The Most Disastrous Castings Ever

Lex Luthor is one of the all-time great comic book villains, right up there with Magneto and Dr. Doom. So when word spread that he'd show up in Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, fans wondered which lucky actor would bring the bald bad guy to life. Many hoped for Bryan Cranston—a man who knows a thing or two about playing shaven supervillains—and when news broke that Jesse Eisenberg would play Superman's arch-enemy, well, fanboys weren't exactly pleased.

Things only got worse when people actually saw the film. While DC fans and movie critics don't usually see eye to eye, most agreed that Eisenberg was totally miscast as the Man of Steel's main villain. Many believed his interpretation of the character was far too manic, too loud, and way too similar to a certain Clown Prince of Crime. For example, Christopher Orr of The Atlantic wrote that Eisenberg "comes across like an improbable—and thoroughly unappetizing—blend of Tracy Flick and the Joker." Devin Faraci of Birth.Movies.Death. followed up with another impressive burn, saying, "Eisenberg delivers every line like he thinks the villains on the 1966 Batman show were too nuanced."

Others have described Eisenberg's Luthor as a "goofball" or "annoying," and his neurotic intensity just feels off when he's standing next to Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill, both of whom are desperately trying to out-frown one another. While there's no denying Eisenberg is a brilliant actor (see The Social Network, The Double, or Zombieland for proof), here's hoping his Lex Luthor stays locked up for a long time.

The Star Wars prequel trilogy has become something of a galactic-sized joke, even for audiences who positively loved the original pics, and a lot of that has to do with Hayden Christensen's exaggerated portrayal of Anakin Skywalker in the days leading up to his transformation into Darth Vader. Before he became the sand-loathing villain, Christensen was a little-known actor with few films and TV roles to his name, so his work was certainly cut out for him to keep pace with decorated industry veterans like Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson, and Ewan McGregor. Even so, his performance easily ranks among the most laughable of all time and helped put a stain on that series which has been easily relegated to the worst-of pile for all of the Star Wars films to date.

Tom Cruise is one of the last true movie stars. Sure, he's made some questionable life choices, but that doesn't negate his star power, his stuntman skills, and his incredible screen charisma. Having said all that, it's still kind of weird that Cruise got the part of Jack Reacher.

A hulking military veteran who travels across America, facing bad guys and righting wrongs in Lee Child's series of bestselling novels, Jack Reacher is supposed to stand 6'5", weigh 250 pounds, and swagger around with a 50-inch chest. Tom Cruise is a pretty fit dude, but the 5'7" superstar doesn't exactly match those qualifications, and this bizarre decision led to a lot of outrage. One angry reader wrote that "Lee Child fans feel betrayed," and another claimed that Cruise "literally ruined the whole character." One irate fan even went so far as to say that Cruise-as-Reacher was the "most ridiculous casting ever."

Child himself pointed out that the filmmakers were never going to find an actor who came anywhere close to fitting Reacher's stature, and what Cruise lacked in build, he made up in intelligence and intensity. However, Dwayne Johnson later revealed that he tried out for the part and was turned down. While Jack Reacher met with a mostly positive reaction from critics, you've got to think that casting the Rock would've probably pleased far more fans.

One of the biggest casting scandals in recent history started in 2015, when the world learned who'd play Major in a live-action remake of Ghost in the Shell. The original film, released in 1995, is generally regarded as one of the greatest animes of all time, and as Robert Chan of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) pointed out, starring in this English language adaptation would've been a fantastic opportunity for an actress like Rinko Kikuchi (Pacific Rim), Karen Fukuhara (Suicide Squad), or Chloe Bennet (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.).

Instead, Paramount went with Scarlett Johansson.

In case you haven't noticed, Scarlett Johansson is not Japanese. In fact, she's not Asian at all. The news of her casting sparked quite a bit of online fury, and over 100,000 people signed a Care2 petition in protest. Groups like MANAA condemned the news, and soon the hashtag #WhiteWashedOut was trending on Twitter. And while the director of the original Japanese film, Mamoru Oshii, defended Johansson, actress Keiko Agena (Gilmore Girls) lamented Paramount's decision, saying this could've been the perfect movie to "have made a young kick-ass Asian actress out there a Hollywood name and star."

