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Roles that feel a bit miscast

Started by Clownbaby, September 11, 2018, 11:00:31 AM

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Clownbaby

I don't know how many people would agree with me on this but Tamsin Greig just doesn't feel right in Black Books. I don't know why, something about her acting and her vibe/face has never gelled with the rest of the show for me. It's another Jen from IT Crowd situation.

Megan Boone seems way off base to play Elizabeth Keen in The Blacklist. The character is defined as being quite tough, troubled with lots of unanswered questions about her family and childhood, and in the first episode she profiles herself and says that people are intimidated by her and see her as bitchy. Why they picked a soft-faced bambi-eyed perfectly mascara'd and lipglossed very average and non-intense actress to play this character is anyone's guess. Seeing her beat up mercenaries and grill criminals is never convincing. Pretty sure everyone just watches it for James Spader anyway.

Pretty much everyone in the remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Julia Davis seemed really awkward and unnatural in the Brass Eye special. I'm not really sure what kind of news-ghoul persona she was trying to go for, it wasn't clear

Courtney Cox as Monica in Friends always feels a bit uneasy with the rest of the cast for some reason. I can't put my finger on why. She's not terribly expressive or funny. She's kind of likeable but there's a chilliness there as well. She doesn't feel like "main cast" material. I don't like Lisa Kudrow either but she does at least feel correct in her role.

Also I like Better off Ted, but I can absolutely see why it was cut short before it got going. Jay Harrington and Andrea Sanders are likeable and do the job but they're not special. Everyone else I don't have a problem with, but these two as the heart of the show was a mistake I think.







a duncandisorderly

I thought TG was great in 'black books'. she reminded me of someone I worked with, & I suppose that may've helped. the fact that she was as eccentric as moran's character, instead of just being the standard normal person foil for his idiosyncracies added to the charm of the programme; I always had a problem when there was a customer in the shop reacting as a normal person would to his antics.

popcorn

I keep saying this but I can't stand the lass who plays Rey in the new Star Warses. Rey's an orphan, a scavenger raised on a desert planet. She should be scrappy and feral, a street urchin with fire and wit, a little bit dangerous. We ought to believe she could turn to the dark side. Instead we get a nice inoffensive Oxbridge princess.

Clownbaby

Quote from: popcorn on September 11, 2018, 11:06:39 AM
I keep saying this but I can't stand the lass who plays Rey in the new Star Warses. Rey's an orphan, a scavenger raised on a desert planet. She should be scrappy and feral, a street urchin with fire and wit, a little bit dangerous. We ought to believe she could turn to the dark side. Instead we get a nice inoffensive Oxbridge princess.

Yeah I agree. Nobody ever agrees with me though about this so I've stopped bringing it up!

Clownbaby

Quote from: a duncandisorderly on September 11, 2018, 11:03:53 AM
I thought TG was great in 'black books'. she reminded me of someone I worked with, & I suppose that may've helped. the fact that she was as eccentric as moran's character, instead of just being the standard normal person foil for his idiosyncracies added to the charm of the programme; I always had a problem when there was a customer in the shop reacting as a normal person would to his antics.

Oh yeah I agree that it's a good thing that the character isn't just a serious foil and has her own eccentricities. I just kind of wish she was played by someone else. Nowt against Tamsin Greig in particular mind you.

popcorn

Quote from: Clownbaby on September 11, 2018, 11:08:59 AM
Yeah I agree. Nobody ever agrees with me though about this so I've stopped bringing it up!

That hasn't been my strategy. I've been bringing it up for years and finally someone has agreed with me. Never give up, it could happen to you too.

Sebastian Cobb

As someone in here put it, Gosling is unbelievable in Drive because he's about as intimidating as, and looks vaguely like, Rodney Trotter.

Clownbaby

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on September 11, 2018, 11:50:18 AM
As someone in here put it, Gosling is unbelievable in Drive because he's about as intimidating as, and looks vaguely like, Rodney Trotter.

