MovieChat Forums > From the Earth to the Moon (1998) Discussion > -= good cast + bad cast =-

-= good cast + bad cast =-

posted 16 years ago by enzo_Q
9 replies | jump to latest

I think the creators did a splendid job with most of the cast. Most of them are amazing. I like Tony Goldwyn as Neil Armstrong, Tim Daly as Jim Lovell (far far better than the overacting Tom Hanks) David Andrews as Frank Borman and Elizabeth Perkins as Marilyn Lovell.

However there were some attrocious casting choices. IMHO here they are:

- First: Deke Slayton was played by the biggest pansy they've found. A complete opposite of Deke in every possible way (looks, manner). Deke was portrayed in 'Apollo 13' badly as well but Nick Searcy in this is a joke. Watch some documentary with the real Deke speaking and you will see what I mean.

- Rita Wilson as Susan Borman. Yeah they had to give Mrs. Hanks a big part. She is an okay actress and catches Susan's behaviour mostly correctly, but she looks nothing like the real Mrs. Borman. She is a blonde for starters. You can see her in the documentary 'When We Left Earth'.

- Daniel Hugh Kelly as Gene Cernan. Geno is my no.1. astronaut so I did not like the guy who looks nothing like the thin and agile Cmdr. of Apollo 17 but an overweight wiseass.

- Mark Harmon as Wally Schirra. I like Mark and he catches correctly Wally's seriousness during the Apollo 7 preping but he looks nothing like the real Wally.

- The guy who played Tom Kelly the father of the LEM.

I know it is hard to find actors who are talented and look like the real guys. But they did such a great job with the others I am just sad some of the characters screwed up so badly.
Any thoughts?

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] pjpurple-1 16 years ago

I guess it is hard to find actors who look like the astronauts. But I often have a different problem. I saw Apollo 13 many times, so I kept thinking that Nick Searcy didn't look like the "real" Deke Slayton because I imagined him to look like the actor in THAT film. Also whenever Tim Daly is onscreen as Jim Lovell I usually say "He doesn't look anything like Tom Hanks!" LOL

As far as I can tell the best casting was in The Right Stuff when Fred Ward played Gus Grissom and Ed Harris portrayed John Glenn. Those two actors were the "Hollywood handsome" version of the astronauts but still quite physically similar. imho

[–] enzo_Q 16 years ago

Yeah good points my friend.

And I agree they did a better job in 'The Right Stuff', especially with Ed Harris as John Glenn, Scott Glenn as Alan Shepard, Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager and Dennis Quaid as Gordon Cooper. Those were stellar choices. But...

The "Deke Slayton guy" and Lance Henriksen (as Wally Shirra) were also misfires in that film as well. I guess Deke Slayton and Wally Schirra were such unique persons they are hard to be portrayed in movies. I myself for starters would find a good natured Sicilian for the role of Wally. As Wally was a Sicilian, good looking, cultured, funny, picky and sensitive and when the mission came, deadly serious. Very interesting person. Deke also. A deadly serious cowboy, with a hurted soul cos of his grounding from flight. Hell one day I will be a famous director and will make justice for these guys on the big screen LOL.

Also Fred Ward gave us a great phisical resemblance but portrayed the highly competent hero Gus Grissom as some sort of dumb brute. Shame. And no he did not blew the hatch.

[–] rp69 16 years ago

I think they did a fine job casting this series full of familiar American episodic tv actors. The acting was all first rate too. I would imagine it would be virtually impossible to find roughly 50 Actors that looked and sounded exactly like their real-life counterparts. It was obvious the producers wanted very familiar faces also, making it even harder. Dave Foley as Al Bean, Dan Lauria as James Webb and Stephen Root as Chris Craft were my favorites. I loved the dialogue between Webb and his staff in the first segment. It gave a real sense of what they were up against. The "Really, Anybody want my job" and "Can we do this? - Absolutely, we have too". Pretty insperational, and perfectly acted.

They really did a great job on this series. Even stuff that would seem a little mundane or redundant like "First Wives Club" and "Houston, We Have A Problem". You would think these segments would be treated kind of like "filler". But they were presented at a different angle, making it fresh and interesting.

