15 Actors Who Proved Critics Wrong With Their Performances

The entertainment industry is always changing, but one way it’s stayed the same throughout the years is with moviegoers complaining about casting choices. Even before we had Twitter or Facebook as outlets for our anger, actors were receiving backlash for taking on roles that were deemed unfitting, miscast, or seemingly impossible for them to play. Bu time and time again, undeniably great actors prove critics and detractors wrong.

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Take, for instance, the recently-confirmed John, Paul, George, and Ringo in Sam Mendes’ four-part Beatles biopic, hitting theaters in spring 2028. The decision to cast several “white boys of the month” like Paul Mescal and Joseph Quinn as the iconic musicians has some skeptics questioning if they’ll be able to pull it off. For now, movie lovers will have to wait three years to see if that decision pays off, but in the meantime, let’s take a look back at some casting choices from the past that, despite what critics had to say, were proven wrong by the tour de force performances they resulted in. 

Here are 15 actors who proved critics wrong with their performances.

It’s hard to imagine a time when you thought of James Bond and didn’t immediately picture Daniel Craig. In reality, the actor had big shoes to fill when he was first cast as the iconic British spy in “Casino Royale,” after actors like Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery had made the character one of the most iconic in film history. Plenty of actors were in the running for the 2006 reboot, but once it was announced that Craig was the choice, fans were surprisingly not happy. Some even threatened to boycott the film, citing Craig’s look as being decidedly un-Bond-like. 

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As it turned out, many of those fans now believe “Casino Royale” is the best James Bond movie, while critics praised Craig’s performance as the definitive version of the character. Craig would go on to reprise the role in four sequels between 2006 and 2021, and as of 2025, Eon Productions has yet to find who will take up the mantle next. Whoever they choose will ironically suffer the same fate as Craig when he was first cast, and hopefully, they’ll do just as good.

Whenever a beloved character from a popular series of novels is cast in live-action, there will undoubtedly be fans who are upset that their own head canon isn’t being respected. However, fans of “The Hunger Games” likely have Jennifer Lawrence to thank for turning their favorite books into the mainstream film franchise it is today, and likewise, Lawrence has the role of Katniss Everdeen to thank for her inevitable A-list stardom. 

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Quickly into the process of casting Katniss in “The Hunger Games” in 2010, it was a no-brainer to director Gary Ross that he found his champion in the then-20-year-old Lawrence. Even though it seemed like a no-brainer, Lawrence’s casting faced resistance from fans, some criticizing her for not being skinny enough (which, frankly, is gross). Fans seemed to pick apart everything about Lawrence’s look as being “wrong” for the character, though it was easy for Lawrence to ignore it and even understand their concerns. By now, it’s quite clear that despite what fans felt at the time, Jennifer Lawrence is Katniss Everdeen, with even her archery training leaving her changed forever. 

In all fairness, getting cast as Batman isn’t as special as it once was. Nevertheless, few could’ve anticipated that Robert Pattinson would turn out to be a phenomenal live-action Batman. The English actor is perhaps most known for playing Edward Cullen in “Twilight,” but the years since have seen him shy away from mainstream roles in pursuit of indie projects like “The Lighthouse” and “Good Time.” That made his casting as Bruce Wayne in 2019 divisive among fans of the DC superhero, though not as divisive as the actor had expected. Nevertheless, as Reeves himself pointed out, this is par for the course when it comes to casting the Dark Knight. 

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Cut to the film’s release in 2022, when we said it “might be the best Bat-movie yet” and IGN gave it a rare 10/10, specifically citing the performance of Pattinson as a more vulnerable Wayne than fans have seen before as one of its best qualities. Even years after its release, fans are clamoring to know everything about “The Batman – Part II” and even criticizing the Max series “The Penguin” for its lack of Pattinson. 

It’s not always the role of Bruce Wayne that turns prospective DC actors into the enemy of comic book fans. There was famously backlash to the casting of Israeli actress Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in Zack Snyder’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” but conversely to Jennifer Lawrence’s casting as Katniss, fans thought Gadot was too thin to play the Amazonian warrior. She was defended by co-star Amy Adams in the lead-up to the film, but that didn’t stop the actress from training hard to meet expectations. 

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Despite poor reviews for “Batman v Superman,” Gadot’s Wonder Woman was singled out by many critics as one of the best parts of the movie. That praise carried over to 2017’s solo outing “Wonder Woman,” of which /Film wrote of the very good DC superhero movie, “Gal Gadot shines as the goddess at the center of the whole affair.” Gadot’s acting in future installments of the DCEU would come under fire for being wooden and uncharismatic, but at least for a short while, she was considered by many the perfect Wonder Woman. 

One of the most famous instances of an actor proving critics wrong with their performance is in yet another Batman movie, this one being the acclaimed “The Dark Knight” directed by Christopher Nolan. A follow-up to Christian Bale’s debut as Bruce Wayne in “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight” introduces a completely new take on the Joker, casting heartthrob Heath Ledger in the role. Everyone involved with the film had total confidence in Ledger’s fresh interpretation of the character, but fans were understandably struggling to see the bigger picture. 

