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Stunt Casting

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"Oh, Dom De Luise was there, too. He threw paper at the crowd for five seconds before disappearing completely. I've heard that this is exactly how he wanted his involvement in the parade worded in NBC's contract. Dom's a fucker."

Hiring of a big-name actor - or non-actor celebrity - to play a supporting role (or even a leading role, but usually the former). The idea is usually that the actor's fame will draw in viewers, as it normally would if you put them prominently on the advertising. What differs stunt casting from normal casting tends to be along the lines of:

  • way out of the 'pay grade' of the work (a Hollywood megastar turns up as an Advertised Extra)
  • gimmicky as advertisement for something else (members of a popular band play all of the supporting roles)
  • exploitative of real-life situations (a cast member in a high-profile relationship and casting the other person for the tabloid appeal)
  • inappropriate to the tone of the work (discarding the existing cast for Character Shilling of the guest star)
  • desperation for attention (including other controversy for maximum exposure)

This can overlap with Questionable Casting and Playing Against Type. Unlike The Cameo, stunt cast actors are not asked to come in and "play themselves" - they may well be great in the part, might even transform themselves for the role so much that you might not even recognize them until the credits, but, great as she is in the part, do you really think that reality show star got the role as the starship bridge lieutenant based on acting credentials alone?

The term 'stunt casting' has a derogatory feel, but the term also encompasses many shrewd or artistic choices. If the studio heads are pushing for big names, this can be used as a compromise to allow the lead roles to be played by upcoming actors knowing there is at least one they can put on the poster. They can also give a feeling of legitimacy to something that would otherwise seem like a trashy genre work. Superman: The Movie (1978) struggled for producer support until Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman were on board. If the star is just that good at what they do, stunt casting can make a work much higher quality than it would be otherwise.

Quick appearances can sometimes entice a busy actor to get a decent payout for only a little work or they are already a fan and want something that their kids might enjoy, allowing No Budget works to get some momentum. Amicus Productions' anthology horror films were based around the realization that if they built a picture out of short stories that didn't take more than a couple of days to shoot they could afford good/great actors with little hassle, which is the main reason why the films still have a cult fandom decades later. Seeing your favorite stars turn up in unexpected places can, well, just be plain fun - the scene-stealing of the One-Scene Wonder, the Genius Bonus when Role Association fleshes out a character's Hidden Depths, the authenticity of Cast the Expert, intrinsic subtext from Meta Casting and the parasocial pleasure of the Non-Actor Vehicle are all joys given to us by stunt casting. Conversely, this sometimes creates a paradox for actors who have become iconic in particular roles, they struggle to find roles or guest appearances because they are too recognizable and will get accused of this trope.

In theatre productions that are especially Long-Runners, stunt casting is one way of keeping things fresh and interesting for potential audiences. The Broadway revival of Chicago has been especially egregious with this, cycling hundreds of celebrities of varying degrees of talent through the lead roles since it began its run in 1996. This can also work for documentaries with the casting of the narrator. It's also standard operating procedure in the U.K.-specific style of broad comic theatre known as Pantomime.note 

See also Billing Displacement. If the stunt-casting is done in service of a film or other one-off project, expect the big-name actor in question to be Billed Above the Title. This happens so often in animation that it has its own trope: Celebrity Voice Actor.


Examples:

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    Anime 
  • The casting of Aya Hirano as Dende in Dragon Ball Z Kai is largely seen by the fanbase as this. the image song doesn't help waver this opinion.
    • Even more blatant was getting Satomi Sato, fresh off her success of voicing Ritsu in K-On! to voice Dende's brother Cargo... for maybe one or two lines before he gets killed.
      • The original version of Dragon Ball Z has been guilty of this as well. One episode during the Buu saga features Majin Buu befriending and helping a blind boy who was a one shot character. Said one-shot was voiced by Megumi Hayashibara.note 
    • Funimation once considered casting Freddie Prinze Jr as a role in DBZ, presumably Teen Gohan. Seriously!
      • They finally did get to work with him for the Mass Effect movie in 2012, but only to reprise a role he had previously played in the games.
    • Funimation also cast the core members of Team Four Star (Nick "Lanipator" Landis, Scott "KaiserNeko" Frerichs, Curtis "Takahata101" Arnott and Lawrence "MasakoX" Simpson) as the actors in the cheesy Cell Games movie in Dragon Ball Z Kai, which was filled with tons of in-jokes referencing both Dragon Ball Z Abridged and DBZ memes in general. However, the scene was taken out of the Toonami broadcast, with most fans suspecting that Toei Animation (which has tried to shut TFS down many times in the past) ordered them to remove it; that didn't stop the scene from leaking onto YouTube, however.
      • Later on, with Dragon Ball Super, they cast Brian Drummond (who played Vegeta in the original Ocean Media dub of DBZ) as Copy Vegeta; plenty of fans suspected that they would have hired Lanipator for the role if not for the fact that Toei had apparently ordered Funimation not to hire TFS members.
    • Similarly, Aya Hirano was also cast as Shinobu the vampire in Bakemonogatari even though Shinobu never spoke a single word in the entire series. She only got to voice her in the Drama CD, Hyakumonogatari and was replaced by Maaya Sakamoto in subsequent appearances.
  • Blake Lewis as Kasuka in one episode Durarara!!. He was cast because he was an American Idol runner-up, a huge anime fan, and wanted a shot at voice acting in one. When it came time to record Season 2, he was set to reprise his role (which was bigger this time), and recorded some of the episodes, but was replaced at the last minute with Vic Mignogna, supposedly because he spilled the beans on Twitter before the dub was announced.
  • High School Musical alumni Lucas Grabeel provided Gian/Big G's singing voice in an episode of the American version of Doraemon.
  • Kimberly J. Brown from Halloweentown did the voice of Miyu in the first 7 episodes of Vampire Princess Miyu before being replaced with Dorothy Elias-Fahn for the remaining 19 episodes for unknown reasons. Averted with Emmanuelle Chriqui as Hisae since the dub was actually done before she made it big with Entourage.
    • Arguably with Stephanie Griffin as Yukari. She wasn't a celebrity, but it looks like she was only given a role because she voiced lead Himeko Se in AnimEigo's dub of the original OVA.
  • Ed Asner as Grandpa Ayanokiji and William Katt as Tinzin in 3×3 Eyes. Arguably with Brigitte Bako and Christian Cambell as the leads. The dub's voice director was Greg Weisman, who was working on Gargoyles at the time, and cast many of the same actors in the dub.
  • The decision to cast misono as Luna in Jewelpet: Magical Change was definitely this, the character in question was already voiced by Rumi Shishido and misono was only given the role due to her being affiliated with avex at the time. To say this casting decision did not go over well with the fans is an understatement for multiple reasons and ended up being one of the main reasons why the Magical Change was not only canceled but put the Jewelpet franchise as a whole on an indefinite hiatus.
  • Cromartie High School: Megumi Hayashibara is Maeda's Mom, if you can believe it. Made even funnier given that Maeda's Mom never speaks a word, only ever doing an irritated mean.
  • Juliet Cesario, the English voice of Belldandy from the original Ah! My Goddess OVA, was flown up to New York City to voice Perth in the Flights of Fancy dub. Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, who voiced Urd in the movie dub, was also brought back to voice Hild.
  • The casting of famous cosplayer Jessica Nigri as the lead in the English dub of Super Sonico is usually seen as this.

