10 Movies That Ruined Perfect Casts With One Bad Choice

Cast your mind back to the heady days of the mid-1980s: the Chernobyl disaster was turning sheep as far away as Wales into radioactive lamb chops, Falco’s Rock Me Amadeus was dominating the airwaves and the Miami Vice sports coat look was all the rage. Good times, good times indeed. Another pivotal cultural offering from that time was then hotshot music video director Russell Mulcahy’s action fantasy Highlander which, although negatively received first time around, has since gained a cult following.

It would be far too easy to take pot-shots at star Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod as contender for worst cast member, who admittedly does sport a terrible imitation of a Scottish accent (though in his defence, he is French and wasn’t that fluent an English speaker prior to filming). No, the real culprit here is co-star Sean Connery.

Despite playing Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez, an Egyptian by way of Spain, Connery sounds exactly the same as he does in all his films (i.e. Shcottish) – in fact, the only thing vaguely Spanish seeming about Connery in Highlander is his jaunty Renaissance era get-up.

Of course, looking for authenticity in a fantasy cult film about immortal, time-travelling warriors might not be the most productive use of time, but with a good 20-something years’ worth of acting experience over Lambert (not to mention his tasty $1 million pay cheque for just seven day’s work), you’d think Connery could’ve mustered up a better accent. Shpanish indeed.