6) Michael Chiklis – Fantastic Four
The 2005 Tim Story adaptation of the Fantastic Four was not anything to write home about. It was sloppily paced, weakly directed, and lacked the maturity of the comics. But one of its better aspects was the casting, particularly Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm/The Thing.
Chiklis had made a solid career beforehand by starring in a couple of successful police procedurals called The Commish and The Shield. Taking on the mantle of the ever loving, blue-eyed Thing seemed like an odd diversion at first, but what made his performance particularly memorable was the fact that he was actually an avid fan of The Thing growing up reading Jack Kirby’s run.
He put a lot of heart into the role, making this Frankenstein’s Monster-esque hero have internal conflicts. It was truly sad, then, that his efforts were for nothing as the films ended up not doing him justice despite this being the only opportunity for him to play his favorite character.