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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.

But sometimes, an actor who is completely different from the physical description shows up for the audition and nails the role. The casting directors throw the description out the window and hire this actor because of their performance.

This may lead to tropes such as Race Lift, Adaptational Attractiveness, Hollywood Homely, and Hollywood Pudgy. In rare cases, can even trump a character's original gender.

Note that it isn't an example of the trope if the actor works hard to resemble the physical description of the character.

Examples:

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Real Life Examples:

Film

In Alien, all of the characters are known by their last names and were going to be male. Ultimately Ripley and Lambert were cast with female actors. Hardly any lines were rewritten, and it's since been repeatedly hailed as a masterpiece of female character writing.
When casting Red for The Shawshank Redemption the description was for a middle-aged Irish man with greying red hair and actors such as Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford and Robert Redford were considered. Morgan Freeman wound up getting the part because the director "couldn't see anyone else as Red" after his audition. Which had the added effect of making the line - "Why do they call you 'Red'?" [beat] "Maybe it's cause I'm Irish." - hilarious.
Invoked by the filmmakers of The Last Airbender. Many fans of the original show disapproved of this trope being used that way in the film. They were also suspicious of its execution: instead of being truly colorblind or only failing to match the description once or twice, the casting resulted in Caucasian heroes and non-white villains. And, just to add insult to injury, the trope backfired, with the acting in the film generally panned.
The producers of The Lord of the Rings intended to cast only British actors as the Hobbits as Tolkien had imagined the Shire as a form of England but American Elijah Wood sent in a strong audition tape and was cast as Frodo.
- A marginal case, seeing as Wood speaks The Queen's Latin with very few slips.
Ben in Night of the Living Dead was not written to be black. In 1968 it was quite unusual for a black man to get a lead film role. George Romero has always maintained that he only cast Duane Jones because he gave the best audition, not to make a point or be controversial.
The Harry Potter 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 (for instance, Slughorn is meant to be short and stout with a walrus mustache, but Jim Broadbent is clean-shaven and over six feet), but who had the attitude of them perfectly.
- Umbridge is an even more noticeable case, as her appearance is constantly described as toadlike in the books, and the illustrations bear it out. Imelda Staunton doesn't look anything like this, and they did nothing to make her even remotely unpleasant looking. However, this actually works in the films' favor, due to the heightened contrast between her sweet, grandmotherly appearance and her brutal, secret-police style rule over the school (and infuriating behavior).
In The Mighty Thor comics, Heimdall is pretty covered up, but still visibly Caucasian. For the film, Kenneth Branagh chose to cast Idris Elba. Fan controversy over his choice led to this quote:
"If you have a chance to have a great actor in the part, everything else is irrelevant. "
- His performance was then raved about.
Daniel Craig got a bit of controversy when he was cast as James Bond in Casino Royale because he looked very different from the past Bonds, being derisively referred to as "James Blond." 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.
Casting Quoyle of The Shipping News based on appearance would require a lot of excessive prosthetics so instead Kevin Spacey sells the role on the strength of his performance.
Philip Pullman had something of a reaction like this when Nicole Kidman was cast as Mrs. Coulter in The Golden Compass. 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.
Sissy Spacek was widely thought to be too pretty to play Carrie White in Carrie, the character in the book being described as chunky, mousy-haired and covered in pimples with Spacek being a tall thin redhead with clear skin. But Spacek's Oscar nomination speaks for itself. The character was then rewritten slightly saying that she would be pretty if she made an effort to tidy herself up a bit.
- Likewise Alpha Bitch Chris Hargensen is described as dark haired and olive skinned but has been portrayed by blonde actresses Nancy Allen and Emilie De Ravin who absolutely nail the bitchy attitude. Finally averted with the 2013 remake which cast the brunette Portia Doubleday.
