It’s undoubtedly the goal of any actor who is serious about their craft to be able to act across all genres without ever being typecast, but the simple fact is that some just aren’t believable in certain roles. Sometimes, this is due to their reputation being made in a particular sub-section of cinema, but there are a number of reasons that certain actors simply don’t work in certain genres. For instance, some actors can’t carry off comedy, while others simply can’t emote in movies with more serious subject matter.
A lack of range isn’t necessarily the sign of a bad actor: Keanu Reeves, for example, has built his reputation on a relatively small repertoire, and he’s still enjoying his well earned success three decades later. However, seeing an actor out of their depth in the wrong genre is always more than a little weird.
With that in mind, here are seven examples of exactly that: actors who appear to have wandered into entirely the wrong genre.
7. Kristen Stewart – Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
Sadly, Kristen Stewart isn’t exactly known for her impressive acting talent.
That’s a shame, because she has proved her acting chops in some of her more forgettable roles – she was the saving grace in American Ultra and she seemed right at home in Adventureland – but big budget fantasy movies are clearly a little out of her wheelhouse. This made her casting in the title role of 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman particularly bizarre.
While Stewart might work in smaller dramatic or even action-based movies, being thrust into the shoes of a fairytale princess really didn’t suit her at all.
This casting probably shouldn’t ever have happened though, as she’d already proven how poorly she handled the fantasy genre with her role in the Twilight saga. Poor casting is one thing, but there was clear evidence against Stewart here, although she has since proven that she’s more than capable of playing an actual princess in 2021’s Spencer. Regardless, Stewart was all wrong for the part of Snow White, and she’s completely out of place in this one.