10 Amazing Movies With Weirdly Distracting Castings

7. Larry Hagman - Nixon

Oliver Stone's Nixon is a fascinatingly underrated piece of '90s cinema. A strangely sympathetic portrayal of one of the United States' most infamous presidents, the film stars Anthony Hopkins as Tricky Dick, chronicling Nixon's failed first White House bid all the way to his impeachment and the Watergate affair.

It's less chaotic than Stone's previous presidential effort, JFK, except for one scene, which essentially sees Nixon threatened by a bunch of Texan oil barons and bank tycoons, which the film also implies may have been behind Kennedy's death. (We have never been more "through the looking glass" than this scene.)

This moment in Nixon on its own is fun enough, but it takes on an added weird dimension thanks to the presence of Larry Hagman, who was most famous for portraying ruthless Texas businessman J. R. Ewing on Dallas. Hagman's appearance in Nixon evokes the spirit of J. R., to the point where it feels like it's same the notorious oil magnate training his eyes on the wayward Commander-in-Chief.

Hagman's cameo still works, but it's hard to shake away J. R. as he puts pressure on Hopkins' crumbling executive.