"[H]e called me up and said, "We have this crazy fun role. We had a Jon Hamm type in mind, but then we thought we're not going to get him, so what about you?" And I was like, I'm often offered Jon Hamm's hand-me-downs, so..."
— Kate Walsh on her The Umbrella Academy (2019) role
When someone involved in a fictional project makes a list of actors who would best represent a cast of fictional characters.
The purpose of a hypothetical cast may be to give the reader of a fictional work a better picture of how a character looks and acts. This is common practice for online virtual series and sometimes used by authors of commercially published works. Many times, when a creator is pitching a work to a production company (such as a new series to a TV network), the creator will use existing photos from previous works to help others visualize the characters - for example, Jeff Eastin used a photo of Leonardo DiCaprio circa Catch Me If You Can, to help visualize the gentleman rogue con man of White Collar's Neal Caffrey. It can also be done in interviews or other extratextual materials, such as screenplays or via Line to God.
Compare Comic-Book Fantasy Casting, where the appearance of a character in a visual medium is overtly derived from a real celebrity without being an explicit parody of that celebrity; No Celebrities Were Harmed, where a character is a blatant parody or fictionalized version of a real person, and Textual Celebrity Resemblance, where a character's resemblance to a celebrity is mentioned within the work. See also Creator Chosen Casting, when the creator actually does get to choose who plays the characters.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama has said on at least one occasion that a younger Jackie Chan would be the ideal live-action interpretation of Son Goku.
- Saiyuki - Previous to its animated adaptation Artist Kazuya Minekura (jokingly) suggested that resident Stepford Smiler Cho Hakkai be voiced by Akira Ishida, and so when time came to actually cast him, the animators decided that Ishida was indeed the best candidate for the job.
Comic Books
- Scud the Disposable Assassin always lists the voices of actors that the creator of the comic imagines will be voicing the characters in animation.
- In-universe example: At one point in The Ultimates, the characters sit around talking about who would play them in the movie of their lives. Naturally, Nick Fury says Samuel L. Jackson (on whom Ultimate Nick Fury was based). Things get awkward (and then very much worse) when Hank Pym starts suggesting Steve Buscemi should play Bruce Banner in the most unintentionally insulting way possible.
- X-Men: Chris Claremont's ideal choice for Wolverine was Bob Hoskins, largely based on the film Lassiter, specifically the scene where he threatens Tom Selleck. He also envisioned Angela Bassett as Storm.
- When discussing who should play Hellboy in a film, Guillermo del Toro and Mike Mignola wrote down their first choice on a napkin. They unanimously picked Ron Perlman.
- In one of the most bizarre examples, Kevin Smith recounted his meeting with Jon Peters for the cancelled Superman Lives. Peters suggested Sean Penn to play Superman, largely based on his performance in Dead Man Walking. According to Smith, Peters said, "Look at his eyes, he's got the eyes of a caged animal, a real killer". Again, this is Superman.
- James O'Barr, who created The Crow, wanted Johnny Depp to star as Eric Draven in the film version.
- The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers writer James Roberts has said that Overlord sounds like the Anthony Ainley/John Simm incarnations of The Master from Doctor Who. He also tells his troops to "please attend carefully", a reference to a well-known line from the Master in the story "Logopolis".
Films — Live-Action
- During the end credits of Cradle 2 the Grave, two of the comic-relief sidekicks have a conversation about who would play them if somebody made a movie of what just happened.
- In The Player, many of the ideas pitched to Griffin Mill include suggestions about the casting.
- In Get Shorty, Ray Bones said he'd like to be portrayed by Harvey Keitel on-screen. It does happen in the final scene.
- Discussed Trope in Scream (1996)— Sidney says "with my luck they'd cast Tori Spelling". In the sequel when they have indeed made a Film Within a Film about the events, Sidney is played by...Tori Spelling (who found it funny).