    Documentaries 

    Films — Animation 
  • In its early days DreamWorks Animation was extremely blatant with doing this in addition to making use of the Ink-Suit Actor. In some cases, like Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy in Shrek it won the company critical acclaim. In others, like Will Smith in Shark Tale and Jerry Seinfeld in Bee Movie, it earned them a lot of ridicule.
  • This wound up biting Universal Studios in the butt when they released Jetsons: The Movie. Janet Waldo had returned to voice Judy Jetson. However, after she had finished recording all her lines, the execs decided to replace her in favor of the pop star Tiffany, in an attempt to try an attract a younger audience. The move caused a major backlash, and casting director Andrea Romano asked to have her name removed from the credits both in protest for the decision and to avoid hate mail. To make matters worse, by the time the movie was finally released, Tiffany's 15 Minutes of Fame had long since ended.
  • History Repeats 18 years later with Bolt. Chloë Grace Moretz was cast in the role of Penny, and finished all her lines. But owing to the then-popularity of Hannah Montana, most of her lines were rerecorded with Miley Cyrus, who was also Billed Above the Title, in order to attract the fanbase from the series. Some males and general Disney fans were turned off by this.
  • When the English voice cast for The Super Mario Bros. Movie was first announced, some fans criticized the choice of Chris Pratt as Mario (over longtime Mario voice Charles Martinet) as an example of this trope. These persisted even after the first teaser trailer was shown, where Pratt had only two brief lines in a regular voice. The criticisms only ebbed after the release of the movie, with critics admitting that Pratt provided a subdued but serviceable Brooklyn accent for Mario.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The various Star Wars movies have played with stunt casting:
  • Fantasy Mission Force was advertised as "Starring Jacky Chan" despite the fact that Jackie Chan played a minor role. Jackie reportedly appeared in it only because he owed a favor to the lead actor, Jimmy Wang Yu (who was rumored to have ties to organized crime syndicates).
    • Jackie's done it more than once; he appeared in Stephen Chow's King Of Comedy as a nameless stuntman, and in Sammo Hung's Martial Law as a prep, the latter done to return the favor for Hung playing the put-upon biker in Mr. Nice Guy. He and Arnold Schwarzenegger also did a co-cameo in the movie Viy 2: Journey to China (a.k.a Iron Mask) and, despite their relatively short screen time, were used liberally in the marketing.
  • Marlon Brando as Jor-El in the first Superman film. He actually got top billing (and a star's wages) on that movie for several scenes that barely totaled thirty minutes in an almost two-and-a-half hour movie. He was cast in the role specifically so they could have a big name actor headlining in order to draw the audience.
    • Indeed, the term "Brando Acceptibilty Yardstick" was coined by a reader as an entry in Roger Ebert's Little Movie Glossary in reference to this. Brando essentially made it okay for mega-stars to do comic book films - and like him, be paid extraordinarily well for it. Like him, they often don't play the lead roles (which are often given to up-and-comers); they usually play mentors (like Brando) or villains. The best known example of the latter might be Jack Nicholson being hired to play the Joker in 1989's Batman; he got top billing and a giant cut of the film's profits and merchandising revenue. The three sequels basically stunt cast all the major villains as a response to how well this worked, culminating in the disaster of Batman & Robin (Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze and Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy), while Batman himself was given The Other Darrin treatment.
  • Geoffrey Rush gets third billing in Intolerable Cruelty for a character seen a grand total of three times, for maybe two minutes of screen time, whom an audience member might easily mistake for three separate characters on the first viewing.
  • When it comes to Scream (1996) Drew Barrymore was initially signed on as the lead but was unable to commit. Still really keen on the project, she took the smaller role of Casey - who gets killed off in the first ten minutes. It ended up making Dead Star Walking a staple of the franchise.
  • The Crow: City of Angels features Iggy Pop as one of the thugs. He was originally asked to play Funboy in the first film, as the character in the comic book was physically modeled on him, but had to decline due to scheduling issues.
  • Dead Man features a variety of celebrities in bit parts, including Robert Mitchum, Billy Bob Thornton, Iggy Pop and Alfred Molina.
  • Steven Seagal barely has two minutes of screen time in Executive Decision before dying with a heroic one liner.
    • However, this more of a deliberate example of Decoy Protagonist which even gets lampshaded in the movie. Furthermore, Steven Seagal himself demanded unsuccessfully that he get more screentime in this movie and afterwards complained about this. A much straighter examples of this trope are Seagal's cheap straight-to-DVD movies. Probably the most extreme case of this is the bizarre Chinese war movie China Salesman, where Steven Seagal doesn't even have a role in the true sense of the word. Instead, they just filmed a few close-ups of his face and spliced that footage into a fight scene so as to appear as if Seagal is an Elite Mook who gets beaten up by the Villain Protagonist (played by Mike Tyson), even though it's obvious those are 2 different persons switching places between shots. Also, in 2 other (very brief) scenes, Seagal's face is superimposed on a minor character who is wearing a bike helmet, even though there is no apparent connection between this character and the one who gets beaten up in the fight scene.
  • Time Bandits: The Greek warrior fighting the Minotaur turns out to be... Sean Connery! As King Agamemnon, he has only a few minutes of screentime. Amusingly, the script describes the character as someone who looks like Sean Connery, but to everyone's surprise the man himself accepted the small role.
  • Eric Roberts in the final film of The Human Centipede series. The film itself even treats him like a celebrity by playing a fancy cue when he's introduced.
  • The Meteor Man figures James Earl Jones, Bill Cosby (who has no lines), Marla Gibbs and Sinbad. Gibbs has the biggest role, as she plays the protagonist's mother. Also from the music industry, there's Luther Vandross (also no lines), Big Daddy Kane, Another Bad Creation, Cypress Hill, Naughty By Nature and jazz singer Nancy Wilson.
  • Fan Bingbing in Iron Man 3. Not only does she only appear in the Chinese cut of the movie, but she doesn't even get a name despite being featured in the Chinese trailers! However, Bingbing was the ''biggest star in China at the time.
  • To a lesser degree, Fan Bingbing in X-Men: Days of Future Past playing Blink. The ethnicity is completely different (Blink is Bahaman in the comics), she has no lines in the movie proper and only exists for some cool action scenes. However, she was featured in the advertisements more than even Halle Berry's returning Storm, was given lines in the trailers and was used to promote the movie in China.
  • Similar to Fan Bingbing, Zhang Jingchu was given prominent billing in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation despite only appearing in the background in one scene and having a few lines in another. Her role, in fact, is so superfluous it could have been played by just about anyone.
  • Bryan Cranston is heavily featured in the trailer for 2014's Godzilla despite the fact that his character is killed off about twenty minutes into the film. Gareth Edwards claims that Cranston was hired because of his ability to perform as a father, but the advertising seems to be heavily influenced by the popularity of his Emmy-winning performance in Breaking Bad.
  • Scream Park features Doug Bradley of Hellraiser and Nivek Ogre of Skinny Puppy.
  • The presidents in The Butler; each one gets a cameo and all of them are played by fairly recognized actors. In general, the one who most agreed fit best was James Marsden as Kennedy.
  • Educating Rita:
    • Producers were really keen on getting Julie Walters to reprise her role from the stage version. But they risked the story being relocated to America with Paul Newman and Dolly Parton in the leads. Julie recalls being called up and told that Michael Caine had been cast as Frank.
    "We've got a star, so we can have you."
    • The small but important role of Rita's roommate Trish was said to have had a name actress - some sources reported Julie Christie had been cast (although they could have been confusing her with then-unknown Julie Walters). It was played by Maureen Lipman, who was less of a name, but would still have been known for her sitcom Agony.