The 80s BBC Production of The Chronicles of Narnia cast four children who were nothing like the descriptions - Peter looked too young, Lucy was much older and chubbier, Susan was blonde and Edmund looked older than Peter - but they all gelled well together in their auditions.
- Same thing with the Walden Films versions. Lucy has auburn hair, rather than blonde, but Georgie Henley was unanimously praised in the role. Edmund doesn't have an official hair color, but black-haired Skandar Keynes is a fan favorite as Edmund. Peter is supposed to be dark-haired, but played by blond William Moseley. Susan is the only character whose actress fits the description, being played by brunette Anna Popplewell. All four actors worked very well together.
Julie Taymor altered William Shakespeare's The Tempest to have Helen Mirren play the lead.
Anne Rice openly protested against Tom Cruise being cast as Lestat in Interview with the Vampire. Her choice was Rutger Hauer. After she saw the film, she issued an apology and praised his performance. Though she did insist that Lestat's hair remain blond in the film.
- Cruise also played Jack Reacher in the film of the same name, despite being of average height as opposed to the character in the book's considerably larger build. While it's open for debate how accurate the character was in regards to the source, Cruise did a fine job with how the character was written for the film.
In the Daredevil movie, the Kingpin was played by Michael Clarke Duncan. There were men who looked the part better, but few of them were actually actors. He was the best actor with the 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.
The Mean Girls producers thought Lizzy Caplan was too pretty for "art freak" Janis, but eventually cast her for considering her the best actress that auditioned.
Hailee Steinfeld did an amazing job as Mattie in the 2010 film of True Grit, which didn't drop a single line of dialogue about how ugly she was. Similarly, all dialogue about Rooster being fat and out of shape was kept, even though Jeff Bridges barely had a visible belly.
Winona Ryder in Little Women is much too petite to play Jo, who in the book is described as being "like a colt" with "long limbs and big shoulders and hands". That being said it's hard to imagine another actress who can capture Jo's spirit, clumsiness and generally loud attitude as well as she can.
Robert Downey, Jr. is almost the exact opposite of Sherlock Holmes in appearance, being of handsome man of middling height and muscular build. Holmes is described as tall, slender, hawk-nosed and not particularly good looking. His performance in the Sherlock Holmes film, however, was generally well received.
Michael Keaton in the original Batman movie. Tim Burton even defended his casting decision by claiming that he didn't need a beefy action star to play Batman; he needed someone who could actually act their way out of paper bag. The infamous molded abs were added to the Batsuit precisely to make Keaton look physically intimidating.
Peter Ustinov played Agatha Christie's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in six films, despite being completely different in appearances. According to the other wiki, Christie's daughter allegedly said "That's not Poirot! He isn't at all like that!," to which Ustinov replied, "He is now."
In the X-Men comics, Wolverine is supposed to be about 5'3". Hugh Jackman is fully a foot taller. In the 90s, they even considered Glenn Danzig for the role.
Done retroactively in Iron Man 2: Sam Rockwell had auditioned to play Tony Stark in the original film but lost the part to Robert Downey Jr. However, Jon Favreau was still impressed so in the sequel he called Rockwell to give him the part of Justin Hammer... despite Hammer being an elderly British guy in the original comics.
- And of course, the comics Tony Stark is 6' 1" (185 cm)). Robert Downey, Jr.. is 5' 7" (1m70), forcing high heels in certain scenes - specially in The Avengers, as both Chris Hemsworth, and Chris Evans, and even Gwyneth Paltrow are really tall.
Salt was written to be an action flick with a male character in the lead, until Angelina Jolie showed interest. She talked her way into auditioning and won the part.
Recently, the reboot of Fantastic Four had director Josh Trank offering the black Michael B. Jordan the role of the white Human Torch based on his work in the director's Chronicle. Comic book fans were not pleased and immediately started crying "political correctness" instead of thinking that he may be the best man for the part.
During the beginning stages of making the movie The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams made only one request regarding the casting; that Arthur Dent be played by a British actor. Other parts could be cast as the producers saw fit. In the final product, Martin Freeman was cast as Arthur, with American actors Zooey Deschanel and Sam Rockwell as Trillian and Zaphod respectively, and rapper Mos Def as Ford Prefect.