- The producers of Taxi Driver were looking for a "Cybill Shepherd" type to play Betsy. When agent Sue Mengers heard this, she reportedly called them and asked, "Why not hire Cybill Shepherd?"
- James Bond:
- Ian Fleming's personal choice was David Niven, while Albert R. Broccoli wanted Cary Grant. Niven did end up playing Bond... but not in a serious film.
- When it came to casting Dr. No (who is Chinese-German), Fleming suggested his friend and neighbour Noël Coward, who responded, "Doctor No? No, No, No".
- In The '90s, Roger Moore jokingly suggested Cuba Gooding Jr. for the part, while Sean Connery recommended Mel Gibson.
- Before his book Lost Moon was made into Apollo 13, Jim Lovell wanted Kevin Costner to play him.
- Greg Sestero stated that when he started writing The Disaster Artist, Tommy Wiseau said that only two actors could play him in the film - Johnny Depp and James Franco.
- According to the book Easy Riders and Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll Generation Saved Hollywood, Dennis Hopper met with Charles Manson in prison, because Manson wanted Hopper to play him on film after seeing him in an episode of The Rifleman.
- Harold Shand in The Long Good Friday was described by the screenwriter as "the kind of part written for James Cagney if he were a Cockney".
- The members of the Loser's Club in It: Chapter Two were asked whom they wanted to play their adult parts: Finn Wolfhard (Richie Tozier) said Bill Hader, Sophia Lillis (Beverly Marsh) said Jessica Chastain, Chosen Jacobs (Mike Hanlon) said Chadwick Boseman, Jack Dylan Grazer (Eddie Kaspbrak) said Jake Gyllenhaal, Wyatt Oleff (Stanley Uris) said Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeremy Ray Taylor (Ben Hanscom) said Chris Pratt and Jaeden Lieberher (Bill Denbrough) said Christian Bale. Wolfhard and Lillis' choices were the only two that ended up being cast, likely for budget reasons.
- Dick Van Dyke felt he was miscast as Bert in Mary Poppins and felt that an English comic actor like Jim Dale or Ron Moody would have been more appropriate. P.L. Travers suggested actors like Richard Burton, Alec Guinness, Richard Harris, Rex Harrison, Laurence Harvey, Laurence Olivier, Peter O'Toole, and Peter Sellers for the role, in keeping with the British nature of her books.
- Roger Ebert said that he'd want either Jack Black or Philip Seymour Hoffman to play him in a biopic.
- Joan Allison, who co-wrote the play Everybody Comes to Rick's, which was the basis for Casablanca, always envisioned Clark Gable as Rick Blaine, who "was my concept of a guy that I would like...I hated Humphrey Bogart. I thought he was a common drunk".
- Following the failure of The Bonfire of the Vanities, Brian De Palma conceded that John Lithgow would have been a better choice for Sherman McCoy, "because he would have got the blue-blood arrogance of the character".
- Larry Flynt wanted Michael Douglas to play him in The People vs. Larry Flynt.
- In the book Down and Dirty Pictures, Bernardo Bertolucci said that if he were to make a film based on his experiences with Miramax on Little Buddha, he would have cast James Gandolfini as Harvey Weinstein after seeing The Sopranos and seeing some of Weinstein's behaviour patterns in Tony Soprano.
- James Cagney wanted Michael J. Fox to play him in a film about his life.
- English bareknuckle boxer Lenny McLean wanted Craig Fairbrass to play him in a biopic, as he felt that he resembled him in his younger days. He lost interest when Hollywood producers wanted Sylvester Stallone.
Literature
- In the back of Dark Fire, Cris D'Lacey made a list of all the actors he imagined playing each of his characters in response to a question.
- Stephen King:
- In The Regulators, after Johnny Marinville and his black neighbor, Brad Josephson have a hard time climbing a fence to escape from monsters, Johnny jokingly suggests that they should make a movie called Black Men Can't Climb Fences, where Brad would be played by Laurence Fishburne.