  • The Secret Garden (1993) had three unknown child actors in the parts of Mary, Dickon and Colin. Word of God is Maggie Smith - who was enjoying a particularly high profile in America thanks to Hook and Sister Act - was cast as Medlock for this reason.
  • Jamie Lee Curtis was cast in Halloween (1978) precisely because she was the daughter of Janet Leigh - who had starred in Psycho (which Halloween has a few nods to).
  • Friday the 13th (1980):
    • Penelope Milford was courted for the role of Brenda (as she had just been nominated for an Oscar) purely because they hoped she could draw audiences. She eventually backed out, finding the script too violent.
    • They also wanted a name to play Mrs. Voorhees. Estelle Parsons was the original actress cast, but she too dropped out. Her replacement was Betsy Palmer, who was best known for hosting a game show I've Got A Secret. At the time her casting caused a scandal, and Gene Siskel encouraged angry fans to send her hate mail over it. But over time Mrs Voorhees became her most famous role, and she embraced it.
    • Ironically enough, they didn't cast Harry Crosby as Bill because he was the son of Bing Crosby, as they didn't find that out until after he was signed on. Ironic because the film was created specifically to piggyback off Halloween's success.
  • Marie Antoinette (2006) casts lots of people who are children of Hollywood stars - the most notable being Asia Argento (daughter of Dario Argento) as Madame du Barry.
  • Francis Ford Coppola blatantly said that Keanu Reeves was cast in Bram Stoker's Dracula (playing a 19th century Englishman!) because he needed a heartthrob who would draw in younger viewers. The other cast members were Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins who were rising character actors, and Winona Ryder who likewise was on her way to achieving stardom.
  • Sophie Turner didn't specify for which film, but said she was cast over an actress who in her opinion was better, because she had more followers on social media.
  • Nancy Kwan was who the director really wanted for The World of Suzie Wong, but the studio favored France Nuyen who was better known to audiences from South Pacific. Midway through production she was fired, which allowed Nancy to play the part. It became her Star-Making Role.
  • The Princess Diaries kills off Mia's father (he's alive but dying of cancer in the book) because they'd convinced Julie Andrews to sign on as Grandmere, and they wanted to beef her role up. When Meg Cabot heard they were planning to cast her, she responded "kill the dad!"
    • The sequel did this as well with Raven-Symoné, at the height of her popularity, cast as a random high-class friend of Mia's.
  • Angela Lansbury's rather random appearance as the Balloon Woman in Mary Poppins Returns. It's been theorized the role was offered to Julie Andrews, who played Mary in the original movie; it's known that she was offered a cameo of some kind but turned it down. Amusingly, she ended up stunt cast as the voice of a sea monster in Aquaman, which opened the same month! As for Lansbury, it could also be a homage to her role in fellow Disney production Bedknobs and Broomsticks, which was in the same vein as Mary Poppins.
  • Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later wanted to cast PJ Soles (who had played Lynda in the first film) as Laurie's secretary, named Norma Watson after her role in Carrie (1976). When she didn't give them an answer quick enough, they cast Janet Leigh instead and filled the role with Shout Outs to Psycho.
  • Miramax was hesitant to cast Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in Good Will Hunting, until they brought Robin Williams on as Sean the psychiatrist. It worked out beautifully as Williams won an Oscar for his performance and Damon and Affleck went from unknowns to big stars.
  • For the role of Arwen in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, producers wanted to cast a Hollywood star, as the cast was made up of unknowns and character actors. Uma Thurman was the original choice but had to drop out due to her pregnancy, so Liv Tyler played it. Marketing for the first film hyped up Arwen as if she were a major protagonist, and Liv is billed third on the poster. After the first film proved such a success, this was de-emphasized, as it was obvious the film could stand on its own.
  • Saving Private Ryan has a small appearance by Kathleen Byron as the old Mrs. Ryan. She was a regular actress in the films of Michael Powell (notably Black Narcissus) and Steven Spielberg cast her because he was a fan.
  • Mary Poppins - the Bird Woman is played by Oscar winning character actress Jane Darwell (famously from The Grapes of Wrath). She had been retired for years and only agreed to do it because Walt Disney (a huge fan) tracked her down to her nursing home and begged her to be in the film.
  • Grindhouse parodies this:
    • Planet Terror casts Bruce Willis in a seemingly prominent role at the start - only to disappear until the third act and be given top billing. This is to reference B-movies that would acquire a name star for a bit part, and hype them up as if they were a lead. Ironically Willis would go on to be stunt cast numerous times in his later career for numerous low-budget, straight-to-dvd movies such as Catch 44, The Assassination, The Prince, Precious Cargo and Marauders.
    • In the fake trailer for Werewolf Women of the SS, there's Nicolas Cage appearing as Fu Manchu.
    • The fake trailer for the film Don't has pop singer Katie Melua getting Death by Cameo.
    • Death Proof's Jungle Julia is played by Sydney Tamiia Poitier just because she is the daughter of Sidney Poitier (and the middle name is removed in the credits so she is Sydney Poitier).
  • For The Ring Two, producers wanted to cast a veteran actress who was recognizable in the horror genre to play the small role of Samara's mother Evelyn. So of course they choose Sissy Spacek, Carrie White herself.
  • Subverted for Dunkirk, when Harry Styles of One Direction was cast in a role. Christopher Nolan admitted to having no idea who Harry even was, and merely cast him based off a strong audition. The press hyped up his starring in there, but the film's promotional materials did not.
  • Defied by Paris Hilton for Repo! The Genetic Opera. The director initially refused to cast her out of fear of this trope, but eventually allowed her to audition for the role of Amber Sweet. She then proceeded to nail the audition.
  • Discussed in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Rick Dalton made a name for himself on television as the star of the highly successful Bounty Law show. However after his attempt to break into film petered out he found that getting a lead role on a new TV show was nearly impossible. As Marvin points out early in the movie, most networks are only willing to hire Dalton as a one-off villain so their show's new rising star can get the rep boost of beating Dalton.
  • Muppets Most Wanted features celebrity cameos like all muppet movies but Ross Lynch's cameo being highlighted in most trailers as well as him doing behind the scenes promotional videos was a clear attempt by Disney to use one of their stars to entice tweens and children from the Disney Channel to go see the movie.
  • Nicolas Cage was brought in as The Janitor in Willy's Wonderland on the logic that having a major star would get the project some much-needed traction. Cage, for his part, loved the script and managed to ham up his character without a word of dialogue and hardly any changes in facial expression.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Highlander is famous for this, particularly in casting musicians in roles as immortals. These include Joan Jett, Roger Daltrey, Roland Gift, Martin Kemp and Sheena Easton. Also notable are Marc Singer, Roddy Piper, and Nia Peeples.
  • Sitcoms, such as Friends and Will & Grace, often cast famous actors to play the stars' parents.
  • Caprica has begun the step into this world with James Marsters being cast into "Know Thy Enemy" as a major player within the Soldiers of the One.
  • Star Trek has had this on its more modern series:
  • Scrubs went out of its way to hire some incredible people such as Dick Van Dyke and Courteney Cox.
  • Doctor Who:
    • "The Crusade", a William Hartnell-era story, prominently featured Julian Glover as Richard I. This was a huge name, but also contributed to the Shakespearean feel of that story. Glover appeared again in the Fourth Doctor story, "The City Of Death"
    • Popular comic actor, voice actor and singer Jon Pertwee as the Doctor. Overlaps slightly with Playing Against Type as he was the first actor to play the Doctor with his own natural personality, avoiding the over-the-top character acting associated both with the Doctor role until then and Pertwee's typical roles. Note that three out of four stories in his first season contain short gratuitous sequences of the Doctor singing a funny song in a silly voice, intended as fanservice for those who wanted to see the Doctor being played as a typical Jon Pertwee comic character.
