Actors who should have played Stanley Kowalski

James Dean.

Someone mentioned Ed Harris in the Streetcar 1995 thread. Good choice.

Russell Crowe (Maybe a bit obvious)

Christian Bale (it’s the bubbling anger)

Miles Teller (pigheaded and insecure)

Iain Glenn (great stage actor, very masculine)

Vivian Vance

Clifton Webb

Lucille Ball was going to do the '95 remake, but Gary Morton told her having to put up with Jessica Lange wasn't worth it so she turned it down.

Gary--Stanley

Lucy--Blanche

Daniel Craig.

Ed Asner

John Gavin

Mark Ruffalo

Bette--Stanley (she already was in "In This Our Life")

Joan--Blanche (for the second time)

Steve Cochran. He was the Stanley character in "Storm Warning," sort of a political SND.

Had he lived, John Garfield

Christopher Reeve.

Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland would have made a great Stanley and Blanche. Margaret O'Brien as Stella. If this had been made in 1960.

Jerry Lewis.

Lawrence Fishburn, with Branagh directing (remembrances of Othello past)

Chris Meloni

Amy Sedaris for the win.

Billy Barton and Charlene Tilton.

Fuck yeah! Charlene Tilton. - good call R18

Charlene Tilton did play Honey in opposite Kate O'Mara in a English production of WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?

Charlene was once seriously considered for Sophie's Choice. Her manager/boyfriend got her a meeting. It didn't end well.

James McAvoy

Mads Mikkelsen

Gaspard Ulliel

Matt Bomer as Stella

Sorry - but I think I would like to hear more about Charlene Tilton.

[quote]James McAvoy

Ugh, no.

I can’t recall him glowering at Romola Garai in ATONEMENT without cringing.

Streep & DeNiro

Tom Hiddleston

Wallace Beery as Stanley and Marie Dressler as Blanche.

Matt Damon

[quote]Tom Hiddleston

Haha, he’s another one. Completely ruined the almost excellent DEEP BLUE SEA directed by Terence Davies with his Kowalski-lite.

Idrissa Akuna Elba OBE

James McAvoy is best actor of his generation

Kowalski

Robert Downey Jr.

I love James McAvoy, but he is 2 feet tall and not physically intimidating. Admittedly I haven't seen Split, but he was supposed to be scary AF in Filth and he just . . . wasn't.

My ideal Stanley is young James Gandolfini, who could have embodied the charm, sex, and brutishness of the character to perfection. Apparently, he was an understudy for Mitch in the 1992 Broadway Streetcar. What a missed opportunity that was.

McAvoy is 5' 7" (1.7 m).

He wasn't supposed to be scary in Filth his character was disgusting not scary. He was very scary in Split.

I've honestly always wanted to see a production with a Stanley who wasn't all that physically intimidating, just to see if it could be done, really. I think McAvoy could do it.

I know Christopher Walken did a production in Princeton in the 1970s with Glenn Close as Stella. I think when he was in good shape and not so much a caricature of himself he could be a definitive Stanley.

R39, that was done with John C. Reilly as Stanley and was a disaster.

Brando was 5ft 8 ¾ (174.6 cm)

Brando wasn't any taller than five eight and a half. He was barely taller than five seven Frank Sinatra in Guys and Dolls.

I wouldn't mind James McAvoy as Stanley.

Does Harvey Whalestein have any sons?

R10 nailed it. Steve Cochran. He had the sex, the brawn, the hairy chest for those two women to get lost in, and lots of menace. Lots of it.

Charlene Tilton is 4’11” - but with that rack - her stage presence is intimidating. Just ask Sue Ellen when she wakes up in her car at the airport- a tad hungover.

Lou Ferrigno.

I would have paid for the production if I had the money, just to hear him yell,

STEEWWWAAAA!

How great it would have been if Lucy and Ethel had staged a scene from STREETCAR for one of their Ladies Club events. Lucy as Blanche. Ethel as Stella. Ricky as Stanley. Fred as Mitch. Mrs. McGillicuddy could make a cameo with "Flores para los muertos." Little Ricky could play the Paperboy.

Lemme do it I can do it I was born to do it look at me look at these abs I have the vibe man please I'll do anything if you let me do it!!!!!!!1

I was about to name Tom Berenger and then I discovered that he had played the role of Kowalski in the stage.

Stanley is the standard by which we measure how far the sisters have fallen. He really needs to be trash. Hot trash, but 100% trash.

