Movie adaptations of video games have a pretty rough history, much rougher than comic books. The odd choice to make the “Prince of Persia” series into a big-budget Hollywood flick came with Jake Gyllenhaal as the title character. They gave him all the long hair and scruffy beard they could, but it’s just not that easy to turn Donnie Darko into a Middle-Eastern prince.
We’re seeing more and more examples of opportunities to cast an ethnic actor or actress squandered by Hollywood who want the biggest name attached to their project. Still, it’s clear it has a bad track record – the only “good” example in recent history is Tilda Swinton. The movie’s not very good, either.
Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One in Doctor Strange
Also appearing in "The Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame," The Ancient One is, almost always, portrayed as an Asian character. Yet again, Hollywood whitewashing comes to the fore, but this time the actress pushed back. The character is famously a title, not a single person, and Swinton went on record saying this iteration of the character is a Celtic woman instead of an Asian man.
Most of the controversy passed when viewers saw her role in the action, but there are still people who raise a stink for yet again denying an Asian actor a powerful role.
Gary Oldman as Rolfe in Tiptoes
There are few casting choices as perplexing as Gary Oldman in 2003's Tiptoes, which plays a dwarf. A little person. The film features plenty of incredible actors who are dwarfs (including everyone's favorite, Peter Dinklage), but the lead dwarf role going to a man of standard stature raised plenty of little eyebrows.
The movie is even about the rights and portrayals of little people, which makes the choice of Oldman an even stranger choice. Dinklage is right there, for Pete's sake! The film was poorly received and ended up going straight to DVD. The preview looks like something from a comedy show.
Colin Hanks as Travis Marshall in Dexter
Dexter Morgan has faced some of television's most notorious characters while trying to keep his secret actions hidden and navigating the trials of being a sociopath who knows what he does is wrong. Season six's villain, played by Colin Hanks, however, just didn't have the nerve and grit to make for a good antagonist.
Like Colin's father, Tom, the character just seems too nice to be someone known as the "Doomsday Killer," and it became one of the big problems in the show's sixth season. The head of an apocalyptic killer cult needs a certain something more to properly affect viewers.
Vince Vaughn as Frank Semyon in True Detective
Yes, it's Vince's second showing on this list. While the man might be able to hold his own somewhat as a comedic actor, casting him in such a dark role should have been tossed out at first mention. "True Detective" is extraordinarily adult, with the first season taking on murders, infidelity, other worlds, drugs, and more, and was incredibly promising as an anthology show, but then it got Vaughned.
Vince simply can't be a career criminal in such a dark outing, though we applaud him for stretching his boundaries. But maybe stick to the comedies with Wilson, bud.