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Your ideal cast of actors (from any era) for The Great Gatsby

posted 10 years ago by Nirhtuc
15 replies | jump to latest

I thought the 2014 cast was good, but not perfect. Who do you think are the ideal actors to play the lead roles in The Great Gatsby (from any time from 1920s onwards; when the actors were the right age to play the characters)?

Nick - Jake Gyllenhaal
Gatsby - Dirk Bogarde
Daisy - Vivien Leigh
Tom - Joel Edgerton (I actually can't imagine anyone else in that role)
Jordan - Lauren Bacall
Myrtle - Sherilyn Fenn

I think Marilyn Monroe would make a perfect Daisy if Daisy was supposed to be blonde and have a lighter voice, but in the book, she's brunette and has a lower-pitch voice.

[–] MikePaul854 10 years ago

Nick: James Badge Dale
Gatsby: Leonardo DiCaprio
Daisy: Eliza Dushku
Tom: Luke Evans
Jordan: Elizabeth Olsen
Myrtle: Blake Lively

[–] shepardjessica-1 10 years ago

Nick: Jake Gyllenhaal
Gatsby: Johnny Depp
Daisy: Carey Mulligan
Tom: Christian Bale
Jordan: Cameron Diaz
Myrtle: Tuesday Weld
Wilson: Scott Wilson (who played him in 1973)

[–] Mortimer605 9 years ago

I'm gonna go with modern actors:

Gatsby - Johnny Depp (although DiCaprio was very good here)
Daisy - Natalie Portman (with blonde hair)
Tom - Joel Edgerton or Christian Bale
Nick - Jake Gyllenhaal
Jordan - Rooney Mara
Myrtle - Amy Adams

"The trick, William Potter,is not minding that it hurts."

[–] kaskait 9 years ago

Bringing in actors from the past is nice but I would really like to see the film just done right in the present with the right faces. The background of the actors really doesn't matter as long as they look right. The uproar about Carey Mulligan was that she didn't look WASP, never did and never will thereby *beep* up the whole point of the story. If she had looked right, no problem. However that was not the case. Ditto for age, I don't think it matters as long as everyone fits their prototype.

Nick - Alexander Skarsgard

Gatsby - Wes Bentley

Daisy - Rebecca Ferguson

Tom - Josh Pence

Jordan - Rosamund Pike

Myrtle - Jennifer Lawrence

Contrary to pop culture, it was Jordan who was the flapper and the blonde in the story. Daisy was a brunette.

It killed me to go outside the US for an actress for Daisy. But the right types are just not that popular in Hollywood these days. What the role calls for is an unknown cast for looks and talent. Daisy really isn't that big of a role, the past films blow her portion of the story all out of proportion to the books.

[–] gronsk 9 years ago

Nice cast for Nick and Tom. Don't like the girl picks and Gatsby although Jennifer Lawrence would work fine as Jordan.

[–] kaskait 9 years ago

The reason why I leaned toward Wes Bently for Gatsby is because he projects a neediness that Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Redford just don't have. The book Gatsby is very ambitious, obtuse and also pathetically needy. Bentley has elements of all three. Plus I liked the fact that he looked very different from Skarsgaard and Pence. It would make Tom's idiotic rants about Nordic superiority all the more pointed.

I agree I was iffy on my choice for Daisy. The role calls for an unknown cast for looks. But she does need to be brunette. It would put her on the outside of Tom's racial purity world.

Jennifer Lawrence doesn't look blue blood. Which is why she is continually cast as a backwoods type of girl. She would be great as Myrtle. And she is still young enough looking to be believable as a dupe for Tom.

[–] InfoBabe 9 years ago

None of the characters were wasps. Daisy was from Louisville, KY, Gatsby from Minnisota, Tom, Chicago.

[–] charlesheld 9 years ago

Gatsby: Cary Grant
Daisy: Myrna Loy
Nick: James Dean
Tom: Charlton Heston
Jordan: Katherine Hepburn
Myrtle: Ann-Margret

[–] tomokker 8 years ago

Well done!

[–] Rae217 9 years ago

I am so glad someone said Vivien Leigh. Daisy Buchanan, Scarlett O'Hara, and Blanche DuBois are all very similar characters. They're complicated, and they mask their emotions with a flighty disposition. It's why a lot of people don't like these characters, but I think people connect with them more then they'd like to admit to themselves let alone others.

[–] Spoffdarko 9 years ago

Nick - Heath Ledger (If I can pick him)
Gatsby - Leonardo di Caprio (I thought he was great)
Daisy - Jessica Chastain
Tom - Cary Grant
Jordan - Audrey Hepburn
Myrtle - Marilyn Monroe

"I'm leaving, i've assessed the situation, and i'm going".

[–] Nirhtuc 9 years ago

Jordan - Audrey Hepburn

Love this one!

[–] CountJohn 9 years ago

Gatsby- Clark Gable
Daisy- Marilyn Monroe
Nick- young Jimmy Stewart, young Edward Norton, or Matt Damon would all hit it out of the park
Tom-Max Von Sydow
Jordan- Audrey Hepburn was a great idea. I could see Natalie Portman from around 10 years ago doing it. I honestly thought Debicki was pretty close to "perfect" in the role too.

[–] nikosva 8 years ago

I don't know about the rest, but...

Myrtle Wilson - Jessica Chastain

"Worst/Best movie EVER!" posts
are science fiction and should be deleted!

[–] Circlingaround 8 years ago

Nick - Clark Gable
Gatsby - Leonardo Dicaprio
Daisy - Marilyn Monroe
Tom - Tom Hardy
Jordan - Elizabeth Debicki
Myrtle - Amy Adams