10 Times Iconic Actors Were So Poorly Cast They Ruined The Entire Movie

Casting is very important to any movie or show. It can either make or break the whole thing. Iconic actors are pretty safe choices most of the time, but once in a blue moon the decision to cast popular actors as main characters or villains turns out to be a disaster. The actors can look nothing like the source materials, or their accents can be really annoying, or they just don’t have the chemistry that the story needs. Any of those reasons can ruin the whole experience for many viewers.
So let’s see which iconic actors ruin their movies. Some of them will really make you scratch your head at how terrible these decisions are.

1. Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker's Dracula

Source: Columbia Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

Bram Stoker's Dracula could have been the best and most faithful Dracula adaptation. However, the decision to cast Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker turned the whole movie into a comical mess.
His English accent is horrible in this movie. Like, really horrible. Keanu just slips in and out of his American accent and a bad British one between the scenes. It’s just so hard to watch. There was no doubt that Keanu was an amazing actor who was very charming and handsome. However, he didn't stand a chance against legendary actors such as Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins.

2. Jesse Eisenberg in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Source: Warner Bros / Everett Collection

Jesse Eisenberg is amazing in other movies. He just doesn’t fit the role of Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Part of it was because the actor looked like a 19-year-old college student instead of an evil mastermind.
The way Eisenberg portrayed his character was also very different from how Lex Luthor was in comic books. He felt more like a mad scientist with frantic behaviors rather than a cold and calculating Luthor.

3. Robert De Niro in The Irishman

Source: Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

Nope, no amount of fancy makeup or high-tech CGI can make Robert De Niro walk and act like the young Frank Sheehan. Sure, it might be okay for a flashback scene or a cameo, but using the gimmick for the whole movie was just too much. There were tons of talented young actors who could have nailed the role. The director could have picked one of them instead of relying on CGI and makeup.

4. Russell Crowe in Les Misérables

Source: Universal / Courtesy Everett Collection

Les Misérables was great. It had eight Academy Award nominations to back it up. However, the movie received a massive backlash due to one wrong casting decision: Russell Crowe as police inspector Javert.
Crowe is a spectacular actor, but his voice just isn’t for the role of Javert. To make matters worse, his counterpart in the movie was Hugh Jackman, who has been a successful musical actor on stage. Russell Crowe’s Javert just didn’t stand a chance.

5. Jared Leto in Suicide Squad

Source: Warner Bros / Everett Collection

The Joker was a hard role to pull off, and Jared Leto failed miserably. The decision to cast him as the iconic villain in Suicide Squad must be one of the worst casting decisions ever. His performance was terrible! The fact that he took his “method acting” too far and sent his co-stars dead rodents and used condoms didn’t help either.

6. Cameron Diaz in Gangs of New York

Source: Miramax / Everett Collection

Gangs of New York is excellent thanks to great performances from iconic actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Liam Neeson. Cameron Diaz was okay, but she wasn’t as good as the other actors in the movie. It was her performance that dragged the whole thing down. Her Irish accent was horrible and the role of Jenny Everdeane was far too complex for her.

7. Julia Roberts in Michael Collins

Source: Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

Speaking of bad Irish accents, Julia Roberts wasn’t any better in the movie Michael Collins. She also didn’t look like a person living during the Irish Civil War. There was no doubt that Julia Roberts was an amazing actress, but she was a bad choice for the role. They should have picked an Irish actress instead.

8. Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson in the 50 Shades

Source: Universal / Courtesy Everett Collection

The 50 Shades trilogy is just bad. Part of the reason why they were so hard to watch was the lack of chemistry between the two main actors. Instead of looking like they were deeply in love, Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson looked like they were merely tolerate each other. Viewers expected passionate scenes, but all we got were messy moments that were awkward as hell to watch.

9. Cara Delevingne and Dane DeHaan in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Source: STX Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection

Speaking of the lack of chemistry, Cara Delevingne and Dane DeHaan also had none in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Dane DeHaan’s acting in this movie wasn’t what we expected of a charming charismatic rogue. Plus, the actors looked way too young for their roles.

10. Dick Van Dyke – Mary Poppins

Source: Buena Vista Pictures/ Everett Collection

Mary Poppins is one of the most iconic musical movies in Hollywood history. However, Dick Van Dyke’s cockney accent is terrible. It’s not his fault though. None of his English co-stars told him how bad it was, and his accent coach was even worse than him.
It’s such a shame that these iconic actors can fail so hard in these roles. In contrast, we have actors who perfectly nailed their characters despite not being the first casting choice. Find out who wasn’t the initial choice for their iconic roles, and who the producers had in mind instead.