Born into Southern aristocracy and stubbornly groomed for life as gracious ladies on a plantation, even as that way of life was fading, Stella and Blanche are both ill-prepared for what comes their way. The Depression and World War II brought the loss of everything for which they had been prepared.

Stella runs from Belle Rive before it collapses. Blanche stays until the bitter end. Despite very different choices, they both get ground up by the modern world. They start in the same place and they end in the same place; getting fucked by the same Polak in the same sweltering slum in New Orleans. Not the grand and refined life they had been promised as girls.

To see how far they have fallen from grace and refinement, you have to have a Stanley who has nothing to offer but the animal urges of a hot fuck and rage to go with it. The sisters weren't raised to go near a man like Stanley, and now both sisters find themselves under him as he crushes them, physically and spiritually. That's why it is so difficult to cast Stanley. Actors rely on being appealing, or they have no career. Stanley is not appealing. He is the embodiment of the sisters' degradation.

Brando had the sex and the stature to stand up to the sisters and crush them and their history, just as progress and modernity always crushes the old order. Blanches are dime a dozen. A producer can always find a middle aged actress to flit and flirt her way through it. But the whole thing usually comes to naught without a strong, cold, brutal, yet sexually compelling, Stanley to force himself and his ways on the two women.

Didn't he turn down the Natasha Streetcar, r16?

I saw the production with John C Reilly and he was completely wrong. Natasha Richardson was devastating as Blanche. The Chris Meloni suggestion is spot on physically. Ruffalo too.

This drawing of Stanley and Blanche (?) reminds me of Molly Ringwald and Rider Strong.

I saw the production with Ben Foster as Stanley and Gillian Anderson as Blanche. Foster is on the shorter side and he came off as more of an obnoxious punk. I only know Brando from the film but he had a more intimidating quality.

The best recent Stanley I've seen was Joel Edgerton in the production with Cate Blanchett.

Treat Williams in the TV movie with Ann-Margret was pretty good (she was wonderful).

Jim Carrey would've made an amusing Stanley

Michael Shannon - I love this guy and he needs a real breakthrough role. Has that sense of menace.

Clint Walker who recently passed away.

Charles Bronson.

Thread closed.

Rodney Allen Rippy

R57, that's a good call. Michael Shannon would be perfect.

Nick Nolte, obviously years ago, "Rich Man Poor Man" days or not long after.

P. Allen Smith!

Finally, a real Southern accent.

My favorites listed so far, Michael Shannon, Idris Elba, and Christopher Meloni all have the potential for physical power, raw sexuality, and magnetic menace for Stanley. He needs to sweat what we now call toxic masculinity and at the same time make the negatives a near even trade with the promise of a very hot and rough fuck.

r51 lays out why this casting is so crucial and what the character means for Stella and Blanche, though I would argue that Blanche is not quite as easy casting as suggested. Suffering through a bad Blanche in two local productions left me trying to mentally superimpose Ann-Margret or Jessica Lange over the actresses in question.

But Stanley... He’s like a wet dream and a living nightmare all rolled up into one slick mass of bellowing muscle. A good Stanley is hard to find.

[quote]Suffering through a bad Blanche in two local productions left me trying to mentally superimpose Ann-Margret or Jessica Lange over the actresses in question.

Stockholm syndrome?

You are correct that I overstated the case about Blanche, R64. Thank you for pointing it out. I was trying to highlight the extraordinary qualities needed to play Stanley. A well skilled actress who falls short of being revelatory while playing Blanche can still deliver the ideas Blanche represents. She can affect Blanche, telegraphing and indicating all the way, and we will know what she is supposed to be about. She is helped by a well defined narrative arc. We see what she is doing and can fill in the details, if need be.

Stanley reacts. At each point in Blanche's decline, he reacts in some very particular ways. He does not have that well defined narrative arc that Blanche has. He is the modern America that takes everything for granted and shits all over it. He is us. He is the one who holds up the mirror to the audience to show them what a crass and evil lot we have collectively become. (It is worth noting that Alec Baldwin has played both Stanley and Trump. It is as if he and Tennessee tried to warn us.) Creating all that imaginatively and having it grounded in the circumstances of the play and its setting and justified emotionally is a tall order, but without it, there's really no play. It's not about Blanche's frailties. It's about the crass and unforgiving predatory nature of modern America.

David Tennant

R51 / R66 - You have insights into Stanley, both in terms of what he means to the sisters and what he means to us. I never would have thought of Tennessee Williams prepping us for DJT, but the signs are all there.

You need to write a Streetcar book!

R64

[quote]David Tennant

And Kelly Macdonald as Stella. Then we wouldn't be able to understand either of them.

