[Discussion] character that was meant to be portrayed as "cool" by the actor/actress came across as the exact opposite?

More of an intentional choice they made, but Michael Cera's portrayal of Scott Pilgrim in the movie.

In the comics, Scott was a nerd, but was more of a jerk than awkward. There were a decent amount of flashbacks about Scott being the best brawler in Toronto and beating up entire school's worth of "bullies". Effectively a nerd that got tired of being bullied and started beating up people in response.

The comics don't skim over Scott's shitty behavior, and he gets called out on it far more frequently, keeping that aspect of his character fresh.

They also don't skim over Ramona being a mess either.

In the movie, Scott is awkward and nerdy (Cera's typecast at the time), and it's played like he doesn't know what he's doing is wrong (dating a highschooler as an adult, cheating on her with Ramona, beating up the person she leaves him for, etc).

Ramona's issues are skimmed over for the sake of her being a stereotype "manic pixie dreamgirl" rather than a deeply insecure woman running from each and every mistake she's made over the years.

So it's more of a case of "intentional streamlining and dumbing down character traits to fit into the expected romcom roles" than cool character being ruined by the actor, but at first watch it felt like the changes were all from Cera's performance.

Interesting, I didn't know
- I saw the movie before reading the comics and I really enjoyed the movie but the whole time I was wondering how Scott Pilgrim can out of nowhere be such an amazing fighter.
  
  Reading the comics fleshed out his character and made it make sense to me.
  
  I don't think that they screwed anything up too terribly but there is a very specific group of people who would enjoy Scott Pilgrim and that's the 26 to 40 crowd from 2010.
  
  My girlfriend at the time was 21 and she just did not much care for the movie.
This... makes me glad I never watched that movie
- It's a great movie on its own terms. The comic wasn't even finished yet. It had to do its own thing. Scott is still a jerk, but because of the overwhelming nature of the movie, you might not notice the first time you watch it. The subtlety gives it some depth that allows you to rewatch it with different interpretations of the characters as you become more critical of them.

Brie Larson's Captain Marvel, although after seeing clips of her performing in non-MCU stuff I will die on the hill that those performances were bad mostly due to poor directing

Jim Carrey in "The Number 23". It was a rare serious role for him where he was supposed to be this sort of noir edgy tough guy. The more serious he got the more comical the whole thing seemed lol

I thought the story itself was great but Jim Carrey might have been the wrong actor for the role.

He's honestly a really good actor but his freak out is always more cartoonish and this movie called for a non cartoonish series of freak outs.

Vanilla ice in Cool as Ice...Am I suppose to like this guy? He seems like a complete jerk. Sly Stallone in Cobra is hilariously over the top trying to be cool. Joe Piscopo in Dead Heat. Diceman in The adventures of Ford fairlane. Love some Chuck Norris/ Steven Segal movies but they often make the characters less cool. Hallie Berry in a lot of movies: X-men as Storm (who is a f.ing goddess and awesome character!) Catwoman, John wick 3, die another day, etc. George Clooney in From Dusk till dawn. Cage in Drive Angry. Too many Video game / comic book movies to mention.

Ungh, Ford Fairlane. Ungh, ADC.

Poochie the Dog.

I can’t think of a specific example. But this is gonna be something from a lame action movie where the protagonist is a ‘total badass’ but the script is so shit it simply doesn’t land.

Every Steven Seagal movie ever.
- Is it possible to type like he talks?
  
  “YuGuysCamToTheRongPlase.”

Most of the Taylor Sheridan shows and movies. I don't know if he writes the dialogs, but there is a lot of cringe lines and scenes.