Who else found the casting too distracting ?

I was also surprised Mariah Carey was in this movie considering she has no lines and her screen time is a whopping 1.2 minutes. However, I found most of the other actors refreshing.

Not gonna lie, I giggled a little when I realized Robin Williams was playing Eisenhower.

I found much of the casting to be distracting also. It seems like it would have been better to hire some solid but lesser known actors to play the historical characters. (When I saw Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan I just about lost it.) Star power in those roles did not lend itself to making this movie any better in any way. Distracting? Yes! I did like Vanessa Redgrave, but she didn't play a well known historical character...though she probably could have pulled it off better than anyone else if she was given such a role.

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I can appreciate the casting being distraction, I too, was affected to a degree.

That said, perhaps the casting of these people in these roles was an effort to reach out to people who could resonate with the main topic of the civil rights issues under evaluation. I don't follow these actors that much but I am thinking at some degree their past comments and activities have become known that they would like to support the project out of either a direct or indirect connection with the subject of civil rights globally, nationally, and personally as applied to the main character and his family.

Really bizarre decisions, they were just missing Sam L Jackson and Laurence Fishburne.

I watched it last night, totally forgot Mariah Carey was in it and didn't recognize her and just said out loud, "THAT WAS MARIAH CAREY?!" They really made LBJ look like a total hick and a joke--I was trying to figure out who the actor was and quickly looked it up on my phone as I was watching and didn't recognize Liev Schreiber! John Cusack as Nixon! I didn't know who he was supposed to be at first--like the sweating touch he added! I thought he was good without exaggerating Nixon's mannerisms. Jane Fonda--I liked the way she did this thing with her head like Nancy Reagan, but the sexy walk didn't seem to fit! I found it entertaining seeing these actors in such roles but I know what you mean. I think I was expecting more from this because of the raves a friend had about it. Oh, in the beginning when the boy broke into the store to eat the cake, the old man who caught him seemed so familiar. I kept trying to figure out who he was--for those who remember The Mod Squad--he was Linc! I admit a lot of the dialogue was lost to me.

Of course it was distracting, and pathetic too. Terrible casting with the presidents.

Casting Uncle Ruckus from The Boondocks as Old Forrest Whittaker made me laugh a little, especially his over-the-top old man-nerisms.