#1
#2
Zachary Quinto and Ethan Peck are fine in their own rights, but Mr. Nimoy's performance is what made Spock a cultural icon.
A few days ago, the user u/thepoutingmom decided to ask netizens in the AskReddit community: "Who's an actor who nailed a role so hard that nobody else will ever be able to live up to it?" As of today, the trend already has over 13K upvotes and nearly twice as many varied comments.
To be honest, I'm not even sure that there have been this many star actors in the history of cinema and television—but the discussion turned out to be powerful and really exciting.
Interestingly, the list of actors who have created such an impressive on-screen image that it is difficult to imagine anyone else in the role includes Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator and Steve Carell as Michael Scott in The Office. It's funny that both the first and second were actually far from the main options for these roles.
Carell was filming another project at the time of casting, so the showrunners had already chosen Bob Odenkirk for the role of Scott. Can you imagine that? Definitely not now. But at the last moment, the project where Carell was filming was closed, so Steve was able to play everything back and return to the set of The Office.
By the way, Odenkirk, if you remember, did have a cameo role on the show. Remember Mark Franks?
As for the Terminator, at first, his role was planned to be given to Lance Henriksen (the detective who dies in the shootout scene at the police station), and Schwarzenegger was to be made Kyle Reese—John Connor's dad. True, it would have looked unnatural if the cyborg looked much less impressive physically than the rebel soldier and the producers noticed this.
The no less muscular Sylvester Stallone refused (oh, what a standoff that would have been!...), and the director considered O. J. Simpson to not be brutal enough for the role of a ruthless cyborg (remember, this was in 1984—not 1994!) As a result, Schwarzenegger played the ultimate role of his entire life, and Henriksen... well, Henriksen, unfortunately, never became a superstar.
When we talk about actors who completely nailed it, we often recall Alan Rickman's brilliant performance as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies. And then there are skeptics who claim that Paapa Essiedu, who was already approved for the role of the potions professor in the upcoming HBO series, "Doesn't correspond to the canon."
Okay, now I'm going to give you a really difficult argument. Alan Rickman didn't correspond to the canon either! This was at the very least because Severus Snape was 31 years old at the beginning of the epic (he's the same age as Harry's mom), and Rickman, when he was approved for the role, was 55 years old. However, as was stated in a study by Post Office Telecoms, the key element was the unique timbre of the actor's voice.
In 2008, researchers at the University of Sheffield, having analyzed the voices of star actors, found that first place was shared between Rickman and Jeremy Irons. As we can see, it's not just about looks. And, damn it, if Mr. Essiedu (and he is a truly talented actor) creates a no less memorable image, then we'll remember him for the next two decades, too!
#13
And it's even more symbolic to see several actors who played in the film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings here, too. At the very least because Daniel Day-Lewis first refused the role of Aragorn, and then Stuart Townsend, who had already been approved for the role, was unexpectedly fired—and only then was he replaced by Viggo Mortensen.
Well, Peter Jackson initially saw only Sir Sean Connery as Gandalf, and tried in every way to lure him into the cast, even promising a percentage of the film's rental. But the great Scot, having read the script, sincerely said that he didn't understand Tolkien's work and responded with a flat-out refusal.
And he almost could have become a billionaire, considering the level of box office receipts! However, you must agree that both Mortensen and Sir Ian McKellen were incredibly good in their roles.
#16
(honorable mention: also as Maria Von Trapp, much nicer than the real MVT).
You know, I could probably talk about all these "If only..." moments from the world of cinema forever, but now is the time to stop and give you the well-deserved opportunity to simply scroll this list to the very end. And also, of course, to share your own ideas about actors nailing their roles so perfectly that their stories should be included among these selections as well.
