Worst Lead Role Casting Decision

Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher



They couldn't have got further away from the character in the Lee Child books than Cruise.

In the book Reacher is 6'5" 250lb with hands like shovels, not a 5'4" 90lb midget with the hands of a schoolgirl!

One of the Harmsworths or Jason Momoa would have been better.

Hopefully the mooted TV series will be more like the books.

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A movie I’ve seen recently that could fit into this category is ‘Locke’ with Tom Hardy. Controversial because a lot of people like this film, I just don’t feel a physcial actor should be sitting in a car for the entirety of a movie. Hardy is a top actor when he’s moving, in the same bracket as Harrison Ford and say a Keanu Reeves type. I don’t think he’s good at accents or facial movements which are key in this type of film. His accent is Welsh in some scenes, Russian in others and maybe even a tinge of American it was off putting. Hardy received high praise for this movie but I feel he was miscast.

Well made movie and decent visuals given the obvious restrictions. I would have liked a Sam Rockwell, type where they can be very emotive with their dialogue and facial expressions. British film so maybe a Tom Hiddlestone, or Eddie Redmayne.

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Keanu Reeves in Dracula.

Not exactly an accurate description of Tom Cruise.

I thought he was fine in this rôle.

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Oh alright...5'3" 74lbs with hands like a Barbie Doll.

Is that better?

Agreed. Tom Hardy is convincing as a construction manager, a father and a bad husband, which is the most important thing. Besides, it was refreshing to not only see him in a relatively normal role, i.e. not a supervillain or psychopathic criminal, but that he pulled it off.

My answer is Ryan O'Neal in The Driver. It's a really good movie, but it would have been even better with someone who was a better fit for that part. I mean, imagine Steve McQueen or Charles Bronson in that role. It would be considered a classic.

Isn't it already kinda a classic? I imagine McQueen would be well suited to it, but when it comes to films where the main character is a bit of a cypher, Ryan O'Neil's lack of expressiveness can come in handy, just as it does in Barry Lyndon (his empty headedness is put to good use there as well)

Having just rewatched Moonrise Kingdom, which is slowly becoming what I believe to be the best film Wes Anderson has ever done, Bruce Willis just doesn't work in that universe for me. It's no like he's bad, but he definitely takes me out of the film.

Don't forget Winona Ryder as well.
Actually, Winona Ryder in anything really.

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Funnily enough, Dragonheart was on telly the other day...

Dennis Quaid and Dina Meyer are so miscast it's almost funny to watch.
They seem to change accents from American, to Irish, to almost Norwegian and then something akin to Welsh.

David Thewlis is also completely off tone as well.

I agree with him being a good fit for Barry Lyndon. I just feel like someone more hardened would have been a better fit for the driver, not to mention someone with more charisma, screen presence and who's well, cool.

I LOVED Locke myself

You could be right. O'Neil is decidedly uncool, and I haven't seen the movie recently enough to remember if that's an essential ingredient. I imagine it very well could be, considering the director.

The first thing that popped into my head when I saw the title of this thread was Will Ferrell in Bewitched...Jim Carrey should have played that part.

It's strange because the obvious answer is Reeves but having seen it recently the whole thing felt like a Coppola (teen-angst-post APN) production made for the MTV/grunge era which Keanu fits perfectly

Yeah, true, but it was all worth it to see Tom Waits as Renfield.

John Wayne as the Mongol, Genghis Kahn? What could possibly be wrong about that? Maybe John Wayne as the Roman soldier in The Greatest Story Ever Told?

Oddly, I thought that Reeves worked in Dracula, even though he was kind of Americanized. If you read the book, Harker really IS kind of clueless and shallow, a pose that works pretty well for Keanu.

I had 'cast' my movie version of Bewitched long before the movie came out. I always thought Jim Carrey was the perfect Darrin Stephens (Dick York) and Katey Sagal would've been a great Endora. Of course that was back in the day, not now.