Sadly for everyone involved, Ghost in the Shell bombed at the box office, and some suspect the critical backlash surrounding the whitewashing incident helped sink the film. Hopefully, the Scarlett Johansson controversy will convince Hollywood to be a little more diverse when it comes to casting—although it'll probably just inspire studios to stop remaking anime movies.

Speaking of hilariously bad acting, Keanu Reeves has quite a few "whoa" performances to his name–who thought it would be a good idea to cast him as Buddha anyway? The one that takes the cake, though, is his supporting role as Jonathan Harker in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Despite the fact that the film won three Oscars for its costuming, sound effects, and makeup crews, Reeves' portrayal of the curious estate agent who comes to know the Count was marred by a terrible British accent and over-the-top reactions. Director Francis Ford Coppola kindly remarked that Reeves "tried so hard" when it came to speaking with an English affectation, but that so much effort was ultimately the issue with his portrayal, saying, "He wanted to do it perfectly and in trying to do it perfectly it came off as stilted."

Remaking Carrie always seemed like a pointless endeavor. After all, the Brian De Palma original is a bona fide classic, and it's hard to beat perfection. Evidently, audiences and critics agreed, as the film had a disappointing run at the domestic box office and earned a disappointingly low approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And while you certainly can't lay all the blame on the shoulders of its star, Chloë Grace Moretz, you've got to wonder what might've happened if MGM had gone with an actress who was a little more, well, weird-looking.

If you're familiar with the story, then you know Carrie is a painfully shy girl who's mercilessly harassed by bullies, largely because she's a misfit with no social skills and little understanding of how the world—or her own body—really works. So it would've helped if Carrie had actually looked kind of awkward, like the type of kid bullies would want to torment. Unfortunately, Moretz is just too pretty for Carrie's own good; as Jay Bauman of Red Letter Media put it, she "looks like the kind of girl that would be picking on Carrie in one of these movies."

Indeed, if you compare Moretz to the original Carrie, Sissy Spacek, it's pretty clear who should play a victim and who should play a bad guy. Moretz totally has that cute cheerleader look, and while that might work in a movie like Kick-Ass (where her adorable appearance is subverted by her penchant for murdering people), it doesn't really work in a high school setting where good-looking people are put up on pedestals. As Matt Goldberg of Collider wrote, "At most, [Carrie] is the ugliest girl at Supermodel High," so perhaps it would've made more sense to cast Moretz as one of Carrie's tormentors...or to have skipped the whole remake business in the first place.

Kevin Costner was another American actor who just couldn't handle a British tone in 1991's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The film was ridiculed before it ever hit theaters but still managed to steal a nice chunk of change at the box office. Even despite its commercial success, Costner's accent troubles prompted Cary Elwes, who portrayed the same character in the slapstick comedy version, 1993's Robin Hood: Men in Tights, to famously say, "Unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent." Ouch.

Irish actor Colin Farrell has had a fair number of acclaim-worthy performances, but his eponymous turn in Alexander was not one of them. Not only has his casting been panned for being culturally insensitive to Greek culture, but he was simply not convincing as the type of morally bereft and greedy emperor that could make history books eternal for his conquering prowess. Farrell, for his part, has since been able to laugh off the criticism, particularly when it comes to his terrible bleach blonde locks look, saying on The Graham Norton Show in 2013, "That was my Doris Day look ... [Alexander] was the golden-locked child, but he shouldn't have been. He should've been brunette. And maybe he shouldn't have had an Irish accent — only from the 7,000 reviews I read."

