Gatsby was supposed to be this mysterious, enigmatic character who brooded at his window, pining for Daisy while sponsoring lavish parties for his guests who rarely if ever see or meet him. Redford comes across as too flighty, whimsical and extroverted for the role.
On the flip side, Daisy Buchanan was to be this flighty, reckless coquettish, high society party girl, and Farrow was too much the introvert to pull it off convincingly.
Curiously, Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway, in the very same movie, is for my money, one of the most perfect casting choices ever made by a Hollywood studio.
Yes, Redford’s fantastically photogenic blonde hair got him through the Gatsby role, and more than a few others.
Maybe. There was a lot of opposition to casting Mia as Daisy.
But for many of us who saw the film, it's hard not to think of the book in terms of the movie. However awful Robert Redford may be in however many ways, he did make the role his own, at least for me.
I'm not sure about Tobey McGuire as Nick in the new version, though. Come to think of it I'm not sure about Tobey McGuire as Spiderman, though at this point it's hard to accept Andrew Garfield in the role.