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Supporting roles that were miscast
1. Who do you feel was miscast?
2. Who would you have cast instead?
2. Who would you have cast instead?
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Comments
Lois Chiles.
As to who would've been better in the role I couldn't say. The character could easily have been excised altogether and it'd have been no loss to the film. The character didn't feature in the novel of course though plenty of other good henchmen did.
I thought Lois Chiles was pretty darn good in MR... ;;)
I second that, she's great at playing what the role demanded her to play, in fact, she's actually more convincing as a CIA spy more than all of the female agents in the series, sans Wai Lin.
Big hits:
1. Lea Seydoux (still, no chemistry with Craig, and she looked too young for Craig's aging looks, Monica Bellucci should've been in that role).
2. Both the villain and the Bond Girl of The Spy Who Loved Me yes, I'm talking about Curt Jurgens and Barbara Bach (the former lacked charisma and menace into the role, didn't brought much to the table, while the latter, simply, can't act), for me, Barbara Bach is still the most miscast actress in the series.
3. Joe Don Baker in The Living Daylights (but again, it may be more on the writing or the direction, but again, a great and convincing actor could've elevate the script through a performance).
Mie Hama and Akiko Wakabayashi should've swapped roles, but again, there are rumors at the time that she's going to commit suicide if she didn't get the role? That's a bit shallow to me, she preferred of killing herself than being killed only in screen as Aki 😅
Speaking of TND I would nominate Michelle Yeoh in that! The character is dull and all the Kung Fu stuff is cringey! Agree also about Hatcher, Monica would have indeed been better, but she would have upstaged Brossa ( not a hard thing admittedly!)
I find all of those mostly fine, although agree that Jurgens didn't add too much; all the same I think he's mostly fine.
I would agree with Joe Don Baker though. He's an excellent actor, but in that part he doesn't quite leap off the screen where perhaps he should, especially as Whittaker is kind of a cameo Bond villain in a way. My selection would be James Coburn. He was quite good at playing intimidating, properly mad bad guys towards the end of his career, and I think in a cameo role would have done really well.
I'm afraid my pick would be Eva Green. She just doesn't work for me. She's very young, she's the wrong nationality for the part, she can't really do the witty by-play stuff, especially in the train scene, which Craig is playing just right but she's just not really matching him and I'm not feeling the chemistry. She's good at the vulnerable stuff but I'm not sure I quite buy them as a couple. I remember my mate said at the time that it seemed like she delivered every line like she'd just completely emptied her lungs before starting to talk.
I think it was 007HallY who suggested Lara Pulver, and I like that suggestion a lot. I think it needed someone quite sexy with a bit more of a feeling of classy intelligence behind the eyes. Seems obvious in retrospect but Rachel Weisz would have been pretty good.
Absolutely not..one of THE Best Bond girls, and a perfect Vesper!
Agreed. She's a spectacle. Her accent is decent enough, IMO. Her energy almost matches Craig's. A lesser actress might have struggled with the role, but Eva pulls it off. Despite her romantic predicaments, she warms up to Bond, slowly, step by complicated step. It's not easy to bring such a delicate balance to one's acting. Eva does it.
T'was myself. I do really like Green in the part and I would disagree with your assessment of the train scene (I think they're both brilliant there) but I can definitely picture another actress in the role who would have done equally as fine a job, and Pulver was one of those that sprung to mind.
Thinking of other examples.....
Probably Terri Hatcher, as mentioned already. She'd be an obvious example in retrospect, if only for how half-hearted her performance is. The Yeoh suggestion, to me, is ludicrous as she was probably the only Asian female action-star at the time who could have pulled that character off. Yeoh made her better than she was on the page, and the film shoehorning in the romantic element at the end did her a disservice.
One that I'm solidifying now is Lashana Lynch in No Time To Die. There are a couple of things that are working against her, admittedly - the character sometimes feeling like an afterthought in a film with a narrative thrust that doesn't really have anything to do with her - but as time goes on I am increasingly struggling to find her convincing as a Double-Oh. Rewatches of the film it sticks out more and more for me. I'm having the same issues with The Day Of The Jackal, which has her playing an unlikeable character again but amplifying those negative traits with her performance, as well as still being physically unconvincing to me.
Actresses like Gugu Mbatha-Raw or Nathalie Emmanuel might have fared better, although the material would still be working against them.
Other than that Don Baker as Whittikar, as was mentioned above.
I genuinely can't remember if I did or not, haha! Agreed about Weisz.
I actually have no problem with her chemistry with Craig, she seemed too matured for her age at the time, so the age gap wasn't obvious, she's fine overall, but of course, I do have a problem with her.
The problem with Eva Green was she's seemed to foreshadowing the character's twist by her looks, she didn't looked innocent to me, Vesper in the book described to me as looking innocent, one that didn't seemed to convey her plans, her intentions, and motivations, she's mostly blank, she knew how to hide her real self in an innocent facade, you would believe her, she knew how to manipulate everyone with her innocent and naive looks, she can deceive, that's why Bond didn't saw her betrayal coming because he's deceived by her innocence, that's not Eva Green, her facial expressions, especially that villainous makeup that gave a Xenia Onatopp vibes didn't helped, she can't portray an innocent look, one look at Green in that film and I could see that she's up to no good.
