In true story movies, the actors are portrayed to look as much like the real person as possible. The hair style and dress was perfect for Diane Lane to look like Penny Tweedy but Lucien Lauran had a full head of white hair. For some reason, John Malkovich, who is bald, chose to do the character of Lucien Lauran as a bald man. Wonder why he wasn't wearing a wig with white hair?
shareNot to mention Lucien Laurin was in fact short (noticeably shorter than Penny Chenery, only a couple inches taller than Turcotte) and somewhat rotund while Malkovich is tall and gaunt-faced.
Richard Dreyfuss would probably have been a better pick to play Laurin. Dustin Hoffman would have been good too.
Also, Laurin did not wear goofy clothes -- in fact, by the standards of the early 1970s, he dressed rather sedately.
Just bad casting.
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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.
Cool. Sometimes on the trivia section it is mentioned other actors who were asked but turned down the part of Lucien Lauran for various reasons. There was nothing like that on the Secretariat trivia. Maybe he was the 1st choice of the producer or director. Thanks so much for the reply.
shareYou are correct about Laurin but not about the casting call. Malkovich was cast to fill a character role - not portray Laurin as realistically as possible. The writers decided to make Laurin a goofy character for comedic relief in the film. Pretty typical stuff. The movie needed that character. I like the choice. But you're right, he does't resemble the real Laurin at all.
shareThe movie had plenty of stupid comedy anyway with the nitwit hippie daughter, Secretariat pissing on reporters' feet, and Eddie Sweat screaming like Butterfly McQueen, they didn't have to depict Laurin as a buffoon.
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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.
Yes Malkovich was taller and and thinner then real life Lauran. However, his portrayal was electrifying. Physical appearance aside Malkovich did an A+ job.
shareIt was awful. It was like watching a clown. I can't imagine how painful it was for Mr Lauren's family and those who knew him personally.
shareHe didn't have a French-Canadian accent either. Nor did he speak French as a French-Canadian would. I know because my dad is French-Canadian.
shareLucien did have done ofvthecfunniest outfits and hats in the film.
shareYou're right about that. He and Turcotte would speak in French-Canadian patois when reporters were around.
shareAs an actual French-Canadian, I can say that Malkovich didn't sound even close to one of us. It's not an easy thing to do but unfortunately, he couldn't pull it off.
I'm usually a big fan of his but he missed the mark here ... it looks like he didn't do any actual research on the man.
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Thou shalt keep thy religion to thyself. - George Carlin
Its pretty funny when I saw the movie in the theater Malkovich's accent was an abomination but when I caught it on TV a couple of days ago he redubbed the whole thing with no trace of an accent
shareyes , John Malkovitch looks nothing like a short ex-jockey who had hair and a bit of weight. His acting was good, but he was a foot taller than he should have been.
The main thing that was annoying was the constant portrayal of Sham's trainer Pancho Martin as a loud-mouth buffoon.