10 Movie Casting Choices That Were Total Misdirection

2. Tom Skerritt - Alien

What Everyone Expected

Before Tom Skerritt appeared in Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi masterpiece, he already had almost two decades of acting work under his belt, and despite not being quite as established an actor as co-star John Hurt, nevertheless received top billing on the movie's posters.

Skerritt of course played Dallas, the captain of the Nostromo, and audiences quite understandably assumed that between his fame and rank onboard the ship, he was to be the protagonist (and a probable survivor) of the horror to follow.

What We Got

Though Scott's film initially focuses more intently on the ensemble cast than any one character or actor, Dallas does seem to be the hero of the piece at first, until he becomes one of the xenomorph's victims mid-way through the movie.

After this, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is left in command of the Nostromo and assumes the protagonist role for the film's remainder, ultimately ending up its sole human survivor - with the crew's cat Jones, of course.

With an ensemble cast including acting vets such as Skerritt, Hurt, Harry Dean Stanton, Veronica Cartwright, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto, Weaver was by far the least-experienced and least-famous cast member, having just two prior feature acting credits to her name.

As such, positioning Skerritt as our archetypical hyper-masculine hero was a perfect bait-and-switch, allowing Weaver to fill the void in his absence and deliver a surprising, star-making performance in the process.