    • John Cleese has a tiny role in "The City Of Death" due to his friendship with Douglas Adams, who was script editor at the time.
    • When John Nathan-Turner was producer during the 1980s, Doctor Who had a habit of using this trope; however, whereas most of the modern attempts to do this at least try to match the character to a vaguely appropriate character, many of the earlier efforts ended up being spectacularly miscast, resulting in some truly Questionable Casting:
      • For example, Beryl Reid as Ellen Ripley-esque space freighter captain in "Earthshock", a role that was... not quite what you'd expect to see Beryl Reid playing.
      • "Warriors of the Deep" cast Hammer Horror veteran Ingrid Pitt as Doctor Solow. Her appearance in that story is mostly memorable due to her character's death scene being one of the show's most embarrassing moments of both Special Effect Failure and Fight Scene Failure.
      • Rodney Bewes, a comic actor best known for The Likely Lads, as brainwashed Dalek agent Stien in "Resurrection of the Daleks".
      • "Revelation of the Daleks" had Alexi Sayle playing an in-universe Fake American radio DJ.
      • "The Mysterious Planet": Joan Sims, known for her roles in the Carry On... Series of films, as the warrior Queen Katryca. Suffice to say that she wasn't the most physically convincing actress they could have cast...
      • Casting controversial former child actress Bonnie Langford in the role of the companion Mel Bush. This was an unpopular move at the time, as it happened during an Audience-Alienating Era and Mel was intentionally written as a Damsel Scrappy due to the production team hating the casting, though she got some Rescued from the Scrappy Heap in the audio dramas that demonstrated that She Really Can Act.
      • 1950-1960s Broadway star Dolores Gray shows up in the middle of "Silver Nemesis" as Mrs. Remington, a wealthy American lady. She's not exactly miscast; the "What the Hell" factor comes from the fact that there is literally no point whatsoever to her being there. She shows up, gives two of the characters a lift somewhere, and buggers off again. It's also a bit of a "What the Hell" moment in that it seems to have been intended as a Stunt Casting moment despite the fact that relatively few of the watching audience would actually have any idea who she even was.
      • That wasn't the first time a Broadway star was stunt cast for a bit part. Stubby Kaye from Guys and Dolls appeared in "Delta and the Bannermen" as the bickering CIA agent from New York, and the only clue is that his accent sounds less fake than the other one.
      • Comedians Hale and Pace get a scene in the first part of "Survival" as staff in a corner shop who hard sell the Doctor some tinned cat food.
      • Not all the stunt castings in the JNT Era were bad though. In "Mindwarp", the character of King Ycarnos is played by none other than one of the largest hams in existence (drumroll please!)... BRIAN BLESSED!!!
      • Nicholas Parsons, best known as a game show host, proved to be a mixed blessing in "The Curse of Fenric". On the one hand, he played his part of a vicar suffering a crisis of faith quite superbly. On the other hand, because he was such a rare example of piece of stunt-casting actually working, a number of plot-important scenes he wasn't in ended up on the cutting-room floor.
    • Eric Roberts as the Master in the TV movie. This was actually a compromise, with the original idea being to stunt-cast the Doctor himself. Although Paul McGann was the first choice of producer Philip Segal and director Geoffrey Sax, executives at Fox wanted a well-known American actor in order to draw in ratings—with Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford, and Jim Carrey being among the names thrown around. Eventually, Fox agreed to cast McGann under the condition that a name actor play the Master instead.
    • Stunt Cast actors in revival Doctor Who are not usually heavyweight actors, but are well-known soap actors, comedians, quiz show hosts and other more minor celebrities. Oh, and Sir Derek Jacobi.
  • Sir David Jason was cast as Death's manservant Albert in the Made-for-TV Movie of the Discworld novel Hogfather. In the UK, this resulted in the film being promoted as though he were the main character, rather than the mostly-unknown actress playing the heroine.
  • Britney Spears in How I Met Your Mother is a prime example. For two episodes, no less. The show does this a LOT, though, and Britney just got the most hype about it. Her appearance drew in such good ratings, it may have saved the show from cancellation in its third season.
    • Since Neil Patrick Harris publicly frowned on the practice, it's become much less common though.
      • Ironically, NPH was himself stuntcasted on an episode of Glee.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Both 60s spy series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and its Spin-Off The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. were given to stunt casting; e.g. Sonny & Cher (in "The Hot Number Affair"), Nancy Sinatra (in "The Take Me To Your Leader Affair") and Elsa Lanchester (in "The Brain Killer Affair") in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Boris Karloff (in "The Mother Muffin Affair") in The Girl from U.N.C.L.E..
  • Snow White and the Three Stooges. After realising their figure-skating lead Carol Heiss couldn't carry the film, the producers brought in The Three Stooges.
  • SCTV, against their wishes, had special guest actors Sir John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson. In his book on the series (titled, appropriately enough, SCTV), Dave Thomas said they were both extremely difficult to work with and did not understand their brand of comedy. Later on, they welcomed Bill Murray to guest star, who was an active booster of the show. Notable musical guests, who also acted on the show, ranged from Hall and Oates, Dr. John, Wendy O. Williams & the Plasmatics, The Boomtown Rats, Tony Bennett, Roy Orbison, Talking Heads, Jimmy Buffett, John Mellencamp (when he was still John Cougar), America, Joe Walsh, Dave's brother Ian Thomas (who was successful in Canada in the '70s with his song "Painted Ladies", and would go on to play Dougie Franklin on The Red Green Show, on which Dave guest-starred as his brother Ben Franklin), and classical violinist Eugene Fodor.
  • Leonard Nimoy as William Bell in the season 1 finale of Fringe
  • Leonard Nimoy as an old friend of T.J. Hooker.
  • NBC's Chuck started doing this heavily in season 2, though season 1 had its moments. Some, like Scott Bakula and Jordana Brewster appeared in multiple episodes, while others, like Robert Picardo and Fred Savage, were only in one. Chuck tended to lampshade it with the actors referencing their famous roles, such as Bakula uttering, "Oh boy."
  • Criminal Minds sometimes casts unsubs with this method. Most, however, are either unrecognizable (James Van Der Beek, Jamie Kennedy) or extremely creepy (Keith Carradine, Jason Alexander).
    • Often, the recognition of the unsubs (generally played by supremely benign actors, when this trope is in play) only serves to make the roles creepier, or more tragic. James Van Der Beek's character is a good example of that, as is Frankie Muniz's.
    • In general, stunt casting in a legal or cop drama always brings Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize into play (whether straight or subverted). CM usually averts this by having the unsub commit his crimes onscreen in full view of the audience. "Paradise", in turn is an exception to this rule, where we don't see the unsub actually commit a crime until after they find out who it is...thus playing Narrowed straight (Wil Wheaton played the unsub in the ep.)
      • The fans have become critical of this method of casting guest stars as unsubs, even when they are good, because it had been used too often during a weak seventh season. They feel that guest-star unsubs are showcased to the expense of the original cast and story suspense (by showing the unsubs's from the very beginning of the episode, rather than keeping them obscured). By giving more time to the unsubs and their evil deeds, it makes the profiler characters look like stupid slow-pokes, and possibly glorifying the serial killers (which is NOT the point of the show).
  • Legend of the Seeker pulled in Charisma Carpenter of Angel fame, put her in skintight red leather and shouted it from the rooftops. They also got Star Trek: Enterprise's Jolene Blalock to play a semi-major character.
  • The re-imagining of Hawaii Five-0 has been playing with this, with recent appearances by Dane Cook, Sean Combs, Dennis Miller and Nick Lachey. Not forgetting semi-regular Jean Smart.
