It’s All Geek To Me – Who Dat? The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly of Comic Book Casting
Theater is an actor’s medium. Film and television are a director’s medium. (While Kevin Smith is an extra large director.) It’s for this reason perhaps that bad casting has rarely been the sole reason a comic book movie has ever failed. Did Nicolas Cage and Halle Berry ruin Ghost Rider and Catwoman, or did Ghost Rider and Catwoman ruin Ghost Rider and Catwoman?
So while casting may not entirely make or break a property commercially, when we’re talking about adapting an existing character with a large, passionate, built-in fan base, it certainly is important in establishing the movie’s geek cachet, which can have a decisive effect in the long run.
Comic fans love to play the hypothetical casting game. It’s all part and parcel with the excitement of seeing one’s favorite heroes and villains brought to life in just the way they hope and imagine. It’s a pastime that I admittedly suck at. I just don’t have the encyclopedic memory to remember that one actor from that one TV episode I saw last year who would be just perfect to play Mirror Master (who was once, no joke, played by David Cassidy on the short-lived Flash TV series). Though I am proud to say I thought of Alan Rickman for Professor Snape before announcements were made about any of the Harry Potter films.
For my money, the greatest marriage of an actor to a comic book role is still Christopher Reeve as Superman. Everything about his performance feels pitch-perfect, even his somewhat hokey take on Clark Kent. Supes is the world’s most powerful boy scout, and Reeve takes his cornball Kansas-fed optimism and gives it the utmost of sincerity. Looks-wise the actor so embodies the role that recent regular Superman artist, Gary Frank, used him as the basis for his interpretation, over three decades later. Honorable mentions go to Ron Perlman as Hellboy, kind of a no-brainer there, Robert Downey Jr. as the awesomely snarky Iron Man, Alfred Molina as Doc Octopus in Spider-Man 2, and I gotta give it up to Heath Ledger for his maniacal and devious Joker in The Dark Knight.
Thankfully, the majority of other casting decisions tend to fall under the “yeah, I guess they’ll do” category, rather than the “oh my god, you raped my childhood” cry usually reserved for things like The Phantom Menace. Halle Berry has the unfortunate distinction of being associated with two famous missteps, the second being her turn as Storm in the X-Men series. Many complained that she just wasn’t interesting or exotic enough to be believed as a proud member of royalty from a foreign land, as she is in the comics. But frankly, she never had enough to do in those films for me to care.
Now, I’m all for actors having the freedom to cross ethnic and racial boundaries when being cast. Acting is their job, after all, and in an ideal world anyone should be able to portray anyone else, within reason. But in reality there are certain lines of common sense that can’t be crossed without sacrificing an audience’s suspension of disbelief. Jackie Chan cannot play Captain America. Matthew McConaughey cannot play The Black Panther. Jessica Alba cannot play Sue Storm, The Invisible Woman from The Fantastic Four – a blond haired, blue-eyed, American as apple pie girl. But once again, she didn’t ruin what were already inherently mediocre films, she merely marred them despite herself before the opening scenes even unfurled.
In my humble opinion, the worst bit of comic book casting to date , the only one that’s actually made me angry, is not even a hero or villain. Who looked at Kate Bosworth, this lifeless coat rack, and thought she had the charisma and fortitude to capture the heart of the Man of Steel? Her Lois Lane was a big disappointment in what was an uneven but still occasionally entertaining film. In the comics, Lois is a lot stronger, braver, and more independent than the wet noodle performance we got from Bosworth. To say nothing of the fact that Superman Returns is loosely supposed to follow the filmic continuity of the first two movies in the Christopher Reeve universe, so she is essentially playing Margot Kidder’s Lois, with barely a fraction of the same fire or sass. Yes, expecting a carbon copy of Margot Kidder is unreasonable. Expecting more than an ingénue cipher is not.
In recent casting news, bloggers like myself are scouring the web like metal detectors on a beach for the first scoop on who will play Steve Rogers in the upcoming Captain America. Joe Johnston recently stated he is planning on using an unknown, surrounded by bigger names, but who knows how loose his definition of unknown is? Does the name Ryan McPartlin ring any bells? No? Maybe that means he could be considered an unknown. Lack of household recognition doesn’t make him any less awesome as…”Captain Awesome” on NBC’s Chuck! He recently revealed having auditioned for the role of the WWII super-soldier, and was seen attending the premiere of Johnston’s Wolfman. I think he’d be a fantastic choice. Maybe if it doesn’t work out, with his “military” experience he could read for Captain Marvel/ Planet/Crunch/ Underpants?
But even more interesting to me is what’s floating around about potential leads for AMC’s Walking Dead series. Rick Grimes is the wounded police officer from the South who wakes up in the hospital to a world overrun by zombies. Entirely unfounded rumors cite several actors up for the role. The first one is Battlestar Galactica’s Jamie Bamber, who played Lee Adama. While Bamber certainly has the acting chops, he’s a little too pretty for my taste, and lacks a little of the everyman quality. Next is Stuart Townsend, who’s probably best known as That Guy from Movies I’ve Never Seen (like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). Finally there’s Mark Pellegrino, who plays the enigmatic Jacob on Lost. He’s… okay, I guess, and if I had to pick one of this group, it’d be him, but not out of extensive knowledge of his work.
Whenever I read a comic or novel, I always try to cast it in my head so I can hear the voices as I go along. For some reason, Rick Grimes of The Walking Dead has always sounded vaguely like Owen Wilson to me.
See, I told you I sucked at this.
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