Mel Gibson — 5’10” William Wallace — 6’7”
Tom Cruise — 5’8” Jack Reacher — 6’5”
Viggo Mortensen — 5’11” Aragorn — 6’6”
Christian Bale — 6’0” Batman (with ears) — 6’5"
The world is still reeling from the news that 39-year-old Texan Jennifer Garner has been cast as elderly English spinster detective Miss Marple. Surely the most unlikely film news of the year?
Apparently not. It was reported last week that Tom Cruise is in talks to play novelist Lee Child’s ex-US military drifter Jack Reacher. That’s 5’8” Tom Cruise, playing 6’5” Jack Reacher.
The response was instant, unfavourable and (predictably) largely on Twitter, one prominent film journalist commenting: “Tom Cruise is in talks to play Jack Reacher. I don’t know who’s in talks to play Reacher’s upper half.”
Cruise has faced a similar outcry before, when he was cast as the Lestat in Interview With The Vampire, with even author Anne Rice voicing her disgust: “He’s no more my vampire Lestat than Edward G Robinson is Rhett Butler”.
It got us thinking — which other characters are poorly represented by the height of the actors hired to play them? It’s worth noting that Hugh Jackman is 6’2” but towers over 5’3” Wolverine who he’s played in five films. But obviously, that’s the wrong way round. Here’s our line-up of inaccurately short actors.
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