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By the time the film was released, opinions had certainly changed. Not only was Ledger’s performance seen in a different light given the film’s release shortly after his untimely death, but it quickly became fact that “The Dark Knight” gave us the greatest movie villain of the 21st century. Ledger won a posthumous Oscar for his Joker, and it’s no surprise that the character’s image has been forever altered by Ledger’s performance, paving the way for Joaquin Phoenix’s future Oscar-winning portrayal of the character. 

Who would’ve thought when the MCU was introducing Wanda Maximoff that the character would be the star of one of the franchise’s biggest hits? Surprisingly, fans were upset about the casting of Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet Witch, not because of her acting (the actress had proven her chops with films like “Martha Marcy May Marlene”) but because of her background. Notably, Maximoff is Roma and Jewish in the comics, while Olsen’s heritage is mixed European.

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Although Olsen’s Maximoff made her debut in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” in 2015, she played a supporting role in the MCU until Marvel’s charming and unnerving Disney+ series “WandaVision,” which proved all the naysayers wrong. As /Film wrote, “Olsen more than rises up to the task [of] giving us a protagonist who we want to root for, even if we’re unsure whether to trust her.” With the Scarlet Witch’s fate post-“Doctor Strange 2” up in the air, it’s no surprise after “WandaVision” that fans are desperate to see Olsen reprise the role at some point. 

“The Matrix” not only reinvented action movies, but thanks to Keanu Reeves, it also reinvented what it takes to be an action star. Before the Wachowskis’ 1999 sci-fi action film, Reeves had undergone some serious career fluctuations, from his first experience with stardom in the “Bill & Ted” franchise to action films like “Speed.” However, by the time “The Matrix” rolled around in the late ’90s, Reeves wasn’t as bankable of a star as he once was, with studios like 20th Century Fox having blacklisted the actor for turning down the offer of doing a sequel to “Speed.” 

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However, it wasn’t long before “The Matrix” quickly rose to the top of the best Keanu Reeves movies. Not only was the film a massive box office success, spawning a media franchise that’s continued to this day, but it completely changed the way Reeves was perceived by the entertainment industry at large. As it turns out, Reeves was the right kind of maniac for the leading role of Neo, which many hot movie stars at the time had already turned down. 

Rachel Zegler seemingly came from nowhere (in other words, New Jersey) but was selected out of over 30,000 actresses to play Maria in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story.” Zegler’s performance won her a Golden Globe and quickly turned her into a household name, but it’s her most recent role as the titular princess in Disney’s live-action “Snow White” that has seen Zegler on the receiving end of backlash. Most loudly of Zegler’s controversies is fans’ disapproval of Disney casting a non-white actress for the role, a similar racist backlash to Halle Bailey’s casting as Ariel in “The Little Mermaid.” 

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Additionally, Zegler’s left-leaning political activism upset fans as well as the film’s producers, though by the time the latest Disney remake released, Zegler’s performance was the only good thing critics had to say about the movie, with /Film writing, “Zegler is perhaps the highlight of ‘Snow White,’ bringing a great deal of cheer and charm to a pretty thinly written part.” It seems that yet again, the Internet was so incredibly wrong about one of our most promising actors. 

Return in your mind to September of 2021. At the end of a Nintendo Direct presentation, Mario’s creator Shigeru Miyamoto announced the cast for the then-forthcoming “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” produced by Illumination. Fans around the world simultaneously watched their worst nightmares come to life as Chris Pratt was confirmed to be voicing the titular plumber. The directors defended the choice, despite fans being upset that Mario’s original voice actor, Charles Martinet, was relegated to a supporting role as Mario and Luigi’s father. 

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It was only after Nintendo’s big screen adventure premiered that Pratt proved all the naysayers wrong. There were some critics, like us at /Film, who wrote, “this Mario mostly sounds like … well, just a blandly heroic guy,” but there were also plenty who were surprised not only by Pratt’s strong performance but even his impression of Mario’s iconic accent at the start of the movie. As many fans of Pratt’s performance defended, his warm and charming Mario fits the story’s narrative, even if it’s a bit of a departure from what gamers are used to. 

In hindsight, it seems utterly ridiculous that there was any backlash at all towards Ariana Grande’s casting in “Wicked.” As is evident when you watch the 2024 film, Grande is easily the best part, even as our own review called the Broadway musical adaptation an overlong and messy movie. Not only was Grande nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 2025 Academy Awards for playing Galinda/Glinda, the “Good Witch,” but many reviews appropriately singled out the pop star’s natural charisma and complete disappearance into the role, which is quite a feat given her overwhelming celebrity status. 

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However, there were lots of “Wicked” purists who hated the casting of an A-list celebrity in the film rather than a Broadway star deserving of the spotlight. For what it’s worth, Grande understood the concern of critics, which only added to her determination to do right by the character and fans. Plus, the actress wasn’t simply handed the part either; she auditioned a total of five times, and even spent a year in acting and singing lessons to feel prepared for this moment, which by all accounts, worked out pretty well for the former Nickelodeon star. 

