an annoying little ****. I'm glad Ben Affleck beat his a**.

Yeah, Wiley Wiggins was a weak spot but in the spirit of the thread, still a great movie.

 

[Major]

That kid pitcher in Dazed and Confused. What an annoying little ****. I'm glad Ben Affleck beat his a**.

Yeah, Wiley Wiggins was a weak spot but in the spirit of the thread, still a great movie.

True. I was thinking terrible actors in great movies.

 

[Ilov80s]

It's one of my favorite movies regardless...but Maggie Gyllenhaal was insufferable in The Dark Knight. Just obnoxious delivery and facial expressions right up until they blew her up.

Katie Holmes isn't exactly winning any Oscars but she was 10x better in the same role.

Oh yeah I 100% agree here. She was awful in The Dark Knight. It's a definite ding against the movie that it isn't Holmes.

 

[Ilov80s]

That kid pitcher in Dazed and Confused. What an annoying little ****. I'm glad Ben Affleck beat his a**.

Yeah, Wiley Wiggins was a weak spot but in the spirit of the thread, still a great movie.

It's really open to any bad performance that even slightly tarnishes an otherwise awesome movie. Keanu Reeves is completely miscast and just so out of place in Bram Stoker's Dracula but I still dig the movie. I just wish they had gotten a British guy for the part- Rupert Everrett maybe. It woud make a good movie even better.

 

[Zow]

I’m told that The Family Stone is a good movie. I can’t stand Sarah Jessica* Parker so I hated the movie. Since others find it good, I presume she ruined it for me then.

*My disdain for SJP is wholly irrational. Just one of those rare circumstances where I inexplicably don’t like another person. I could watch her donating to cancer research or helping an orphan with his homework and I’d still somehow be annoyed by her.

 

[glvsav37]

I hate to speak ill of the dead, but I cant watch anything w/ Bill Paxton in it. Love Tombstone, love Aliens, but just cant do his scenes

 

[Encyclopedia Brown]

1. Put Winona Ryder back into the Godfather and get Sofia Coppola out of there. I don't know the exact details as to why Ryder backed out of playing Mary Corleone but I sure wish she hadn't

I recall Ryder saying she was simply exhausted. In looking over her filmography during that time period, you can see her point.

Lucas (1986)
Square Dance (1987)
Beetlejuice (1988)
1969 (1988)
Heathers (1989)
Great Ball of Fire (1989)
Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael (1990)
Mermaids (1990)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)

That is nine movies in four years as a teenager.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

It's one of my favorite movies regardless...but Maggie Gyllenhaal was insufferable in The Dark Knight. Just obnoxious delivery and facial expressions right up until they blew her up.

Katie Holmes isn't exactly winning any Oscars but she was 10x better in the same role.

I hate that movie, and she still ruins it. Oy- she's awful.

 

[foxco]

I hate to speak ill of the dead, but I cant watch anything w/ Bill Paxton in it. Love Tombstone, love Aliens, but just cant do his scenes

This one is surprising, love me some Paxton ever since his Chet days...

 

[Yo Mama]

There’s that one “rich” old guy in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York that was pretty bad.

 

[glvsav37]

I hate to speak ill of the dead, but I cant watch anything w/ Bill Paxton in it. Love Tombstone, love Aliens, but just cant do his scenes

This one is surprising, love me some Paxton ever since his Chet days...

IDK, he just always seemed so thin and robotic in his acting. Hell, the guy had a great career, but I just never connected with him

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

I had the same reaction to seeing him as I did seeing Carroll O'Connor in Patton.

Since he's not in Patton, I figure you are in the clear.

 

[need2know]

I hate to speak ill of the dead, but I cant watch anything w/ Bill Paxton in it. Love Tombstone, love Aliens, but just cant do his scenes

This one is surprising, love me some Paxton ever since his Chet days...

IDK, he just always seemed so thin and robotic in his acting. Hell, the guy had a great career, but I just never connected with him

Loved him in everything he did

 

[Encyclopedia Brown]

I had the same reaction to seeing him as I did seeing Carroll O'Connor in Patton.

Since he's not in Patton, I figure you are in the clear.

D'oh!!

Marlowe with James Garner is what I was thinking. He played a serious by-the-book cop type that was completely different than Archie Bunker.

