13 Times When Viewers Were Really Disappointed With the Casting of a Movie

Acting is not an easy job. Sometimes, actors have to spend hours learning new skills, perfecting their accent, and wearing pounds of makeup to become a different person. But even after all this effort, viewers might still be dissatisfied with their work. Maybe they think the actor is too cute to play a villain, or that the actor just doesn’t fit the role. In the examples below, the actors’ performances sparked a lot of debate and even hate amongst movie fans and critics.

1. Ana de Armas in Blonde

Ana’s acting got a 14-minute ovation at the Venice Film Festival in September 2022. The actress was deeply moved. But after the trailer was released, not everyone liked the actress as Marilyn Monroe. Some people felt that her accent was off and that she didn’t look much like the legendary blonde. She was even included in the compilations of actors with the worst accents in movies, along with Lady Gaga in House of Gucci and Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The outcry was so loud that Marilyn Monroe Estate even made an announcement in Armas’ defense.

After the movie was released, the critics also had a great deal to say about the psychology of Ana’s portrayal of Monroe. Many people felt that the film narrative was just unpleasant, one-sided, and showed the famous actress only as a victim.

• I don’t see Marilyn. I see Ana. As a native Spanish speaker. This was just not a role for her. I get they were trying something new, but nah. The accent ruined the movie. © Altair / Twitter

2. David Thewlis in Harry Potter

Many people liked David Thewlis as Remus Lupin. But the most loyal fans of the books noticed the differences between Lupin in the film and Lupin in the novel.

• Remus Lupin was described as boyish and young looking, but aged beyond his years, with sandy colored hair dusted with gray. He looked ill and tired. David Thewlis, while a good actor, just did not look the part. He is too healthy, and looks too old to play the character as described in the book. © Erin Henderson / Quora

3. Sofia Coppola in The Godfather Part III

Sofia Coppola is a talented director, famous for Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette. Her early years were overshadowed by a bad acting performance as the daughter of Michael Corleone. The role was supposed to be played by Winona Ryder, but at the last moment, she was replaced by Sofia, an 18-year-old girl who had little acting experience. She was heavily criticized by fans of The Godfather.

According to director Francis Ford Coppola, he regretted having put his daughter in such a position, because she wasn’t eager to act. “I felt that I did this to her. It must have hurt her terribly to be told, ‘You ruined your father’s picture,’ when in fact, she hadn’t — in my opinion. At any rate, the whole subject of The Godfather III was painful for me.”

• She’s a great director, but her acting skills are not really on the same level as her directing skill. When you put Sofia next to Al Pacino or Andy Garcia, any of her mistakes would be amplified and highlighted. © Daiwei Xue / Quora

4. Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia!

The family comedy with a kind story united such great actors as Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Pierce Brosnan, and Amanda Seyfried. But since it was a musical, people were very critical of Pierce Brosnan’s singing.

The criticism was so heavy that his singing abilities were even defended by the ABBA members, the authors of the songs in Mamma Mia! In response to the criticism, Brosnan said, “Singing is not necessarily my forte — I enjoy singing, I’m not quite sure other people enjoy my singing, but they have good entertainment value out of my singing.”

• Did they not tune test Pierce Brosnan before casting Mamma Mia? © ComeAlongPonds / Reddit

5. Chloe Grace Moretz in Carrie

Playing the main character in a remake of a very successful film is a huge risk. Viewers are likely to compare the new actor to the one who originated the role. This is what happened to the 2013 Carrie, which was compared relentlessly to the 1976 masterpiece by Brian De Palma. A lot of people love the original thanks to Sissy Spacek’s out-of-this-world performance. The critics called Chloe too cute for the role, and some viewers even thought she would have been better as the antagonist of the main character.

• Sissy Spacek had the perfect unconventional vulnerable weirdo vibe for the original Carrie. You expect me to believe that Chloe Grace Moretz, who looks like one of the mean-girl cheerleaders, is a social outcast? © welluuasked / Reddit

6. Emma Watson in Little Women

Critics really loved the other actors in in Little Women: Florence Pugh, Saoirse Ronan, and Timothée Chalamet. But Emma Watson was criticized for her American accent, which audiences found unconvincing. Fans of the novel also didn’t like her portrayal of Meg, feeling Emma wasn’t able to really show what her character was.