Ruth Wilson’s Stella was the best I have ever seen.

R68, I never thought of Pee Brain in connection with Streetcar, either. Not until I was trying to describe how Stanley operates and the harm he causes everyone. That caused Trump to come to mind. Baldwin followed in a flash.

But as I think about it, the first thing Stanley does when he discovers Blanche has arrived and that there has been some trouble is demand to see the papers, specifically demanding the deeds. He didn't just that day find out about the Napoleonic Code.

He would have found out Stella's background (Belle Rive!) while getting to know her and while dating her. She was not raised to be a business woman. That is men's work. So she would not know to keep her yap shut about the family plantation. It seems to make sense that he might have married Stella because of the Napoleonic Code and the chance to snatch Belle Rive, or at least some money from it.

Having been thwarted in getting any of that, he at least was going to get some revenge. And some pussy. Which brings us back to You Know Who.

Aargh.

Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer.

I'd love to see Morgan Spector play it today. He would be perfect.

This is a dumb thread.

74 replies and nobody has mentioned Sylvester Stallone. Back to the old ideal pairing of Sly and Vanessa Redgrave. Had been proposed.

She is six feet tall and he is about 5'8".

The pairing is not so ideal.

Ross Matthews

Robert Carlyle

R73 He's so ugly why Rebecca Hall married him?

Leslie Jordan. He's got the southern accent ready to go.

Redmayne

Angela Bassett

Alfre Woodard

sorry wrong thread

Other than Bale or Fassbender, I cannot imagine ANY current day “stars” playing Stanley. They are either too femme, too short or shitty actors. DiCaprio with his 12 year old girl arms and Ryan Reynolds with his super high voice would be better as Stella.

Matthias Schoenaerts

James Purefoy

Liev Schreiber

Stanley Tucci as Stanley & Sandy Duncan as Blanche.

Josh Brolin?

R38 He wasn't very scary in Split. He was comical

Another vote for Liev Shreiber, maybe 10 or 15 years ago.

I once worked with Kim Hunter. She told some stories, but bitch wouldn't give up anything juicy.

Edward Norton, around the time of American History X

Woody Harrelson a few years back.

Matthew McConauhey.

Tom Hardy absolutely. Thread closed.

As for Stella Carrie Mulligan as Tom Hardy's Stella.

Stellan Skarsgård in his younger days.

Tom Hiddleston

Gene Hackman, way back when.

Bea Arthur as Stanley

M as Blanche

A couple of years before his death, Heath Ledger was a favorite IMDb-board choice for Stanley, opposite Julianne Moore (Blanche).

George MacKay

Sterling Hayden

Does anyone know what movie R103 is from? I'm guessing The Killing or The Asphalt Jungle.

"Asphalt Jungle," R104

William Shatner would've been interesting as Stanley.

Alan Sues would've been veddy interesting...

Joe Manganiello got excellent reviews five years ago when he did the part at Yale Rep.

Joe did a Patti Lupone in New Haven and stopped his performance to tell off an audience member using his phone to take pictures.

One more of Joe, the most beautiful man on earth. And he can act, too!

Robert Ryan.

Factoid: Hiddleston was discovered by a talent agent playing Kowalski in a production by the Cambridge drama department. There are some rare photos of him extant with his leading lady in the production. The talent agent went backstage afterward and told him to get an agent and audition for RADA. He did both, and got in to RADA.

Possibly Colin Farrell? btw, where has Farrell gotten these days?

R96 - Hardy a great candidate. In fact, if you'd seen his film "The Drop" (it was Gandolfini's last) Hardy was channeling Brando in "On the Waterfront', in the nicest way, as an homage.

Well, Brando back then, is irreplaceable.

But yeah, Tom Hardy, he has the menace. Or Colin Farrell, he has the animal magnetism, raw sensuality.

Fassbender esentially already has played the part--in that sex addict movie.

Christian Bale is too pretty..

Blanche has to be fragile, but with pretense and more steel than she appears to have.

R113 - "Shame". It's a better movie than credited, but Fassbender's full frontal nudity and the graphic sex obscured its value and became the focal point.

I didn't identity Kowalski as a sex addict so don't get your comparison, though.

Bale is past it, looks wise. Didn't Treat Williams take a turn at it on Broadway? Didn't see it but I heard he was good.

It's a thankless role given the hold Brando's performance has on it. The actor would have to have Brando's magnetism, serious acting chops, and yet be able to wrench the role away from Brando and make it his own.

I don't know that it can be done for another 100 years.