Top 10 Actors Who Look Nothing Like the Book Describes

Okay so Daniel Radcliffe does have a lot of the same physical attributes as the Harry Potter J.K. Rowling wrote into the books. But there’s one really key thing that’s different. In the novels, much importance is put on Harry’s green eyes. For years, Rowling hinted that the color of his eyes, and the fact that they looked like his mother’s, would have some deeper meaning, and in the later chapters of the final book we finally learned what it was. Radcliffe however... has bright blue eyes, and the color contacts that the producers of the first film tried to get him to wear just didn’t work - his eyes reportedly reacted quite badly.

If you never read the Gossip Girl books and jumped right into watching the show, you’re about to be in for a rude awakening. Though the blonde and leggy Taylor Momsen made for a great TV Jenny, she couldn’t have been further than what Cecily von Ziegesar wrote in the series. Book Jenny is short and her defining feature is her disproportionately enormous breasts. Similarly, Vanessa in the books isn’t the cool boho chick portrayed by Jessica Szohr, but more of a goth girl with a shaved head.

These differences may seem kind of minor, but for fans of the book series, they made all the difference. Shailene Woodley has become known for playing the everygirl, or even the plain Jane, and this does somewhat fit Tris’ descriptions in the book. What doesn’t match is that Tris is supposed to be blonde with blue eyes, with a narrow face and a long, thin nose. Woodley may not match this description, but considering how talented of an actress she is, most people were seemingly willing to move past these differences.

In the “Pretty Little Liars” book series, Emily is described as having strawberry blonde hair and green/blue eyes. And the model who portrays her on the book covers, Erin McQuatters, pretty much fits this description to a tee. When it came time to cast the TV series though, the producers decided on Shay Mitchell, who is of Irish and Filipino descent and has a much darker complexion. Ashley Benson as Hanna Marin is similarly different from her on-page self in terms of looks, with her book counterpart being described as extremely thin with long dark hair.

There was an amount of understandable outrage when Tom Cruise was announced as being cast to play Jack Reacher in an adaptation of Lee Child’s book series. Why, you might ask? Well the book character is ex-military and is once described by another character as "one of the largest men she had ever seen outside the NFL.” He’s supposed to be six foot five, weigh in between 210 and 250 pounds, and boast 50 inch chest. So notoriously short statured actor Tom Cruise isn’t exactly his physical match… to say the least.

In one of the most famed pieces of literature in history, Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”, the protagonist is notable for not necessarily being the most beautiful woman in town. In fact she’s considered just the second prettiest of her sisters, and is described as having asymmetrical features. Enter Keira Knightley, one of the most striking and notably gorgeous actresses in the business. While she does an excellent job of playing Elizabeth Bennet, it’s hard for anyone to believe that she could be considered anything other than a stunning beauty.

This is one example of an actress going through quite the transformation in order to fit the description that was given in the book. Blonde haired, blue eyed Jennifer Lawrence managed to do a pretty great job transforming into the dark haired Katniss, but she still never quite managed to match her olive skin tone. When the film came out, many criticized Lawrence’s “healthy” and “seductive” body, saying that in a dystopian world where food is scarce, she would never look like that. Notice how no one mentioned Gale looking too jacked though...?

Sometimes casting directors seem to select an actor for a role despite how they look, and not because of it. In the Percy Jackson books, Annabeth Chase is described as having long, curly, blonde hair “like a princess”, tanned skin and an athletic physique. The actress they chose to portray her however, Alexandra Daddario, is kind of her polar opposite when it comes to looks. Fans of the books naturally had a hard time getting used to this casting decision, but in the end Daddario managed to win them over with her onscreen presence.

It happens far too often that Hollywood decides to cast a beautiful actress in the role of a woman who is supposed to be quite ordinary looking, or even unattractive. “The Help” is yet another example of this. In the novel, Skeeter is described as being “painfully tall” and lanky, with frizzy red hair and a crooked nose. The character describes herself as “bony” and as having “almost translucent eyebrows”. Emma Stone, of course, is gorgeous, and while they did their best in hair and makeup, she never came close to looking like the book described.



Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.



Lily Collins as Clary Fray

“The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones” (2013)





Mandy Moore as Jamie Sullivan

“A Walk to Remember” (2002)



Ansel Elgort as Augustus Waters

After the success of “The Fault in Our Stars”, John Green fans were clamoring for another one of his novels to be adapted for the big screen. They got their wish when it was announced that “Paper Towns” was happening, but once casting news was announced, not everyone was pleased. The story’s manic pixie dream girl, Margo Roth Spiegelman, is described as a curvy Jewish girl about who the main character thinks, “you could not say that Margo Roth Spiegelman was fat, or that she was skinny.” Model Cara Delevingne is pretty much the furthest thing from that description you could imagine, which kind of undermines some of the positive themes present in the novel.