10 Actors Who Were Totally Miscast In Recent Movies

WhatCulture

These actors were all kinds of wrong for these roles.

Transcript

00:00Though most, if not all, of these actors are terrifically talented in their own right,

00:04not every actor is right for every project, as quickly became apparent to audiences within

00:09minutes of watching these movies. So, with that in mind, I'm Ellie for WhatCulture,

00:13and here are 10 actors who were totally miscast in recent movies.

00:17Number 10. Kevin Hart, Lift

00:19Netflix's recent heist comedy Lift stars Kevin Hart as Cyrus, a thief and the leader of a crack

00:25heist crew, in a surprisingly serious role that isn't a good fit for him. Like, at all.

00:30Hart clearly excels at playing the goofy comedian, and while he's shown himself to have dramatic

00:34range in other projects, the role of a suave con artist just isn't something he's naturally suited

00:39for. The script seems engineered to work against Hart's innate gifts, stripping away any sense of

00:45humour or charm in Cyrus, ensuring the part feels like it was written for somebody else entirely,

00:50namely an actor more attuned to playing the straight man. This miscasting is all the more bizarre given

00:54that Hart was a producer on the film, and so we can presume he clearly wanted to try something

00:59different, but alas, it was to no avail. Number 9. Chris Pratt, The Garfield Movie

01:04The moment that Chris Pratt was announced to be voicing Garfield in The Garfield Movie,

01:09many fans cried, miscast, feeling that Pratt didn't seem remotely well-suited to play the lazy,

01:14lethargic, lasagna-loving cat. Rather, it seemed like Pratt was cast purely because he's a household

01:19name with proven success in animated fare like The Lego Movie and The Super Mario Bros.

01:24movie, and ultimately, few were left persuaded by the end product, which indeed saw Pratt

01:29deliver a spirited, effervescent portrayal of Garfield, which felt rather at odds with

01:33who the character traditionally is. The prior live-action Garfield movies weren't good by

01:38any means. I mean, I beg to differ. Those films were my childhood. But at least they nailed the

01:42casting part by bringing in the relentlessly sardonic Bill Murray to do the character justice.

01:48Pratt is perfect to voice many characters, but one whose entire essence is his flattened expressiveness

01:52and generally dour demeanour? Not a chance. This was a miscast in the most cynical way possible,

01:58hiring a marketable A-lister to do a job that would have probably been better served by a character

02:02actor.

02:038. Jennifer Lopez – Atlas

02:05Not to add fuel to the J-Lo hay train that's been running wild this past year, but she was so

02:10thoroughly out of her element in Netflix's recent sci-fi dud, Atlas. Though Lopez has proven herself a

02:16solidly capable performer in both drama and comedy roles over the years, certainly for the standards

02:21of musicians turned actors anyway, it's extremely tough to buy her as a misanthropic data analyst with

02:27a deep distrust of AI in this movie. Granted, the script makes little attempt to take advantage of

02:33Lopez's innate charisma or physical athleticism, but it's painfully clear throughout that this lead role

02:38would have been better played by literally hundreds of A- and B-list actresses who seem a little less

02:43out of place in a sci-fi action flick. This isn't to say that J-Lo can't thrive in the action arena,

02:49but nothing about this film made her seem like a natural fit for it.

02:527. Yoann Griffith – Bad Boys Ride or Die

02:56Yoann Griffith plays a supporting role in the most recent Bad Boys film as mayoral candidate Adam

03:01Lockwood, who also happens to be the boyfriend of Captain Rita. Gee, do you think he's gonna be the

03:06secret villain or what? The problem here is that Griffith is so brilliant at playing smarmy,

03:11arrogant A-holes that he's basically become typecast in that role. And so when he showed up

03:15in this movie, it was painfully obvious he would be the mole that helped frame the late Captain

03:20Howard. In fact, Lockwood's villainy was so damn neon signposted, it seemed like the movie was primed

03:25to pull the rug out and just have him simply be a nice guy, but alas, that wasn't the case.

03:29Griffith can play these types of roles in his sleep, so perhaps it's more that he was too well cast for

03:35his own good, enough that it sank the entire twist. Casting an actor better known for playing more

03:39likeable characters would have definitely been the way to go here.

03:42Number 6. Jessica Alba, Trigger Warning

03:45Jessica Alba is certainly no stranger to action, but her work in recent Netflix action A Trigger

03:50Warning leaves much to be desired. Alba plays Special Forces Officer Parker, who returns to her

03:56hometown and wages war on a violent gang terrorising the locals. As a meat and potatoes genre schlock set

04:01up, it has potential. To see Alba kicking ass as a crappy commando? I mean, why the hell not?

04:06But Alba's stilted, even downright boring performance robs the film of much sense of fun.