Eva Green looked a bit like a villain, she makes Luciana Paluzzi seemed more believable as a good one in comparison.
I'm rock solid with you on that mate! I really liked Joe Don Baker as Whitaker.
I absolutely detest the Jack Wade character. I always skip his scenes in GE. At least his appearance in TND is brief....
I think you could be right about Michelle Yeoh too...!
Yeah, she's fine in the role, but Monica would've been better.
No problem with Denise Richards, the problem was on the writing, the character itself.
I'd still stand by Barbara Bach as Anya Amasova, it needed a better actress to execute the character's feelings and emotions.
Good shout, this. Agreed with all of it. I like Carlyle a lot too but it would have been beneficial to the character to have a non-UK actor in the role who could have brought something a bit different. Wasn't Jean Reno also in contention for the part?
Yes, Reno and Bardem were originally considered but they went with Carlyle. Reno would have been interesting as well (he's a bit older but a good looking guy with a lot of screen presence/charisma, so the tragedy of Renard's situation comes through without him immediately looking outright pathetic).
It's quite interesting thinking about how different casting choices can alter how a character comes across onscreen. I know a lot of people rate Carlyle as Renard highly, but I always think with an alternative choice we could have gotten something better.
Sorry, I don't see it, and I don't think Craig and her have much chemistry. I actually get more from him and Seydoux, they seem comfortable together.
Apologies! I'm terrible at remembering who said what! :)
I think she really struggles in the train scene, she just doesn't seem comfortable. He's doing some great flirty byplay and she's just a bit stiff. I always imagine what Diana Rigg would have done with that dialogue, she would have been giving more levels to it.
I get the issues with being physically convincing (it's kind of hard to imagine any sort of elegant model-style actress also being a special forces sort of action hero in the same vein as Craig), and I certainly agree that her character is oddly redundant in the whole thing, but I think she plays it charismatically and memorably, and I think she's pretty cool in the character too.
Jackal is a bit odd isn't it, they really want you to not like Bianca.
Yes absolutely, I think Jean Reno was mentioned also, I think he'd have been perfect. I believe he was unavailable.
I still think even with the ropey writing the character wouldve seemed more credible being played by an English/European actress in her 30s- the pandering to America hurt the film.
I largely don't blame Richards but sometimes her line readings can be a bit flat, it's likely she's struggling to find the truth in her character and it's affecting her performance.
Absolutely! And I think Anthony Hopkins would have made a more imposing, less campy Carver
I'll get my coat.
Yes, I think Christmas Jones and Mary Goodnight suffer from the same problem...the writing.
My jaw dropped when I saw Eva Green suggested. Who's next for nomination, Diana Rigg?!?
Another of my somewhat controversial Bond opinions is that Pryce was perfectly cast as Carver! He's outwardly dweeby, even affable, and yet he's a narcissistic, megalomanic monster under that surface who's willing to do horrific things for his own gain. It's a wonderful little image of a public figure who's a complete maniac (and honestly, often such billionaire public figures are far more ruthless than their image gives away, so it's a nice statement that's even ahead of its time in many ways).
Hopkins I feel wouldn't have had that same dynamic.
I can't see him as Paris Carver at all ;)
Can't argue with that, nice one.
Ha! I knew someone would say this; I couldn’t think of
Elliot when posting but just went ahead with it.
Well played sir.
I doubt anyone could have been excellent as Renard, at least the way the character was written. It's a pretty weak character overall in my book. We're pulled into some kind of myth early on, with a lot of exposition -- where he's been hanging out, his awkward condition, and so on -- but the film only serves us an easily startled slave to a woman's sex. The fact that he hardly feels any pain, or none at all, never truly factors in except when he confronts Davidov with the hot rock. Also, he talks too much for a man of his alleged brutality. And when Elektra is with him, she is in complete control. The only sign of Renard's menace is what we're told about him, not what we're seeing. I actually want to give Carlyle a compliment. Given how awkward a role he has to play, he at least commits to it.
I would love to see Gary Oldman in a Bond film too, but not even he could have made Renard interesting, I think.
To be fair we have the 'devil's breath' scene and him proceeding to take control of the bomb with his team. I agree maybe a bit more brutality could have been seen before we see him subservient to Elektra (which as I see it is quite tragic and indicative of how far the character's illness/bullet in his brain has gone in terms of making him want to go through with this death wish). I personally would have loved to have seen Bond use his lack of pain against him in the final fight (it feels like there's half an idea in the script with Bond taunting him about Elektra's death and getting him into a frenzy, but without a proper payoff).
I genuinely think Renard is such an interesting character on paper, and yet something about him in the film never quite clicks. For me it feels like Silva is a revised version of that half-tragic half-horrific character but done so much better (and again, with Bardem in the role, who I think would have made a fabulous Renard).