Best casting choices vs. worst casting choices

Dreddful

Well-Known Member
Forgive me if this topic has already been discussed.

Let's have your top 3 casting choices and your bottom 3. I'm talking people you think were absolutely perfect for roles they were cast in and those who were...well...not so much.

I'll start.

Top
1) Christopher Reeve - Superman (no argument necessary)
2) Arnold Schwarzenegger - The Terminator (1 & 2 ONLY!)
3) Ben Affleck - Batman (to me he is perfect in the role)

Bottom
1) Jason Clark - John Connor
2) Jesse Eisenberg - Lex Luthor
3) Toby Maguire - Spiderman
 
Without repeating the already mentioned choices, and assuming that voice actors don't count...

Best:
1) Michael Rosenbaum - Lex Luthor (Smallville): Bringing Lex Luthor to life is arguably as difficult as Clark Kent or Bruce Wayne, and out of all the cast members of Smallville, Rosenbaum absolutely nailed it.
2) Kurt Russell - Sergeant Todd (Soldier): Dropping more emotion in a single look or gesture than most people can do in an entire film, Russell was at his absolute best in this movie.
3) A three way tie between Grant Gustin as Barry Allen, Melissa Benoist as Kara Danvers, and Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant. It's difficult to choose which one to go with.

Worst:
1) Sean Connery - August Winters (The Avengers): Look, I LOVE Connery, but this role was soooooo terrible.
2) Christian Bale - John Connor (Terminator Salvation): No. Just... no.
3) The entire cast of The Room: "Oh hai, Mark!"
 
Best
1.Ryan Reynolds Deadpool
2.Hugo Weaving The Red Skull
3.Clark Gable Rhett Butler

Worst
1.Emilio Estevez Men at Work
2.Henry Cavill Superman
3.John Travolta Faceoff
 
Best
1. Ron Perlman - Hellboy
2. Ian McKellan - Gandalf
3. Hugh Jackman - Wolverine
4. (Bonus Best!) Patrick Stewart - Jean-Luc Picard

Worst
1. Jennifer Garner - Elektra
...
Now I'm drawing a blank - I'll come back to this...
 
I'm trying to not judge the ROLE, so much as how the actor either elevated or destroyed it...

For example, I almost put Danny Devito for the Penguin, but no matter who was in that role, Burton would still have made it a gross, dirty onesie wearing, creeper.

BEST

Adam Driver - Kylo Ren (though I'm sure people will argue, heh)
Emilio Estevez - Billy The Kid (He'll ALWAYS be the one BTK)
Kristen Ritter - Jessica Jones (Simply cuz I had written her off til that role)

Don't wanna put Hugh Jackman cuz it was said, and is a given. Did the role so well, he's now officially WOLVERINE... It'll be hard to see anyone else do it. Plus he REALLY put his all into that role.

WORST

Jake Loyd - Anakin Skywalker (Come on... if you're gonna make him a kid, get a good actor. There have been AMAZING kid actors these last couple years)
Mike Meyers - whoever he was in Inglorious Basterds (I love Mike, but that character was straight outta Austin Powers)
Selma Hayak - Serendipity (Dogma - I loved this character in the script, but she just ruined it... same with Teresa De Taco in Sausage Party... her improv was painful to listen to)
 
Best:
Ian McKellan - Gandalf
Harrison Ford - Indiana Jones
Marlon Brando - Don Corleone

Worst:
John Travolta - everything post disco era


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BEST

Robert Downy Jr - Iron Man
Jeffrey Dean Morgan - Negan
Gary Oldman - Gordon

already said but
Hugh Jackman - Wolverine


Worst -
Oscar Issac - Apocalypse
 
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Without repeating the already mentioned choices, and assuming that voice actors don't count...

Best:
1) Michael Rosenbaum - Lex Luthor (Smallville): Bringing Lex Luthor to life is arguably as difficult as Clark Kent or Bruce Wayne, and out of all the cast members of Smallville, Rosenbaum absolutely nailed it.
2) Kurt Russell - Sergeant Todd (Soldier): Dropping more emotion in a single look or gesture than most people can do in an entire film, Russell was at his absolute best in this movie.
3) A three way tie between Grant Gustin as Barry Allen, Melissa Benoist as Kara Danvers, and Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant. It's difficult to choose which one to go with.

