The Most Miscast Actors

Let's open up with a classic. John Wayne was one of the most respected leading men of the Western era - his craggy face and immense physical presence made him a star in movies like Stagecoach and The Searchers. But it was a ludicrous folly on the part of Howard Hughes to cast him as Ghenghis Khan in The Conqueror. Widely regarded as one of the stinkiest movies of the 1950s, the Mongol epic still has viewers scratching their heads. Wayne's acting skills just aren't up to playing an Asian, and his mustache doesn't help matters much.

Keanu Reeves is perfectly fine in a number of roles. His befuddled surfer gimmick carries him through The Matrix and the Bill & Ted movies decently. But when you throw him into Bram Stoker's Dracula and expect him to speak in an English accent, you're making a horrible mistake. As Jonathan Harker, Reeves totally sinks every scene he's in. You'd think that Francis Ford Coppola would have wanted a guy who could, you know, talk as one of the movie's main characters, but it was not to be. The movie's a lush visual fantasia, but it should have been silent.

One very common casting mistake revolves around the sticky issue of race. In Hollywood, all you have to do is turn over a rock to find actors of pretty much any ethnic background. So why would anybody ever cast somebody to play outside their race? It's a mystery, but a mystery that is perpetrated again and again and again. One of the most horrific examples is in the classic Breakfast At Tiffany's. The majority of the film is perfectly cast - Audrey Hepburn made her name as the flighty Holly Golightly, you know. But then there's her neighbor Mr. Yuniyoshi, played by the very non-Asian Mickey Rooney in the worst ching-chong stereotype way imaginable.

Kevin Costner's path from one of the biggest stars in the movie industry to B-list washout was a short one. Of course, it made a stop in Waterworld, but one of the biggest pitfalls was Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves. In a flick packed to the gills with gifted British actors with authentic accents, Costner stood out like a sore thumb. It's not like a Robin Hood movie needs accents to work, but if everybody else has one, you probably should too. I realize that he was cast for box office draw, not acting skills, but it proved to be a mistake.