Miscast
I used to swoon for the Academy Awards. I made it a point to see every film nominated, and I prided myself on being able to predict the winners in every category.
I went to the movies almost every Saturday when I was a kid. My mother sometimes had to search the sofa cushions for the thirty-five cents times three little girls, but it was worth it to her to say goodbye to us for a few hours on a Saturday. The theater was right around the corner.
My peak period though was the early seventies. College. I went to the movies twice a week – at least. And I was an active and opinionated movie-goer right through the late eighties.
Then it all fell apart. Because I married a non-cinema guy.
When I met my husband in 1989 he could identify two actors – John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. More than 25 years later he can identify three actors – John Wayne and Clint Eastwood and Jennifer Lopez. (Although I suspect his identification of J Lo comes from behind.)
I tried to turn my husband into a movie-goer, but I gave up years ago. Mostly because I refuse to pay for a movie ticket for a person who falls asleep before the opening titles are finished.
The last time I was in a movie theater, I saw “Crazy Heart” with a girlfriend. I think that was in 2010.
I do see some movies, but months or years after they have been released. I watch movies on Netflix and HBO. My husbands sleeps through them all. He says, “Wake me up if there’s a sex scene.”
So I am essentially ignorant of today’s movies, and the Academy Award ceremonies are just a fabulous fashion show for me. This bothers me a bit, because I used to be such an expert, and now I am clueless.
I heard an interview on NPR the other day with Terri Taylor, who was the casting director for “Whiplash.” (I confess I had never heard of “Whiplash,” but I looked it up.)
The interviewer asked Ms. Taylor whether there should be an Oscar for casting. And I was dumbfounded.
Because I had never realized there wasn’t.
Picking the right actor for the part is pretty important.
To prove the truth of this, I have compiled a list – and I hope you will add your own suggestions.
MISCAST
Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Olivier in “The African Queen”
John Wayne in “To Kill A Mockingbird”
Al Pacino in “Lawrence of Arabia”
Audrey Hepburn in “Some Like It Hot”
Christopher Walken in “Mrs. Doubtfire”
Sally Field and Dustin Hoffman in “Bonnie and Clyde”
Sidney Poitier in “Shaft”
Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in “High Noon”
Bill Murray in “Schindler’s List”
Marilyn Monroe in “Roman Holiday”
Kevin Costner in “Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves”
(…oh wait… )
- Posted in: Aging ♦ Humor
- Tagged: Academy Awards, Al Pacino, Audrey Hepburn, Bonnie & Clyde, casting, casting directors, Christopher Walken, Clint Eastwood, Crazy Heart, Dustin Hoffman, Elizabeth Taylor, Film, HIgh Noon, J Lo, Jennifer Lopez, John Wayne, Katharine Hepburn, Kevin Costner, Laurence Olivier, Lawrence of Arabia, Marilyn Monroe, Miscasting, Movies, Oscars, Robin Hood, Roman Holiday, Sally Field, Schindler's List, Shaft, Sidney Poitier, Some Like It Hot, Spencer Tracy, The African Queen, To Kill a Mockingbird
notquiteold 
Oh dear God! I was laughing to the point of peeing… My ex-husband can (or at least could) rattle off the winners in the top ten categories of each and every Academy Awards ceremony dating back to the very first one in 1927? Something like that… Of course trivia games we played as couples made us the envy of our intimate circles as he would whomp their butts whenever we got an entertainment question.. Ah yes, we’ve been divorced 26 years now… I can pass along his number if you just want a buddy to see a movie with, seems I, too, would fall asleep on the couch once to often…
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As soon as my husband sits still, he’s asleep. He started to snore during a play once… Thank god I have elbows.
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Love your list — and Kevin Costner? Oh brother. He is handsome. He really seems like a nice man (he did a really nice thing for a friend of mine a few years ago) but he simply cannot act. He could do Friday in Dragnet, but otherwise … sorry, Kev.
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I thought he was pretty good in a few roles (JFK for one) – but when I think back on it, someone else might have been better…
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The things we give up for our husbands! I once gave up reading. Not anymore. While he watches spots and news I read! He does enjoy going to the movies though if you count all those suspense, dramatic sci-fi, war related things! I insist I get every other pick! ~Elle
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My husband also does a bit better with action flicks. But sometimes he sleeps through those too. For those of us old enough to remember – Remember the Dick Van Dyke episode where he slept through “The Guns of Navarone”?
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I recognize all the actors in your list and they would certainly be miscast. Today’s actors? Erin Brockovich…no wait, that’s Julia Roberts. Sigh.
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I know.. I read the gossip columns sometimes, but I never know who they are talking about. .. Alex Pettyfer??????
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I’m stumped too!
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Walken as Doubtfire is the perfect example! Bwahaha …
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Did you see him tap dance in Peter Pan? Maybe he COULD be Doubtfire!
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Great post! True miscast though has to be Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher. Lee Child’s character is 6’5 and weighs around 225lbs. Tom Cruise is 5’9 and doesn’t. I didn’t bother reading the last book, and gave the full set I had away in disgust. 🙂
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Not that familiar with Jack Reacher, but Tom in “Far and Away” was pretty bad.