I voted this series 10 out of 10. The only other things I voted 10 on were The Shield and Band Of Brothers.

When your talking about perfectly cast parts don't forget Ed Harris as Gene Krantz in Apollo 13.

[–] enzo_Q 16 years ago

Yeah Ed Harris was also great as Gene Kranz. Ed is always stellar.

I liked FTETTM's cast really but there is NO excuse for casting Nick Searcy as Deke Slayton. Why didn't they cast Anthony Edwards then? He is a familiar American TV face as well. My choice would be CHRIS COOPER for Deke Slayton! Just perfect.

[–] Sunstone61 16 years ago

I only know what the real Deke looks like and know nothing about his mannerisms but I love Nick Searcy's "hick" accent and quotes. So funny...

~Be God's~

[–] enzo_Q 16 years ago

yeah he was funny for a chevy chase movie. he aint deke for sure.

[–] johnston.scot 16 years ago

> Any thoughts?

I think a certain degree of departure from exact physical resemblance is acceptable, and expected, particularly with a large cast. When you're dealing with a real-world person who's instantly recognizable to most of the audience, it can create a bit of a "break" if there's not a decent physical resemblance, but here the vast majority of the audience doesn't have that clear a mental picture of most of the figures. The percentage who have a fixed image of Tom Kelly, at least, must be vanishingly small.

Even when they do, you can get past that break. Does Anthony Hopkins look anything at all like Richard Nixon? I'm pretty sure that Cate Blanchett doesn't look a ton like Bob Dylan, either.

Obviously, something else is going on in the last example, where the film-maker is going for an observation or fresh take on something. That's present here, too, if not to quite the same degree as in "I'm Not There."

The various episodes are, I think, intended to look at the space program from different angles, in different lights, illuminating different aspects and "personalities" of the story. Thus, the Apollo 11 episode focuses on the pure technical and logistical nerviness of the enterprise, while the Apollo 12 one highlights the excitement of a bizarrely unbelievable adventure. I'm pretty sure Neil Armstrong and, even more Mike Collins (though maybe not Buzz Aldrin) could smile and laugh and be lighthearted occasionally, while Bean/Conrad/Gordon could also be steely-serious when the situation demanded it.

Other than that: Tim Daly might have been a bit too self-contained and serious. I think of Lovell as a more gregarious, jovial sort.

[–] t_smitts 16 years ago

I for one, thought they did a pretty good job of getting people who at least somewhat resembled the real people. Of course you have to remember they gotta be able to ACT too. It doesn't matter if you look like a clone of Gene Cernan if you can't act.

Compare this with the movie "Apollo 13": Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, and Kevin Bacon look a BIT like Lovell, Haise, and Swigert, but not a lot (Bacon is probably the closest). If you were really trying for resemblence, Kevin Costner would have been a good match for Lovell, as they've said many times. Kathleen Quinlan and Ed Harris are actually not bad for resemblence as Marilyn Lovell and Gene Kranz. Gary Sinise looks NOTHING like Ken Mattingly, however. David Andrews was even less of a match as Pete Conrad (WAY too tall, too much hair, and missing the famous gap-tooth, though he did get the personality right). Who'd have thought he'd be such a great match for another Apollo commander, Frank Borman? I feel bad saying this, but I saw a picture of Jim Lovell's mother and the late Jean Speegle Howard didn't look much like, though who can really blame Ron Howard for giving his mother that role?

Now, as I said, the mini-series went to much greater effort to cast actors who resembled the real people. There were exceptions to this. Tom Amandes admitted in a chat that he doesn't look much like Jack Schmitt. (Too tall, for one thing. Actually I think he would have made a pretty good Jim McDivitt).

Mark Rolston's a bit tall for Gus Grissom, but other than that, not bad.

Paul McCrane is a GREAT Pete Conrad (even if they still missed the gap-tooth). They should have cast him as Conrad from the start.

Zeljko Ivanek was the PERFECT Ken Mattingly (too bad he got so little screen time).

Steve Zahn looked a bit young next to the other actors playing astronauts, but Elliot See was actually the oldest of the New Nine. Not bad though.