Casting a movie comes with huge pressure.
The person in charge has to find exactly the right balance of traits and talent in one
place in order to be successful.
And a bad performance can ruin everything.
On top of all that, the desired actor has to be available, understand the storyteller’s
vision, and have chemistry with the other performers on set.
That’s a lot of boxes to check.
And while a lot of professionals will have a good sense of who and what the movie needs,
some directors prefer to throw curveballs.
Here are 10 Casting Choices That Would Have Never Crossed Your Mind.
The Rock, Willy Wonka - Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
Willy Wonka is an intimidating dude.
Being a candy baron is tough work, so anyone looking to get into the business better be
built like a brick shithouse.
The Rock knows this.
And according to his IMDb page, Tim Burton did too.
The director had his eye on the People’s Champion to play Willy Wonka in the 2005 reimagining
of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Except that if you want to take a role away from Johnny Depp, you’ll have to pry it
from of his cold, dead hands.
And while the reviews about his performance are split, there’s no denying that he was
the safe bet.
It would be kind of awesome so see one of those surly Oompa Loompa’s on the receiving
end of a People’s Elbow, but not all movies can be perfect.
Al Pacino, Han Solo - Star Wars When George Lucas set out to make Star Wars,
he pissed off the entire universe.
The odds were stacked against him from the start.
Production was plagued with budget issues, destroyed sets, and casting was difficult.
Actors couldn’t figure out if it was a serious movie or one aimed at kids, and stayed away
as a result.
Given how iconic the franchise has become, it’s nearly impossible to imagine humankind’s
historical cinematic landscape without it.
And Harrison Ford as Han Solo is an important part of it.
But in order for that to happen, a few other leading men had to turn down the role first.
And among them was Al Pacino.
The actor says that after reading the script for A New Hope, he was totally confused.
Which is interesting when you consider he’s starred in some of the most complicated movies
ever made.
Joaquin Phoenix, The Hulk - MCU Joaquin Phoenix’s resume is as diverse as
it is long.
But one blockbusting genre is conspicuously absent — he has not been in a single superhero
movie.
However, somewhere between Edward Norton’s departure and Mark Ruffalo’s appointment,
there were rumors that Phoenix just had to sign on the dotted line to play the next Hulk.
The actor has shown extreme versatility, and fans were excited to see what his complex
take on the character would look like.
But alas, it did not happen.
And we’re left forever wondering what he’d look like as an angry, green behemoth.
Christian Bale, Jack Dawson - Titanic Be nice to your employees, because you never
know when they’re going to turn around and write a book about you.
Penned by one of his ex-staffers, a story about a rivalry between Christian Bale and
Leonardo DiCaprio made the rounds a few years back.
It alleges that the bad blood stems from DiCaprio’s ability to swoop in and steal parts right
out from under Bale’s nose.
He’s like the guy everyone pretends to hate, but who is somehow still invited to parties.
Apparently the rift has been growing since the nineties, and when Bale thought he’d
landed the role of Jack in Titanic, he wasn’t just wrong, he was spectacularly wrong.
DiCaprio strikes again!
Nicolas Cage, Aragorn - The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
These days, Nicolas Cage is the man of a million memes.
But before his hair turned into a bird, the actor was being considered for a role in one
of the most unendingly successful franchises of all time: The Lord of the Rings.
Cage has spoken about almost playing Aragorn, but not being able to commit to traveling
for a grueling three-year shoot.
That’s not the only big role that got away either; he was cast as Superman in a movie
that was never made.
It’s a good thing the actor doesn’t believe in regrets, because if he did, he might actually
have a couple.
John Krasinski, Captain America - MCU Before we start let’s get one thing clear:
we love Chris Evans.
He’s a wonderful man.
The best.
So it seems wrong to even think about anyone else donning Captain America’s suit.
But think back, try and remember a time before the MCU.
It was simpler back then, and TV was king.
For a show that seemed to contain so many regular people, The Office was a ratings juggernaut.
Stripped of all the things that make them glamorous, audiences fell in love with the
cast of characters.
The show proved to be an effective launching pad for John Krasinski, who then auditioned
to play the first Avenger.
He even got to try on the suit before having his dreams ground to dust by Evans.
Robin Williams, Jack Torrance - The Shining In his quest to take the story from page to
screen, Stanley Kubrick considered several actors in casting the lead role for 1980’s
The Shining.
The character of Jack Torrance needed to have a certain energy, but not be too energetic.
And he’d recently heard of this guy named Robin Williams.
After seeing some of Williams’ performances on episodes of Mork and Mindy, the director
decided against casting the exuberant comedian.
He wanted energy, but not that much.
So Jack Nicholson wasn’t the first choice, but that doesn’t mean he wasn't the perfect
choice.
And delivered a performance iconic in its own right.
It’s hard to know how the casting would have altered the trajectory of Williams’
career, but audiences did have a few opportunities to see the actor in some serious fare before
his untimely passing in 2014.
Jack Black, The Green Lantern - The Green Lantern
Imagine a world in which 2011’s The Green Lantern wasn’t funny by accident, like Daredevil.
But funny on purpose, like Deadpool.
Now imagine Jack Black as the leading man.
The vision you’re having right now was almost a reality.
Black was attached to an earlier version of a Green Lantern script written by comedy legend
and SNL alumni Robert Smigel.
The actor argued that the studio was hesitant to mess with the “zillion dollar formula”
they use to create superhero movies, and the project was thrown in the trash in favor of
a more serious approach.
Tom Cruise, Tony Stark - Iron Man At this point it should be pretty clear to
anyone paying attention that Robert Downey Jr. was born to play Iron Man.
The fast-talkin’ smooth operator is a character right up his alley, and the fact that Tony
Stark’s kind of a dick is just a bonus for everyone watching.
So obviously the big screen adaptation of the character was written for RDJ, right?
Wrong.
For years, Tom Cruise was attached to the project in it’s early development, but wasn't
feeling it after he saw the character evolving.
Cruise gave a somewhat recent interview in which he explained that, as an actor, he prefers
to “make a different kind of movie”.
Nicole Kidman & Johnny Depp - Mr. & Mrs. Smith Because of the dramatic rumors swirling around
during the time of filming, it’s impossible to picture Mr. and Mrs. Smith being played
by anyone other than Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
It was the beginning of Brangelina.
That might not seem like a big deal now, but back in the day it was headline news.
And it almost didn’t happen.
Pitt had been loosely attached to the project for a while, but Jolie stepped into the role
only after Nicole Kidman dropped it.
Johnny Depp was in talks with production as well, but decided that he didn’t have the
time.
Considering Depp starred in 13 movies between 2000 and 2005, we’re inclined to agree.
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