Actors/actress who don't look like the real life person theyre playing.

darkdubh

A few years ago at the Cork Film Festival I was at a screening of The Whistleblower which starred Rachel Weisz as Kathryn Bolkovac,a UN peacekeeper who exposed UN presonal who were involved in a prostitution ring in Bosnia.At the end the real Kathryn came on to give a speech,it was a slight shock after watching the film at the fact that she bore pretty much no physical resemblance to Rachel Weisz.While you could argue that shes not really a well known figure and not many people would know what she looked like there have been many instances of movies about real events where those cast bear very litttle resemblance to those theyre portraying.Anyone think of any other examples.

BIKINITAY

Ian McKellen played Hitler in a TV movie called Countdown to War. He bears zero resemblance to the man himself. Will Smith would have been a closer resemblance. Only talking about this last night! Good timing OP.

darkdubh

Joseph D.Pistone aka Donnie Brasco.He was no Johnny Depp in the looks department.

MfMan

Peter O'Toole was over 6', compared to the real Lawrence who was 5'5"

rednik

Brad Davis as Billy Hayes in Midnight Express



The real Billy Hayes

darkdubh

Steve Coogan diden't really look anything like Tony Wilson in 24 Hour Party People,in fact harldly anyone in it looked like the real life people they were playing but still a great movie.

Earthhorse

I thought this thread was going to be about Michael Fassbender playing Steve Jobs. The two don't really look alike.

S.M.B.

Surely this is the norm rather than a rare exception.

Sometime it may be down to the fact that most Hollywood superstars bare little to no resemblance to the average Joe/Jane but it's often that the right actor for the job shares little to no physical attributes with the real life person they are playing.

Casting someone to play a part becuase they resemble the character is the worst thing a production can do. It doesn't matter what the actor looks like, it's all in the performance.

Mickeroo

Deleted User wrote: »

Casting someone to play a part becuase they resemble the character is the worst thing a production can do. It doesn't matter what the actor looks like, it's all in the performance.

Case in point, Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs.

In 1985 they released two Mussolini mini series. George Scott played Mussolini in the first and Bob Hoskins played him in the second. Scott who looked much less like the real Mussolini then Hoskins played the role so much better!

FloatingVoter

While we're on evil dictators and Mr Hoskins this one is a good laugh.

World War II: When Lions Roared

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108956/

Michael Caine as Joe Stalin

Bob Hoskins as Churchill :rolleyes:

Watch it drunk or stoned for full effect. John Lithgow does a passable Roosevelt.

Gandalph

Seen Jordan Belfort from the Wolf of Wallstreet at the RDS, ugly little hairy hobbit with zero charisma...why they choose Dicaprio is beyond me. Someone at the casting agency must of spelt 'Devito' wrong because he was more suited to the role.

p to the e

I remember a few years back hearing that Steven Seagal (who's a keen guitarist) wanted to play Jimmy Hendrix in a movie. Ludicrous. He's completely the wrong height.

JohnFalstaff

You could do what Todd Haynes did for I'm Not There when he cast six different actors as Bob Dylan: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Ben Whishaw.

None of whom look particularly like Bob Dylan... except maybe Cate Blanchett oddly enough.