Fantasy Casting: 12 Angry Men

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9 Responses

  1. Scott Milliken says:

    I’d listen to a podcast about these fantasy castings, they’re so great. I’d like to respectfully disagree on jurors #4 and #8, though. I like Andre Braugher a lot, but I think his natural intensity would clash with #4’s detached, calculated nature. I also like Peter Sarsgaard, but he lacks the gravitas necessary to carry #8. I don’t have any replacements at the ready because I’m not that quick, but still brilliant stuff. Hope to see many more of these. Simmons, Harris, and Serbedzija are damn strokes of genius.

    • Battleship Pretension says:

      I picked Sarsgaard precisely because he is not an immediately likable actor. His voice and demeanor have a quality that inherently makes one suspicious of him, I think. I like the idea of Juror #8, so reasonable and sympathetic in the original, being somebody that we’re not immediately on board with, but who wins us over through sound argument.

      • Scott Milliken says:

        That’s definitely an interesting subversion and one I probably wouldn’t have thought of. I could see that in a more modern, less theatrical telling of the story, and Mamet is certainly smart enough to adjust the other characters accordingly in such a telling. It seems like your other choices are very similar to the original readings of the characters, so I guess that’s why Sarsgaard stood out in such sharp relief.

        • Battleship Pretension says:

          Yeah, the other characters are fairly archetypical, so you can’t really cast too much against type with them. But Juror #8 is pretty flexible. You could play his attitude as perfectly righteous or self righteous, reasonable or contrarian, conciliatory or superior. And the fact that the hero of the story can allow so many options, depending on the performance, is what I thought was so interesting.

          • Nick Smith says:

            The Sarsgaard/Fonda comparison is interesting. In films Sarsgaard usually comes across as sleazy but is probably a decent guy, while Fonda usually comes across as a pillar of integrity but was reportedly not always a good guy.
            The upshot is Sarsgaard’s on-screen persona could work in his favor as Juror 8 because he’d have to convince us, the audience, as well as the other characters.

  2. Erasergirl says:

    What a terrific list. I’m mentally putting together a 12 angry women list right now…i would have liked to see Anne Bancroft in that.

  3. Sarah Brinks says:

    I love all these choices… but how dare you! I only half kid. 12 Angry Men is sacred territory. It was the movie that introduced me to Henry Fonda 🙂

    I agree with Scott, I’m not 100% sold on Peter Sarsgaard as #8, but it would be interesting to see.

  4. Brady says:

    Maybe it’s a little weird to be commenting on this after 3 years. Likely, no one will read this. Whatever, here’s mine:

    Juror 1: Corey Stoll
    Juror 2: Matthew Broderick
    Juror 3: Michael Keaton
    Juror 4: Chiwetel Ejiojor
    Juror 5: Michael Pena
    Juror 6: Walton Goggins
    Juror 7: Michael Shannon
    Juror 8: Edward Norton
    Juror 9: Morgan Freeman
    Juror 10: Brian Cox
    Juror 11: Mads Mikkelsen
    Juror 12: Jason Bateman

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