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yeah, I’ll go along with that! 🙂
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Like you, I used to see a lot of movies in the theater, I had a friend who used to work one. I watch more of them on Netflix now, too. My bf and I like going but we never seem to have the time. Whiplash is on my list, hopefully in the next few days. Theory of Everything and The Imitation Game are two of my recent favorites I’ve seen. Your list of miscasts are spot on…although I have never seen Robin Hood. Will take your word on that one. 🙂
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He couldn’t sustain the English accent for more than two sentences.
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Keeping up with the AW winners wasn’t something I’ve ever done. (Lived abroad you see.) But I love going to the Cinema. Even wrote a blog about it https://karron.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/cinema-passion/ but my husband is even worse than I am. He literally grew up in the cinema as his family owned most of the indoor and outdoor theatres in Oklahoma for years and years. He still loves to go to the movies at least once a week. Sometimes I go, sometimes I don’t. It all depends on the movie.
Today’s “stars” are pretty much a mystery to me too. There will never be another generation like Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, Jimmy Stewart etc. I love love love Clint Eastwood, as an actor and director, but other than those guys, most of the young ones are a mystery.
Miscasts? John Wayne in Gone With the Wind.
Tom Cruise in anything. Can’t stand the man.
Lilly Tomlin in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Jessica Tandy and Mickey Rooney in Harold and Maude.
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I like your choices! How about Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in “Titanic”???
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Or Liz Taylor and Martin Short. 🙂
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Oh, this could be a category all in itself – Bad Titanic Casting!! How about Keanu Reeves and Drew Barrymore????
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Bette Midler and Anthony Hopkins?!?!?
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all of the above in their younger days, of course….unless, Titanic, the Sequel?
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Adam Sandler and Lindsay Lohan. That would be some bad acting!
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It breaks my heart that I haven’t seen any of the movies this year. I use to actually throw an Oscar party every year. It was very well attended and most of us had seen every picture nominated.
As far as an Award for casting…it is long over due. I would like the first one to go to Michael Douglas for saying no to his father (he has never heard the end of it) as the lead for, “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”. Jack Nicholson WAS McMurphy.
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I had never heard that story. Oh my, Michael Douglas would NOT be good. You know what I always thought would have been interesting though…. I would have liked to see the roles reversed in “Out of Africa” – with Klaus Maria Brandauer as Denys Finch Hatton and Robert Redford as bad husband Hans Blixen. i thought the chemistry between Brandauer and Streep was much more interesting.
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It was Kirk that got turned down by Michael for the role. Michael was the Procucer and he turned down his father who beg, pleaded and coerced to get the role. Of course, the final product won the Oscar for Best Movie, Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Director. Every time it is mentioned in an interview Kirk still claims he would have done it better.
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That makes it even more interesting. I did not even CONSIDER that you were talking about Kirk. That’s saying something about how WRONG it was.
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You kinow I’m a film buff; we’ve spent some time discussing them before. Don’t read this with coffee in your mouth: How about a miscast of Martin Short as “Indiana Jones”? Or, Charlton Heston as the “Tin Man” in “Wizard of Oz”? Tracy isn’t too bad as a tough guy; just watch him in “Bad Day at Black Rock”.
Having spent some time with your hubby, I think his attraction to J Lo is her front end.
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You’re right… I had second thoughts about Tracy in “High Noon” – but I was thinking more along the lines of Tracy and Hepburn playing it like battle-of-the-sexes-and-wits kind of comedy they were so famous for.
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Hubby is definitely an ass-man. But he has nothing against the other body parts either.
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If you truly love someone … let them nap.
Most of America (men) are preoccupied with what is up on top (breasts) and not the lower extremities (caboose). There are a lot of ass men out there, we are the one’s who are tripping over our own tongues or have a wife who is beating him over the head with a Green WalMart Environmental bag full of tiny oranges!
We are paying attention girls ….
DS
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“If you love him, let him nap” is very close to my motto: “Let him nap, he’s less annoying.”
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Hi Nancy, I shared this on StumbleUpon! Thanks for your share too!
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Thanks… I see a little traffic from Stumble. Hope you do too.
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I’ve gotten a few today. If I write something I really like I’ll share it to StumbleUpon and haven’t had any trouble. I’ve had some good luck with Reddit too.
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Hah! Good one! My husband is in a profession where he sees movie stars pretty often. Plus, we live in New York. I wish I had a movie ticket for every time he’s come home and said ‘I saw that movie star that you really like today…you know the one…he was in that movie’
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Oh, we are married to the same guy! (Of course, they are all the same guy.)
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Your list cracked me up. Very funny. Happily for me, I am married to a man who likes movies almost as much as I do. I have to admit we didn’t see many of the nominees, though, for this year. We saw Birdman and thought the acting was excellent, but I can’t say we enjoyed the movie. It was really weird. We missed The Theory of everything because it wasn’t in the theaters long enough to make it. And I had never heard of Whiplash either.
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Everyone I know who saw “Birdman” (admittedly, that’s only a few) – said the same thing. That they “appreciated” it but didn’t really like it.
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Your list was hysterical. Al Pacino in Lawrence! Did like someone’s suggestion of MArtin Short as Indiana Jones.
In college we kept up with all the awards and nominated movies, but this year the excitement didn’t seem to be there.
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