Even George Clooney knows that his casting as Bruce Wayne was all wrong–almost as wrong as the entire movie within which he did it, 1997's Batman & Robin. As Clooney recalled in a hilarious interview with The Graham Norton Show about his turn as the Batman, replacing Batman Forever's Val Kilmer in the role, "I always apologize for Batman and Robin. I actually thought I destroyed the franchise until somebody else brought it back years later and changed it. I thought at the time, 'This is going to be a very good career move.' It wasn't." Clooney has cited difficulties with the "60 pound" costume as part of the reason his portrayal was too rigid, but there's no doubt that the portrayal lives on as one of the weak spots on his resume and the DC films taken together.

When pop star Bobby Darin died at 37, he left behind some pretty great tunes, like "Splish Splash," "Beyond the Sea," and "Mack the Knife." He also left a big impact on Kevin Spacey—so much so that the Oscar winner spent more than a decade trying to make a biopic about Darin's life. Most studios were reluctant to finance the film because Spacey wanted to play the lead...and he was 45, eight years older than Darin had been when he'd died.

Execs wanted someone like Leonardo DiCaprio for the part, but Spacey stuck to his guns and eventually got the deal done with Lionsgate. Better still, Spacey wasn't just the star. He was also the director and producer. In other words, his Darin biopic—titled Beyond the Sea—was the very definition of a passion project, but honestly, it probably would've worked a lot better if someone other than Spacey had played the main character.

Granted, as Roger Ebert noted in his review, Spacey does a great job of performing Darin's songs, but there's something weird about watching a man in his mid-40s playing a character in his late teens and early 20s. In a savage review from New York magazine, critic Logan Hill wrote that Spacey was "too old and "too jowly" for the role, adding that it felt "downright pervy" to watch his love scenes with Kate Bosworth, over 20 years his junior. So while you've got to give Spacey points for dedication, casting someone who wasn't two decades too old for the part would've been a better move.

Everybody knows Hollywood has a major problem when it comes to casting women of a certain age—and a by "a certain age," we mean over 30. And because Tinseltown is so obsessed with youth—well, when it comes to women, anyway—that means a lot of younger actresses get parts that are probably better suited for ladies with a bit more life experience.

If you need proof, look no further than David O. Russell's Joy. This fact-based 2015 film focused on Joy Mangano, a 34-year-old single mom who overcame life's obstacles by creating a self-wringing mop and finding success as a TV personality. As the movie centers on a woman in her mid-30s—who, at one point, we see in her 40s—it might've worked better if the role had gone to someone in the same age bracket. Instead, Russell gave the part to his frequent collaborator Jennifer Lawrence.

The Oscar winner was a decade younger than her character at the time of the story, prompting Matt Singer of ScreenCrush to write she was "totally miscast as a divorced mother of two who's been repeatedly beaten down by life's disappointments," adding that the part "was meant for the Jennifer Lawrence of 2025, not the one of 2015." Even Lawrence confessed she was too young for the role, but she justified it by saying Russell doesn't worry about "silly questions" like age. "David gets visions," she added. "He's in his own beautiful, amazing world."

That sounds nice when you're getting high-profile parts, but "older" actresses might not think those questions are quite so silly.

When it comes to directing, M. Night Shyamalan either strikes out hard or knocks the ball out of the park. It's either The Happening or The Sixth Sense with this guy. So when an After Earth comes along, we all know that Shyamalan will probably redeem himself a few movies later with something like Split.

But when it comes to Shyamalan's acting, well... the director has appeared in many of his movies, and the only times his performances work are when Shyamalan relegates himself to a Hitchcock-style cameo (like Unbreakable). But when he actually tries to act, you wish he'd spend all his time behind the camera.

That's especially true in Lady in the Water. Granted, this 2006 fantasy film has a lot of problems, but its cast is pretty solid. Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bob Balaban, and Jeffrey Wright are all incredibly talented, and they do the best with what they're given. So it makes it all the more glaring when Shyamalan shows up in a sizable part. His character, Vick Ran, is crucial to the plot. And unfortunately, he's stiff and a dry, a cardboard cutout come to life.

The whole thing is especially embarrassing because Shyamalan — who writes his own screenplays — plays an author who's writing a book so important that it's going to change the course of human events. Ego, much? Honestly, while a professional actor wouldn't have rescued Lady in the Water from a lousy script, it would've prevented the audience from rolling their eyes when Shyamalan is told that he's going to save the world with his magical writing abilities.

