There was one pretty decent reason why Cruise was cast as Von Stauffenberg...
Aside from that, I understand the Cruise really wanted the role, and he apparently still has enough horsepower in Hollywood to get most of what he wants.
Posted on 12/01/2012 6:09:35 AM PST by PJ-Comix
Even good actors sometimes get horribly miscast in the wrong roles. The case most often cited is this first one in which John Wayne played an odd role for him...a Mongol warrior.
John Wayne: Miscast as Genghis Khan in "The Conqueror," the Duke had to utter lines like: "My blood says, take this Tartar woman."
Susan Hayward: Co-starring as the tartar woman love interest in "The Conqueror." Yeah, an Irish chick from Brooklyn as a Tartar woman on the Asian steppes. The closest thing about Hayward to a tartar is that she had a tart tongue.
Chuck Connors: Tall, blond, blue-eyed, Connors somehow was chosen to portray an Apache Indian barely five feet tall. Does not compute!
George Peppard: I really enjoyed watching "The Blue Max." My favorite aerial movie about WWI. However, one person just did not fit the role...George Peppard as Lt. Bruno Stachel. Peppard was simply too American to convincingly portray a German. Oh, and you don't have to be a German to portray a German since two English actors in the same movie were very convincing as German officers: James Mason and Jeremy Kemp.
Laurence Olivier: Yes, even actors at the top of the acting profession can be horribly miscast as Olivier was as General Douglas McArthur in "Inchon." Thankfully very few people have seen Olivier in his completely miscast role.
Leslie Howard: I recently saw "Gone With The Wind" again for the umpteenth time and noticed that Leslie Howard was quite long in the tooth to be playing the youthful Ashley Wilkes. And did Southern gentlemen talk with British accents?
Jimmy Stewart: Stewart was almost twice the age of the 25 year old Lindbergh when he flew solo across the Atlantic. Sorry, but mere hair dye does not make one convincingly youthful in "The Spirit of St. Louis." Actually, George Peppard would have been good in the role of Lindbergh...if he mastered Lindbergh's slightly sing-song upper Midwest accent.
Richard Burton: As Leon Trotsky in "The Assassination of Trotsky."
Charlton Heston: His miscasting in "A Touch of Evil" was so horrible that it was even referenced in "Ed Wood" when Wood ran into Orson Welles at a bar and after telling Welles about being forced to miscast roles, Welles replied: "Tell me about it. I'm supposed to do a thriller for Universal. They want Charlton Heston as a Mexican."
Jack Palance as Fidel Castro...oh, and Omar Sharif as Che Guevarra in the same movie wasn’t so great either.
Masterful.
I would have said Yul Brynner as Jason Compson in the Hollywood version of Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, where
Brynner didn’t even try to capture a Southern accent, and wore a reddish wig-—but Brynner is so good the whole thing actually worked.
My husband is a huge fan of Lee Child’s novels and was horrified when he read that Cruise would play Reacher. How desperate are they to try and make Cruise look macho?
Yes, Redford’s fantastically photogenic blonde hair got him through the Gatsby role, and more than a few others.
Karl Malden as Herb Brooks in “Miracle on Ice”.
Not. Even. Close.
Mel Gibson in The Man without a Face. Gibson’s whole shtick was his looks back then and it made no sense to me.
Kevin Costner, Robin Hood.
Ben Johnson as Melvin Purvis in the 70’s version of Dillinger.
Sam Waterson as an Indian in 1979 Eagle’s Wings
No matter what you think of Tom Cruise, the guy does get a lot of movie roles, and I think there are times where can act, but he was miscast in “Valkyrie.”
Humphrey Bogart in Sabrina
Grace Kelly in High Noon
Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity
Spencer Tracy in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” Actually, he wasn’t miscast. It was justy a bad script. The only way to save that would have been to have Jackie Gleason play the lead and make it unintentionally funny.
BTW, I think Heston was great in a “Touch of Evil”. I have known Mexicans and South Americans who have a similar build and demeanor. Who should have played the part, Duncan Renaldo?
That Wayne Brady sketch was brilliant; I was rolling when I first saw it years ago.
Cuba Gooding has been miscast, certainly, which is a shame, as he’s a good actor. But the one film where the casting was perfect was “The Last King of Scotland”, with Forrest Whitaker as Idi Amin, IMHO. Richly deserved Oscar for Best Actor.
Totally agree with a bad-casting call regarding “The Conqueror” and Olivier in “Khartoum”. One casting call that surprised me was Heath Ledger as the Joker in “The Dark Knight”. My first thought was, “C’mon....the dude from Brokeback Mountain” and “A Knight’s Tale”? You’ve gotta be kidding.” But he took the ‘Clown Prince of Crime’ and totally owned the character, making it one of the best comic-book villain interpretations I’ve ever seen. Too bad he passed so young.
“White people love Wayne Brady because he makes Bryant Gumbel look like Malcom X”. One of the funniest quotes ever.
Tony Curtis as a Bronx Viking in “The Vikings.”
There was one pretty decent reason why Cruise was cast as Von Stauffenberg...
Aside from that, I understand the Cruise really wanted the role, and he apparently still has enough horsepower in Hollywood to get most of what he wants.
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