- For The Shining, he envisioned Michael Moriarty, Martin Sheen or Jon Voight as Jack Torrence, believing that they would best convey an ordinary family man who snaps. He was against Jack Nicholson's casting, feeling that it was telegraphing Jack's insanity to the audience.
- In one of his intro essays for the Uncut Edition of The Stand, he suggested Robert Duvall for Randall Flagg and Bruce Springsteen for Larry Underwood.
- J. K. Rowling had her own ideal cast for Harry Potter long before the first movie was made, and was lucky enough to see several of her choices (Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid, for one, and Maggie Smith as Minerva McGonagall, for another) actually used. She described Dumbeldore as a "John Gielgud-type, quite elderly and – and quite stately".
- Stephenie Meyer:
- Meyer's choice for Bella Swann was Emily Browning. Meyer also said she pictured Henry Cavill when writing Edward Cullen, but by the time the movies were made, he was considered too old for the role, making it the second part he's lost to Robert Pattinson (the first being Cedric Diggory.)
- For The Host (2008), she pictured Hilary Swank as Melanie, Matt Damon as Jared, Robert Redford as Jed, Casey Affleck as Ian, and Ben Affleck as Kyle.
- In Usenet discussion of Discworld, Terry Pratchett suggested Pete Postlethwaite as his conception of Sir Sam Vimes (which then became Comic-Book Fantasy Casting in the children's picture book Where's My Cow?), and James Spader for Havelock Vetinari. He's also reportedly specified "the bad guy from Die Hard" (Alan Rickman) for the role of Vetinari.
- Neil Gaiman says that Shadow from American Gods is supposed to look like Dwayne Johnson.
- The author of The Hearts We Sold used a gif of Matt Bomer to represent the Daemon in one blog post. A fan on Twitter also proposed Tom Ellis as a potential alternative, which she approved of.
- Winston Groom envisioned John Goodman as Forrest Gump.
- Breakfast at Tiffany's: Truman Capote imagined Marilyn Monroe as Holly Golightly. But her acting coach didn't want her playing a call girl, so Audrey Hepburn was cast instead.
- George MacDonald Fraser once talked about casting Daniel Day-Lewis in a proposed Flashman film, though he mentioned his ideal choice as Errol Flynn.
- Axiom's End author Lindsay Ellis has suggested casting Pedro Pascal as Nils if the book ever became a movie. She also agreed with suggestions for Rosa Salazar to play Cora, at least until she realized Salazar's age surpassed that of Cora.
- Stranger Than Fanfiction: Joey Davis tends to think that the perfect actor to portray God would be Ian McKellen. In his inner movie of God deciding homosexuality isn't a sin anymore, he has him accompanied by Moses (played by Denzel Washington) and Jesus Christ (played by Idris Elba).
- Anne Rice envisioned Rutger Hauer as Lestat in a film version of The Vampire Chronicles and was so appalled that Tom Cruise was cast in Interview with the Vampire that she boycotted the film, though she later came round. She and the fans also championed Julian Sands.
- Peter Benchley's casting choices for Jaws were Steve McQueen (Actor), Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
- Douglas Adams' original choice for Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film was Hugh Laurie.
- Leslie Charteris' choices for Simon Templar in a film of The Saint were Ronald Colman, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. or Cary Grant. When it came to the television series, his ideal choice was David Niven.
- When Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett planned a Good Omens film in The '90s, they were going to cast Johnny Depp as Crowley and Robin Williams as Aziraphale.
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Roald Dahl felt that Willy Wonka should be British, so his ideal choice was Spike Milligan. He was displeased that Gene Wilder was cast.
- Ayn Rand wanted Farrah Fawcett to play Dagny Taggart in a film version of Atlas Shrugged, as she was a fan of Charlie's Angels.
- Len Deighton was a fan of Steptoe and Son and envisioned Harry H. Corbett as Harry Palmer.
- Jacqueline Susann wanted Elvis Presley to play Tony Polar in the film version of Valley of the Dolls.
