History Main / AbilityOverAppearance

Casting agents usually have a very specific appearance in mind when casting actors to play their characters. When holding auditions there will usually be descriptions noting what the character should look like, for example blonde hair, frail frame, not too tall etc. This is also the case when casting actors in adaptations of books and video games. However, sometimes an actor who is completely different from the physical description shows up for the audition and they completely nail it. The casting directors throw the description out the window and hire this actor because of their performance. This sometimes leads to other tropes such as RaceLift, AdaptationalAttractiveness and often HollywoodHomely and HollywoodPudgy if the character was meant to be ugly but references to this weren't removed when an attractive actor was cast. It's rare but it can also happens with regards to a character's gender.

** This was also the justification of Sokka and Katara; in the series they were Inuit/Native American analogues, in the movie they were turned white. Considering how much their performances were criticized, the justification might not hold up.

* DanielCraig got a bit of controversy when he was cast as JamesBond in ''CasinoRoyale'' because he looked very different from the past Bonds. This of course all went away once the film came out and he got rave reviews. He may have invoked the trope since he refused to dye his hair black for the role.

* A twofer case in ''Film/TheLastAirbender'' - Zuko was Asian in the [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender original cartoon]] and director M Night Shyamalan considered white Jesse [=McCartney=] for the role but Anglo-Indian Dev Patel ended up getting the part from his audition tape.

* In the {{Thor}} comics, Heimdall is pretty covered up, but still visibly white. For the film, Kenneth Branagh chose to cast Idris Elba. Fan controversy over his choice led to this quote:

* Daniel Craig got a bit of controversy when he was cast as James Bond in ''CasinoRoyale'' because he looked very different from the past Bonds. This of course all went away once the film came out and he got rave reviews. He may have invoked the trope since he refused to dye his hair black for the role.

* GreysAnatomy has always been known for colorblind casting (leading to one of the most diverse casts on television,) but that doesn't mean that they didn't have a general idea of who to cast. Miranda Bailey was intended to be a blond, white women until Chandra Wilson got a hold of the part.

* Although Hamlet is a young college student, his constant change of emotion makes him one of the most challenging roles an actor can play. Because of this, he is almost always played by a much older, more experienced actor.

* A strange case with Bridget in ''EightSimpleRules'' when she ends up getting the part of Anne Frank in the school play despite looking nothing like her. She reads the book and ends up giving a fantastic performance.

* In the ''Film/{{Daredevil}}'' movie, the Kingpin was played by Michael Clarke Duncan. He was the best actor with the [[LargeAndInCharge size]] that they could find, and even then, he had to gain some weight for the role. Ironically, the Kingpin was originally supposed to be black in the comics, but an editor thought it would be racist to have a black villain.
** This carried over into the short-lived Mainframe animated ''{{Spider-Man}}'' series on MTV, to the point of actually having Michael Clarke Duncan voice the character.

Casting agents usually have a very specific appearance in mind when casting actors to play their characters. When holding auditions there will usually be descriptions noting what the character should look like, for example blonde hair, frail frame, not too tall etc. This is also the case when casting actors in adaptations of books and video games. However, sometimes an actor who is completely different from the physical description shows up for the audition and they completely nail it. The casting directors throw the description out the window and hire this actor because of their performance. This sometimes leads to other tropes such as RaceLift, AdaptationalAttractiveness and often HollywoodHomely and HollywoodPudgy if the character was meant to be ugly but references to this weren't removed when an attractive actor was cast.

* Although [[Hamlet]] is a young college student, his constant change of emotion makes him one of the most challenging roles an actor can play. Because of this, he is almost always played by a much older, more experienced actor.

* Philip Pullman had something of a reaction like this when Nicole Kidman was cast as Mrs Coulter in ''TheGoldenCompass''. The character has black hair in the books (Kidman being blonde) and Pullman said "I was wrong, she has to be blonde", Kidman having been his personal choice for the role.

* StevenMoffat was adamant that he'd had enough of young [[Seres/DoctorWho Doctors]], and was going to cast an actor who was ''at least'' middle-aged. And then MattSmith audutioned, and that was that.

* PatrickStewart, MichaelGambon and AnthonyHopkins have both played {{Othello}}, despite the common practice of casting a black actor in the role.

* A twofer case in the film of ''TheLastAirbender'' - Zuko was Asian in the original cartoon and director M Night Shyamalan considered white Jesse [=McCartney=] for the role but Anglo-Indian Dev Patel ended up getting the part from his audition tape.

* StevenMoffat was adamant that he'd had enough of young [[DoctorWho Doctors]], and was going to cast an actor who was ''at least'' middle-aged. And then MattSmith audutioned, and that was that.

* StephenMoffatt was adamant that he'd had enough of young [[DoctorWho Doctors]], and was going to cast an actor who was ''at least'' middle-aged. And then MattSmith audutioned, and that was that.

* In an unintentional case, Jeanette Goldstein mistook ''Aliens'' for a film about Mexican border crossers and turned up for the audition dressed as a prostitute. She ended up getting the part of tomboy Vasquez anyway.

* The ''Film/HarryPotter'' films frequently cast actors this way. Horace Slughorn, Dolores Umbridge and Gilderoy Lockhart were all played by actors who didn't quite match the physical description of their book counterparts, but who had the attitude of them perfectly.

* Shelly of ''NorthernExposure'' was written to be Native-American but Caucasian Cynthia Geary ended up getting the part.