Just cast Ryan McPartlin and let's wing it.
No matter who the candidate is -- Krasinski, Tatum, Pine, Hedlund, Vogel, Phillipe, Bethel, Lutz, Ackles et al. --
not one of these candidates has a Perfect 10/10 rating in any one department (acting, looks, height, age, etc.). There may be some posters who think Hedlund is a good actor, while others are skeptical. There are some who think Vogel looks like Captain America from the neck up, but others point out his height. There are some who think Krasinski is a good enough actor, but others debate that.
That brings me to McPartlin. Now, his acting may be debatable,
but I don't think there is any dispute as to whether he looks like Captain America. I'm not even talking about him merely resembling Steve Rogers -- I'm talking about a living, breathing, walking Steve Rogers. That's why I suggest they cast McPartlin, and surround him with good actors and just hope for the best.
He is a 10/10 in the Steve Rogers Looks department.
But realistically, how much acting range is required for Captain America? I'm not asking rhetorically, I'm genuinely curious. How much range was required for Christian Bale to play Batman, Downey Jr. to play Iron Man, or Ed Norton for Bruce Banner? If you really think about it, these characters weren't impossibly deep, and the actors weren't really pushed to their limits. These are all great actors, and they put on competent performances, but they weren't All-Star performances, IMO. I mean, I felt like Downey Jr. wasn't necessarily giving a 100% compelling and faithful performance of Tony Stark, but rather Robert Downey Jr was just playing Robert Downey Jr with some Tony Stark sprinkled on top. So, with Captain America, do we really need a top-notch actor, even if it comes at the expense of height/age/looks?
While it is obviously important to cast a good actor, is it really important to have a
good acting performance carry the film? (The operative word being "performance"). Ron Perlman was fantastic as Hellboy, but it's not that he put on a great technical
performance in the Hellboy movies, it's more that he
embodied Hellboy perfectly and made it believable. Perlman had the height, the walk, the voice, and of course the make up that made him the human embodiment of Hellboy. Yes, some of this is attributed to acting, but I don't applaud Perlman necessarily for any of his
acting in the HB movies -- rather, I applaud him for embodying Hellboy so freaking well.
Thomas Jane also didn't give an outstanding
performance in terms of displaying a wide range and evoking emotion, but he was terrific as The Punisher because he really
embodied the Punisher persona/character/aura. Again, his physique, his walk, his voice, his scowl, his
presence all screamed The Punisher. But from a technical standpoint, I wasn't impressed with any of his acting. But he was a damn good Punisher nonetheless.
Even Christopher Reeves' Superman/CK was amazing, but not necessarily for Reeves' acting performance, but more that he really
embodied Superman throughout the movies. His statuesque figure, his heroic voice, his immaculate smile, etc. all
embodied the Superman feel.
I'm guessing that none of these performances (Perlman/Hellboy, Jane/Punisher, Reeves/Superman) would translate well on stage and in theater, but they work pretty damn well on film.
And this segues into why I want McPartlin for Captain America. Maybe he won't wow you with a gripping technical performance, but to me, he
embodies the Captain America aura/persona better than any of the candidates. He's got the deep voice, the clean and handsome face, the statuesque figure, and the natural blond hair and blue eyes. His face is square enough and he's got a somewhat prominent chin. This guy is the real world embodiment of Captain America. He may not excite you with any of his performances, but like Reeves, if he can just evoke his Superhero character by giving that presence on screen, it will work well enough.
Phillippe may be a great actor, but does he really give you the sense that he's Captain freaking America? Even Chris Pine might do a good job with the role, but I'd feel like I'd be watching "Chris Pine doing a very good job acting as Captain America", rather than watching and thinking, "Is that Chris Pine or is that Captain America?" The same with Chris Evans -- I'd be thinking "Chris Evans is fun acting as Captain America", whereas I want it to be like "Chris Evans is the living Captain America."
With McPartlin, I feel like I'd be watching Captain America, period. He was born for the role. It's not just his face, but his height, his voice, his broad shoulders etc. If he can give even an average acting
performance as Captain America, then I think he'll be more convincing as being Captain America than if 5'9" Ryan Phillippe acted his ass off as Captain America. But that's just me. Even a charismatic Chris Pine would just leave me thinking "Wow, Chris Pine is fun as Kirk AND Cap!"
Look at this man and tell me he's not Steve Rogers:
