Worst example of “pretty” casting?

I always get kinda weirded out whenever I see a character in a movie that’s supposed to be ugly or an outcast yet they look like a glamorous movie star regardless. In Praise of Shadows recently did a really great deep dive on the Carrie franchise and one point Zane made especially in relation to the Chloe Grace Moretz version is that Moretz is entirely wrong for the part, or at the very least in how she’s made to look. Whilst none of the adaptations of Stephen Kings novel are pitch perfect in adapting Carrie White accurately as she is in the book, one thing that’s established by both Sissy Spacek and Angela Bettis, (with absolutely no disrespect to either actor, they both do a great job and for the purposes of this I’m more referring to how they look in reference to Carrie) is that Carrie White is intentionally shown to be “othered” or, more pertinent to this post, somewhat ugly. This is the main aspect that carries (heh) over from the source material, albeit not as far as the book goes, but it’s also the whole point: the prom is meant to be the one time Carrie has ever felt beautiful, and it’s the tragedy of it being torn away in as horrible a way as it is that causes her to snap. So it doesn’t really make much sense to have Chloe Grace-Moretz in that role when the most you do to make her “ugly” is to put her in a sweater and outdated clothing, because it misses the entire point.

So anyway, it got me thinking about other instances where characters and actors were miscast by being too “pretty” for the part, be it fictional or real. So I ask, what is the worst example of “pretty” casting?

Aside from the above example, one I find particularly egregious is the casting of Aileen Wuornos. Whilst I think Charlize Theron did an impressive job acting the part and they did more or less a good job making her look like the real life serial killer, it does hold back just a little, but the Peyton List starring movie where very little was done to make List, who is objectively beautiful, look like Wuornos who is most definitely not, is almost offensive in its casting.

Submitted February 20, 2024 at 08:41PM by PriestofJudas https://ift.tt/bp2eXKi