Clive's got a great riff on Kelsey Grammer being cast in the new X-Men:

It is a mistake to cast a big, well-known, brand-name star as a beloved comic-book hero, because the star's branded personality tends to overshadow the role. Let's call it the "fame effect": The producer and director figure they need big names to sell the movie, but in today's insane world of 24/7 celebrity coverage -- where tabloid magazines bray with Homeric repetitiveness about the personal lives of our modern Gods -- we come to "know" the stars with such pseudo-intimacy that it's like seeing your mother up on stage there. Comics are about mythic characters. You can't use someone in a mythic role who regularly trafficks their real-life personality to the media like cheap crack and then expect us to ignore it.

I've had the very same reaction over the past few years -- as Clive points out, one of the nice things about Serenity was the fact that I knew none of the actors, much like the original Star Wars. But I wouldn't limit it to comic books; I tend to find celebrity actors distracting in any genre -- actually, in my case, I find them more distracting in realistic genres than fantasy ones. That's yet another reason that television drama is so often better than film: the casts are so often dominated by fresh faces (think Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Lost.)

Comments

[Jeff the Poustman]

I agree; the celebrities frequently distract from their roles.

Like producers and directors, though, as a renter of movies I am caught. I often judge an unknown movie by the actors in it: do I know anyone in this? I sort of assume that if a big name risked tying him/herself to the project, it is at least some kind of indicator that it might be good. But if I know no one, I'm leery.

However, the actual payoff often is truly much better with unknown folks, whom you can immediately accept as the character.