  • Subverted in Homicide: Life on the Street. When famous actors such as Robin Williams, Vincent D'Onofrio and Steve Buscemi appeared, they were given real acting challenges to work with. Williams' performance as a man whose wife has just been murdered stands as the first major subversion of his persona and a real glimpse of dramatic depth.
  • Big Brother 13 brings back three "Dynamic duos". It becomes pretty obvious that they just set it up so that one of the six returnees would win, given how, when it was reduced to two, a mysterious stroke of luck bailed them out.
  • When the 60s' Batman took off, all of a sudden many big name actors who normally wouldn't do television wanted a chance to play a Bat-villain. The second season especially is loaded with this, name actors playing one-shot villains created just for them, with the network playing up the guest-villain bit. Among these performers were Art Carney, Shelley Winters, Van Johnson, Liberace, Michael Rennie, Tallulah Bankhead, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Otto Preminger... and many more.
  • Most Game Shows tend to do this in the form of "Celebrity Editions" in their waning years in a last-ditch effort to round up some bonus viewers before they inevitably sink into the drain. Most notable are Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and The Weakest Link, whose final primetime seasons were almost nothing but celebrity editions. Notable daytime examples include the Monty Hall version of Beat the Clock, Whew! and Hot Potato. ABC did this on the 70s version of Password but switched back for the final 18 weeks; by that point, it was too late.
    • A trend on Game Shows since the middle of The New '10s has been to have a big name on its staff as creator or executive producer, especially if that person has had no association with the genre beforehand. These include LeBron James on The Wall, Justin Timberlake on Spin the Wheel and Peyton Manning on The Final Straw.
  • The casting of Shirley MacLaine as the Grande Dame Martha Levinson in Downton Abbey is this done for the right reasons: what other American actress could engage in Dame-to-Dame Combat with Dame Maggie Smith?
  • Averted: When Margaret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch in Wizard of Oz) played Morticia's mother in the 1960s The Addams Family series, the network did not exploit the connection—appropriate though it was.
  • CSI occasionally seemed to do this, but for the most part their "stunt casting" was the result of a working character actor who had some notoriety at the time (like Alan Tudyk or Wil Wheaton) just happening to landing a role on the series. The one time they did intentionally Stunt-Cast, it worked spectacularly as the legendary Ned Beatty was cast as the kindly pediatric dentist Doctor Dave... who was also a creepifyingly kind serial killer.
  • Castle usually stunt casts with real life cameos (such as Castle's poker game with James Patterson, Dennis Lehane, and Stephen J. Cannell), all of whom are portrayed as acquaintances that Castle has befriended as a successful author.
  • During the first season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the show had low ratings but high retentionnote . Since the show was cheap to produce, the executives greenlit a second season on the condition that they hired a famous actor to draw more attention to the series. Danny DeVito was introduced as Dennis and Sweet Dee's neglectful father Frank. It worked incredibly well, marking the point where the show began to Grow the Beard and become a hit with audiences.
  • Superman:
  • Sabrina the Teenage Witch:
    • Melissa Joan Hart is a huge WWE fan, so many notable stars of the 90s were cast for guest spots. These include Kevin Nash, Billy Gunn and Chyna (though she didn't appear until she'd left the company in the 2000s).
    • The Season 4 premiere gets a Britney Spears appearance to cross promote the film Melissa Joan Hart was starring in, which was titled Drive Me Crazy after Britney's song. Melissa also appeared in the video, which plays in The Stinger.
    • Coolio has a cameo As Himself in a Season 1 episode where the aunts bring a poster of him to life to ask where Salem went.
    • A Season 3 episode has Sabrina and Valerie sneaking into a club to see N Sync.
    • The Backstreet Boys have a cameo in an episode with a talent contest where they only get their singing talent from drinking a potion Sabrina left lying around.
    • A Season 2 episode features Ru Paul playing a Witches Council judge who later disguises himself as a hairdresser to teach Sabrina a lesson. Notable because the Witches Council judges had been played by the same two actors for the first three seasons.
    • Sabrina conjures up Tara Lipinski for no real reason in an episode where she's trying to make everyone jealous of her.
    • The seventh season gave Sabrina a job working for an entertainment magazine, allowing for guest appearances from pop stars such as Daniel Bedingfield, Ashanti, Avril Lavigne etc.
  • Diagnosis: Murder was fond of this. One episode (about alien abduction) had several actors from various Star Trek series; another had cast members from the movie and TV versions of M*A*S*H.
  • Coronation Street - Britain's Long Runner of a soap - has often cast name actors for brief story arcs who are quickly written out never to return.
    • Stephanie Beacham showed up in 2009 for a few episodes to play Martha Fraser - a woman who lived on a barge and briefly tempted Ken Barlow to an affair.
    • Nigel Havers (he of Chariots of Fire and Dont Wait Up) did the flipside of this also in 2009, appearing as a conman called Lewis, who had a brief affair with Ken's wife Deirdre.
    • Honor Blackman made a couple of appearances playing one of Rita's old friends from her acting days. Who then invites Rita and Norris to a weekend party that turns out to be a swingers' event.
    • Girls Aloud member Sarah Harding in 2015, playing Robert Preston's wife while he was having an affair with Tracy Barlow.
    • Ian McKellen likewise made appearances as an eccentric writer called Mel Hutchright in 2005. Something of a subversion, as Sir Ian had been lobbying to guest star because he was a fan (the same reason Sarah Harding agreed to her guest spots).
  • Gentleman Jack: When one episode featured Queen Marie of Denmark as a minor character, they cast Sofie Gråbøl, the most famous Danish actress in Britain thanks to Forbrydelsen.
  • The Aquabats! Super Show!: The show does this from time to time for episode-specific characters, but also lampshades the trope by having "Weird Al" Yankovic play President Stuncastin in the episode "Pilgrim Boy!".
  • Charmed (1998) became known for this in its later seasons, often attracting name actors to play Phoebe's love interests.
    • Nick Lachey, at the height of his fame from marriage to Jessica Simpson and the subsequent reality series. He appears at the start of Season 7 for an arc as Leslie, a replacement advice columnist for Phoebe. Among her love interests, he tends to be the least positively received.
    • The same season brought in Kerr Smith from Dawson's Creek as FBI Agent Kyle Brody, who became a love interest for Paige rather than Phoebe. Tellingly, he'd actually turned down the role of Leslie. Living TV in the UK were particularly fond of hyping up his appearances. However, he was actually relevant to the arc, and the character was merely divisive rather than hated.
    • Charisma Carpenter appears for three episodes in the same season, playing a demonic seer called Kyra in an obvious nod to her role in Angel. The episode in which she played her most prominent role was even advertised with the slogan Charmed, with Charisma. Her character however proved to be quite popular with fans, who lamented that she was killed off.
    • Another well-received example was Billy Zane appearing for three episodes as a demon-turned-human called Drake. His Large Ham performance, creative use of powers and chemistry with Alyssa Milano also made him popular with fans.
    • The final stunt cast Phoebe love interest in the series was Jason Lewis, of Sex and the City. The episode "Malice in Wonderland" was even done in the style of the latter, and his character Dex was featured heavily in the promotional materials. Although he ended up marrying her briefly, his arc ended after six episodes.
    • The eighth season also cast Kaley Cuoco, fresh off the sitcom 8 Simple Rules in the role of Billie Jenkins; an apprentice witch to the sisters, who was also the result of the network demanding new faces and someone to fill the Ms. Fanservice requirements the three lead actresses were getting sick of doing. Despite hopes that she could headline a spin-off, Billie was negatively received and even got Demoted to Extra in the continuation comics.
  • The Boys (2019)'s Season 3 premiere features a cameo from none other than Charlize Theron As Herself, playing Stormfront in the Film Within a Film 'Dawn of the Seven'.

