15 Near Miss Villain Castings That Would Suck More Than Eisenberg's Luthor

14. Mel Gibson - Frank Costello (The Departed)

Don't get me wrong, for all his faults, Mel Gibson is a mostly brilliant actor, and he'd probably have been superb as mobster Frank Costello in Martin Scorsese's The Departed, a role that eventually went to Jack Nicholson, who delivered a performance that was sadly slighted by the Oscars. However, given that his infamous drunken anti-Semitic occurred just months before the movie was due to come out, and the various racist rants that followed over the years, it's probably a good thing he didn't take the role. And why's that? Well, Costello's opening monologue includes this quote - "That's what the n***ers don't realize. If I got one thing against the black chappies, it's this - no one gives it to you. You have to take it." Had Gibson taken the part, it would probably have tarnished the film's reputation somewhat, and no doubt the above quote would've been repeatedly posted on YouTube with perverse comments about it reflecting Gibson's true beliefs. Gibson instead decided to move ahead with his criminally underrated thriller Apocalypto, so it all worked out in the end anyway.