The Alien franchise has had a rather rocky history, producing genuine classics, underrated gems, and truly awful trash. But perhaps the most controversial entry in the series is Prometheus, the quasi-prequel to the 1979 original. This 2012 film follows a group of explorers searching for the origins of humanity. Their quest leads them to a planet full of albino gods and space cobras, and eventually, they find themselves face-to-face with Guy Pearce, who's hiding under mounds and mounds of the goofiest old man makeup since Nothing but Trouble.

In this Ridley Scott movie, Pearce is playing Peter Weyland, the ancient and affluent CEO of the villainous Weyland Corporation. Weyland is hoping to find the Engineers — a godlike race that created humanity — so he can learn how to beat death. But the horrible prosthetics are incredibly distracting, and despite his acting chops, Pearce is never convincing as an old man. In fact, Pearce knew he probably wasn't the best pick for the part. Talking to Collider, he admitted there was a moment where "I did think, 'Why didn't [Scott] just cast Ian McKellen?"

In a separate interview with Vulture (via the Huffington Post), Pearce explained there was in fact supposed to be a dream sequence showing Weyland as a younger man. That's the sole reason he was cast instead of an elderly actor, but Scott decided to scrap the scene... and keep Pearce anyway. As a result, we've got a character that looks weirder than any alien that shows up onscreen.

Directed by David Ayer, Suicide Squad is the messiest DCEU movie to date. Maybe that's because it suffered from some major reshoots, perhaps it's the overly obvious musical cues, or maybe it's because DC tried to introduce far too many characters in one film. In fact, there were so many bad guys running around that one particular villain got very little time in the spotlight — the Joker. And that's pretty shocking considering Jared Leto's alleged antics were all anybody was talking about in the lead-up to the film.

Leto isn't a horrible Joker. He's... just whatever. And that right there is the problem. The Clown Prince of Crime is the most iconic villain in comic book history, and you really need a special actor to bring him to life. Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, and Mark Hamill all took Joker to the next level. They transcended expectations. Even Caesar Romero owned the character in his uniquely campy way.

But Leto relies too much on his flashy grill and psycho eccentricities. Everything he does is just surface level. He snarls and grimaces and does a kooky laugh, but you never feel the monster brimming under all that makeup. While the idea of the Joker as a Scarface-style thug is an interesting one, you need an actor who can really dive deep into the the character's head, not just send obscene gifts to his co-stars.

In the year 2017 — after the backlash against movies like Ghost in the Shell and Doctor Strange — you'd think Hollywood would finally realize that whitewashing is a bad idea. But evidently, the folks at Lionsgate missed the memo when casting their Hellboy reboot. Everybody was happy when David Harbour signed up to play the big red demon, but the internet lost its mind when Ed Skrein was tapped to star as Major Ben Daimio.

If you're not familiar with Hellboy lore, Ben Daimio is a member of the BPRD and a U.S. Marine who came back to life after a rescue mission gone wrong. He's also Japanese-American. Ed Skrein of Deadpool fame, on the other hand, is very much a white dude. So naturally, activists and fans alike were pretty upset about the news, and the online furor prompted Skrein to step down from the part. He described his decision to leave the project as "the right thing to do and the only thing to do," and Lionsgate rectified their mistake by recasting Daimio with Daniel Dae Kim of Lost fame. Granted, Kim is a Korean-American and not Japanese, but still, going with an Asian actor is way better than picking a guy who looks like your typical "British villain."

Based on the beloved Japanese franchise, Ghost in the Shell was directed by Rupert Sanders, starred Scarlett Johansson, and was hated by everybody. The movie just couldn't compare to the 1995 original. Plus, it was hounded by controversy from the moment Johansson was cast as the Major... an Asian character. The movie was ripped apart for its insensitive casting, and you'd think Sanders and Johansson would've learned from their mistakes and tried their best to never mess up again.