Worst:
1) Sean Connery - August Winters (The Avengers): Look, I LOVE Connery, but this role was soooooo terrible.
2) Christian Bale - John Connor (Terminator Salvation): No. Just... no.
3) The entire cast of The Room: "Oh hai, Mark!"

Good call on Rosenbaum! He was the best incarnation we have seen IMO.

The Room!!!!! Come on, it wouldn't be so great if it wasn't so horrible! "Hi doggy!"
 
I can only come up with two based on just watching Clear and Present Danger. I liked Raymond Cruz as Ding Chavez, but I thought that Willem Dafoe was not good as John Clark. I had Clark looking very different in my head.
 
Best.

1) Stallone- Rocky Balboa
2)Alan Rickman- Hans Gruber
3) Jake Gyllenhal- Loki (prisoners)
(bonus - Sharlto Copley - Wikus)

Worst
1) Ed Furlong - John Connor
2) Benedict Lumbersnatch- Khan
3) Jared Leto- Then Joker
 
Best: Hugh Jackman in....... Anything! Especially Wolverine.



Worst: Ben Affleck in......... Anything! Especially Dare Devil.
 
Worst: Ben Affleck in......... Anything! Especially Dare Devil.

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BEST:

Heath Ledger - The Joker
Robert Downey Jr. - Tony Stark
Harrison Ford - Han Solo (although I easily could have gone with Indy here as well)

WORST:

Jesse Eisenberg - Lex Luthor
George Clooney - Batman
Jeremy Renner - Aaron Cross aka Faux Jason Bourne
 
Is Jackman really a "best casting choice" for Wolverine? In hindsight... maybe. However, if you look at the actual character and its history, it's casting that doesn't make sense.

Jackman may've ended up being a great Wolverine (especially the last few movies) - but, was it great casting or more of an actor taking a role and making it his? I guess that, too, is an argument for great casting.
 
Best

Ewan mcgregor - Obi-wan kenobi (best thing to come from the prequels)
Andy serkis - Caesar
Viggo mortensen - Aragorn

Worst

Jesse eisenberg - Luthor
Anna paquin - Rogue
The cast of batman and robin
 
I'd like to list characters who haven't been mentioned yet:

BEST:
Sigourney Weaver - Ellen Ripley (Alien, Aliens, Alien 3)
John Colicos (Baltar, Classic Battlestar Galactica)
Burt Reynolds (Smokey and the Bandit)

Plus: Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock Holmes), Sean Connery (James Bond, especially Goldfinger & Fireball) & Johnny Depp (Captain Jack Sparrow)

WORST:
Dirk Benedict as killer in Charlie's Angels
Richard Eden (Robocop 3)
Burn Gorman (Owen Harper, Torchwood)
 
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I'd like to list characters who haven't been mentioned yet:
WORST:
Burn Gorman (Owen Harper, Torchwood)

I don't know if it was so much Gorman or the fact that the Owen Harper character was a piece of ****. I could not believe they had Gwen have an affair with him.
 
WORST:
1) Ed Furlong - John Connor

I can see how you might disagree with the way character was done in T2. But the actor? That kid was perfect for that character at that time.


WORST:
Jake Loyd - Anakin Skywalker (Come on... if you're gonna make him a kid, get a good actor. There have been AMAZING kid actors these last couple years)

Same thing. The kid was good, the character just needed rewriting. Have you ever watched outtakes of other kids they looked at? Lloyd was far and away better.


I think kids usually need to be written a little bit unrealistically. Audiences would get annoyed/bored with a 100% realistic kid in these big action movie roles.
 
I can see how you might disagree with the way character was done in T2. But the actor? That kid was perfect for that character at that time.




Same thing. The kid was good, the character just needed rewriting. Have you ever watched outtakes of other kids they looked at? Lloyd was far and away better.


I think kids usually need to be written a little bit unrealistically. Audiences would get annoyed/bored with a 100% realistic kid in these big action movie roles.
I agree. Jakes Lloyd does not deserve the hate for E1 Anakin Skywalker. That honor should go to George Lucas.

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