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Actors Cast Based On Their Physical Peculiarities

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barfing_pumpkin

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...is, in my opinion, 'The Aurora Encounter' (1986), based on the supposedly true UFO crash in Aurora, Texas, in 1897.

I managed to see this on late night TV a few years ago. What struck me most about this film (aside from the fact that it treats a case widely considered a hoax as true) was its look (inasmuch as it appeared to be completely amateur - the kind of thing you used to see on Screen Test - though it did possess a kind of weird, half-hearted charm), and the fact that it actually cast a progeria sufferer as the alien.

Is it just me, or does the idea of casting someone with a physically disfiguring illness to play an alien creature seem a bit suspect? It's like...well, imagine somone being cast to play Kojak simply because he was a terminal cancer sufferer, and was on chemo at the time. I dunno if it's really exploitation or not, but it just seems...wrong somehow.

You can find out more about this film via:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090675/
 
I know I've commented on the creepy casting in that movie on this board before. I know I have!

But yeah, it takes a pretty sleazy producer to cast a dying kid as an alien because they want to save money on the makeup FX budget. And that was the only reason. It's not like the kid was Olivier. What's doubly strange is that the movie itself is about as innocuous as a Family Circus cartoon.
 
I don't think it's a dreadful movie, although I can appreciate others sensitivities abt casting a progeric. Personally I prefer Strange Invaders.
 
I don't think it's a dreadful movie, although I can appreciate others sensitivities abt casting a progeric. Personally I prefer Strange Invaders.
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Oh god, yeah...Strange Invaders. Remeber the bit when that guy sees two kids (I think it was kids - it's been ages since I saw it) get turned into those silver globes? And the way their skin kinda...shrivels up? Reminds me too of another UFO film - late 70s, early eighties, can't recall (though I'm sure it was made to cash in on the wave of publicity that Close Encounters had generated) - 'The Return', starring, I think, Jan Michael Vincent. An interesting specimen this one, in that it featured cattle mutilations - which were actually being carried out by the creepy-looking fellow who played the subway ghost in, er, 'Ghost'. Can't remember much about the film, except that the creepy looking guy used what appeared to be a miniature lightsaber to do his grisly work. Which leads me on to another film featuring cattle mutilations: I can't remember what it's called, except it had Peter Coyote (he of ET semi-fame) as the bad guy, and that the mutilations themselves were not the work of UFOs, but a secret government department. Will have to do an IMDB search on these two sometime, I think.

As for the 'casting of disfigured actors' thing...it makes me wonder where the line should be drawn between it being distastful and being not distasteful. Take for example, 'Deliverance' - where the inbred hillbillies were played by - as far as I am aware - genuine inbred hillbillies, so that the viewers' disgust can be aroused without the need for makeup effects. It it really so different from using a progeriac to play an alien? Or what about those films - such as Moonraker or Big Fish - that use acromegalic giants to play physically imposing characters? Sure, it could be argued that the actors playing these parts aren't really suffering in the way that a progeriac might be (though I understand that acromegaly isn't a big bunch of fun), but even so ... it makes you think. Especially when you consider that Moonraker, the Spy who Loved Me, and Big Fish weren't cheap, nasty little backlot productions.
 
barfing_pumpkin said:
Which leads me on to another film featuring cattle mutilations: I can't remember what it's called, except it had Peter Coyote (he of ET semi-fame) as the bad guy, and that the mutilations themselves were not the work of UFOs, but a secret government department.
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The film is called Endangered Species.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083885/

Strange little film, not bad at all.
 
barfing_pumpkin said:
As for the 'casting of disfigured actors' thing...it makes me wonder where the line should be drawn between it being distastful and being not distasteful. Take for example, 'Deliverance' - where the inbred hillbillies were played by - as far as I am aware - genuine inbred hillbillies, so that the viewers' disgust can be aroused without the need for makeup effects. It it really so different from using a progeriac to play an alien? Or what about those films - such as Moonraker or Big Fish - that use acromegalic giants to play physically imposing characters? Sure, it could be argued that the actors playing these parts aren't really suffering in the way that a progeriac might be (though I understand that acromegaly isn't a big bunch of fun), but even so ... it makes you think. Especially when you consider that Moonraker, the Spy who Loved Me, and Big Fish weren't cheap, nasty little backlot productions.
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Tod Browning's 1932 classic "Freaks" is of course the all time classic example of this, and makes it pretty damn clear whose side its sympathies are on...

I believe physically disabled actors have also played aliens quite a few times in Dr Who (although, oddly, Davros wasn't one of them)... Nabil Shaban (IIRC, possibly spelt wrong) is a name to google for...
 
The introductory text below says it all. Kiran Shah has one of the most impressive actor resumes of anyone you can name, yet you've only rarely had the chance to see his face.
Kiran Shah: The hero with a thousand faces

You've almost certainly seen Kiran Shah before. You've likely been watching him most of your movie-going life. You also might not recognize him.

Shah is 4 feet 1.7 inches (1.26m) tall and since the late 1970s he's been in demand as the world's smallest stuntman, an actor and scale double. He's played Superman, survived Aliens, died aboard the Titanic, journeyed to Mordor (and back again) and visited a galaxy far, far away six times over. He's worked on three Academy Awards best picture winners and his movies have grossed close to $19 billion.

Yet despite a storied career, Shah has largely slipped past the limelight. But befitting a man around for so many cinematic milestones, he isn't short of a story. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/style/article/kiran-shah-profile-spc-intl/index.html
 
Apparently Warwick Davies was annoyed that they used CGI to make regular folks seem small, rather than cast people with dwarfism for Snow White and the Huntsman.
 
