Which actor just didn't suit their film/TV role?

[VinceVega]

Depp as Grindelwald... sooooo edgy.... and so depp-y
He plays everything weirdly the same. I can never see the character only Depp himself.

Jason Momoa as Aquaman... but i have to say he did it well. Just is not Aquaman for me. His whole character is completly different from the original imho.

Keeanu Reeves in... i guess everything except neo... such a bad actor not even funny. Especially CP2077

[StillMcfuu]

Yeah that's what I meant by it, wasn't his decision ofc. I'm pretty sure he was found innocent of charges and they still didn't take him back, they cast Mads Mikkelsen in his place for Fantastic Beasts 3. Kinda disappointing.

I love Mads but I'm fully expecting to be disappointed especially after both Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp had their hands in the role, I think Mads is great but he isn't as good as either of those 2.

Speaking of which, I don't like Mads as Hannibal. He doesn't seem like he is playing Hannibal so much as he is just playing some random killer. I know there is a bit of a disconnect between the books, the movies, and the show, but Hopkins set the tone and Mads is doing his own thing and it doesn't work, he also isn't very believable as a killer in general, let along Hannibal. Mads' Hannibal reminds me more of just a random late series Dexter killer.

[unbound]

Plenty of choices for this TBH:

Although Sean Connery does well, he was terribly miscast as a Spaniard in Highlander.

Nicholas Cage as Ghost Rider was pretty terribly no matter how you look at that one.

Mike Myers as The Cat In The Hat really didn't work.

Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu really didn't work until the fight scenes. Definitely miscast as a wise member of the Jedi council.

Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist.

[AcidicSyn]

I can see your point but I think it is mainly the writers fault to be honest.

In my opinion it was a controversial decision to simply raise the drama in the movie, a "Oh my god, this must be some real shit happening that even Dumbledore is losing his mind over it" type of thing. Frankly I never gave a shit about Harry Potter franchise so I have no idea what else is in the conflict with source material. However writers and directors often change a source material quite drastically to fit the medium of a film - the pace of a movie is different to a pace of a book.

For example in Lord of the Rings the battle of Amon Hen (When Sean Bean dies again) originally happens in Two Towers but Peter Jackson decided to put it at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring to give it a sense of closure as it was the moment that actually broke the fellowship. However even the beloved trilogy was not perfect, for example I remember people being pissed off because movie Faramir was tempted by the ring unlike his book version - people felt it was a violation of his character. However it wasn't David Wenham's decision to alter this core trait.

I think the conflict of source material for Gambons Dumbledore is summarized nicely by the "he asked calmly" meme.

This is a guy who took the time to politely lecture a group of death eaters on manners minutes before his own death. The very idea of Albus raising his voice at all is jarring. He does it like, 2 or 3 times in the books and even then its barely a hint of frustration. I do agree that some blame has to lay with the writers. Anyone who was familiar with the books and also thought it was okay to have Albus Dumbledore yelling in Harry Potters face while shaking him.

As for LOTR. I was actually okay with Jacksons decision to put that in Fellowship, as well as with the decision to make the climax of Two Towers Helms deep, they felt like good stopping points for the films. (Imagine Helms deep taking place in the first quarter of the movie lol) What was, to me, an absolute shame was not including the Lament to Boromir, every time I re-read those books I take extra time on that song.

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Every Rickman scene, and one Slater line:

~snipped video~

Wtf was that a young Morgan Freeman? I'm flabbergasted

[JustaWarlock]

Keanu Reaves in every movie he's ever "acted" in.

[AcidicSyn]

Chris Rock in any-fucking-serious-role ever.

He single-handedly dragged Fargo Season 4 down, it could've been a slam dunk without his grating voice and lackluster acting chops. I have seen the trailers for Spiral, that's enough.

Horrible that he's getting roles he's simply not cut out for. Even at his most serious, he's still that zebra from Madagascar.

