History Main / StuntCasting

* LegendOfTheSeeker pulled in CharismaCarpenter of ''Series/{{Angel}}'' fame, put her in skintight red leather and shouted it from the rooftops. They also got ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'''s JoleneBlalock to play a semi-major character.

* Subverted in ''HomicideLifeOnTheStreet''. 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 [[PlayingAgainstType subversion of his persona]] and a real glimpse of dramatic depth.
* ''BigBrother 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 [[SarcasmMode mysterious stroke of luck]] bailed them out.

->'''Jay:''' I'm pretty sure they cast [[Music/TheBlackEyedPeas Will.i.am]] because of his great acting abilities. He's just fantastic in that movie.\\
'''Mike:''' He had to change his name to "[[ObligatoryJoke Will.i.act.after.this.]]"

* The educational kids' series ''LibertysKids'' is known for this. Creator/WalterCronkite had a recurring role as Creator/BenjaminFranklin; other celebrities playing revolutionary heroes included Creator/DustinHoffman as Benedict Arnold, Creator/AnnetteBening as Abigail Adams, Creator/BillyCrystal as John Adams, and Creator/MichaelDouglas as Patrick Henry, as well as General Norman Schwarzkopf, Creator/SylvesterStallone, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, Creator/BenStiller, and Creator/WhoopiGoldberg.

* The educational kids' series ''LibertysKids'' is known for this. WalterCronkite had a recurring role as Creator/BenjaminFranklin; other celebrities playing revolutionary heroes included Creator/DustinHoffman as Benedict Arnold, Creator/AnnetteBening as Abigail Adams, Creator/BillyCrystal as John Adams, and Creator/MichaelDouglas as Patrick Henry, as well as General Norman Schwarzkopf, Creator/SylvesterStallone, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, Creator/BenStiller, and Creator/WhoopiGoldberg.

* The educational kids' series ''LibertysKids'' is known for this. Creator/WalterCronkite had a recurring role as Creator/BenjaminFranklin; other celebrities playing revolutionary heroes included Creator/DustinHoffman as Benedict Arnold, Creator/AnnetteBening as Abigail Adams, Creator/BillyCrystal as John Adams, and Creator/MichaelDouglas as Patrick Henry, as well as General Norman Schwarzkopf, Creator/SylvesterStallone, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, Creator/BenStiller, and Creator/WhoopiGoldberg.

* The casting of AyaHirano as Dende in ''DragonBallKai'' is largely seen by the fanbase as this. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37_ltlDkuuk the image song doesn't help waver this opinion]].

'''Mike:''' He had to change his name to "[=Will.i.act.after.this?=]"

-->-- '''''HalfInTheBag'''''' on ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine''

->'''Jay:''' I'm pretty they cast [[Music/TheBlackEyedPeas Will.i.am]] because of his great acting abilities. He's just fantastic in that movie.\\

) Averted: When Margret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch in Wizard of Oz) played Morticia's mother in the 1960s Addams Family series, the network did not exploit the connection--appropriate though it was.

* Subverted brilliantly in ''HomicideLifeOnTheStreet''. 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 [[PlayingAgainstType subversion of his persona]] and a real glimpse of dramatic depth.

* Both [[TheMarxBrothers Groucho Marx]] and [[MontyPython Eric Idle]] have been cast in the roll of Ko-Ko in ''TheMikado'', and handled the role quite well. It certainly helped that both were accomplished Deadpan Snarkers.

[[folder:Videogames]]

** Creator/TerrenceStamp in ''Film/ThePhantomMenace''. Creator/SamuelLJackson in that one as well (His role was much expanded in the rest of the trilogy).

* The educational kids' series ''LibertysKids'' is known for this. WalterCronkite had a recurring role as Creator/BenjaminFranklin; other celebrities playing revolutionary heroes included DustinHoffman as Benedict Arnold, AnnetteBening as Abigail Adams, BillyCrystal as John Adams, and MichaelDouglas as Patrick Henry, as well as General Norman Schwarzkopf, SylvesterStallone, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, Creator/BenStiller, and WhoopiGoldberg.

* GeoffreyRush 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.

* ''Series/{{SCTV}}'', against their wishes, had special guest actors Sir JohnGielgud and RalphRichardson. In his book on the series (titled, appropriately enough, ''SCTV''), DaveThomas said they were both extremely difficult to work with and did not understand their brand of comedy. Later on, they welcomed BillMurray to guest star, who was an active booster of the show. Notable musical guests, who also acted on the show, ranged from HallAndOates, Dr. John, Wendy O. Williams & the Plasmatics, TheBoomtownRats, TonyBennett, Music/RoyOrbison, TalkingHeads, JimmyBuffett, JohnMellencamp (when he was still John Cougar), {{America}}, JoeWalsh, Dave's brother IanThomas (who was semi-successful in the late '70s with his song "Painted Ladies", and would go on to play Dougie Franklin on ''TheRedGreenShow'', on which Dave guest-starred as his brother Ben Franklin), and classical violinist EugeneFodor.

* ''SnowWhiteAndTheThreeStooges''. After realising their figure-skating lead Carol Heiss couldn't carry the film, the producers brought in TheThreeStooges.

** TheNineties revival of ''{{Grease}}'' may have something to say about that one. (Seriously, Rosie O'Donnell as Rizzo?) And it's rare to see a professional production that ''doesn't'' stunt cast the OneSceneWonder Teen Angel (who sings "Beauty School Dropout"). [[AmericanIdol Taylor Hicks]] was one of the more recent performers in that role on tour.

* With ''MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'', HideoKojima made the controversial decision of replacing DavidHayter with KieferSutherland as the English voice actor for Snake (or rather Big Boss). Kojima's official rationale being that since they're facial capturing the voice acting (rather than merely animating characters by hand like in previous MGS installments), they needed an older actor to accurately reflect Snake's advanced age via his performance (even though Sutherland is only three years older than Hayter)

* Series/{{Scrubs}} went out of it's way to hire some incredible people such as Dick Van Dyke, Tori Spelling and Courtney Cox.

** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': VanessaWilliams, ChrisSarandon, and IggyPop each guest star in an episode.

* The educational kids' series ''LibertysKids'' is known for this. WalterCronkite had a recurring role as Creator/BenjaminFranklin; other celebrities playing revolutionary heroes included DustinHoffman as Benedict Arnold, AnnetteBening as Abigail Adams, BillyCrystal as John Adams, and MichaelDouglas as Patrick Henry, as well as General Norman Schwarzkopf, SylvesterStallone, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, BenStiller, and WhoopiGoldberg.

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* Much was made of Creator/DrewBarrymore appearing in the first ''Film/{{Scream 1996}}'' movie ([[BillingDisplacement top billing]], appearing on the poster and other promotional materials) [[spoiler: despite the fact that she is killed off in the first scene.]]

* ''TheCrowCityOfAngels'' features Iggy Pop as one of the thugs. He was originally asked to play Funboy in [[Film/TheCrow the first film]], but had to decline due to scheduling issues.

*** Although Criminal Minds 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 sixth 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).