Gérard Depardieu must have been cast in the 1990 Cyrano de Bergerac because it would reduce the budget for the prosthetics department; though the credits do include the lady responsible for the "creation/conception of Cyrano's nose". (In fact, unlike Steve Martin's version, it wasn't implausibly large.)
 
I should think one reason Doug Jones gets all that prosthetic work is due to him being so skinny. That makes it easier to build stuff around him.
 
Kiran Shah was on (quiz show) Pointless Celebrities as himself a few months ago. He has a very thick Indian accent, which may be why producers don't ask him to deliver much dialogue.
 
Other actors who were hired for their unusual looks.
Ben Turpin had crossed eyes, which were reportedly insured by Lloyds of London against uncrossing.
Both Marty Feldman and Jack Elam had famously large eyes, which both used to comic effect.
Rondo Hatton had acromegaly, and acted in horror films. Horror awards are now named for him.
French actor Maurice Tillet also.
Andre the Giant was a giant and played a giant in one of the finest films ever made.
 
madmath said:
Rondo Hatton had acromegaly, and acted in horror films.
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The first name that came into my head, when I saw this thread. I was on my tablet, however, so the notion of posting his mugshot seemed like too much work. Back on the Mac - here he is:

Rondo Hatton - quite a handsome guy in his youth! :thought:

The Wikipedia link should give both images.

Mind you, I have seen guys age like that over night!
 
Not physical peculiarities as such, but there are a few actors I have seen that remind me of much more famous actors, and I've often wondered whether they got the role because the more famous person wasn't available/would be too expensive.

Brian Thomson who played the Alien Bounty Hunter in the X-Files always reminded me of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Watching Billy Bob Thornton's legal drama Goliath, I always feel that the role of Patty Solis-Papagian played by Nina Arianda was written for Jennifer Lawrence.
 
Well surely the obvious example is the brilliant Peter Dinklage in Game of Thrones.

He also was the about the first of the cast to call out the horsefeathers that was the last few episodes. ("Lets go hide in the crypt from the evil king that can raise the dead and have them fight for him") I'd stuck with it up to that point even though the plotting was getting increasingly unbelievable, but from literally that point on all adherence to previous plot lines and characterisations were thrown out the window.

It reminded me of the way the coherence of my homework essays would collapse as I became totally bored with them.
 
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DougalLongfoot said:
Not physical peculiarities as such, but there are a few actors I have seen that remind me of much more famous actors, and I've often wondered whether they got the role because the more famous person wasn't available/would be too expensive.

Brian Thomson who played the Alien Bounty Hunter in the X-Files always reminded me of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Watching Billy Bob Thornton's legal drama Goliath, I always feel that the role of Patty Solis-Papagian played by Nina Arianda was written for Jennifer Lawrence.
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Bit of trivia, one of Thomson's earliest roles was as one of the punks who generously donated their clothes to Arnie in The Terminator.
 
Everyone's favourite Neanderthal Ron Perlman didn't need much makeup in Quest for Fire:

ron.JPG
 
Cochise said:
Well surely the obvious example is the brilliant Peter Dinklage in Game of Thrones.

He also was the about the first of the cast to call out the horsefeathers that was the last few episodes. ("Lets go hide in the crypt from the evil king that can raise the dead and have them fight for him") I'd stuck with it up to that point even though the plotting was getting increasingly unbelievable, but from literally that point on all adherence to previous plot lines and characterisations were thrown out the window.

It reminded me of the way the coherence of my homework essays would collapse as I became totally bored with them.
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"...and then Tyrion woke up and it had all been a dream."
 
Have we mentioned Richard Keil, 7'2", best known for Jaws in the Bond films, almost stole the film in Moonraker.
 
On ocassion amputees are also hired, for example for horror movies where it needs to look like they lose a limb.
 
Xanatic* said:
On ocassion amputees are also hired, for example for horror movies where it needs to look like they lose a limb.
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One memorable instance of that happened in Spartacus

Kirk Douglas was very hesitant to perform the shot of Spartacus lopping off a Roman soldier's arm. Although the arm was fake (attached to an amputee), the sword blade was real and Douglas had to hit exactly the right mark. After successfully performing the stunt once, Douglas refused a second take.
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https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054331/trivia
 
Xanatic* said:
On ocassion amputees are also hired, for example for horror movies where it needs to look like they lose a limb.
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... Or to fit within the short drone bot costumes in Silent Running.

The three drones were played by four bilateral amputees, an idea inspired by Johnny Eck, a sideshow performer of the early 20th century who had been born without lower limbs. The 20-pound (9.1 kg) drone suits were custom-tailored for the different actors. The suits are in Douglas Trumbull's personal collection.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Running
 
I had assumed Sloth (John Matuszak) in The Goonies was a disfigured actor but it was just good make-up.

Goonies.jpg
 
Bad Bungle said:
I had no idea - I just assumed they were intelligent bots.
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Yep ... The original concept was for the drone bots to be small and innocuous. Trumbull hit on the idea of using amputees in short costumes. This strategy was publicized during the film's production as one of his FX innovations, and I knew about it before actually seeing the finished movie.
 
I've got to dig that film out again. Hope it's not the VHS tape.
 
DougalLongfoot said:
Not physical peculiarities as such, but there are a few actors I have seen that remind me of much more famous actors, and I've often wondered whether they got the role because the more famous person wasn't available/would be too expensive.
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Albert Finney/Brian Cox?
 
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