Why Fanboys Should Never be Casting Directors

Let’s just stop kidding ourselves at this point: Zac Efron should be Spider-Man, he’s a fantastic actor and his musical background makes him a more athleticly fit and more adept for fight choreography (don’t believe me, boxers have been training with ballet instructors since the 70’s). Society as of late has branded musicals as “faggy” and scoff at the notion of talent stemming from them. Well here are two examples to the contrary, the first is from “Singin’ In The Rain,” bear in mind Donald O’Connor performed his on his own without any special harnesses or doubles, and the second features a familiar face to anyone who claims to be a man:

Yes, that’s Clint Eastwood singing a love song, to fucking trees, and that does not make him less of a man.

Just because an actor has a few roles in his resume“ that you might not agree with does not make he or she a blight on society. Efron may be a tween heartthrob, but that shouldn’t blacklist him forever: actors have to start somewhere, and the good ones branch out.  If you were running a law firm, would you pass on one of the best litigators in the state because he or she worked at McDonald’s when they were in high school?  Not every actor can make their start with the roles that you would want to see them in, and what you would deem acceptable can be completely different than the guy next to you. I for one, fucking hate the show Firefly, and I know that having a piece on a comics site puts me in the minority, but I don’t bemoan Alan Tudyk for being on the show, nor Mirrormask, which was terrible; I still think the guy is a great actor. I hate Firefly, but I don’t scoff at the actors on that show for being on it, since it launched many actors careers, including the kid who played a young Simon Tam in episode 5, that kid who made his professional acting debut in that role: Zac Efron.

What’s worse about chastising an actor for where they got their start is that it creates a divisive mentality. Refusal of another strictly for their history creates a myopia that limits the creative spectrum. This is a common occurrence in the comics scene.  Comic Fans tend to believe that their “Actors” belong to them and are only fit for the movies that relate t the comics scene. That’s why Nathan Fillon’s name pops up all the time in “Who should Play. . .” games; I’ve even seen some posts where a fan will try to say that “nerds” have a different dream girl than other people. Let’s get something straight, most heterosexual dicks work the same: if a guy finds Megan Fox hot, odds are he sees Eliza Dushku super hot as well. Problem is; many hardcore fans don’t work in their dream roles; Huh? Let me explain; How stoked would you be to know that the guy cast as one of your favorite superheroes ha to have the tattoo of the very same superhero covered so he could play that role? Would you love to see an actor who grew up reading a certain comic book who would later go on to write an introduction to a collected volume of that hero? Both of those sound like they would make great casting choices, but both of those scenarios are real: 

Let’s travel back to July of 2006; a certain casting announcement was made that many comics fans were none to pleased about: Here’s a few links showing some disdain in the comments thread:

Newsarama

AICN

Digg

And an artist’s rendering:

Had the studios listened to the fans we would have never seen this:

Sometimes the best possible choice is the last one you would have thought of. Is a tween heartthrob the best choice for say, Captain America, no fucking way, that’s still a manly ass role. Is that singing and dancing heartthrob a great choice for Spider-Man, hells yes, I may not like where Efron got his start, but I can see a promising future. Remember, the man, Clint Eastwood didn’t become the badass to end all badasses right from the start, Fistful of Dollars was made when he was 34. I’ll be the first to concur that Efron will never be an Eastwood, nor a Ledger, but he’d make a great Parker.