10 Dumbest Miscastings In Recent Movies
3. Joaquin Phoenix - Napoleon
As if Ridley Scott's Napoleon biopic wasn't disappointing enough already, it also features one of the worst miscastings in recent memory.
Joaquin Phoenix might be one of the greatest actors of his generation, but casting him as Napoleon was a ludicrous decision, for the simple reason that he is literally 20 years too old to play him. Throughout most of the film's events, Napoleon was in his 20s, so why did they cast a man who's visibly in his late 40s for this?
One of the reasons why Bonaparte is such a famous historical figure is that he achieved all of those astonishing victories when he was a very young man, so casting an actor the right age was vital to convey what an undeniably extraordinary man Napoleon was.
Even ignoring the age aspect, Phoenix is an actor who excels at portraying turmoil and dark, eccentric characters, so he wasn't necessarily the right pick for this charismatic leader. Napoleon was always going to be a hard role to cast, to be fair - Timothee Chalamet could've worked, potentially - but this still stands out as a particularly bad casting choice, especially as Phoenix fails to hide his American accent throughout the movie.