Live-Action TV

The character of Lisa in Saved By The Bell was written as a Jewish princess with the auditions calling for white females only. Lark Voorhees (African-American) got the part based on the strength of her audition.
Producers were reluctant to cast Amber Benson as Tara in Buffy the Vampire Slayer because they wanted someone with the same slender build as Alyson Hannigan. Specifically, they needed someone to take Willow's place as The Woobie, since Willow was becoming too powerful to convincingly put in any real danger. However, Benson quickly won them over with her ability to play awkward and vulnerable.
When casting Julia in Party of Five producers wanted a relatively young actress (the character was 15 at the time) but ended up casting the 19-year-old Neve Campbell due to her strong attitude during the audition.
Shelly of Northern Exposure was written to be Native-American but Caucasian Cynthia Geary ended up getting the part.
Given the time-period and the fact that Guinevere means "white" or "fair one", there were some raised eyebrows over mixed-race Angel Coulby getting the part of the future queen on Merlin. The producers said that they had looked at hundreds of potential Guineveres, but Angel Coulby was the only one that could nail the quirky, clumsy servant girl, but also "bring the queen" when the occasion called for it.
Series author Elizabeth George was openly displeased about the casting choice for Barbara Havers of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries - The BBC cast the lovely Sharon Small in the role, whereas Barbara is distinctly unattractive. Then George saw Small's performance in the pilot, in which Sharon absolutely nailed Barbara Havers in all her awkward, bitter, broken glory, and changed her mind. To this day Small's performance is lauded as one of the best aspects of the series.
Happened twice in Criminal Minds. Garcia was originally written as a middle-aged Mexican man, but when the white, blonde and very female Kirsten Vangsness was introduced to the producers they had to have her and changed the part. (Her last name was later explained as coming from a stepfather.) Aaron Hotchner was supposed to be a blonde Mormon from Utah, but the part eventually went to the dark-haired Virginian Thomas Gibson.
Steven Moffat was adamant that he'd had enough of young Doctors in Doctor Who, and was going to cast an actor who was at least middle-aged. And then the 28-years-old-but-still-looks-like-he-should-be-in-school Matt Smith auditioned, and that was that.
The creators of Elementary have said the part of Joan Watson was race-neutral, and it went to Lucy Liu because she was the best woman for the part. Which makes the claims about the decision stemming from a desire to pander to minorities even more ridiculous.
Grey's Anatomy 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 (nIcknamed "The Nazi"!) was intended to be a blond, white woman until Chandra Wilson got a hold of the part.
Kaylee from Firefly was originally intended to be Asian, but Jewel Staite's audition impressed Joss Whedon enough that he decided to give her the part anyway. This did have the awkward side effect of leaving no major characters of Asian descent in a universe heavily influenced by Chinese culture, however.
In The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, originally the parts of Maddie and London were inverted, with the blond Ashley Tisdale playing the obvious Paris Hilton expy London Tipton, and Brenda Song playing Maddie. However, when it was revealed that Brenda Song has a natural affinity for playing The Ditz, the roles were reversed.
- They had fun with this in one episode during an alternate universe where Maddie and London's roles were reversed.
House
- Chase was originally intended to be British, but Jesse Spencer gave such a brilliant audition that he was made Australian instead.
- Director Bryan Singer put a ban on non-American actors for the title role after hearing so many badly-done Fake American accents in auditions. So how did Hugh Laurie get the role? His flawless Boston accent convinced Singer that he must be American.
When Pauline McLynn first auditioned for Mrs. Doyle on Father Ted, she was rejected for being too young and pretty (McLynn was in her early thirties; Mrs. Doyle was a middle-aged widow). She supposedly showed up for another audition with a bad cold - and got the part.
Nickelodeon had a show planned in the mid-1990s to be titled "The Mystery Files of Shelby Wink" about a teenage white girl who solves crimes, but Asian American Irene Ng impressed them so much with her audition that they re-named the show "...Shelby Woo" and altered the premise accordingly.
Fonzie of Happy Days was originally envisioned as a tall Italian man, based on a friend of the shows creator. While he is of Italian descent at 5'8 Henry Winkler is notably much shorter than series lead Ron Howard, but he performed the role so flawlessly they knew they had to have him.
LOST took this trope to its logical extent, by not only amending characters to get the best actors on the show, but flat-out creating new ones for the same reason. Sun-Hwa Kwon, for instance, was written for Yunjin Kim after her impressive audition as Kate.
Tasha Yar on Star Trek: The Next Generation was originally conceived as a Latina character, with Marina Sirtis cast in the role. When Denise Crosby was cast, the character's name was changed to fit the actress' appearance.
Enid Nightshade of The Worst Witch is a Huge Schoolgirl with dark blonde hair. The TV series cast Jessica Fox who is petite and brunette, but captures Enid's mischievous nature and spunk perfectly.
The creators of Red Dwarf originally imagined Lister as 41 years old and white: in their words, like an "English version of Christopher Lloyd as Reverend Jim on Taxi." When they sent the script to Craig Charles (23 years old at the time and mixed-race), asking if he thought the part of the Cat was racist, he said it wasn't and also asked to audition for Lister. He got the part.
Tess from Beauty and the Beast was initially written as a firey Irish-American cop, but Nina Lisandrello's performance impressed the producers enough that she was changed to a Latina instead.
Joss Whedon initially conceived Melinda May from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as a white woman named "Althea Rice", but the role was changed after going to Chinese-American actress Ming-Na Wen.

