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Which actor/actress will be the most difficult to replace as [insert character]


Niners Fan in CT

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How did we mention Orson Welles, but miss the true Transformers answer in Peter Cullen?  I mean, others have done the "Optimus" role in some of the other properties, but it never works as well. 

 

As for the ones mentioned, I think Hugh Jackman and Harrison Ford are absolutely the two major ones.

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Proof that no other actor could pull off Marty McFly then Fox is Eric Stoltz originally started the filming process as Marty before being replaced.  Stoltz is a fairly competent actor who did a lot of teen roles back then so it's not like he wasn't a capable actor.

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Will be...

 

That being said, also completely ignoring the criteria and going with a 20 year old character, Clint in Unforgiven is hard to beat. I'm not saying that a bunch of different great actors couldn't have played William Munny but Eastwood is so intrinsically linked with the history of Westerns that there's nobody else you could imagine in the role.

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A little left of centre but Vin Diesel in the Fast and Furious franchise.

 

I don't know what it is but he just makes that series and I'm not sure any of the other mid-low rank action 'stars' of the early 2000's (Jason Statham, The Rock, Chris ODonnell, Jet Li...) could've carried it into anything like it is today.

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This thread got me thinking, as I was dozing last night I thought of an awesome show. "Who want's to be the next Wolverine?" A talent show where the prize is you get to take over the role from Jackman when he hangs up his claws. You would inevitably get some fat teenage boys sending in tapes of themselves trying to be moody at the camera and other delusional members of society. Then once you get past the audition stage you could get the short-listed actors to film small scenes and then everyone votes based on their performances. Could even have an expert panel made up of like 1 director, 1 comic book guy and maybe Hugh himself. 

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I don't know that I've brought it up here, and I doubt it would happen, but Hugh Jackman (in DoFP) looked like he could easily play Bill Bixby either in a biopic or, to make minds melt, take over as The Hulk from Ruffalo.

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If you can get past Blade not being Snipes, the show wasn't too bad at all. Jill Wagner was smoking hot.

 

The plot of the show was promising but Sticky Fingaz was a pretty horrible actor.

 

They should've gotten Michael Jai White for that series.

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If you can get past Blade not being Snipes, the show wasn't too bad at all. Jill Wagner was smoking hot.

 

The plot of the show was promising but Sticky Fingaz was a pretty horrible actor.

 

They should've gotten Michael Jai White for that series.

 

 

I had no idea that "Kirk Jones" was a rapper.  Or that he had made a career for himself outside the show.  I just assumed Kirk Jones was an unknown actor willing to work cheap in hopes of getting a big break.

 

Yeah, my street cred is pretty low.  I'm fairly sure I would have recognized LL Cool J if he had gotten the role, though.

 

I thought the tv series was fairly bad.  Neither lead could act much. 

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Sticky got every member of Onyx a cameo in Blade: The Series.

 

As much as I want to say that Erik King could be Blade, the dude is under six feet tall and hasn't really carried any television shows or movies as the main guy.  I think if he just emotes Doakes's attitude, he could pull it off..

 

Maybe he'd be a better Luke Cage than Blade?

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Everything I've ever heard is that it's all Welles, with a computer filter because his voice was so damn weak by that point.

Yeah, I had always heard that, if anything, only the last lines he spoke were Nimoy(I've also heard Frank Welker).  I think that rumor only popped up because of how different he sounded, but, you know, he was dying and all. Unicron, not Welles lol

 

 

Welles' health at that time seems to be quite a bit exaggerated,  Hell, he was on TV doing an interview just a few hours before his death.

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Guess no one here watches ORPHAN BLACK.

 

Because Tatiana Maslany is the fucking show.

 

She's played (to date) eight very different, very distinct clones - often two or three at a time IN THE SAME GODDAMN SCENE.  (And not just doing dialog, I might add - physically interacting with each other!)

 

Game, set, and match, kids.

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Guess no one here watches ORPHAN BLACK.

 

Because Tatiana Maslany is the fucking show.

 

She's played (to date) eight very different, very distinct clones - often two or three at a time IN THE SAME GODDAMN SCENE.  (And not just doing dialog, I might add - physically interacting with each other!)