     Music 

     Music Videos 
  • Subverted in the casting of Pamela Anderson as the giantess in the Miserable music video. One would think casting the biggest sex symbol of the time in a roll like that would be because the producers wanted to drum up interest in the video. But it was actually the band's idea. Lit actually requested that she be in the video because they were guest starring on an episode of V.I.P. and enjoyed working with her. Her lending the video a little extra clout was just a bonus.
  • A similar subversion in LFO's music video for "Girl on TV". As the song is about falling in love with a female celebrity, it would seem to be the case that Jennifer Love Hewitt (then a Teen Idol for Party of Five and I Know What You Did Last Summer) plays the girl in the video. However, she was actually the celebrity the song was written about - and was dating one of the members.
  • The video for Stylo by Gorillaz features Bruce Willis, who mugs down the camera constantly. Yes mate, we know you're Bruce Willis...

    Professional Wrestling 
  • The main event of the first WrestleMania had Mr. T as one of the match participants, purely for mainstream publicity.
  • Cyndi Lauper's presence at the same event was not however an example of this, as she had been involved in a program where she became the manager of Wendi Richter - and stayed as such for a whole year.
  • Mickey Rourke was involved in a small stunt with Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 25 to promote his film The Wrestler.
  • WWE from about 2009 until 2011 would have a gimmick of a different celebrity guest hosting Raw every week, ranging from past wrestlers to even the likes of Buzz Aldrin, the Osbournes and The Muppets! It was discontinued as a weekly thing that year, but still occasionally happened for the next couple of years.
  • TNA in the late 2000s, early 2010s got a reputation for bringing in names from reality shows - Jenna Morasca, Johnny Fairplay, Angelina Pivarnick - because Dixie Carter admitted to being a reality TV addict. The last one wasn't particularly well thought-out - as Jersey Shore aired at the same time as TNA Impact.
  • WWE likewise got in on the Jersey Shore phenomenon in 2011, where Snooki guest starred on an episode of Raw ostensibly to promote a magazine cover, but then ended up challenged to a mixed tag match at WrestleMania 27. Surprisingly enough, she ended up performing better than expected, with her background in gymnastics and cheerleading allowing her to pull off some She-Fu moves.
  • For the first ever women's Royal Rumble in 2018 (which would close the show), the higher-ups were afraid the men's rumble preceding it would exhaust the crowd. As a result, this one included a lot more nostalgia competitors than normal - Trish Stratus, Lita, Torrie Wilson, Molly Holly, Jacqueline, Michelle McCool, Kelly Kelly (although she was a last minute replacement for the injured Paige) and even Vickie Guerrero! This was thought to be in an attempt to re-energize the crowd (which worked judging from the reactions).

