Doug and I had a debate on the last installment of The Audio Edition about what was more important in casting an actor for a role… the talent or the look? Don’t get me wrong… Doug wasn’t suggesting a talentless hack was fine as long as they had the right look… nor was I saying a 4’10 fat guy could play He-Man… but given the choice of everything else being equal… but one actor was 5% more the right look… but the other actor had 5% more talent… I say go for talent every time.
A bad look has never ruined a movie… but bad talent does. Let’s look at a couple of examples where the “Look” wasn’t all that important. I’ll start with what is generally regarded by most comic film fans as a successful franchise up till now… the X-Men.
Magneto (Ian McKellen).
As far as pure “look” goes, this is one of the worst casting decisions in history. Magneto is a BIG man, powerful and chiseled out of stone… coming across much younger than McKellen in the comics. Whereas Ian McKellen is much older, sort of frail looking and very small. The only thing that Ian McKellen and Magneto have in common is that they’re both older than 40. But that’s about it.
But having said that… I didn’t hear anyone complain about the Magneto that McKellen brought to life. McKellen was a magnificent Magneto… not because he looked like Magneto (because he didn’t even SLIGHTLY look like him), but rather because McKellen’s talent as an actor brought the character to life. We (as the audience) very quickly forgot that Magneto and McKellen looked NOTHING alike.
Woverine (Hugh Jackman)
I can still remember the uproar and outrage expressed by many many many X-Men fans when they first learned of the casting of Hugh Jackman to play Wolverine. “He’s too tall! He’s not built enough! He doesn’t have the right look!” all these and many things more were said about the Aussie actor. “X-Men will suck!” angry fans cried out. Well… they were all wrong.
No, Jackman does not have the natural look of Wolverine. But his fantastic acting talent projected the Wolverine character in a way that many people didn’t think was possible. You just knew that you were indeed looking at Wolverine… even though there wasn’t a lot of physical likeness to the character in the comic book. Thank goodness Brian Synger also decided to ditch the yellow spandex outfit.
Sabertooth (Tyler Mane)
Tyler Mane as Sabertooth was probably the best casting in the X-Men as far as just pure “look” goes. I thought (and many… but not all… agree with me) he LOOKED as close to perfect as you could get for a live action version of Sabertooth. However… as I’ve been trying to argue… looking the part doesn’t really mean much it they’re not the right person for the role.
Mane looked like Sabertooth alright… but he wasn’t even an actor. He was horrible in the X-Men film and didn’t really bring anything to the screen. The story goes that they actually edited out a few of his lines just because he was so bad. I guess having the look doesn’t make up for lack of talent after all.
Batman (Michael Keaton)
The X-Men weren’t the only comic franchise with some controversy when it came to casting for “look”. Way back when Tim Burton decided to go with Michael Keaton to play the Dark Knight, comic fans almost rioted in the streets. Batman is the most physically perfect human being alive. As physically strong as any human can be without superpowers… a giant of a man… huge in height and muscle bulk. He is a warrior poet, the great detective… and he’ll beat the living piss out of you just for fun (he’s always in such a bad mood). Michael Keaton… not so much.
And yet, Keaton was strong in Batman. So much so that he won just about everyone over to his side and many of those who were crying out when he was cast ended up crying out when it was announced that he wasn’t coming back to do the third film.
The same could be said for Christian Bale. Yeah, the guy is in pretty decent shape… and has dark hair… but in terms of physical stature he’s NOTHING compared to the Batman. Face it… he’s too short (since when is Alfred twice as big as Batman????) and just not strong enough to really be the Dark Knight. And yet… Christian Bale was MAGNIFICENT in Batman Begins and almost universally people praised his performance.
Conclusion:
I could go on and on with the positive and negative examples of where the “look” didn’t mean anything… but you get my point. Having the right performance can easily make up for not having the right look. Having the right look can’t make up for not having the right performance.
All other things being equal, go for the look. If two actors are equal in talent and you believe equal in the performance they can give, then by all means go for the guy who LOOKS more the part. But other than that… in my books talent and performance should win out every time. That’s my two cents worth.
Give us your thoughts in the comments section.
**As a side note, I’ve asked Doug to write a rebuttal article… look for it on Monday or Tuesday sometime.**
