Is movie casting becoming purely visual today?

I can't believe that they are casting this model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in the $200m+ Transformers 3 movie. Her only acting experience is a TV commercial.


I mean Halle Berry was a young model, and she acted in over a dozen TV episodes before her first movie role. She did an excellent job playing a crack addict in Jungle Fever. Supposedly she didn't shower for a week, to get in character. She proved she could act before being cast in more glamorous roles.

Yeah, that sure is terrible... I hate when I see a movie and there's a hot actress in it...

I remember when Megan Fox won the Oscar for best actress for Transformers 1 and 2. I hope this actress can continue on in her foot steps.

Quote: FinsRule

Yeah, that sure is terrible... I hate when I see a movie and there's a hot actress in it...

I remember when Megan Fox won the Oscar for best actress for Transformers 1 and 2. I hope this actress can continue on in her foot steps.

Yeah she couldn't be a much worse actress than Megan Fox was in the first 2. Once again, appealing to a target demographic and the common denominator is what that business is about.

Schwarzenegger only spoke 71 words in the Terminator, but at least he had acted in a couple of movies and TV shows before being cast in the role. I just have never heard of anyone getting a speaking part in a major film with zero acting credentials.

Quote: Terminator Dialogue

1. Nice night for a walk.
2. Nothing clean, right.
3. Your clothes, give them to me.
4. The 12 gauge auto-loader.
5. The 45 long slide with laser sighting.
6. Phase plasma rifle in 40-watt range.
7. The Uzi 9mm.
8. All.
9. Wrong.
10. Sarah Connor?
11. I'm a friend of Sarah Connor. I was told that she's here.
12. Can I see her please? Where is she?
13. I'll be back.
14. F@ck you, asshole.
15. Give me your address there.
16. Get out.

For transformer you don't need actors. Just special effects. You don't really need dialogue, either.

Quote: Nareed

For transformer you don't need actors. Just special effects. You don't really need dialogue, either.

I for one would be happy with 90 minutes of big CGI robots beating the hell out of each other. I dont know what anyone else thinks, but a film about Transformers with half the movie concentrating on soft squishy humans is not what I signed up for.

I had the same problem with King Kong, a film about a giant monkey, that you dont even see for an hour or so.

As to the OP about casting, I think it depends on the film. The Spider-Man reboot (now titled the Amazing Spider-Man) features an actor with some experience. However, for Transformers, do you really need anything other than someone to look pretty running around in a tight top on screen?

Quote: Croupier

I for one would be happy with 90 minutes of big CGI robots beating the hell out of each other. I dont know what anyone else thinks, but a film about Transformers with half the movie concentrating on soft squishy humans is not what I signed up for.

I only saw the first one. For the record, I used ot watch the 80s cartoon. Anyway, the first movie left me cold. The robots lacked personality (and take too long to show up). But worse yet they're mostly a blur on the screen rather than spectacular visual effects. They looked more like a junkyard being stirred up by a tornado.

Quote:

I had the same problem with King Kong, a film about a giant monkey, that you dont even see for an hour or so.

If you mean the latest remake, I didn't see it. I saw the 78 or so remake and the original. I don't recall much of either one...

I like good special effects. In some movies that's all there is, and surprisingly this can be fine. It was quite fine in the original TRON, for instance, which remains the most beutiful movie I've ever seen (visually speaking). A minor past time of mine is to watch old films and play "spot the special effects." Anyone interested in doing so, I recommend "Citizen Kane."

The original King Kong is still entertaining to watch, almost 80 years after it came out. The visual effects were cutting edge for 1933, but the acting makes it a poignant movie today.

Quote: clarkacal

Yeah she couldn't be a much worse actress than Megan Fox was in the first 2. Once again, appealing to a target demographic and the common denominator is what that business is about.

The target audience for all but a few movies is twelve-year-old boys. They are unlikely to regard actresses in terms of their acting abilities.

Quote: pacomartin

Schwarzenegger only spoke 71 words in the Terminator, but at least he had acted in a couple of movies and TV shows before being cast in the role. I just have never heard of anyone getting a speaking part in a major film with zero acting credentials.

Still, even with experience, we don't want Schwarzenegger taking on Shakespeare . Or maybe we do?

I think it also depends on the experience of the director (or casting director). Can they more likely pick out someone with some natural ability? I would think so.

This was one of the finest years for film in my recent memory. The Academy Top 10 List:


True Grit
The Fighter
Black Swan
Inception
127 Hours
The Kids Are Alright
Winter's Bone
Toy Story 3
The King's Speech
The Social Network


All exceptional, in their own way. There are GREAT female performances in True Grit, The Fighter, Black Swan, The Kids Are Alright, and Winter's Bone. The only film there that I didn't care for was Inception, which I still admired for its audacity and craft.

There are dozens more from 2010, some I've seen and most I haven't, that have won raves from critical viewers. People forget, from the very beginning the vast majority of films have been potboilers, oaters, soaps, serials, and Bs. Those pay the bill for the good stuff to get made. Citizen Kane, said by many to be the greatest film ever made, was the 6th highest grossing film of 1941, behind such notables as Honky Tonk (3rd). (Interestingly, CK won no Oscars. How Green Was My Valley took Best Pic, Best Director (John Ford), and Best Supporting Actor (Donald Crisp); Best Actor went to Gary Cooper for Sergeant York, Best Actress to Joan Fontaine for Suspicion, Best Supporting Actress to Mary Astor for The Great Lie.)*

*disclaimer: I knew the Best Picture and Best Director, had to look up the others. The point is that popularity has often trumped quality (How Green Was My Valley was a pretty good flick, though).

I didn't think "The Fighter" was that good, and I like sports/action films. I realize they tried to make it more about the performances but it was just ok for me.

Quote: pacomartin

I can't believe that they are casting this model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in the $200m+ Transformers 3 movie. Her only acting experience is a TV commercial.

The first thought I had was: "Dude, this is a transformers movie."

The second thought was: "Dude, this IS a transformers movie."

Even the very fact of using actors at all is already a massive breakthrough from the normal medium for the story.

Quote: P90

The first thought I had was: "Dude, this is a transformers movie."

The second thought was: "Dude, this IS a transformers movie."

Even the very fact of using actors at all is already a massive breakthrough from the normal medium for the story.

In 1933 ticket sales for King Kong were equivalent to 1/3 of the US population at the time. Avatar sold tickets at a little less than 1/3 of the population last year. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen sold a little more than half the number of tickets as Avatar.

A story has to have some acting, even if it is simplistic. King Kong had decent acting, which is why it is watchable decades after the technology became laughable.

Of course, maybe this woman has incredible instincts and will be superior to Megan Fox.

Sex sells, let's be honest.