Jonathan Brewer as Chief Bromden
Ill save you a Google search and just say you might know Brewer better as the guy who unwittingly ingested tapir balls at the beginning of Apocalypto. Now, demographically, this was the toughest call. Id welcome any of your suggestions regarding prominent Native American actors of whom Im just simply unaware. But it is that aforementioned tapir hunt scene that drew me to Brewer, with his rugged and imposing exterior stripped away to reveal an insightful and delicate soul.
Zach Galifianakis as Cheswick
Stay with me. For all his prolific comedic talents, Ive always thought Galifianakis greatest potential greatness lay within 2010s Its Kind of A Funny Story as troubled mental ward mainstay Bobby. While still a perfectly admirable performance, Galifianakis defaulted to a lot of the ironic weirdness thats come to define his career. Imagine for a second if he were able to channel the insecure man-child lurking within in him to a role that really demanded it, Cuckoos Nests resident emotionally overwhelmed lapdog. Give the man a shave, a real director to get him to drop the post-post-modern beatnik jester shtick and we might really have a performer on our hands.
Danny DeVito as Martini
I poured over this for about an hour before I realized that some things just dont change. DeVito is still working, still tremendously entertaining, and frankly theres nothing about the gleeful and exuberant Martini that suggest he couldnt easily be a 67-year-old man. Ill round out the ensemble with Blake Lively (who fortified her trashy credentials in The Town) as McMurphys squeeze Candy, Richard Jenkins as Harding (Jenkins made an appearance in my last
Fantasy Casting piece), Timothy Olyphant as the fiery Taber, William H. Macy as Sefelt and Craig Robinson succeeding Scatman Crothers as night watchman Turkel.