But the duo made headlines again in 2018 when it was announced they were working on a biopic called Rub & Tug. The film would focus on Dante "Tex" Gill, a 1970s gangster who ran a major steroid ring and used massage parlors as a front for prostitution. If Gill had been a woman, maybe Johansson would've been perfect for the part. However, Gill was a trans man, so when she was cast, activists everywhere banded together in protest.

Admittedly, movies need stars to sell those tickets, but a lot of people thought an actual transgender actor should play the part. And Johansson did herself no favors when she dismissed her critics. But eventually, the online roar was too loud to ignore, and Johansson left the project just a few days after her casting announcement. In her official apology, she said that she understood "why many feel [Gill] should be portrayed by a transgender person, and I am thankful that this casting debate, albeit controversial, has sparked a larger conversation about diversity and representation in film."

At the end of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the villainous Percival Graves (Colin Farrell) revealed his true form by morphing into Gellert Grindelwald, the big bad of the Fantastic Beasts franchise. However, the real surprise was that the evil wizard was being played by Johnny Depp, an actor who'd recently made headlines for some pretty serious accusations.

In May 2016, Depp's then-wife, Amber Heard, filed for divorce and accused him of physical abuse. Fast forward a couple of years — past Harvey Weinstein's downfall and into the #MeToo era — and people were appalled that Depp was still set to star in the Fantastic Beasts sequel, The Crimes of Grindelwald. A lot of people online were incredibly upset with director David Yates and Warner Bros. for continuing to work with a man accused of beating a woman. They were even more shocked when Fantastic Beasts author J.K. Rowling came to Depp's defense, saying she was "genuinely happy to have Johnny playing a major character in the movie."

Daniel Radcliffe, on the other hand, found it a tad hypocritical that Harry Potter actor Jamie Waylett was kicked off the original series for possessing marijuana plants, while Depp was playing a central role in the spinoff series despite having faced much more serious allegations. It's all especially confusing considering Depp's criminal history, including pleading guilty to assault in 1989. The whole controversy is just another battle in the effort to make Hollywood a safer place for women, and if movie studios want to avoid stirring up the social media hornet's nest, they might want to avoid casting guys accused of beating their wives.

File this one under the "never again" tab because Mickey Rooney's cartoonish portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's is basically unwatchable. The screen star was widely respected thanks to the rest of his immense body of work, but the image of him wandering around with taped eyelids and large false teeth is hard to unsee. So much so that the film, which is otherwise revered for Audrey Hepburn's iconic lead performance, has been consistently hit with backlash for its cultural stereotyping sleaze whenever it's been screened by the studio.

Along with the incoherent tone and pacing in Ridley Scott's "House of Gucci," viewers and reviewers found themselves irritated by Jared Leto's portrayal of Paolo Gucci, the aspiring but untalented designer son of Gucci chairman, Aldo (Al Pacino). With his cartoonish performance and a rather insulting caricature of an Italian accent, Leto's Paolo stood to be the black sheep of not just the Gucci family in the story, but also of the biographical crime film itself, as the attempts to strike a serious tone were thwarted by Leto's over-the-top repeated squeals that border on a Super Mario Bros. impression.

Tom Ford – a filmmaker and former Gucci designer — had his own critique of the movie and the performances it featured, especially Leto's. Ford personally knew some of the main characters depicted in the film, including Paolo Gucci, and commented: "Leto's brilliance as an actor is literally buried under latex prosthetics." He further revealed that while Paolo was "indeed eccentric and did some wacky things," his behavior wasn't "like the crazed and seemingly mentally challenged character of Leto's performance," likening the actor's portrayal to a "Saturday Night Live" spoof. This is supported by a rare video interview in which we can see the real Paolo Gucci speaking, making it clear why individuals who knew the real-life figure were offended by Leto's portrayal of him.