Live-Action TV
- Miranda Cosgrove from iCarly wanted Tina Fey to be Carly's Missing Mom.
- In-universe example: In one episode of Castle, the characters talk about what actors they want to be played by in the movie version of Castle's book.
- On Parks and Recreation, the town's mayor, Walter Gunderson, was The Ghost for much of the show. Amy Poehler says they'd like Bill Murray for the part. Murray eventually did so.
- Dan Harmon wanted Murray to play Jeff's dad on Community.
- In an episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun:
- When Jeff Eastin put together a mock-up poster to pitch White Collar to USA, he used a photo of Denis Leary for Peter Burke and Leonardo DiCaprio for Neal Caffrey.
- In the Angel episode "Just Rewards", after having the whole Angel-Buffy-Spike triangle explained to him, Lorne reflects that "I could sell that story to any studio in a heartbeat. I see Depp and Bloom - but then again, I see them a lot."
- Doctor Who:
- In 1986, Sydney Newman suggested brining back Patrick Troughton, then have him regenerate into a woman, with his top choices being Dawn French, Joanna Lumley and Frances de la Tour.
- In the early 1990s, The BBC approached Verity Lambert to revive the show. She wanted Peter Cook to play the new Doctor, but he eventually declined involvement.
- Russell T Davies has mentioned envisioning certain actors in his head while creating various characters. He said that while creating Adelaide Brooke for "The Waters of Mars", he created her with Helen Mirren in mind (the role eventually went to Lindsay Duncan, who does bear a slight similarity to Mirren.) Similarly, for River Song, they considered Kate Winslet for the part (which went to Alex Kingston.)
- A sketch for the Ninth Doctor's look describes him as "Terence Stamp if he ran a market stall".
- Romana I was pitched as a Grace Kelly-type Ice Queen.
- Tom Baker suggested Dawn French and Eddie Izzard as his choices to play the Doctor.
- When then-Senator Barack Obama appeared on the Tyra show, Tyra asked him who he would like to play him in the inevitable biopic. He initially said his first choice would have been Denzel Washington, but because of the ears, it might need to be Will Smith.
- Supergirl (2015): Star Melissa Benoist said in an interview that she wanted co-star and on-screen adoptive sister Chyler Leigh to play their version of Batgirl. Interestingly, Leigh's character has most of Batwoman's defining characterizations such as being a redhead with a bob cut, the show's resident Badass Normal, and eventually even hooking up with the character's canonical Love Interest, Maggie Sawyer.
- While discussing Red Dwarf's failed American pilot, Danny John-Jules named John Belushi as the ideal American to play Lister.
- Cracker creator Jimmy McGovern described the main character Fitz as a John Cassavetes type, "thin and wiry...an ex-military-type". Hilarious in Hindsight, given the eventual casting of Robbie Coltrane. Robert Pastorelli, who played the lead in the American remake, was somewhat on the beefy side as well.
- Phillip Glennister named his choice for an American Gene Hunt as either Harvey Keitel or Nick Nolte. The former was actually cast in Life on Mars (2008).
- In Battlestar Galactica (2003), when the casting agents were asking for "a Mary McDonnell type" for Laura Roslin, and wound up getting Mary McDonnell. Apparently, the same thing happened with Edward James Olmos for Commander Adama. Cooler still, the role was written for Mary McDonnell... they just never imagined they'd actually get her.
- Parodied in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody when multiple people want Britney Spears to play London in a movie about her. London agrees. For the record, she's Asian and Britney of course isn't.
- In the Walker, Texas Ranger episode "Code of the West", the four main characters talk about who would play them in a movie. Trivette gets Denzel Washington, Alex gets Helen Hunt, C.D. gets Paul Newman and Walker gets...Chuck Norris.
- In casting the role of Grandad in Only Fools and Horses, John Sullivan had in mind an actor similar to Wilfrid Brambell, but chose not to use Brambell himself, thinking him too closely associated with Steptoe and Son.