 

[Ilov80s]

This is going pretty far back and I hate to ever say anything negagtive abour Jimmy Stewart but Hitchcock was wrong in casting him for Rope. That character needed to be sophisticated and play as potentially a closeted homosexual. It needs to create a situaton where the 2 urbane young gay killers would look up to and potentially be having a relationship with their professor. Stewary is too awww shucks midwest for that. Cary Grant was absolutely perfect for this part. Hitch worked with both men a lot so I wonder what into the choice of Stewart over Grant.

 

[Don Quixote]

This is going pretty far back and I hate to ever say anything negagtive abour Jimmy Stewart but Hitchcock was wrong in casting him for Rope. That character needed to be sophisticated and play as potentially a closeted homosexual. It needs to create a situaton where the 2 urbane young gay killers would look up to and potentially be having a relationship with their professor. Stewary is too awww shucks midwest for that. Cary Grant was absolutely perfect for this part. Hitch worked with both men a lot so I wonder what into the choice of Stewart over Grant.

Cary Grant turned it down. So did Montgomery Clift.

Rope Was a Cruel, Prickly Turning Point in Jimmy Stewart's Career

There was Jimmy Stewart before Rope and Jimmy Stewart after. His first movie with Alfred Hitchcock opened up a new side for the star.

www.pastemagazine.com

Jimmy Stewart wasn’t Hitchcock’s first pick for the role of Rupert; that was Cary Grant. There’s a notorious gay subtext to Rope that was not unintentional, and the director was tickled at the idea of emphasizing it with his casting. Dall was gay and Granger was bisexual (Granger was actually dating Rope’s screenwriter Arthur Laurents during filming; that relationship would go on to inspire the Laurents-penned The Way We Were). Grant’s bisexuality was an open Hollywood secret. The next in line for the role of Rupert was Montgomery Clift, another closeted star. But Grant and Clift refused the role, concerned about how it could affect their carefully constructed images. Once they’d turned it down, a convoluted networking web led to the casting of the stubbornly straight Stewart.

 

[Ilov80s]

This is going pretty far back and I hate to ever say anything negagtive abour Jimmy Stewart but Hitchcock was wrong in casting him for Rope. That character needed to be sophisticated and play as potentially a closeted homosexual. It needs to create a situaton where the 2 urbane young gay killers would look up to and potentially be having a relationship with their professor. Stewary is too awww shucks midwest for that. Cary Grant was absolutely perfect for this part. Hitch worked with both men a lot so I wonder what into the choice of Stewart over Grant.

Cary Grant turned it down. So did Montgomery Clift.

Rope Was a Cruel, Prickly Turning Point in Jimmy Stewart's Career

There was Jimmy Stewart before Rope and Jimmy Stewart after. His first movie with Alfred Hitchcock opened up a new side for the star.

www.pastemagazine.com

Jimmy Stewart wasn’t Hitchcock’s first pick for the role of Rupert; that was Cary Grant. There’s a notorious gay subtext to Rope that was not unintentional, and the director was tickled at the idea of emphasizing it with his casting. Dall was gay and Granger was bisexual (Granger was actually dating Rope’s screenwriter Arthur Laurents during filming; that relationship would go on to inspire the Laurents-penned The Way We Were). Grant’s bisexuality was an open Hollywood secret. The next in line for the role of Rupert was Montgomery Clift, another closeted star. But Grant and Clift refused the role, concerned about how it could affect their carefully constructed images. Once they’d turned it down, a convoluted networking web led to the casting of the stubbornly straight Stewart.

Ugh even Claude Raines or George Saunders would have been better. Unfortunately, I do get the concern stars had around protecting their image in the 50s.

 

[Encyclopedia Brown]

Ugh even Claude Raines or George Saunders would have been better

Charles Boyer would have been interesting.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Roy Scheider (or anyone, including me and also Big Bird from Sesame Street) would've been better than Al Pacino as Michael in the Godfather movies. Pacino has been the weak link in every film he's ever been in. I'd also add Diane Keaton, but her character was written so badly that I don't think any actor could've saved it.

 

[Ilov80s]

Ugh even Claude Raines or George Saunders would have been better

Charles Boyer would have been interesting.

Great call. Vincent Price too.

 

[Pip's Invitation]

Honestly, Mark Hamill was a pretty terrible actor in 1977. That didn’t matter to me seeing Star Wars for the first time at age 6, but it’s pretty noticeable when I’ve rewatched it as an adult.

