5. Tom Cruise - Neo (The Matrix)
It might seem bizarre to suggest that hiring somebody
other than Keanu Reeves would have been a bad decision - especially a star with as much charisma as Tom Cruise - but I'm genuinely pleased that this movie wasn't shoe-horned into a vehicle for the otherwise great actor. I can't help but feel as though it would have been changed to the point where it would have no longer resembled the Wachowskis' vision, given the influence Cruise seems to have up all his movies ("Do we really need this red pill/blue pill thing? What are we saying with that?"). Despite the fact that Keanu Reeves has his off days as an actor (okay, a
lot of off days), I think he genuinely nails this part and was an appropriate choice for "man who wakes up one day and realises the world is just a computer program." Cruise, I think, would have been overkill in a role requiring a quiet and relatively anaesthetised performance. We wouldn't want him jumping up and down on the deck of the Nebuchadnezzar, declaring his love for Trinity, would we now?