50 Huge Movie Characters That Were Completely Miscast
2. John Wayne As Genghis Khan - The Conqueror
It's happened before, it is currently happening now, and will happen again in the future, where an actor becomes so popular that they appear to be everywhere. Pedro Pascal is going through such a phase right now, which is no bad thing, but this has led to poor decisions in the past.
Throughout the 50s, 60s, and 70s, John Wayne proved to be one of the biggest stars the industry had to offer. However, this seems to have led to the temptation to cast him in movies regardless of anything else other than his name.
It's clear for anybody to see that the American western star shouldn't have been anywhere near the role of Genghis Khan, the infamous Mongolian emperor, and yet this is exactly who he played in 1956's The Conqueror. The performance is exactly as you would expect, just as horrifying and just as delusional.
To think that this came when Wayne's star was at the tippy top of its ascendency is mind-boggling, and with other off-screen controversies surrounding the fact that production may have caused cancer in multiple members of the cast and crew, you could chalk this up as one of the most ill-advised films ever made.