18 Actors Who Were "Wrong" For A Part But Booked It Anyway

When an actor auditions for a role or considers a script, they're often given a character breakdown that details what kind of person it calls for. While not always, these breakdowns often assign a specific race, gender, age, etc. to the role (especially if the script is based on a novel or comic book).

However, the character description isn't gospel, and many casting directors are more interested in finding the best actor for the role regardless.

Here are 18 actors who didn't match the character description, auditioned anyway, and booked the part:

1.In the original animated version of The Little Mermaid, Ariel is white. For the upcoming live-action adaptation, Halle Bailey's casting as the iconic princess was met with racist backlash. However, director Rob Marshall actually personally asked her to try out after watching her perform "Where Is the Love?" at the 2019 Grammys. After her audition performance of "Part of Your World" moved him to tears, he knew she was perfect for the role.

He told Variety, "You could tell right away that she was able to harness Ariel’s passion, her fire, her soul, her joy and her heart."

In the same interview, Bailey said, "I want the little girl in me and the little girls just like me who are watching to know that they're special, and that they should be a princess in every single way. There's no reason that they shouldn't be. That reassurance was something that I needed."

2.In Everything Everywhere All At Once, the lead role was initially planned for Jackie Chan, and Michelle Yeoh would've played his wife. However, writers/directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert "were having trouble figuring out the casting for the father figure, and one of [them] started wondering what happens if [they] take Michelle's character and flop it, and she becomes the protagonist." They realized the movie worked much better with Yeoh in the lead role as Evelyn Wang.

Scheinert told the Hollywood Reporter, "As soon as we switched it, we were like, 'Oh, now the husband and wife characters are more relatable. Why on earth didn't we write it this way from the get-go?'"

3.Similarly, when writer/director, Todd Field, first began working on Tár, he imagined the titular character as a man. However, Cate Blanchett ultimately played the role.

Blanchett told Variety, "Because the film is a meditation on power, you would’ve had a much less nuanced examination of that. We understand what the corruption of male power looks like, but we need to unpack what power is itself."

4.In the Percy Jackson books and the original movie adaptations, Annabeth Chase is a white girl. Some fans were upset when Leah Jeffries was cast as Annabeth in the upcoming Disney+ series, but author Rick Riordan called them out. In a blog post, he said, "The response to the casting of Leah has been overwhelmingly positive and joyous, as it should be. Leah brings so much energy and enthusiasm to this role, so much of Annabeth’s strength. She will be a role model for new generations of girls who will see in her the kind of hero they want to be. If you have a problem with this casting, however, take it up with me."

He continued, "You have no one else to blame. Whatever else you take from this post, we should be able to agree that bullying and harassing a child online is inexcusably wrong. As strong as Leah is, as much as we have discussed the potential for this kind of reaction and the intense pressure this role will bring, the negative comments she has received online are out of line. They need to stop. Now.

I was quite clear a year ago, when we announced our first open casting, that we would be following Disney’s company policy on nondiscrimination: We are committed to diverse, inclusive casting. For every role, please submit qualified performers, without regard to disability, gender, race and ethnicity, age, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other basis prohibited by law. We did that..."

5.Similarly, based on the Pretty Little Liars books, critics opposed Shay Mitchell's casting because they argued that Emily Fields was "supposed to have red hair, fair complexion, and freckles." However, Mitchell didn't let the criticism bother her and "thought, 'All right, that was the girl next door, and I'm the new version of the girl next door.'"

She told Ocean Drive, "The world is a melting pot now. It's no longer the 'typical American girl' with blonde hair and blue eyes...[The criticism] didn’t stop me for one second from wanting to go in and give it a try. I still wanted to give them my best take on who I thought this character was. And had I stopped at that physical description this character was known for, then I wouldn’t be here right now."

6.In the original Bruised script, Jackie Justice was "a twentysomething Irish Catholic white woman" who'd be played by Blake Lively. However, Lively passed, and Halle Berry pitched a new idea that producer Basil Iwanyk loved — "making it about a middle-aged Black woman, someone fighting for a last chance rather than another chance."