Oh my god he does.

sevendaughters

- Neil Stuke in Game On
- Emilia Clarke in Game of Thrones (miscast or bad acting? can't tell)
- Timothy Olyphant in Deadwood (I grow to like him but think he's a bit white bread)
- Steve Coogan in Sunshine (not hard-bitten enough imo)
- Amanda Abbington in Sherlock (all became very nudge nudge wink wink please help my bankrupt wife)


Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I like Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World a great deal and Michael Cera is a good comic actor. Having read the books though, I think he is not a great fit for the lead character. It's a pretty big plot point that Scott has rather too much self esteem. He's not the whiny underdog that Cera was typecast as.


samadriel

Yeah, I think Cera was a bit short on swagger to play Scott Pilgrim.  I enjoy him in the movie, but he's not all that Scott-like.

Wet Blanket

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on September 11, 2018, 11:50:18 AM
As someone in here put it, Gosling is unbelievable in Drive because he's about as intimidating as, and looks vaguely like, Rodney Trotter.

I thought the point of that character was that he looks like a fanny but is capable of booting your head in, like Alan Ladd in Shane.

Tom Cruise as supposed man mountain Jack Reacher on the other hand was a bit of a stretch.

a duncandisorderly


Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

He plays Chris Evans' character. For some reason though, he thought it'd be a good idea to play him as Chris Evans the ginger broadcaster.

mothman

Timothy Olyphant feels miscast in everything he's in. It's just his style I think. You owe thnking he really isn't the best person they could have got for Santa Clarita Diet. And yet it works and he's brilliant despite feeling wrong for the role. See also: Hitman. He's just downright bizarre in that. Supposedly this robotic assassin yet he's in this permanent good mood throughout.

neveragain

Re: Julia Davis in the Brass Eye Special, it's always irked me as she should fit perfectly into that world. I think it's the character choices (bit unsure, nervous) that take you away from the main slick broadcasting spoof. What sort of broadcaster is she meant to be? If she was supposed to have come straight from presenting children's TV and that was reflected more clearly it might be better. I don't know. Valise Belcher, that's her name.
Of course there are other problems with the Special but it's not the apocalypse that some critics make out.

I will also stick up for Tamsin Grieg but can understand how Fran could be annoying.

Coogan's great in Sunshine as well. Underrated mini-series.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Christopher Eccleston in Doctor Who. There was nothing wrong with his performance when required to play it straight, but the man just cannot do comedy. He always looked so awkward and strained whenever he attempted a bit of the old grinning whimsicality.

The role of the Doctor requires an actor who's entirely comfortable switching between drama and comedy, often in the space of a single scene. Christopher Eccleston isn't capable of that.

Quote from: neveragain on September 11, 2018, 04:51:17 PM
Coogan's great in Sunshine as well. Underrated mini-series.

I didn't have a problem with his performance in that either.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: mothman on September 11, 2018, 04:24:43 PM
Timothy Olyphant feels miscast in everything he's in. It's just his style I think. You owe thinking he really isn't the best person they could have got for Santa Clarita Diet. And yet it works and he's brilliant despite feeling wrong for the role.
I'm not sure what you mean, unless you just didn't expect him to be any good at comedy. He's the best one in Santa Clarita Diet.
Also, while I've not read any of the stories he appears in, I can't imagine any other contemporary actor making a better Raylen Givens.

mr. logic

Steve Buscemi in Boardwalk Empire. But then there was something not quite right about that entire show.

sevendaughters

just didn't feel like the right person. should have probably been Craig Cash or someone like Timothy Spall. he did well, it was a decent series, just felt a bit miscast.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Apparently the original choice for Nucky Thomson was James Gandolfini, but then he went and died. I would have thought John Goodman would have made a more obvious replacement.

Gulftastic

Quote from: mr. logic on September 11, 2018, 06:20:19 PM
Steve Buscemi in Boardwalk Empire. But then there was something not quite right about that entire show.

It was the focus on Atlantic City, when Capone, Luciano, Lansky and Rothstien were all far more interesting.