Unlike Foxx's Electro on this list, whose casting was eventually redeemed with his appearance in 2021's "Spider-Man: No Way Home," Dane DeHaan and Paul Giamatti sadly did not get the same chance at redemption for their portrayals as Green Goblin and Rhino in 2014's "The Amazing Spider-Man 2." Even though DeHaan and Giamatti had proven themselves to be fine actors in movies such as "Kill Your Darlings" and "Cinderella Man," respectively, the Spider-Man sequel failed to give the actors' characters enough depth as a result of the same fatal, franchise-ending flaw that "Spider-Man 3" committed in 2007; that is, having an incoherent plot with three one-dimensional villains with no proper focus on either of them.

However, contrary to the majority of the actors on this list, both DeHaan and Giamatti had only good things to say about their experiences playing their characters. When addressing rumors about his character appearing in "Spider-Man: No Way Home," DeHaan stated, "I would certainly love to make some kind of movie like that again. I like making superhero movies or in that kind of world and I'm sure I'll find myself in that world again." Similarly, Giamatti acknowledged that his Russian accent was "pretty hammy," but that he still loved playing the role, saying "it seemed to me like an opportunity to be as over-the-top hammy as possible. It was really fun" (per Toronto Sun).

It's safe to say that a lot of people were underwhelmed when Jai Courtney and Emilia Clarke were announced to play Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor — two of the most recognizable and well-known characters in sci-fi film history — in the 2015 franchise reboot, "Terminator: Genisys." After all, the two actors had quite big shoes to fill, following up the acclaimed performances of Michael Biehn and Anton Yelchin as Kyle, and Linda Hamilton as Sarah in previous "Terminator" movies.

Surely enough, the film received mixed reviews not just for its plot, but for its casting and performances as well. Fans and critics had a lot to say about Courtney's bland acting and the fact that his bulky physique didn't help sell the idea that his character grew up in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and that Clarke's "youthful looks" simply did not fit Sarah Connor — not to mention the absolute lack of chemistry between the two actors who briefly engage in on-screen romance.

Unsurprisingly, Clarke revealed that she did not have a good time and regrets filming "Terminator: Genisys," citing various behind-the-scenes incidents that made her relieved that she wouldn't have to play the character again when the film failed to garner enough box-office receipts.

When "Mamma Mia!" danced into theatres in 2008, audiences loved the vibrant musical numbers, the jolly albeit campy tone, and its exuberant characters placed in the sun-kissed milieu of a fictional Greek island, earning the film a whopping worldwide collection of over $600 million on a $52 million budget. The only aspect of the film that stuck out like a sore thumb, as you guessed it, was Pierce Brosnan. Don't get us wrong, Brosnan makes for a charming addition to the ensemble cast of the ABBA musical, but when he sings ... the actor isn't as appealing to the ears as he is to the eyes.

Naturally, it would draw criticism to have an actor with no singing expertise perform in a musical movie, especially when they are up against the melodic but inexperienced voices of Meryl Streep and Christine Baranski. The James Bond actor's singing was brutally lambasted by critics, who cited it as one of the worst singing performances in movies and graphically described how agonizing it was to hear Brosnan sing in "SOS" and "When All Is Said And Done."

While the actor received the Razzie Award for worst supporting actor, that didn't stop him from returning to the 2018 sequel, "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again," and even being down to return for the potential third film, citing "how much fun" he had making the first two movies.

Martin Scorsese's 2002 historical epic, "Gangs of New York," received positive reviews and garnered ten nominations at the Oscars, including best picture and best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis, but most movie buffs concur that one aspect of the film detracted from its overall greatness: Cameron Diaz as Jenny Everdeane, an Irish pickpocket who falls in love with gangster Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio). It's hard to buy into the 19th-century setting of the film when Diaz's accent (and DiCaprio's too to some extent) keeps faltering, making it one of the worst on-screen accents of all time.

Additionally, viewers found the nearly three-hour-long movie muddled enough with various themes as it is and that the romance subplot between Jenny and Amsterdam felt unnecessary. It's important to note that Diaz wasn't Scorsese's ideal choice for the part. Now-disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein compelled the director to choose Diaz for Jenny over other actresses including actress-director Sarah Polley and Sarah Michelle Gellar of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fame (per Times of San Diego).