Berry told Entertainment Weekly, "I had to go back and say, 'I've tried really hard, but what's in my head, no one else sees. This is going to sound really crazy because it's crazy for me to even think it, but I think I should direct this.'"

7.In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, America Chavez was initially written to be 18, but when Xochitl Gomez first auditioned, she was only 13. Thinking she wouldn't get it, she tried to forget about it, but several months later, she was invited to a callback because screenwriter Michael Waldron had reimagined a younger version of America.

Gomez told Entertainment Weekly, "The most exciting part [of playing America] was definitely that she is 14, which is younger than any of the versions in the comics. Michael Waldron got to write her a new introduction. It was kind of fun taking the version from the comics and making her younger and less experienced."

8.In Fire & Blood, Lord Corlys Velaryon is not a person of color, but when the book was adapted into House of the Dragon, Steve Toussaint played the role. During San Diego Comic-Con 2022, the actor said, "There are people outside who find it a little hard to stomach that someone who looks like me would play this part. But that's an issue they have to deal with, and I don't have to. The issue is always the same, I just have to say the lines convincingly and avoid bumping into the furniture."

He also said, "Other than certain people's viewpoints about someone who looks like me playing this part, it hasn't really played a part in the role, in my experience on the job with my fellow actors."

9.In the Marvel comics and Spider-Man (2002), MJ Watson is a white woman with red hair. However, when Zendaya auditioned for the role in Spider-Man: Homecoming, she "didn't know that they were going to be more diverse in their casting" and that she was "walking into a situation where they were already breaking the rules."

"You get so used to having to break the rules for people," she told Marie Claire. "...I always tell my theatrical manager, 'Anytime it says they're looking for white girls, send me out. Let me get in the room. Maybe they'll change their minds.'"

10.When ABC ordered Scandal to pilot, series creator Shonda Rhimes "got a phone call from somebody who said, 'This would be the perfect show for Connie Britton.'" She replied, "It would be, except Olivia Pope is Black." Though the network continued to suggest white actors for the role, Rhimes continued to push for a Black lead because Olivia was inspired by crisis manager Judy Smith. Finally, the role went to Kerry Washington.

Rhimes told the Hollywood Reporter, "[Washington] was different than what I originally envisioned. We were all like, 'Oh my God,' because she's tiny, cute, pretty and younger — and because she was all those things, she was aware that people would underestimate her."

11.In Quantico, the role of Alex Parrish "was not written as an Indian girl." However, for Priyanka Chopra, it was "important that [she] get cast in whatever [she does] not because of [her] ethnicity, but because of merit." Alex was rewritten to have an Indian mother and a white father.

Chopra told Fader, "You see her relationship with her father. The story hinges on her relationship with her dad. At that time, when Alex's father was in the FBI, it was important to be born in America. That was the case 20 years ago. The story would've altered a lot if Alex were completely Indian. So we changed it to Alex's mom being Indian. That explained my ethnicity and as for my accent...that's why we adjusted the story so Alex lived in India for ten years. It helps with the story. They had to conform a little to explain me. But I was clear that I didn't want to change Alex's character too much. I wanted to be able to fit into it. So, we didn't change the name."

12.In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, director J.J. Abrams and co-writer Lawrence Kasdan originally planned for Captain Phasma to be a man. However, after struggling to cast the role, they decided to make Phasma a woman, and "it was instantaneous: Everyone just said, 'Yes. That’s great.'" Gwendoline Christie booked it.

Christie actually didn't know the character was originally a man until a Vulture reporter told her.

She said, "I think that’s great of them, don't you? That there was a discussion about that, and an evolution?"

