Bad Performances VS Bad Casting

Would love to start a discussion on this subject that will stay on topic and maybe initiate a couple of lively discussions...I was wondering if others beside myself feel there is a difference between an actor giving a bad performance and an actor being miscast. Sometimes an actor being miscast can be perceived as a bad performance, but miscasting is so hard to overcome and can easily be interpreted as bad acting...a couple of examples of each off the top of my head:

Bad Casting:

John Wayne in The Conqueror

Diana Ross in The Wiz

Eric Bana in Funny People

Gary Cooper in Love in the Afternoon

Katharine Hepburn in Spitfire

Barbra Streisand in Hello Dolly!


Bad Performances:

Patty Duke in Valley of the Dolls

Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's

Elvis Presley in Loving You

Sylvester Stallone in Rhinestone


Please feel free to comment on some of these or post your own examples.

This reminds me of a similar thread we had going a few years ago about bad casting mistakes. That thread has some good examples.

__________________
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

There were some good examples there...I had forgotten about Burt Lancaster in Apache.

Another great thread, Gideon. You certainly come up with some really interesting ideas and I'm totally jealous! No, I kid, I kid!

This is a difficult one for me, differentiating bad casting and bad performances. Sometimes the lines blur, but I'll give it a shot. Hmm...

I will say that I think you're totally right on with Sylvester Stallone in Rhinestone. In fact, I totally revile anything about that movie. I'd forgotten all about it. Why did you remind me??!!

Bad Casting:
William Hurt in Gorky Park

Will Farrell in Bewitched

Halle Berry in Catwoman

Robert Vaughn in Superman III

Burt Reynolds in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas



Bad Performances:
Jane Fonda in The Electric Horseman

Sally Field in Steel Magnolias

Madonna in A League of Their Own

Mark Wahlberg in The Big Hit

Michael Caine in Jaws:The Revenge

__________________
"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

I think you're right.

I'll second Robert Vaughn in Superman III, but disagree regarding Halle Berry...that was great casting on paper, but the screenplay and the performance just didn't aid in the performance, I would have put her under Bad Performances. I also totally disagree regarding Sally Field...I think she gives the best performance in the film, but you are certainly entitled to your opinions and thank you for sharing them.

I think this constitutes both....

__________________
Under-the-radar Movie Awesomeness.
http://earlsmoviepicks.blogspot.com/

You're welcome. I will partially backtrack on Sally Field (whom I adore in most anything) but I think her breakdown at the cemetery is one of the worst examples of overacting I've ever seen. I've seen the movie twice, once at the cinema and once on video and I cringed both times. So my reasoning is based solely on that scene, which to me ruins anything she did previously in the film.

The deal with Halle Berry is what I was talking about with the lines blurring for me regarding the idea of this thread. I love the idea but I freely admit that sometimes the difference trips me up.

I keep thinking about Will Ferrell in Bewitched and can't make up my mind...first of all, the movie sucked and Ferrell had NO chemistry with Nicole Kidman, but that is not the subject of thread...I think with Ferrell it might have been both, which is very rare. I know if I had been casting a film version of Bewitched, I probably would have cast Jim Carrey as Darrin, but then again, Ferrell doesn't play Darrin in this movie, he plays an actor who has been cast as Darrin and I think that extra layer to the character might have had a lot to do with the performance's lack of effectiveness. On the other hand, Ferrell's performance was just scratching the surface of everything that was wrong with that movie.

I'm not a fan of Will Ferrell, in fact I dislike him so much that I usually avoid movies because of him, but surprisingly he didn't annoy me that much in Bewitched. I'm one of the few people who actually enjoyed the movie.

That's exactly who I thought of when the movie was announced! It would have been perfect if they'd just gone with making the movie a straight story dealing with a man married to a witch, Oh well, I'm getting away from the thread:

I love this next guy, despite him being a "smiley" on this site, and having made more than a few questionable choices of roles. But this one role really irritates me when I see it, so I'm going with "Bad Performance" on this one:

NIcolas Cage in Peggy Sue Got Married. I don't know what he was going for, but him constantly changing the tone and pitch of his voice throughout the movie was just weird. That's the main thing I remember about his performance but I think the whole job was pretty awful.

This is weird! Years before Bewitched came out I use to plan my dream cast for the movie. Jim Carrey hands down is the perfect Darrin. They not only physical look similar but Carrey has the same rubbery face-expression drive comedy style that Dick York did.

The rest of my cast would be: Katey Sagal as Endorra. Nicole Kidman as Samantha, you got admit she was a good Sam. And are you ready for this Will Ferrill with white hair as the goofy but slinky Larry Tate.

It would have been perfect if they'd just gone with making the movie a straight story dealing with a man married to a witch,



You hit the nail on the head here...this was the whole problem with the movie...the whole concept of making Ferrell and Kidman actors cast on the show and her just coincidentally being a witch is why the movie just didn't work for me.

The most messed up casting was The World is Not Enough.

You've got the smart looking chick playing the ditzy airhead heiress, and the denise richards playing the nerdy nuclear physicist. Wth.. Never seen a movie that so badly needed two actors to switch roles.

No argument that Denise Richards was a case of bad casting.

You're welcome. I will partially backtrack on Sally Field (whom I adore in most anything) but I think her breakdown at the cemetery is one of the worst examples of overacting I've ever seen. I've seen the movie twice, once at the cinema and once on video and I cringed both times. So my reasoning is based solely on that scene, which to me ruins anything she did previously in the film.

I would beseech you to look at a couple of different scenes...look at the scene in Truvy's salon where Shelby has her attack and M'lynne takes control of the situation and the scene where she tries to convince Shelby that having a child is not a good idea.

Nicolas Cage in Peggy Sue Got Married was definitely a case of a bad performance...Cage fit the character fine, but that voice...what was with that voice? I can't believe Uncle Francis was cool with that. Unless it was done to lessen the appeal of the character so that we would understand why his marriage to Peggy Sue ended, and if that's the case, epic succeed I guess.

Good thread!


I'm still steaming about Ben Affleck playing Jack Ryan in Sum of all Fears. I will respond again with more examples later when I have more time

Whaaaat? That's crazy talk I'm sure he will fit the part of batman as well as he fit jack ryan.....