Nothing beats Johnny Depp as an interesting character, but this casting choice was a bit too interesting for most people. “The Lone Ranger” was a huge box office bomb for Disney, losing almost two hundred million dollars, and Depp’s casting was a primary issue. Tonto is a Native American character, and it would have been a great way for a Native American actor to show his skills. Instead, we got Captain Sparrow – and his costume for the film also raised some eyebrows.
Depp’s acting wasn’t the problem, but his “redface” is the leading storyline when most people talk about this movie.
Cameron Diaz as Jenny Everdeen
Like almost every Martin Scorsese film, "Gangs of New York" is a long drama with plenty of interesting characters, amazing sequences, and outrageous violence. Cameron Diaz, as "Irish" pickpocket-slash-prostitute, however, was a letdown that sticks out like a sore thumb compared to Daniel Day-Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Her accent kept slipping, and she failed to carry the dramatic energy that the other principal actors – dramatic pros – maintained with ease. A comedic actor like Diaz going up against Day-Lewis and DiCaprio is also going to play second fiddle, but for a movie that was almost perfect, Diaz dropped the ball big time.
Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor
Lex Luthor is one of the iconic comic book villains, up there with the Joker and Magneto. Plenty of people were hoping for a powerful actor who has already been stunned as a bald villain – like Bryan Cranston in "Breaking Bad" when he says, "I am the one who knocks" – but instead, we got Jesse Eisenberg. He's certainly not a bad actor, looking at his previous outings, but he just didn't have the power to play this unforgettable villain.
Superman's arch-nemesis needs more, and Eisenberg just didn't have it in him. Many found his character too manic, too loud, and too wild for what a good Luther should be – a little bit too close to the Joker for a lot of people's liking.
Chloë Grace Moretz as Carrie in Carrie
The first problem was most people didn't think a Carrie remake was necessary, but of course, this is Hollywood – they think we're goldfish the way they remake things. The other problem with the remake was the lead actress, CGM, who is beautiful. Yes, for this film, that's a knock. In King's original – and first – novel, Carrie is a doughy, pasty, stringy-haired, pimply outcast who is bullied relentlessly.
Moretz is pretty, has beautiful gold curls, and seems more like a bully than the bullied. She may be able to act awkward, but it just doesn't strike right, even after the pig blood falls.
John Cusack as Richard Nixon in The Butler
John Cusack is quirky, lovable, and pudgy, which is why he's cast as the romantic lead in rom-coms like "Say Anything" or "High Fidelity." But casting him as one of the most unpopular presidents in recent history was a big misstep for the casting directors of "The Butler," which features him in a terrible prosthetic nose which distracts from everything else on the screen and neither looks nor sounds anything like the thirty-seventh president.
Lee Daniels directed "The Butler," and he also miscasts Cusack as a murderous maniac in another one of his films, "The Paperboy."