04:11There's little visceral intensity to the action beat, which should have emphasised her scrappy

04:16intelligence in fending off men much larger than herself. And when it comes to the dialogue,

04:20Alba often sounds totally bored. Perhaps she was going for coolly stoic, but this is a movie that

04:25desperately needed a ferocious lead actress to elevate the uninspired material, and Alba just wasn't it.

04:31Number 5. Ryan Reynolds' If. Given his popularity, it's little surprise that Hollywood wants to cast

04:37Ryan Reynolds in everything it possibly can. But his performance in John Krasinski's If proves how

04:43even he can be aggressively miscast. Reynolds plays Cal, a man who works with the imaginary friends to

04:49place them with new children once their original children have grown up and moved on. It's rather

04:53fitting that the entire film has an air of Steven Spielberg's hook about it, because you know what

04:58if, and especially the character of Cal, could have used some of that manic Robin Williams energy.

05:04Despite his penchant for playing energetic motor mouths, Reynolds really doesn't have the mirth or

05:08earnestness to play this part well. Without an array of sarcastic barbs to rip through,

05:13Reynolds seems lost as Cal, bringing bafflingly little heart or warmth to a role that desperately

05:18needed both in order to pay off emotionally.

05:20Number 4. Andy McDowell, Red Right Hand.

05:23Red Right Hand stars Orlando Bloom as Cash, a man who runs afoul of local kingpin Big Cat.

05:29And while the prospect of seeing Andy McDowell playing hugely against type in a savagely

05:33villainous role certainly had potential, the movie really only proves why she's so rarely

05:38cast in parts like this. McDowell fails to bring the resolute menace necessary to make the role work,

05:44and given that she's the movie's overarching antagonist, that's obviously a huge problem.

05:48Props to her for trying to break out of her comfort zone at this stage in her career,

05:51but somewhere along the line, someone should have faced facts, that she just doesn't have

05:55the gravitas as a performer to pull this kind of ruthless character off, especially when

06:00she's front and centre. Ultimately, you're more likely to laugh at McDowell's crime matriarch

06:04than feel intimidated by her presence, which really says it all.

06:07Number 3. Chris Pine, Pool Man.

06:10The case of Chris Pine's miscasting in recent mystery comedy Pool Man is all the more bizarre

06:14given that the film was also written and directed by him.

06:17Pine plays Darren, a slacker pool cleaner who gets caught up in a Chinatown-esque conspiracy

06:22relating to property, politics, and water. As a clear homage to not only Chinatown, but also

06:27the Big Lebowski, Pine evidently wanted to cast himself as a modern riff on Jeff Bridges' The Dude,

06:32a goofy himbo who gets in way over his head. And yet the film never once persuades that this role

06:37plays to Pine's strengths. Sure, Pine has proven himself a fine comic actor in the past, but this

06:43material does nothing for him whatsoever, leaving him to give a shapeless performance as a character

06:47who isn't nearly as charming as Pine seemingly thinks he is. To Pine's credit, though, he does

06:52seem to have taken the near-universal critical scorn in good humour.

06:56Number 2. Sydney Sweeney, Madam Web.

06:59Granted, you could argue that most of Madam Web's main casts are hilariously miscast,

07:03especially Dakota Johnson and Adam Scott, but nobody feels more out of place here than Sydney Sweeney.

07:09Sweeney plays Julia, a 16-year-old teenage girl, a sentence one can barely get through

07:14without laughing. 26-year-old Sweeney, who has thus far made a career out of playing mature

07:19young women, simply can't pass muster as a high schooler, and the fact that the filmmakers

07:24even tried is honestly weird at best. Furthermore, the attempts to age her down, namely by giving

07:30her large glasses, a miniskirt, and thigh-high socks, only draw further attention to how awkward

07:35she looks in the part. Obviously, Sweeney was cast because she's one of the most high-profile

07:39rising actresses in Hollywood right now, even though it was a part that she was totally wrong

07:44for.

07:44Number 1. Christopher Walken, Dune Part 2.

07:47Many were understandably excited when Christopher Walken was cast as the villainous Emperor

07:52Shaddam IV in Dune Part 2, that such a statuesque acting legend would be portraying one of the

07:57most important characters in the epic sci-fi saga. But then the movie came out, and Walken's

08:02performance proved majorly polarizing with audiences, as many felt that his subdued

08:06work failed to translate the dangerous cunning of the character from the source text. It just

08:11felt a bit flat, and the fact that Walken spoke in his typical Queen's twang didn't

08:15much help either.

08:16Some fans have defended Walken's lethargic turn as an intentional attempt to underline

08:21that the Emperor isn't really supposed to live up to the hype, but ultimately it felt

08:25more like Walken got driven to set, rattled his lines off for a take or two, and then went

08:29straight home. Given the baggage that an actor as iconic as Walken brings with him to serious

08:33roles like this, Denis Villeneuve was probably better off casting an actor who the audience

08:37has a less set in stone perception of.

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