• She reduced the character to a vapid, self-effacing young women without Meg’s distinctive acquisitiveness and cupidity that distinguishes her from her sisters. Meg is enamored with extravagant balls and opulence and her ardency to attain prestige and elevate her class distinction is imbuing her dialogue in the novel, but Emma’s portrayal was just anodyne. Meg’s materialistic greed was expunged to appeal to modern feminist sensibilities regarding traditional convictions on marriage and motherhood. © VelvetDreamers / Reddit

7. Halle Berry in X-Men

Storm, played by Halle, wasn’t a fan favorite. People said she ruined the comic book character, and her appearance was criticized. Storm was supposed to be powerful, and she just wasn’t like that in the film. Others defended Halle, pointing out that it was the director’s and writers’ fault.

• Storm is one of my favorite X-men. The best leader they ever had. And I was really disappointed with Halle Berry’s performance. She’s a great actress, but this just didn’t work. © Martijn Vos / Quora
  

8. Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher

Tom Cruise was not well-liked in this role. The fans of Jack Reacher novels kept saying that Tom was nothing like the book character. Lee Child, the author of the Reacher books, responded, saying, “We’re also focusing on the non-book readers. What do they need? They need just great entertainment, they don’t have the reference already and so we also had to satisfy them.”

• The obvious answer is Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher. Tom Cruise is said to be 5′ 7″, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he is really shorter than that. Jack Reacher is described in the books as being over 6′ 5″ and this is an important plot point many times. Other characters, both good and bad, react to him in a manner shaped by his dominating physical presence. Tom Cruise can’t pull that off at all. © Paul Johnson / Quora

9. Anna Gunn in Breaking Bad

The actress was disliked by many people for being too annoying. Anna was very worried about it and was even wondering if she was portraying her character correctly. Such heavy criticism shocked the showrunner because he didn’t expect people to sympathize with the main character, who broke the law, and not his wife.

• In my mind, Breaking Bad is the best show ever to air on TV. It had one fatal flaw/weak link: Anna Gunn as the wife. I find her acting contrived and over-dramatic. She takes herself way too seriously. On screen, she was so full of over-wrought angst that I could barely stand when she was on the screen. I think she is likely better on stage, where being overly dramatic is more effective. © Claire Beauchamp / Quora

10. Jamie Dornan in 50 Shades of Grey

The viewers criticized both the film and the book it was based on. The actors also got some hate, as many people felt they didn’t have enough chemistry on the screen. Jamie said that he managed to deal with the negativity about him, and he didn’t regret taking part in the franchise. The movies earned more than $1 billion and boosted his career.

• Aside from the movies being absolutely awful, the two had no chemistry with each other, and it was awkward as hell to watch. More so when I found out that Jamie was married while filming those movies. The movies shouldn’t have even been made. © LennonMcCartney65 / Reddit

11. Julia Roberts in Mirror Mirror

Many viewers enjoyed Lily Collins as Snow White in this film adaptation of the fairy tale. But they were less impressed with Julia Roberts in the role of the queen. They thought she wasn’t able to really convey such an evil character convincingly. “She plays the evil Queen, Snow White’s murderous stepmother — a role that calls for cold-blooded malice, arrogance, cunning and class, qualities conspicuously lacking in this warm, earthy, intuitive actress.”

• I just can’t hate her. Snow was perfect in that one though. © TownCrier42 / Reddit

12. Daniel Craig in James Bond

When it was announced that Craig would play Bond, people weren’t thrilled about it, claiming that he looked nothing like past iterations of James Bond. Of course, he has a very different look that sets him apart from such actors as Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Sean Connery. But there had also been a blonde Bond before: Roger Moore.

The actor couldn’t understand that. “It was so ridiculous. It was absurd. The fact that they were complaining that he was blonde stupefied me because Roger Moore was blonde. I didn’t know what they were talking about.”

• Daniel Craig as Bond. He took all the charm from the character out. I would cast Hugh Grant instead. © Władysław Łoś / Quora

13. Anne Hathaway in The Witches

Even such an amazing actress as Anne Hathaway got her fair share of hate when she agreed to play the part of Grand High Witch in Zemeckis’ The Witches. Her acting was called atrocious, and it made lots of people really embarrassed. “Anne Hathaway stars as the Grand High Witch in a performance that is so abysmal, she really should return her Oscar.”

• Anne Hathaway in The Witches. Did not work at all! © hafwen / Reddit
• I am divided in my opinion on the film, on the one hand, I feel like it was a good adaptation of the book with the changes done sympathetically. On the other hand, Anne Hathaway! I really really do not like her acting, not even taking the horrendous accent she does in this film into account! © hafwen / Reddit

If it was up to you, which movie cast would you love to change?