Actors who were seriously mis-cast as villians. Who get's your vote? (1 Viewer)

[Joe Szott]

I'll probably be in the minority here, but I think Gene Hackman as Lex Luther in Superman was miscast. He just doesn't come across as a real maniac, more like a really brilliant person trying very hard to be a bad guy. The movie was campy and not too serious, but I just never bought that Hackman was really very evil in that role. By Superman II they had even switched him to being a sorta/kinda halfway good guy against the superevil trio threatening Earth.

Not that Hackman can't pull off a great bad guy or isn't a A+++ actor, all you need see is Unforgiven to dismiss both those assertions at once.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

There was a show on UPN a while ago about a bunch of video game characters coming to life. (Does anyone remember this show? It wasn't very good.) On one of the episodes the villain was played by LeVar Burton.

 

[Alex Spindler]

Might immediate thought on seeing the thread title was Parker Posey in Blade Trinity. I've liked her in several roles, but she was just in the wrong movie.

Shane Brolly in Underworld was absolutely horrible as a 'leader' of the vampires.

It doesn't help that both movies were pretty well broken beyond just their villain casting choices.


As for people going against type and being inspired choices, Robin Williams easily comes to mind. I initially hated John C. McGinley as a villain. I remember early on being put off when McGinley started to show up in 'heavy' villain roles, but he really grew into it over time. It was probably the Dean Koontz adaptation Intensity that did it for me. Of course, he's put to great effect on the tv series Scrubs right now.

 

[Don_Limey]

Speaking of Robocop 3, I thought it was funny to see Stephen Root (Milton Waddams from Office Space) as Coontz who was a sub villian in the movie. He was the one that sold out the rebels to OCP for the all mighty dollar but then it was funny as he got killed & the ol Steve Martin lookalike said "At least we don't have to pay him"

 

[TheLongshot]

Actually, I thought the plot was relatively decent, it was some of the execution decisions that could have been better.

But I agree with you, that guy was Awful. I'm surprised that I forgot about him...

Jason

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Gary Oldman in anything :|





I kid, I kid

It wasn't Batman who was boring in the 1989 movie...it was the script. Batman is infinitely more interesting than most of his (albeit quite interesting themselves) villains. Just not in that film.

The great Shane Brolly Yes, that was abysmal beyond belief.

Ah-nuld already mentioned for the anti-film Batman and Robin...good.

Robert Patrick We all have opinions, but Patrick is incredible.

Most of the recent James Bond villains have been pretty poor. When Sophie Marceau is the best baddie in some time, you know it's slim pickings.

Interesting note on Steve Martin, Robin Williams, and Michael Keaton - these guys should be fantastic villains (and have been). One of my great pop culture theories is that comedians are easily the smartest and sharpest folks in the entertainment biz. These three were tops in that group. Everyone likes smart villains.

So could Sloth from The Goonies. Hardly a ringing endorsement

Take care,
Chuck

 

[Joe Szott]

Totally agree. Keaton as the 'renter from hell' in Pacific Heights is one of the best bad guys I've ever seen. You just loathe him by the time that movie is over. My wife and I sometimes joke that's what happens to Mr.Mom about 10 years after a messy divorce, hehe.

 

[Elias A.]

I can't believe no one has mentioned this one yet: Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. Worst casting choice ever.

 

[Tyler Gagnon]

I don't know his name but the villian from Die Hard 2, Come on this guy played on roseanne. How about John Lithgow in Cliffhanger....Waaaaaayyy over the top, I second John Travolta.... Not a good villian.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Tyler,
his names William Sadler and I thought he was great as Col. Stuart in Die Hard 2. The guy gleefully crashed and killed a whole plane of innocent people (on Christmas eve no less, bummer) just to make a point...the man was SERIOUS!

As for Anakin, Jake Lloyd was the mistake, not Hayden.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Joe,
I also agree regarding Gene Hackman as Lex. His status as one of our great actors aside, he just doesn't bring enough depth to that role. IMO Michael Rosenbaum embodies the complexities of Lex Luthor in a much more satisfying way on Smallville.

 

[Andy Sheets]

I don't regard any of the prequel actors as mistakes in casting. Considering how many of those actors are so good in anything not Star Wars (even Jake Lloyd has gotten good reviews on stuff), I figure there's something going wrong with the director, not the cast

 

[AlexCremers]

Exactly my feelings when I saw Hayden in 'Shattered Glass'. Magnificent part! It showed that with a little more guidance this guy truly blossoms.

You have to admit that of the final candidates Jake Lloyd was the best choice. It is true that he has that certain "naturalness" about him. But let's face it, when it comes to directing children, Lucas ain't no Spielberg. It must've been not easy for him, standing there in an green empty room with a director who's only instructions are, "Action", ... "Cut", and an occasional, "Let's do that again".

 

[Yee-Ming]

I gotta agree with John here, Sadler was brilliant as Col Stuart. Just watch him in DS9 as well, as Sloan of teh nefarious Section 31. I didn't see him in Roseanne, but what surprises me is that he plays the buffoon pretty well too -- can't remember what show it was, but he was a bumbling idiot in it and he really pulled it off, which surprised me since at that point I only knew him as the super-cold, super-efficient Col Stuart.

 

[Don_Limey]

Speaking of terrorist movies, I did not like Ed Harris (Brig. Gen. Francis X. Hummel) as the villian on The Rock, his role & what he did at the end is why I hate that movie so much. All of my friends think I am weird because I am the only one that doesn't like The Rock & Ed Harris role. Both his role & the movie really sucked.

 

[Shawn_KE]

Though I did like Ed Harris in Just Cause. The scene where he is asking Connery what the victims looked like was great.

 

[CoreyII]

Hey Andy Sheets and AlexCremers, I agree with you two 350%. I am so sick and tired of fanboys and fangirls slamming a 9 or 10 year old kid for taking directions from George Lucas. Jake Lloyd did nothing wrong but listen to an adult whose strong point is not writing dialouge.

That kid has caught way too much hell for something that was out of his hands.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Yes, Coreyll, but it still doesn't change the fact that Jake gave a bad performance, for whatever the reason. He wasn't the right choice, every other actor in that film did a very competant job in their roles, and their dialogue all came from the same place as Jake's. They made it work.

And please don't pull the age card, if they had chosen a better ten year old actor, that actor could have taken the written page and made it work. Also, nothing i've seen of Jake Lloyd leads me to believe that he was capable of anything more than what we see in 'EP I'. In short, he's just not that good an actor IMO. Did you watch any of the material on the 'EP I' dvd? From what i've seen on the disc and what i've read, Jake was constantly blowing his lines and George had to keep asking him to relax and try again. An actor like, say, Haley Joel Osment would have been on the spot with his dialogue and turned in an ifinantly more dramatic performance than Jake did...using the same script. Osment would have had the entire audience weeping openly during his goodbye speech to his mother.

So age has nothing to do with it, it's the dramatic range of the actor that was paramount, and it was sorely lacking in Jake Lloyd..

However it's not all Jake's fault, it's the casting director and George's for choosing him in the first place and IMO they chose the wrong one.

And I am not a "fanboy".

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

John Travolta in Battlefield Earth.
Arnold for Freeze gets another vote for me.



Rutger Hauer???

 

[Sean Laughter]

I don't know how anyone can claim any dialogue in Ep. 1 worked.

I mean, I think Dawn French doing her Queen Amidala impersonation in the Dawn & French take-off of Episode 1 has more emotion than anything we saw out of the actual movie.