Pedro Pascal is probably one of the biggest actors in Hollywood right now, going from a brief stint on “Game of Thrones” to the worlds of “Star Wars,” “Gladiator II,” and later this year, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, no amount of goodwill with geeky fandoms could’ve prepared Pascal for the backlash to being cast as Joel Miller in HBO’s adaptation of the video game “The Last of Us.” Some felt that Pascal didn’t have the right look for Joel, but according to co-creator Craig Mazin, the showrunners were looking for someone who could embody Joel’s character and his chemistry with Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey.

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For those familiar with Pascal’s previous work, it’s not surprising that the thrilling, character-driven achievement for game fans and newcomers alike shone thanks to Pascal. We at /Film called his performance as Joel “the best work of his career,” with fans drawing a comparison between his role in “The Last of Us” to Pascal’s work as Din Djarin in Disney+’s “The Mandalorian.” Plus, one of Joel’s most gut-wrenching lines was improvised by Pedro Pascal, proving that he may not look like the character’s in-game model, but he sure could do him justice. 

It’s not exactly news that Hollywood doesn’t get Japanese animation, but never has it been more obvious than with Dreamworks’ 2017 live-action adaptation of “Ghost in the Shell,” a remake of the iconic 1995 anime film centered on a Japanese cyborg tasked with hunting down a mysterious cyber-terrorist. To play this incredibly integral role, DreamWorks chose… Scarlett Johansson? That’s right, “Ghost in the Shell” was the first of many casting controversies for Johansson, with fans of the original series accusing the film of white-washing the main character, as well as using CGI to alter her appearance to look more Asian. 

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The movie was subject to poor reviews, with /Film calling the adaptation cold and lifeless as a machine, but some critics looked past the misguided casting to praise Johansson for her performance. For instance, The Guardian defended the movie in 2021, writing, “Johansson is undeniably a natural in the role … never letting you forget that there’s a tormented human mind hiding behind her detachable face.” It’s without question that a performance just as good could’ve come from an appropriately-Asian actor, but nevertheless, Johansson didn’t waste the opportunity to give it her all. 

It was always going to be a challenge to cast prolific serial killer Ted Bundy, a heinous real-life murderer whose highly-publicized trial showcased the eerie charmr that Bundy used to lure in his predominately female victims. It was especially going to be problematic when, for the Netflix original “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile,” director Joe Berlinger found his Bundy in Zac Efron, which many critics found to be glamorizing the notorious killer. Netflix even faced this controversy again recently with Ryan Murphy’s divisive anthology series “Monsters.” 

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However, all it took was for “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile” to premiere at Sundance for critics to flip on Efron’s best performance of his career, with /Film writing, “It’s a transformative performance –- Efron takes on Bundy’s mannerisms perfectly, to the point where it no longer feels like we’re watching Efron – we’re watching Bundy resurrected from the grave.” Understandably, it took actually seeing the movie and its portrayal of Bundy to get Efron’s casting, so this was just a matter of detractors not reserving their judgement for the final product. 

Like Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart spent a lot of her career living in the shadow of Bella Swan from “Twilight.” However, after nearly a decade of building up a reputation as a solid actress in independent films, Stewart blew expectations out of the water with her portrayal of Princess Diana in Pablo Larraín’s 2021 film “Spencer,” a performance that would earn Stewart her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. However, the announcement of Stewart’s casting prompted a lot of doubt from Internet users who felt the actress would not be able to embody to the beloved British icon. 

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As /Film wrote of Stewart’s raw, brilliant performance in “Spencer,” the actress is “so entirely embodying the character that it starts to seem less like acting and more like possession. Stewart has never been better than she is here.” As if that’s not enough high praise, even Diana’s former bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, lauded Stewart as a perfect and accurate portrayal. Now that this performance is seen as one of Kristen Stewart’s best roles, critics may finally stop underestimating her. 

A lot of people view Hollywood as a bastion for leftist politics, but in most circles that’s hardly the case. Take, for instance, the 1993 film “Philadelphia,” one of the first mainstream movies to break the taboo against AIDS and the LGBTQ+ community. Tom Hanks won an Oscar for his performance as Andrew Beckett, a gay man fired from his job due to a suspicion of him having AIDS, hiring attorney Joe Miller, played by Denzel Washington, to represent him in court as he sues his employers. 

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Although these performances are among Hanks and Washington’s best, their casting was divisive even in the early ’90s. It took a stroke of luck for Washington to star in “Philadelphia,” given director Jonathan Demme’s concerns about bringing on an African-American dramatic actor for a role he felt needed a white comedian. Additionally, critics at the time complained about Hanks, a straight man, being cast in the role of Beckett, which even Hanks agrees wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) happen today. However, it’s likely that we wouldn’t have gotten to where the LGBTQ+ community is today in mainstream media without films like “Philadelphia” paving the way.