(Loved) Meta Casting Subversions
When a character is cast with a specific actor that comes with expectations, and subverts those expectations for a big effect like…
Bill Skarsgård in Barbarian (2022) -
Barbarian starts out with a woman named Tess arriving at her Airbnb in the middle of a stormy night to find someone is already staying in it. Keith (Bill Skarsgård) claims that he also booked the house, and that it must be a double-booking mistake. Without other options, Tess hesitantly agrees to stay the night with this stranger.
Bill is such a perfect casting choice for this role because audiences know him from leading other horror films like IT and Nosferatu as the main villains. However, he’s also known for being incredibly handsome and charming (I’m a fan). So the audience is put in the same position as Tess here as she tries to figure out if he’s an actual threat or genuine after all.
>!It pays off big when we find that he is not in fact the villain as he gets killed by the creature in the basement (RIP)!<
Conan O’Brien in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (2025) -
Conan plays the main character’s (Linda) therapist. Linda is a struggling (basically) single mom of a chronically ill child, and cannot catch a damn break. She is a therapist herself, and Conan is not just her therapist, but also her colleague.
What makes Conan so effective here is that we all know him for being one of the funniest people alive. But the role is almost entirely devoid of humor. His character is, by all means, a bad therapist. He doesn’t listen, provides very little insight or feedback, and gives the shortest, most shallow advice. Most of the time his character is completely silent, as an impenetrable wall of nothing. It’s a frustrating experience, especially because we, as the audience, are dying to hear him tell a joke or say anything funny at all. This casting puts us in the exact same shoes as Rose Byrne’s Linda, desperately wanting more from him.