The Official Perry White Casting & Discussion Thread

[Lead Cenobite]

Maybe I'm not being open minded about this, but a lot of these choices I have trouble picturing as Perry. It's just I've always pictured him as this Colonel Potter type, which is kindof how he's always been depicted in the movies and tv shows. This old, gruff but fatherly/grandfatherly type.

Guys like Alec Baldwin don't give off that vibe. I mean sure, he could play the editor of a newspaper, but he just seems like he would play it more like a modern, slick, suave businessman and not as an old fashioned curmudgeon. He's more Luthor than anything.

Casting Michael Keaton would just feel like a gimmick to me, because it feels like he's being picked because he's most known for playing Batman. It's the same when people suggest him for other well known comic roles like the Joker. Plus he's never struck me as the Perry White type either.

On top of that, a lot of them are just so well known that it would be hard to picture them as anything other than Alec Baldwin or Michael Keaton. It's like that with Tom Selleck too. It would help more if they had any of the traditional traits of the character, but that combined with their celebrity status just makes it hard to believe them in the role.

 

[Sawyer]

I'm pushing for Edward James Olmos.

 

[SuperDaniel]

Alec Baldwin would be perfect!

 

[DorkyFresh]

yeah, i'd love to see Alec Baldwin as Perry White. i enjoy him immensely in 30 Rock.

 

[Cav-El]

Deniro or Pacino

 

[BlueLantern]

I'm gonna say Robin Williams for Perry White, but a more dramatic as opposed to comedic Robin Williams.

An amalgamation of his characters from Good Will Hunting and Dead Poets' Society.

 

[Project862006]

what about Michael Douglas For Perry White?

 

[Rodrigo90]

Michael Douglas would kick ass

 

[Superman_20]

As I have been saying since Superman Returns, anyone other than Bruce McGill will be a disappointment for me.

This is what Perry White should be like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFqYn3i_UQ0

My second choices would be Harvey Keitel or Robert DeNiro or Al Pacino but in my mind Perry White is a big heavy set guy that looks like Bruce McGill. Not like "House" or Michael Douglas or any of those other guys named here. Not Alec Baldwin, Dustin Hoffman, etc.

 

[Sabaoth]

 

[Project862006]

what about denzel?

 

[TheIncredibleSk]

Denzel is just way way way too big a name for this role. They don't have the money for the guy to play a small role like Perry. In a perfect world he'd be awesome though.

 

[Tomar-Re]

Dustin Hoffman or Robert Redford

 

[Sabaoth]

Denzel is just way way way too big a name for this role. They don't have the money for the guy to play a small role like Perry. In a perfect world he'd be awesome though.

Denzel hasn't exactly had a string of hits as of late, neither has Crowe or Costner, so I don't think money would be a barrier.
I would like to think he is at least being considered.
I think he would be splendid as PW!

 

[GreenKToo]

John Goodman for me.

 

[TheIncredibleSk]

John Goodman for me.

this

 

[Solidus]

This is one of the few castings where there are lots of good choices, this page alone I could gladly see most of these guys being Perry.

 

[Kurosawa]

Lots of awesome choices. For some reason Hoffman intrigues me. But he's 73, maybe too old if this is a series.

 

[FilmNerdJamie]

This is one of the few castings where there are lots of good choices, this page alone I could gladly see most of these guys being Perry.

This.

 

[Rowsdower!]

Perry is a harder role to cast than one would think, IMO. I don't know why, but I've always had a very specific image in my mind for this character, and while there are a lot of really good names mentioned here, I can picture very few of them as Perry for some reason.

For example, Frank Langella is a great actor. There's no debating that. He can command the screen (Frost/Nixon) and he can also be fractured and sympathetic (Wall Street 2). But as Perry White? In my humble opinion, he was horrible. Maybe it was just the writing, but to me, he came off like a senile old man that wandered off of the rest home.

I think what makes Perry a tough role to nail is you need an actor who acts as though he stepped out of a 1940s newsroom, wired and fiery, almost in his own little world but not to the point where he becomes Willy Loman talking to his dead brother.

 

[Rodrigo90]

Perry is a harder role to cast than one would think, IMO. I don't know why, but I've always had a very specific image in my mind for this character, and while there are a lot of really good names mentioned here, I can picture very few of them as Perry for some reason.

For example, Frank Langella is a great actor. There's no debating that. He can command the screen (Frost/Nixon) and he can also be fractured and sympathetic (Wall Street 2). But as Perry White? In my humble opinion, he was horrible. Maybe it was just the writing, but to me, he came off like a senile old man that wandered off of the rest home.

I think what makes Perry a tough role to nail is you need an actor who acts as though he stepped out of a 1940s newsroom, wired and fiery, almost in his own little world but not to the point where he becomes Willy Loman talking to his dead brother.

He was horribly miscast :


My choice is strictly Robert De Niro. Come on! Just listen to the way he shouts at Ben Stiller and think of him screaming "OLSEN, GET IN HERE!!!"

 

[Project862006]

he was'nt mis cast but when the writing of a movie and character is written like it was in returns you really cant save it

 

[Solidgun]

John Goodman, would be imo great as Perry.

 

[Rodrigo90]

he was'nt mis cast but when the writing of a movie and character is written like it was in returns you really cant save it

I liked Langella, but he just didn't give me the Perry vibe...Nor did anybody else give me their character vibe, except Jimmy.

 

[Lead Cenobite]

He was horribly miscast :


My choice is strictly Robert De Niro. Come on! Just listen to the way he shouts at Ben Stiller and think of him screaming "OLSEN, GET IN HERE!!!"

I don't think we need a Perry who's more intimidating than any of the villains.