    Theatre 
  • While it has The Cameo trope on the page with La Fille du Régiment of the very small part of the Duchess of Crakenthorp could be seen in this form, there have been times when retired Opera Singers like Montserrat Caballé and Kiri Te Kanawa took over the part and a song from their repertoire is added to extend the six lines written, also the part was played by drag superstar Monét X Change who again was given a song to show off.
    • However, while these were positive examples of Stunt Casting, there was a negative reception of Ann Widdcome as the Duchess rather than give her a song, they gave her jokes that, from all reviews, were as awkward as her time on Strictly Come Dancing.
  • When a Broadway show becomes a Long Runner, it's likely to fall victim to a revolving door of stunt casting.
    • Hello, Dolly! went through a rotating series of stars, including Ginger Rogers and Ethel Merman. For two years, the entire cast was Race Lifted so that Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway could star as Dolly and Horace.
    • The 1996 revival of Chicago is a notorious example — over its 25+ year run, its longevity has been attributed to casting numerous well-known actors and actresses and/or rock/pop/country singers in all three of its principal roles. It's even a plot point in another musical, The Prom: Angie's toiled away in its ensemble for years but hasn't been promoted to playing Roxie Hart because she isn't a name.
  • The '90s revival of Grease was also notorious for this. (Seriously, Rosie O'Donnell as Rizzo?) And it's rare to see a professional production of the show that doesn't stunt cast the One-Scene Wonder Teen Angel, who sings "Beauty School Dropout" (for which the movie got Frankie Avalon and the 2016 FOX production got Boyz II Men). The role is sometimes doubled with that of the DJ Vince Fontaine to better justify the casting.
  • The 2007 Las Vegas staging of The Producers cast David Hasselhoff as Roger De Bris, the Flamboyant Gay director, and gave him top billing. At the same time, this particular production was Recut to only 90 minutes, so to maximize Hasselhoff's stage time, most of the romantic subplot involving Leo and Ulla was cut...which made his betrayal of Max harder to swallow. Later in the run, Tony Danza came in to play Max (he was previously one of Nathan Lane's replacements in the Broadway production).
    • Hasselhoff had previously become a bit infamous for playing the title roles in the musical Jekyll & Hyde on Broadway, as one of those performances was filmed and released on video and DVD. That production frequently stunt cast the lead role; Sebastian Bach played him for a while as well.
  • Sebastian Bach, in Theatre was a mixed bag, while he was in the above Jekyll & Hyde, he took over Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Show, where he was given a reprisal of Over At The Frankenstein Place to show off his voice. However, his last credit was the tour of Jesus Christ Superstar, where it was clear he couldn't hit the high notes of Gethsemane then, during the curtain calls, he began messing around and jumping into the audience thinking he was back in Skid Row, resulting in his firing.
  • Toward the end of its run, the Toronto production of The Phantom of the Opera cast Paul Stanley as the Phantom. He was generally well-received and even got some KISS fans interested in musical theatre. While Phantom has generally avoided this, it did bring back Michael Crawford to the role for a brief time on Broadway, Robert Guillaume was the first-ever black Phantom in the national touring company, and equally well-known Norm Lewis became the first black actor to play the title role in the Broadway production in 2014.
  • As its Broadway run wound down, Miss Saigon brought back Lea Salonga, the first actress to play Kim.
  • During its final year on Broadway, Aida cast well known R&B stars in the title role, such as Toni Braxton, Deborah Cox and Michelle Williams. While this usually paid off in singing ability, the acting sometimes left a lot to be desired.
  • Groucho Marx, Eric Idle, and Dudley Moore have all played the role of Ko-Ko in The Mikado, and handled it quite well. It certainly helped that they're accomplished Deadpan Snarkers.
  • An English-language recording of the Richard Strauss opera Ariadne on Naxos features Stephen Fry in the speaking part of the Major-Domo.
  • The Broadway adaptation of Disney's Beauty and the Beast initially featured Tom Bosley as Maurice. (While best known for Happy Days and, late in life, infomercials, Bosley previously won a Tony for Fiorello!.) Later in the run, replacement Belles included Debbie Gibson, Toni Braxton, Andrea McArdle (the original Broadway Annie), Jamie-Lynn Sigler, and Christy Carlson Romano. And Donny Osmond did some Playing Against Type as Gaston for a while.
  • Seussical was a Troubled Production and over its brief 198-performance run on Broadway did this several times in a desperate attempt to drum up business — both Rosie O'Donnell and Cathy Rigby (a former Olympian and highly-regarded stage Peter Pan) played The Cat in the Hat in an odd case of Crosscast Role, and Jojo was played at different points by country music child star Billy Gilman and teen pop singer Aaron Carter.
  • A 1997 Madison Square Garden production of The Wizard of Oz featured Roseanne Barr as the Wicked Witch of the West! A restaging and subsequent tour the following year featured Eartha Kitt, and later Jo Anne Worley, as the Wicked Witch and Mickey Rooney as the Wizard. When Andrew Lloyd Webber mounted a new stage adaptation of the film in 2011, Michael Crawford played the Professor Marvel/Wizard dual role.
  • Theatre critic Mark Shenton praised the 2013 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical in the West End for avoiding this trope with regards to the showy role of Willy Wonka. Instead, the role was originated by Douglas Hodge and after a year, handed off to Alex Jennings — both are highly-regarded English stage actors, but subject to Pop-Culture Isolation by the world at large. The following year, Jennings was succeeded by Jonathan Slinger, who also fits the "high-quality resume/not a big name" pattern.
  • The 2013 Broadway adaptation of Cinderella (Rodgers and Hammerstein) did this in 2014 when it brought in pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen to play the title character and Fran Drescher to play the evil stepmother. Jepsen's successor to the role was Keke Palmer, who also fits this trope for what it's worth.
  • Forbidden Broadway loves to mock this concept, most recently in its 2014 edition by bringing up the aforementioned Cinderella recasting.
  • Sometimes happens with La Cage aux folles with regard to the role of Albin/Zaza — talk show host Graham Norton was a replacement in the 2008 West End revival. After it transferred to Broadway the show's book writer, Harvey Fierstein, played the role for a time (both actors took over from Douglas Hodge). For the follow-up U.S. tour, Fierstein was approached to play Georges, which would have made him the rare actor to have played both lead roles, but he was too busy with other projects.
  • Show Boat:
    • The 1930 St. Louis Municipal Opera production somehow was able to cast W. C. Fields as Captain Andy.
    • The 1994 Broadway revival inflated the role of Parthy and gave it to Elaine Stritch.
  • The 1981 regional production of Pippin that was filmed for television included Chita Rivera as Fastrada and Martha Raye as Berthe.
  • Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats has always gone for big names when casting Grizabella, the female lead and star of the show, most recently casting Delta Goodrem, Nicole Scherzinger and Leona Lewis in the role.
  • Sara Bareilles, who wrote the songs for the musical version of Waitress and was nominated for a Tony for her score, spent six weeks starring in the show. The show became notorious for a tendency to do this, such as casting Joe Sugg and Colleen Ballinger, both mostly famous for their YouTube videos.
  • Broadway industry gossip in spring 2017 was that Kinky Boots was on its last legs financially with a closing announcement imminent. To tide audiences over until its original stars returned to close the show, Brendon Urie (of Panic! at the Disco, hot off of their biggest album in a decade) was announced to be playing Charlie Price for a limited run that summer. He was sensational, but more importantly, his presence did gangbusters for the show's grosses. The role of Charlie has since been stunt-cast a few more times, with the likes of David Cook from American Idol and Tyler Glenn of Neon Trees. When the show closes in April 2019, it will have run almost a full two years longer than industry gossip theorized.
  • Love Letters, a play by A. R. Gurney, has been a goto play for Stunt Casts as it's a two-hander of a couple telling their story through their written correspondence, the play originally had different casts each week and regularly is used by actors who are too busy and is highly popular with benefit readings.
  • This trope’s backfire led directly to the Broadway closure of Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812. When Josh Groban left the role of Pierre in July 2017, he was succeeded by Okiriete “Oak” Onaodowan, who was well-regarded coming off his turn in Hamilton but lacked the star power to draw in casual fans. After only six weeks of Onaodowan’s run, the producers announced that he would be replaced by Mandy Patinkin. The backlash over the casting shakeup (and the Unfortunate Implications of a black actor in an ostensibly “race-blind” role being abruptly recast with a white one) caused Patinkin to withdraw out of respect for Onaodowan, leaving the show without a long-term plan for Pierre and no ready solution to its poor box office; it ended up folding at the end of the summer.
  • A 2004 Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera production of The Music Man cast Jeff Goldblum (a native of the city) as Harold Hill. This was played with in an offbeat way: The Mockumentary Pittsburgh is built around this production, revealing that Goldblum's primary reason for doing something so atypical was to help his then-girlfriend get a green card and how he had a difficult time getting into the role.
  • Patti LuPone tried to speak against this trope in 2017 when she heard of theatre productions casting YouTubers, social media influencers or MMA fighters who had large fan bases - but ended up receiving a mountain of backlash for perceived elitism. Her claims that stunt casting was "forcing legitimate actors out of work" were met with people pointing out that it was possible for people with those platforms to also have acting experience and/or a desire to break into a new industry. Not to mention that stunt casting was nothing new, and her comments seemed to be based on the fact that it was happening to names outside her circle/clique.
  • In the Play 2:22 A Ghost Story, which opened in 2022, there has been talk of this due to its multiple casting of big names, starting off with Pop Star Lily Allen, who wasn't known for her acting career, in turn of events, she had good reviews and even had an Olivier Award Nomination, since then the play has been recast with Cheryl being the most interesting casting.

