a friend of mine, (the other day) was talking about the movie django (unchained) and how he thought jamie fox was the perfect person to play this role, i, on the other hand, think that character probably could have been played by any number of actors and it would have made little difference to the movie.

it got me thinking about some of the best and worst casting decisions i have seen over the years.

here are two of mine, what might yours be?

worst: tom cruise, as lestat in interview with a vampire
best: christine ricci, as wednesday addams in the addams family

Worst-
Kane Hodder as Ed Gein in Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield.
Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates in the Psycho remake.
Kevin Costner as Robin Hood.

While I can think of many, 3 really stand out:
Tony Curtis as a Viking in the film The Vikings
and Richard Widmark as a Viking in the movie, The Long Ships...
The absolute worse was John Wayne as Gengis Khan; it also stands as one of the worst Hollywood versions of history ever; wrong Emperor of China, wrong children in the wrong roles along with those closest to him. The remake with Omar Sharif, wasn't much better, but they at least got the Emperor of china correct and he was not the grandson of Genghis who had not yet been born! Nor did he use the old Hollywood cliche line,"Let's head 'em off at the pass." Evan Jack Palance was a better choice; he could have played the entire Mongol Horde all by himself!
Speaking of Hollywood films vs. reality history, I love George MacDonald's book "The Hollywood History Of The World", a must to keep handy for the trash that are labelled as "Epics"...Fraser is the writer of all the Flashman books, btw. Hilarious and dead on facts of history in all his footnotes which made all the Flashman books so enjoyable for me.

That reminds me of Mickey Rooney as a Japanese man in Breakfast At Tiffany's.

Haha sometimes you have to wonder what they were thinking when making some of these casting decisions.

Well, at least in one area of casting, some significant improvement has been noted; Oriental characters are now played by Oriental people, same for American Native roles to be played by Native Americans and no more blackface for white performers to play Negroes. That was just so bizarre...though not 100% true of roles portraying East Indians, barring Peter Sellers in The Party. And for Arabic roles, 'not enough Arab actors or actress's...if anyone ever does a film about the Ayatollah Khomeini, perhaps Sean Connery can play him as he looks very much like him with a beard...

The worst I ever saw, and it haunts me still,
from such a great movie, was that female dance
partner opposite John Travolta in 'Saturday Night Fever.'

She was so awful, every time she came on screen
all the energy was sucked from the space.
She had no personality, she had been on a soap
opera..I think I have intentionally blasted her
name from my mind.

Best ever, had to be Tim Robbins in
'The Shawshank Redemption' along
with Morgan Freeman.

Whenever I re read Stephen King's novella Rita Hayworth And The Shawshank Redemption I hear Freeman's voice.

She was starnge; Gorny or something...
In some photos. she reminds me of Sigourney Weaver while in another, she reminds me of Kate Mulgrew.
Morgan Freeman, is ALWAYS good, no matter what he appears in; a lot more versatile than Sidney Poitier for example, I think.

Some great casting-

Roddy McDowall as Peter Vincent in the original Fright Night.

Piper Laurie as Mrs. White in Carrie (1976)

Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood was pure brilliance.

good: jack nicholson...the shining

bad: jack nicholson...wolf

Good: Bruce Wills- Die Hard trilogy
Daniel Day Lewis- Lincoln (I imagine this is how Honest Abe really was).
Gregory Peck- To Kill A Mockingbird (No one can ever be Atticus Finch. Peck owned this role).

Bad: Sylvester Stallone- Judge Dredd (Thank goodness Karl Urban made us forget Sly)
Ice Cube- Darius Stone in XXX: State of the Union (I like Cube but he never should've done this film)

bad: pierce brosnan, as james bond (any of them)

great: robert de niro, as jake lamotta in raging bull

BAD:

Julianne Moore in "The Hours"
Johnny Depp in "The Tourist"
Eastwood, "Bridges of Madison County"
Jane Fonda "On Golden Pond"
Sophia Coppola as Mary Corleone in "The Godfather Part III"

GOOD:

Hopkins in "Silence of the Lambs"
Russell Crowe, "A Beautiful Mind"
Meryl Streep "Kramer vs. Kramer"
Cathy Bates "Misery"
Morgan Freeman "Driving Miss Daisy"

Good:

Russell Crowe-Gladiator
Hugh Jackman-X-men
Clint Eastwood-Gran Torino

More Sly bad- Rhinestone, Oscar, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.

Kathy was also brilliant in the other King adaptation Delores Claiborne.

Stephen King would disagree. I love Jack in this by the way.

Good: Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl in Popeye

Bad: Shelley Duvall as Wendy in The Shining, as much as I like this film, Duvall almost ruins it for me with her horrid overacting and snorting.