Some others:

Michael Gambon as Dumbledore, but I hated the entire turn the series took past the 2nd movie
Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, and they couldn't even give him green eyes...
Gary Oldman as Sirius Black
Cameron Diaz in Gangs of New York
Emma Watson as a Disney Princess that had to be auto-tuned...

God I hope they do a proper reboot of the Harry Potter movies, and this time they do it far more truthfully to the books and the British culture surrounding the wizarding world. Jared Harris as Dumbledore would erase Michael Gambon's horrid performance. The caveat would be the roles that were so perfectly cast the first time around, like Snape, but alas... I'm sure Adam Driver could pull off a proper British accent.

What in the name of Merlins baggy widefronts was wrong Gary Oldman as Sirius Black? Even when I reread the books I still picture him. (There was a lot missing from the movies entirely, but that's not the actors fault)

[Triceron]

Mel Gibson in anything outside of the Lethal Weapon and Mad Max movies.

[AcidicSyn]

Depp as Grindelwald... sooooo edgy.... and so depp-y
He plays everything weirdly the same. I can never see the character only Depp himself.

Jason Momoa as Aquaman... but i have to say he did it well. Just is not Aquaman for me. His whole character is completly different from the original imho.

Keeanu Reeves in... i guess everything except neo... such a bad actor not even funny. Especially CP2077

Bolded bit is how I feel about Tom Hardys Bane. He did spectacularly as who I lovingly refer to as Shadow-Breathey-Mask-Man. But Bane? Bane wasn't in the movie.

[Niwes]

I have a couple. Ving Rhames as Kojak, Dwayne Johnson as Hercules and also as Buford Pusser, the female Captain Marvel, Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau, Vince Vaughan as Norman Bates and a few more. They all just did not fit the roles and should never have been cast. I agree with Daniel Craig as Bond too. He was a bad choice. My favorite Bond was actually Timothy Dalton.

have to agree to every single pick here.

[Frozen Death Knight]

Well, age is very often adjusted in adaptation for various reasons. Not having a 12-year old have sex on screen I think I'm entirely willing to accept as a reason.

Reverse for LotR, funnily enough, where Frodo was in his 50s in the book. Which I'm sure they chose to adjust because they wanted the main character to look younger and have broader appeal.

I wouldn't really count that as a miscasting, though. It's not like they saw Clarke and went "man we really wanted a preteen but okay, let's go with this one"; they'd have done that either way.

Well, another reason I can see why they cast Frodo younger was because unlike the books, the movie had to condense time by a ton. In the books it took years for Gandalf to travel in search for answers regarding the One Ring, Gollum, etc., but in the film that time was condensed down to minutes of screen time as well as removing very long time skips that happened from when Bilbo left the Ring and up to the day that Frodo and Sam decided to leave the Shire while being chased by the Dark Riders.

If the movies wanted to be more accurate to the books while keeping a reasonable run time, it would end up confusing having Frodo and the other Hobbits age up while Gandalf is gone. The studio and director would have to recast all the characters and/or put on heavy make-up on them just to make it work (remember that all the recognizable Hobbits would have to show signs of aging with the time skip), thus increasing costs to production. Not to mention that it would be significantly harder shooting action scenes and other demanding scenes with a bunch of 50+ year olds throughout the trilogy. :P

[Verdugo]

I feel that Daniel Radcliffe was miscast as a farting corpse in Swiss Army Man.

[Polyxo]

Cara Delavigne and Dane DeHaan in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets were terribly miscast for the kind of role they were given. Dane DeHaan is great at being more of an introvert, or a muted character, and the role seemed to be meant for someone like a younger Chris Pratt or Alden Ehrenreich. The same goes for Cara Delavigne. On top of it, they had no chemistry with each other.

Conversely, I think Michael B Jordan was also miscast in Without Remorse, where John Clark has always seemed to be a more muted, Eastwood-esque type of personality, and Jordan just has far too much bravado.

