Worst Casting Choices?

[zhris]

Since superheores are well established, when we hear about so-and-so being cast for a particular role, we ('we' being comic fans) usually have an opinion formed in about a nanosecond. I'm sure most of you shared my reaction to Heath Ledger being cast as the Joker: "WTF?" Which quickly turned to "Oh. My. God." In that case, it worked; often, it doesn't. Who do you think did the worst job at accurately portraying their character?

My vote: Jim Carrey's Riddler. He turned Nygma from a shrewd, calculating egomaniac to a flamboyant raving Joker-wannabe. Did he ever read a comic?

[Kirby101]

Jesse Eisenberg as Luthor. Complete miscasting.
Maggie Gyllendhal replaces Katie Holmes.

[Zero Hunter]

Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. Just drags the film down every time he is one screen with his over the top "I am in a comic book movie so I have to act crazy" routine. I still can not believe some one did not watch the dailys of him hamming it up as Luthor and pull Synder to the side and say "You realize a huge hunk of the audience is going to hate this performance don't you?". Honestly out of all the flaws BvS had his performance is the one I hated the most even over the plots holes.

[Totoro Man]

Jesse Eisenberg as Luthor. Complete miscasting.
Maggie Gyllendhal replaces Katie Holmes.

since Rachel Dawes was a new character that only existed for those films I didn't feel like there was any disservice to the character being done. Gyllenhall's a better actor than Holmes anyways.

Eisenberg should never have been Luthor. that was just a train-wreck waiting to happen.

Carrey as the Riddler was really bad. it's like he was trying to out-Gorshin the original Frank Gorshin-- and that's a bad idea! once you move past Schumacher's destined-to-fail premise for the character Carrey wasn't a completely horrible choice. it just looks worse in retrospect because John Glover had already nailed the character down perfectly on BTAS and had a solid career acting in live-action films and television. would have much preferred to see him try out a live-action version of Riddler instead of Carrey.

[zhris]

Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. Just drags the film down every time he is one screen with his over the top "I am in a comic book movie so I have to act crazy" routine. I still can not believe some one did not watch the dailys of him hamming it up as Luthor and pull Synder to the side and say "You realize a huge hunk of the audience is going to hate this performance don't you?". Honestly out of all the flaws BvS had his performance is the one I hated the most even over the plots holes.

I don't think I've ever seen a 'good' version of Luthor on film. Hackman thought he was on the 60s Batman show, Spacey was just being Spacey, and Eisenberg... yeah.

I heard someone suggest Bryan Cranston, and after I thought about it for a minute I think he'd be damn near perfect. Heisenberg basically *was* Luthor.

[master of read]

agreed on eisenberg as luthor. i don't hate the guy. i actually think he's a good actor and he really could've made the role his own like ledger did for the joker but instead............sigh.

also, tommy lee jones as two face. while carrey wasn't the best choice for riddler, he at least showed some of nygma's manic genius in his actions. jones, OTOH, should not have been dent. he lacked any of the duality that made two face such a great character.

arnold as mr. freeze. you can not play such a tragic character when he's throwing out ice puns, singing show tunes, and wearing polar bear slippers.

[RikWriter]

Have to agree with Eisenberg as Luthor. Though I don't know if it was his acting style or the direction that ruined that character.

[Captain Haddock]

agreed on eisenberg as luthor. i don't hate the guy. i actually think he's a good actor and he really could've made the role his own like ledger did for the joker but instead............sigh.

also, tommy lee jones as two face. while carrey wasn't the best choice for riddler, he at least showed some of nygma's manic genius in his actions. jones, OTOH, should not have been dent. he lacked any of the duality that made two face such a great character.

arnold as mr. freeze. you can not play such a tragic character when he's throwing out ice puns, singing show tunes, and wearing polar bear slippers.

That wasn't (just) bad casting though, that was the whole gamut from the script to the directing to the performance, only the last of those can you really lay on Ahnold. If you look at some of the stuff he's done in more recent times he probably could do a decent job of playing Freeze straight, as a stoic, cold type where Arnie's... limited range... wouldn't be a huge drawback.

[eckesg1]

I disagree with Jim Carrey's Riddler. The only on screen version of the Riddler up to that point was Frank Gorshin's manic Riddler from Batman '66.

Carrey was portraying a version of that. However, I will say that Gorshin could also be menacing which Carrey did not pull off. But I could understand what they were going for. I'm not going to judge John Glover because voice talent and live action could be totally separate. For example, Mark Hamill probably couldn't play the JOker in live action.

As for Eisenberg as Luthor, I tend to believe that that was more direction of character rather than actor. Which is one thing that the UC can't change.

[simbob4000]

Jesse Eisenberg wasn't miscast, they just have him doing stupid shit in that movie. They've also got him play two completely different characters for some bizzare reason.

Jim Carry was great as that version of the Riddler. I'm not even sure what the point of asking if he read the comic even is, that movies version of the character clearly isn't the version in your head.

[eckesg1]

I will, to be fair to both sides, Ben Kingsley for the fake Mandarin, simply because he was the Fake Mandarin. Turned this great actor into a sniveling mess of a man. If the role was the real Mandarin, great move.

I will also say and I know this was before she became the Black Cat, but Felicity Jones as Felicia Hardy. Not great for me

[Kirby101]

since Rachel Dawes was a new character that only existed for those films I didn't feel like there was any disservice to the character being done. Gyllenhall's a better actor than Holmes anyways.

Eisenberg should never have been Luthor. that was just a train-wreck waiting to happen.

Carrey as the Riddler was really bad. it's like he was trying to out-Gorshin the original Frank Gorshin-- and that's a bad idea! once you move past Schumacher's destined-to-fail premise for the character Carrey wasn't a completely horrible choice. it just looks worse in retrospect because John Glover had already nailed the character down perfectly on BTAS and had a solid career acting in live-action films and television. would have much preferred to see him try out a live-action version of Riddler instead of Carrey.

My problem with Gyllenhal was she was so different from Holmes that I didn't feel they were the same character. If she was in "Begins" it would have been fine. But Nolan should have found an actress that at least resembled Holmes.

[sneakyflute]

People are confusing miscast with "actor playing the director's idea of a character." Jim Carrey is fully capable of playing a sinister character but it's a Tim Burton movie for crying out loud. Jesse Eisenberg has delivered some great nuanced performances. It's not his fault that they had him play some annoyingly eccentric mad man in Batman Vs Superman.

[KCJ506]

People are confusing miscast with "actor playing the director's idea of a character." Jim Carrey is fully capable of playing a sinister character but it's a Tim Burton movie for crying out loud. Jesse Eisenberg has delivered some great nuanced performances. It's not his fault that they had him play some annoyingly eccentric mad man in Batman Vs Superman.

Exactly. I mean one person in this thread said that Tommy Lee Jones shouldn't have been cast as Two-Face. The way Two-Face was portrayed in Batman Forever wasn't his fault. He could have actually made a good Two-Face if the character was written the way he usually is. I mean during the first few moments of his screentime, he actually does act like Two-Face. Then he suddenly turns into a Joker clone and was like that for the rest of the movie.

[Kirby101]

People are confusing miscast with "actor playing the director's idea of a character." Jim Carrey is fully capable of playing a sinister character but it's a Tim Burton movie for crying out loud. Jesse Eisenberg has delivered some great nuanced performances. It's not his fault that they had him play some annoyingly eccentric mad man in Batman Vs Superman.

You are correct, except it was a Joel Schumacher movie, which explains a lot. And Eisenberg was the wrong actor for that character with the wrong direction.