- Alec Guinness initially thought he was miscast as George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and suggested Arthur Lowe as a better choice.
- According to Kate Walsh, who played the Handler on The Umbrella Academy (2019), the role was written for "a Jon Hamm type".
- Prior to Alex Trebek's death in 2020, he threw around some possible names to succeed him as host of Jeopardy!. Among these were Alex Faust, Laura Coates, and Ben Mankiewicz. He also jokingly told an audience member that Betty White should take his place.
New Media
- In-universe within the Whateley Universe, Phase - having just bought out Marvel Comics (in 2007) - ends up in a discussion with his teammates about a possible Iron Man movie and why it wouldn't work because of the casting difficulties.
- Towards the end of At War's End, that guy from that show started working on a cast list
for a hypothetical film adaptation and asked his fellow players for actor suggestions. Note that this cast list is largely based on the actors' credentials rather than their appearances, so the casting picks are not intended to give readers a better mental image of characters' appearances.
Radio
- When choosing the voice of the Guide in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978), Douglas Adams wanted someone with a "Peter Jonesy sort of voice". After several rejections, he simply asked Jones himself.
Theater
- In a PBS documentary on the making of The Producers (stage musical) cast album, Nathan Lane jokes with Mel Brooks about who will star in The Movie. Lane says Danny DeVito will be playing Bialystock. Brooks promises that Lane will be in the movie.
Video Games
- The original Castlevania has for the credits a list of well-known horror movie actors "cast" as the bosses of the game.
- An in-universe case in Curses. Examining the demon and angel tells you that if you were to cast a film of your adventures so far, you would hire Donald Sutherland to play the demon and Judi Dench to play the angel.
Visual Novels
- Hatoful Boyfriend, as a Doujin game, has no voice work, but each love interest's introduction names a voice actor whom the creator would like to play them if it did.
Web Animation
- For Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, creator Vivienne "Vivziepop" Medrano has a number of "headcanon" voices for characters that haven't spoken yet:
- Mark Hamill as Vox.
- Barbra Streisand as Rosie.
- "Weird Al" Yankovic as Lucifer.
Web Comics
- In this interview, The Adventures of Dr. McNinja creator Chris Hastings said that his casting choices for a Dr. McNinja movie would be Sam Rockwell or Will Arnett as the Doc, Sam Elliott or Hulk Hogan as Dan McNinja, and Anjelica Huston as Mitzi McNinja. The villains would include Willem Dafoe as Ronald McDonald, Jean-Claude Van Damme as Frans Rayner, Phil Fondacaro as Knickerbockers, and Bela Lugosi as Dracula, "The Crow style."
- All the characters in Zelfia, however minor, have "canon" voice actors.
- Electric Wonderland author Peter Paltridge has admitted that he used to imagine Brittany Murphy voicing Aerynn Arlia in an Animated Adaptation.
Web Original
- Scaramouche from the V. C. Andrews fan blog Scaramouche's Attic said that she imagined a young Jennifer Connelly as Heaven Casteel from the Casteel series.
Western Animation
- The Simpsons
- An in-universe example: In "I am Furious (Yellow)", in response to a remark about who should play Homer in a live-action "Angry Dad" movie, Bart suggests John Goodman, but Homer strangles him and exclaims, "Isn't it obvious?! It should be Gary Oldman!"
- The writers have joked that if the show ever gets a Live-Action Adaptation, William H. Macy will play Ned Flanders.
- The creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender wanted somebody who sounded like Jason Isaacs to play Zhao, as they got the idea for the character from Isaac's character in The Patriot — but the real Jason Isaacs wound up taking the job instead.
- Transformers: Animated art director Derrick J. Wyatt often shared his ideal picks for voices for characters who either didn’t speak in the show or only appeared in printed media such as the comics. Among his picks were:
- Louie Anderson as Snarl.
- Clancy Brown as Overlord.
- Jeffrey Combs as Pharma, as a Mythology Gag to the Ratchet that Combs previously played.