Edit: At least one person likely misconstrued my complaint about Michael B Jordan as being about the 'race change', so I'd like to clarify that it's not. Someone like Mahershala Ali or Daniel Kaluuya would've been much better John Clarks.

[Darththeo]

The way I view this is the movie could have been made better if someone else was cast, and it was the actor themselves bring down the role/movie. So Dragonball Evolution, The Last Airbender, Fantastic 4 reboot, etc ... a lot of them do not count as the flaws with the movie do not fall on the actor directly. No one could have made those bad movies better. The script was bad, the pacing bad, etc ... you could put the best actors in the role and it just makes them passable movies at best. This includes movies I personally like like the Star Wars Prequels ... face it, no child actor was going to make "Are you an angel?" sound good or the infamous sand line.

I also don't include actors who are playing a character where the issue is I don't like how the character was written. Like Bane from Dark Knight Rises, the character is fine as written, it may not be who I want as Bane and not the Bane I want to see on the big screen, but it was well acted and worked for the movie. Which is why I am not going to bring up the fact I do not see The Joker when I see Ledger's version, while it is not what I want from the Joker, the role works well in the movie. The actor can only do so much when my problem is more around that character having that name.

In the end, I am going to say Mehcad Brooks as Jax in the Mortal Kombat movie from this year. He wasn't bad, but I feel there were better actors that could have portrayed Jax better. Like I saw him in Supergirl and frankly I have issues with his casting there too, but it is an CWverse show and they are always weird.

[Polyxo]

"Calmly" might work for a book description, but on screen it translates to "boring." The first Dumbledore actor bored me to tears and seemed entirely forgettable. At least the second one had personality and a commanding presence. I'm blessed with not having a slavish adherence to the books, so I was able to enjoy the screen adaptation for what it was--an ADAPTATION.

I kind of feel like Richard Harris looked very frail, and was dominated by the set and his costume. To be fair, in the second one, he was apparently dying of cancer at that point. While the Gambon introduction to Dumbledore wasn't to the book, I kind of always felt like it made more sense. Dumbledore was planning on protecting Harry, and all of a sudden he's in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. It's definitely an 'oh shit' moment. I also feel Gambon played Dumbledore as a much more unpredictable and formidable presence in the movies.

[Melusine]

Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker. In truth, I believe Christensen could have been a GREAT Anakin Skywalker if not for his lame script. In SW2, he was supposed to be growing up and instead was acting like a simp and a cuck, which was very unbecoming. In SW3, he was so easily fooled by Palpatine... the entire script on Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vader was the stupidest script, and one that, come the end of it, Christensen would pay for with his career. We never really got a chance to see how good or bad his acting was, because the script said it all. It was actually as if George Lucas really didn't care about his Star Wars franchise, anymore.

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Mel Gibson in anything outside of the Lethal Weapon and Mad Max movies.

Braveheart would like to have a word with you...

[Triceron]

Braveheart would like to have a word with you...

Good movie but his acting in it doesn't really hold up today.

[Oakshana]

Ugh. Fucking Dean Cain as Clark Kent/Superman in Lois and Clark. Worst casting ever.

[eschatological]

Ugh. Fucking Dean Cain as Clark Kent/Superman in Lois and Clark. Worst casting ever.

Is that based on who Dean Cain is now? Because I watched that show in the 90s and he seemed okay-ish. It was clear he was never a meek, mild-mannered Clark Kent type, and his acting was a bit wooden, but everyone's acting was a bit wooden, it was primetime television in the 90s. Come to think of it, he didn't pull off a brave, kind Superman that well either.

[Relikk]

Liv Tyler as Arwen kinda bugged me. Sophie Marceau as we saw in Braveheart would have been a better choice imo.

She probably wouldn't have been that bad/annoying if there wasn't so much of her. There was way too much Arwen in the films compared to the books, but we all know why.

[kiramon]

Liv Tyler as Arwen kinda bugged me. Sophie Marceau as we saw in Braveheart would have been a better choice imo.

I thought she was pretty good for an elf.