 

Game, set, and match, kids.

 

Of course she's the show.  She is like all but three or four characters, man.

 

I will admit having a crush on Cosima, though.  Must be the braids, the glasses, and the pixie smile.

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Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street series is a big one for me. I like Jackie Earle Haley too but it just didn't really work for me.

Someone could pull a Mikkelson with Freddy in the right circumstances. Englund's performance depended entirely on the script. As the sequels got campier, so did he.

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I was gonna mention Lawrence and Katniss, but this is one role I am not sure applies since Niners never really clarified the criteria. From a "we have a legitimate star with some credibility" standpoint, no one can replace her now. But from a "this might affect the quality of our movie" standpoint, she can easily be replaced. Hell, all but like ten or fifteen people in cinematic history can be replaced in specific roles. This would be the shortest thread ever. IMO, only two or three at best have been named so far.

It would be different if she was just some limited actress being crammed into a YA role, but Lawrence is literally better in other project I've seen her in. The writing requires so little from her. Katniss is every 14-23 year old suburban white girl's avatar that I am not sure it's even modeled after a real human being. She has no gripping emotional quality that helps the narrative and makes these films remotely palpable for someone outside the demographic. Plus, they have no real ending. That's always a kick in the balls. These movies stink in every conceivable way, but I understand why they are so hyper specific and loyal to the demo. Because people like me are willing to spend money trying to figure out a craze they will never understand. That mystery keeps the series from being another YA movie that bombs at the box office.

So from a quality standpoint, you can replace her and not have any step back since the writing is so shallow.

Your argument is my argument.

I disagree that the movie is so thin that anyone could play it, I think the movie is so thin that without her sheer magnetism it would have fallen flat on its face.

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In that role, I just don't find her all that enthralling. If we're talking about being DIFFICULT to replace, we're also talking about elevating the material he or she has been given. There is nothing in those movies she does that makes me feel that I am not watching some freakish teen friendly, bastardized American Battle Royale. The only thing I am magnetized by is how bad Woody's hair piece is.

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RE: Hunger Games. I think I have always enjoyed the movies more for the subtext, more than what is actually presented(Woody's boobs notwithstanding).  I think they nail the media sensationalism aspect pretty well.

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How did we mention Orson Welles, but miss the true Transformers answer in Peter Cullen?  I mean, others have done the "Optimus" role in some of the other properties, but it never works as well. 

 

As for the ones mentioned, I think Hugh Jackman and Harrison Ford are absolutely the two major ones.

Man, I could debate for years on how much more interesting David Kaye is as both Opie and Megatron than Cullen or Welker, but instead I will just say that, since he's pretty much the only actor to carry a comic book role from live ac to cartoons and do both well, I think whoever replaces Mark Hamill as the Trickster on the new Flash show has a HARD row to hoe.

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Guess no one here watches ORPHAN BLACK.

 

Because Tatiana Maslany is the fucking show.

 

She's played (to date) eight very different, very distinct clones - often two or three at a time IN THE SAME GODDAMN SCENE.  (And not just doing dialog, I might add - physically interacting with each other!)

 

Game, set, and match, kids.

 

Maslany is tremendous, but she's not the first actress in the world to have a ton of range. Tricia Helfer did the "playing several characters at once" thing in Battlestar Galactica and was very good.  Also, I think you have to bear in mind, the editors and directors are doing a lot of the work too in some of those scenes and deserve credit.

 

Obviously, she's great for the role, but I think you could still have that show with someone else, provided they were very talented.  

 

Problem is, so much of "X is irreplaceable" talk is because you've never seen anyone else in the role. Sometimes an actor can come into an established role and change  entirely how you think about the character.

 

Tyrion Lannister is a good one though. Partly because Peter Dinklage is amazing, but also because you're pretty limited and don't have a huge pool of actors to pick from.

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What about Daniel Day Lewis as Abraham Lincoln?  Every other actor you would be seeing Liam Neeson(who originally was supposed to do the role) or whomever doing a Lincoln impersonation while when watching DDL you saw Lincoln in the role and not the actor.

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