13.In the Marvel comics, Johnny Storm/Human Torch has blonde hair and blue eyes, but Michael B. Jordan played him in Fantastic Four (2015). In an essay for Entertainment Weekly, the actor said, "[The casting criticism] used to bother me, but it doesn't anymore. I can see everybody's perspective, and I know I can't ask the audience to forget 50 years of comic books. But the world is a little more diverse in 2015 than when the Fantastic Four comic first came out in 1961. Plus, if Stan Lee writes an email to my director saying, 'You're good. I'm okay with this,' who am I to go against that?"

He continued, 'Sometimes you have to be the person who stands up and says, 'I'll be the one to shoulder all this hate. I'll take the brunt for the next couple of generations.' I put that responsibility on myself. People are always going to see each other in terms of race, but maybe in the future we won't talk about it as much. Maybe, if I set an example, Hollywood will start considering more people of color in other prominent roles, and maybe we can reach the people who are stuck in the mindset that 'it has to be true to the comic book.' Or maybe we have to reach past them."

14.Similarly, the comic book version of Valkyrie is white and blonde, but when she made her MCU debut in Thor: Ragnarok, she was played by Tessa Thomspon. Director Taika Waititi told Comic Book Resources, "Right from the start we wanted to diversify the cast, and it's hard when you're working with Vikings. You want to be more inclusive and provide a broader representation. And at that point, you have to look at the source material as a very loose inspiration. And then take it from there and go with your gut."

He continued, "Say, 'You know what? None of that stuff matters. Just because the character was blonde and white in the comic book. That doesn't matter. That's not what [that character] is about.' People forget that. Die-hard fans will say, 'That's not really authentic to the comics,' but as soon as they watch the movie, and they're involved in the story, and actually what's happening, everybody forgets."

15.In the spy thriller Salt, the titular character, Edwin Salt, was originally a man, who was going to be played by Tom Cruise. However, Cruise ultimately decided to pass, and Sony Pictures chief Amy Pascal had the idea to retool the script for Angelina Jolie. So screenwriter Kurt Wimmer got to work, transforming a story about Edwin Salt saving his wife and child into one about Evelyn Salt going on the run to clear her name after she's accused of being a Russian spy.

Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura told the LA Times, "When you look at it from a dispassionate business point of view, it's a better way to do the genre. With [Mission Impossible] and Bourne and Bond, you're going to be the fourth spy guy. We thought, 'Let's be the first spy girl.'"

16.Originally, Lisa Turtle was written as "a Jewish princess from Great Neck, Long Island" in Good Morning, Miss Bliss (which eventually became Saved By the Bell). However, after Lark Voorhies auditioned for a guest spot, writer/producer Peter Engel fought against the casting directors to get her an audition for the role.

Engel told the Industry Standard podcast, "I said, 'Have her read for Lisa Turtle.' They said, 'Well, Lisa Turtle's not Black.' I said, 'She is now.'"

17.When The Wire was in its casting stages, series creator David Simon told casting director Alexa Fogel that he didn't want any non-American actors because the show was set in Baltimore. However, Fogel thought Idris Elba would be a great fit for Avon Barksdale, so she told him, "I love you, I gotta bring you into this audition, but you have to promise that you can't tell him you're from East London."

Elba pretended to be American until his fourth audition, when he felt he had to come clean, but he also asked them not to fire Fogel over it.

He told Hot Ones, "My parents told me not to lie — you gotta look someone in the eye and be honest."

Though they passed over him for the role of Avon, they did cast him as Stringer Bell, who's from West Philadelphia.

18.And finally, Chloë Grace Moretz, who's from Georgia, only booked the role of Isabelle in Hugo because she fooled director Martin Scorsese into believing she was British. During auditions, she "fully pretended to be from England, and that [her] parents were horse breeders, and that [they] lived in the Cotswolds."

She told Wired, "I had a whole, told big lie, a huge lie, and then I booked the part. And it was like a month into production that he was like, 'Wait, are you just doing an American accent?' And I was like, 'No.' I'm like American, like my accent is southern naturally if I don't iron it out. I guess maybe I am British. I don't know. It depends if I believe my own lie."