During one of its re-releases in the theater, I sat behind a group that made fun of him the whole time.

 

[UncleZen]

I’m told that The Family Stone is a good movie. I can’t stand Sarah Jessica* Parker so I hated the movie. Since others find it good, I presume she ruined it for me then.

*My disdain for SJP is wholly irrational. Just one of those rare circumstances where I inexplicably don’t like another person. I could watch her donating to cancer research or helping an orphan with his homework and I’d still somehow be annoyed by her.

I am not a fan of SJP but I thought she nailed this role.

 

[scoobus]

Christopher Walken in Dune seemed very out of place.

 

[Ilov80s]

Honestly, Mark Hamill was a pretty terrible actor in 1977. That didn’t matter to me seeing Star Wars for the first time at age 6, but it’s pretty noticeable when I’ve rewatched it as an adult.

During one of its re-releases in the theater, I sat behind a group that made fun of him the whole time.

He is bad, he gets better as the series goes on but that original performance was rough. Lucas didn't do him much help though with the ridiculous things he has to say and how sulky he is supposed to be.

 

[Pip's Invitation]

Honestly, Mark Hamill was a pretty terrible actor in 1977. That didn’t matter to me seeing Star Wars for the first time at age 6, but it’s pretty noticeable when I’ve rewatched it as an adult.

During one of its re-releases in the theater, I sat behind a group that made fun of him the whole time.

He is bad, he gets better as the series goes on but that original performance was rough. Lucas didn't do him much help though with the ridiculous things he has to say and how sulky he is supposed to be.

Agreed. But there’s a reason why Hamill found his calling as a voice actor and Harrison Ford went on to have the career he did.

 

[Ilov80s]

I have always imagined a world where Star Wars was made a few years earlier and with Redford as Luke and Newman as Solo. I don't think Redford could have sold any of those dumb lines either though.

 

[snogger]

I'm going with Tom Hanks in the Dan Brown book to movies. He just didn't fit the role from the books in my opinion.
Not sure who'd I replace him with.

 

[Ilov80s]

Honestly, Mark Hamill was a pretty terrible actor in 1977. That didn’t matter to me seeing Star Wars for the first time at age 6, but it’s pretty noticeable when I’ve rewatched it as an adult.

During one of its re-releases in the theater, I sat behind a group that made fun of him the whole time.

He is bad, he gets better as the series goes on but that original performance was rough. Lucas didn't do him much help though with the ridiculous things he has to say and how sulky he is supposed to be.

Agreed. But there’s a reason why Hamill found his calling as a voice actor and Harrison Ford went on to have the career he did.

It was a stroke of luck/genius to get Sir Alex Guiness for Obi Wan and James Earl Jones for Vader. They have to sell the serious stakes of the movie and the silly Jedi lore. Those 2 actors just have such presence it makes the world seem real.

 

[Don Quixote]

I get bothered by bad accents a bit too much. Cameron Diaz in Gangs of New York and Kevin Costner in Thirteen Days come to mind. Not really sure who would be good to replace.

 

[Ilov80s]

I get bothered by bad accents a bit too much. Cameron Diaz in Gangs of New York and Kevin Costner in Thirteen Days come to mind. Not really sure who would be good to replace.

The answer is probably just reunite the 2 Titanic stars and put Kate Winslet in it. Cameron Diaz just looks too modern, she doesn't work in period pieces. Totally agree with this call.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Edward Furlong did his best to sink Terminator 2. But the movie's awesomeness was sufficient to overcome.

Yep he is annoying but like you said the rest of the movie is great enough to carry him. I guess Leo would have been the obvious choice to replace him though I don't know how good of an actor Leo actually was in 1991.

Actually, all the Terminator movies (except the first) are victims of bad casting
T2 - Furlong

T3 - Nick Stahl. He's both lightweight and terrible. I still like the movie though

Salvation - Christian Bale - yes, I think he's bad in that show

Genisys - Both Emilia Clarke and Jai Courtney are bad. With the latter, that's a given.

Dark Fate - All of them. Every single one. That's the worst casting I think I've ever seen.

 

[Encyclopedia Brown]

Kevin Costner in Thirteen Days come to mind

Costner in that flick and John Malkovich in "Rounders" both somehow make over-the-top accents work for their characters. Not necessarily authentic sounding, but they work.

 

[Yo Mama]

I like The Accountant despite Ben Afflec, not because of him.