AsparagusTrevor

Quote from: sevendaughters on September 11, 2018, 12:08:26 PM- Emilia Clarke in Game of Thrones (miscast or bad acting? can't tell)

Definitely bad acting. Like a lot of GoT actresses she was cast to look pretty and get her boobs out when needed, so in that respect she was perfectly cast. However when she got meatier dialogue her acting limitations showed. She enunciates well enough I suppose.

Thomas

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on September 11, 2018, 06:06:26 PM
Christopher Eccleston in Doctor Who. There was nothing wrong with his performance when required to play it straight, but the man just cannot do comedy. He always looked so awkward and strained whenever he attempted a bit of the old grinning whimsicality.

Arguably he was awkward and strange because he was lying to others - and himself - about his feelings following the Time War. 'Yeah, dead happy me. Totally content. Look at me bop my head to Tainted Love. Oh, god, I've killed my friends and family.'

I think he does some of the smaller whimsical moments very well - see his chat with that cat in 'The Empty Child', his interaction the rabble of orphaned kids around the dinner table, his gleeful declaration that 'everybody lives', and even his dad dancing in the TARDIS (hmm, there's some sort of link between all of these examples) - but I am glad he left the show before the Ghostbusters moment.

Mister Six

Quote from: mothman on September 11, 2018, 04:24:43 PM
Timothy Olyphant feels miscast in everything he's in. It's just his style I think.

He was perfect in Justified.

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on September 11, 2018, 06:06:26 PM
Christopher Eccleston in Doctor Who. There was nothing wrong with his performance when required to play it straight, but the man just cannot do comedy. He always looked so awkward and strained whenever he attempted a bit of the old grinning whimsicality.

I think it worked for that Doctor though - a broken war veteran and (he thinks) genocidal killer who is desperately trying to return to his more carefree, time-travelling life. As an exception to your otherwise correct rule, I think it was an acceptable novelty.

Quote from: popcorn on September 11, 2018, 11:06:39 AM
I keep saying this but I can't stand the lass who plays Rey in the new Star Warses. Rey's an orphan, a scavenger raised on a desert planet. She should be scrappy and feral, a street urchin with fire and wit, a little bit dangerous. We ought to believe she could turn to the dark side. Instead we get a nice inoffensive Oxbridge princess.

The twist in the next one is that she's the daughter of Keira Knightley from The Phantom Menace.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

You could I suppose argue that her RP diction is an affectation, related to her fantasy of having important parents. I'd be surprised to hear her to go all working class hero in the next one though.

Quote from: samadriel on September 11, 2018, 01:13:06 PM
Yeah, I think Cera was a bit short on swagger to play Scott Pilgrim.  I enjoy him in the movie, but he's not all that Scott-like.
Swagger. That's a good word for it.

Speaking of Cera, I initially thought it was him in the title role of that new Spider-Man game. It's not, but I actually thought he could have made for an inspired choice for the role in the films. He would at least have made for a more convincingly nerdy Peter Parker than Andrew Garfield did.

Keebleman

Quote from: mr. logic on September 11, 2018, 06:20:19 PM
Steve Buscemi in Boardwalk Empire. But then there was something not quite right about that entire show.

Absolutely.  The role required a man with a convincingly sexy charisma.  Now, of course Buscemi is very famous and successful and has in real life been an actual firefighter, but his fame is based around playing weedy little schnurks, weedy little schnurks with ferocious tempers on occasion maybe, but a whole different species from the omni-competent, fearsome and attractive guy Nucky is conceived as being.  I always thought that Buscemi seemed as bewildered by his casting as I was.

I think Robert Shaw is miscast as Quint in Jaws.  Shaw reminds me of Oliver Reed or Nicol Williamson: a namby-pamby actor who likes to strike macho poses, but you know you could break him in half.  I wish they'd held out for Lee Marvin or, better yet, Sterling Hayden.

Large Noise

Billy Bob Thornton in Fargo. The role required someone physically intimidating. BBT looks like a frail 130lbs.

Bad Ambassador

Quote from: Keebleman on September 13, 2018, 03:54:01 AM
Shaw reminds me of Oliver Reed or Nicol Williamson: a namby-pamby actor who likes to strike macho poses, but you know you could break him in half.

You don't know much about Oliver Reed, do you?