    Video Games 
  • Exaggerated with the PlayStation game Apocalypse by Activision. The original concept was that Bruce Willis would've voiced an A.I.-controlled partner who assists the player throughout the game. The developers decided to ditch the original protagonist and simply turned Willis' character into the player character with the rationale "why would anyone want to be Bruce Willis' sidekick when they can be the man himself?"
  • Kingdom Hearts has its main character voiced by Haley Joel Osment in the English version, with other supporting characters and villains played by people like Billy Zane (Ansem), Christopher Lee (DiZ), and Leonard Nimoy (Xenahort).
    • The Final Fantasy cast in the first game, the first time the characters got voiced, has recognisable TV actors and popstars playing them all. The performances range all the way from Questionable Casting nonsense (Lance Bass is horribly miscast as Sephiroth, but does the best job he can under the circumstances) all the way up to establishing the definitive voice actor for the character (Steve Burton stayed with Cloud even after II recast most of the characters, and played him in English for the majority of his later appearances until Final Fantasy VII Remake).
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: in addition to its All-Star Cast, preview material hyped Gina Carano as Natasha, Tanya's Soviet counterpart. Carano's appearance amounts to a non-speaking cameo in the Allied campaign and the Natasha unit in the actual gameplay portions is not voiced by her - reportedly, this was because she couldn't do a believable enough Russian accent (even by the game's standard).
  • In a cross between this and What Could Have Been, the game Malice earned considerable attention in the early 2000s because the lead character was going to be voiced by Gwen Stefani, with other members of No Doubt appearing as characters and the band was signed up to provide the soundtrack. The game was planned for a high profile release as an Xbox launch game, but slid further and further into Development Hell. By the time the game was released nearly four years after it was supposed to, Stefani and the band's contributions were scrubbed from the final product, and it was a commercial and critical disappointment. If the game is remembered now, if at all, it's for Stefani's involvement rather than its actual gameplay.
  • In Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, series mainstay David Hayter was recast with Kiefer Sutherland because his vocal range was too limited. Which might have been useful four games earlier, but Kiefer barely talks at all in Phantom Pain. All it did was feed into the preconception that Hideo Kojima resents making games and would rather be a Hollywood director instead.
  • Guest fighters bring in the $$$, but longtime fans felt the guests in Mortal Kombat X got out of hand. 50% of the DLC is guest fighters. NetherRealm would rather pay orders of magnitude more money to recast Sonya with Ronda Rousey than hire an actual voice actor. They'd rather pay an ungodly sum to use Arnold's likeness and promote a movie which everyone knew was going to bomb anyway.
  • Death Stranding has the bafflingly gimmicky lead actor pair of Norman Reedus and Lindsay Wagner, whose Serkis Folk recreation allows her to appear as the age she was in The Bionic Woman despite her being in her late 60s. This is because Hideo Kojima is a huge fan of The Bionic Woman and thought that, since he was making his dream project, he might as well just go for broke. Joining them are also Mads Mikkelsen, Léa Seydoux, Margaret Qualley plus the likeness of Guillermo del Toro and Nicolas Winding Refn.
  • Averted in Sayonara Wild Hearts: Queen Latifah has a voiceover role as the narrator, but she was a last-minute addition so her name didn't feature in pre-release promotion.
  • The original dub of Disco Elysium is full of this (in The Final Cut, most were recast):
    • Notoriously, Will Menaker, Matt Christman, Felix Beiderman and Virgil Texas from the controversial left podcast Chapo Trap House all show up as Siileng/Fuck The World, Titus Hardie, Scab Leader/Kourtenaer/Rosemary and the Smoker on the Balcony respectively. Will joked on the show that they were surprised the game turned out to be good because they'd assumed it was going to be 'a multiple choice adventure about depression' (which the game is... kind of). According to the producers, they hadn't intended to stunt-cast the game, and approached the Chapo guys because they couldn't find actors with American accents... but they appear prominently in the marketing material, suggesting they knew exactly what they were doing. Overlaps with Playing with Character Type, as, while none of the hosts are playing exactly the kind of characters you'd expect, familiarity with their comic personas will bring an extra sizzle to their scenes. In particular, Sociopathic Soldier Kourtenaer develops an ineffectual failson vibe once you recognize he's voiced by the guy whose career is built on skewering hypermasculinity-poisoned oafs.
    • Dasha Nekrasova from the even more controversial left podcast Red Scare (perhaps best known for the viral video of her obliterating an InfoWars reporter with high level Communist rhetoric while dressed in a Sailor Fuku) plays Klassje (Miss Oranje Disco Dancer). Dasha's reputation as being a 'bad girl' unpopular even amongst Chapo listeners for her inflammatory opinions underscores Klaasje's untrustworthiness.
    • British Sea Power contribute various songs to the game's soundtrack.
    • Mikee W. Goodman (Ancient Lizard Brain/Limbic System/Spinal Cord/Roy/The Deserter/Idiot Doom Spiral) is best known as the lead singer of the prog metal band SikTh. One of the band's gimmicks is that Mikee often sings in character voices, which the game also gives him the opportunity to do during the karaoke scene.
    • Dot Major from indie rock band London Grammar plays obnoxious speed-abusing scallie kid Cuno, as well as Harry's former partner, Jean. In The Final Cut, he appears as Noid instead.
    • Measurehead is played by Casablancan rapper Dizzy Dros, who featured in promo videos to appeal to his fanbase.

    Western Animation 

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