Casting mis-steps

[Carol]

Carol earlier:
> 
> > I think that Frank Dillane is miscast as the teenage Tom 
> > Riddle--not nearly handsome enough.
> 
> 
> zanooda:
> 
> Which one is that :-)? The one from CoS or the one they cast for HBP (no time to check)? The HBP's one doesn't seem to be handsome. I could see him only for a second in the trailer though.
> 
Carol again:

The original (CoS) Tom Riddle was Christian Coulson. He was twenty-four by the time the film came out (probably twenty-three during filming) but he passed for a teenager, not to mention that he was handsome and conveyed the right personality, seemingly quiet and charming but actually dangerous and evil. 

Frank Dillane (HBP) is closer to the right age, but I have no idea whether he can act. My objection to him at this point is strictly visual; he's very ordinary looking and has a weak chin. Since handsomeness is central to Tom Riddle's personality, I consider him to be miscast. Possibly filmgoers who haven't read the books won't mind, but I think it will take some really strong acting for a boy who looks like any teenager on the street to convey the charm and magnetism that I imagine Tom Riddle exerting over his fellow Slytherins.

Christian Coulson is, of course, much too old to play the role now--unless we don't mind actors playing characters half their age.

Carol, who also considers Gary Oldman to be miscast as the formerly handsome, thirty-something Sirius Black