Professional Wrestling

While the prototype of a modern pro wrestler is still that of a huge guy with bulky muscles, quite a few who fail the "eye test" have been wildly successful thanks to their tremendous abilities in the ring and on the mic.
- CM Punk is relatively short, not particularly bulky, and covered in tattoos yet still set the record for the longest WWE title reign of the past 25 years.
- Shawn Michaels had a Hall of Fame career despite being a full head shorter than most of his opponents thanks to his tremendous ability in all aspects of being a great wrestler.
- The 5'7, 175lb Rey Mysterio has held multiple titles in his career and is probably the most famous luchador-style wrestler in America.

Theater

Patrick Stewart, Michael Gambon and Anthony Hopkins have all played Othello, the Moor of Venice. Gambon and Hopkins played the role in blackface. Hopkins played Othello in 1965, when blacking-up was still acceptable; Gambon played Othello in 1990, and his blacking-up was a delibrate artistic choice. In Stewart's case, the entire play was cross-cast (Othello's white, everyone else's black), making an interesting social experiment.
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.
Jafar of Aladdin is, in animation, a Lean and Mean villain. He is voiced by Jonathan Freeman, who is slightly chubby but got so much into the spirit of the character that his expressions and gestures were worked into the animated role. When the work came to live theater, they just cast Freeman in the part of Jafar as is.
Similar to the Hamlet example, a lot of Opera roles are usually subject to this, most notably Madame Butterfly (supposedly 15-17 but with a voice most singers don't perfect until at least 30). Salome is another such role.
There is a film version of Wagner's Die Walkure where a black woman and white man are cast as twin siblings. Their voices work for the roles, though, so no one cares.
Similarly, Wagner's tenor roles are mostly supposed to be teenage boys (or at least early twenties), but most men can't sing these demanding roles until they're in their forties.

Western Animation

When doing the casting for the role of Hades, the villain of Hercules, Disney wanted someone who was similar to Jafar, who was a villain with a deep voice and spoke with a sophisticated tone. When James Woods auditioned, the character was changed completely solely because James Woods was so good at the role. He even played the role in the TV series, Kingdom Hearts, and is on record as saying it's a role he will always play when given the chance.

In-Universe Examples:

Film

When holding cheerleader auditions in Bring It On the cheerleading squad wants a girl who fits the typical cheerleader image. When tomboy Missy gives the best tryout they are reluctant to let her on the squad but she gets on anyway.
- Which, technically, she does; thin, atheletic, hot. It was only her attitude and non-girly that turned them off.
Played depressingly straight in both the film and comic of 300 involving the deformed Spartan that is rejected by Leonidas: while the Spartan king admires his fierce loyalty despite being cast aside as an infant, and admits he's got a strong arm, his inability to fit properly into a Phalanx line makes him a liability to the necessary tactics. If only he was facially malformed but could stand up straight...
- Of course Leonidas' reason for rejecting him — the fact that he can't properly hold a shield to protect the man to his left — doesn't really ring true since the Spartan theory of war seems to be to break formation immediately after initial contact with the enemy and have everybody fight man-to-man. Or they could have simply put him on the far left of the front line where his inability to properly lift a shield wouldn't have been a problem.

Literature

The picture book Amazing Grace by Marry Hoffman is about a black girl auditioning for the role of Peter Pan. It plays out exactly how you'd expect it to.

Live-Action TV

A strange case with Bridget in 8 Simple Rules 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.

Web Originals

John Scalzi's Agent to the Stars has the titular agent represent a young starlet, Michelle Beck, who wants the lead in a Holocaust drama. Despite his serious reluctance to help get her the role, and with a little help from a space alien, Michelle ends up giving an Oscar-worthy performance that silences even her harshest critics:
I set down my own fork and massaged the bridge of my nose. "Michelle," I said. "if you had brown hair, you still wouldn't look a 40-year-old Eastern European Jew. You'd look like a 25-year-old Californian Aryan with hair dyed brown. Look at yourself, Michelle. You're blonde. Naturally. You have Newman Blue eyes. And you have a body shape that wasn't even invented until the 1980s."

Tropes On A Bus

Characters and Casting

Absentee Actor

alternative title(s): Race Blind Casting; Gender Blind Casting

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