Who else could have played The Father?

Langella obviously, as it was a Tony-winning role for him, although by all accounts he approached it a bit differently than Hopkins, but that doesn't necessarily mean bad.

I really can't see De Niro being very effective at the role in his latter-day somnolent state (yes, I know, blasphemy on this board, but I still don't care much for what he's been doing the last thirty years), but Pacino would definitely be interesting to watch.

Fuck that noise bro

We don't agree on everything, but on this we are as one.

It's tough to imagine someone else after seeing Hopkins' monumental performance....but I think Michael Caine could also do a good job - has the charm and vulnerability. Same with Jack Nicholson. Christopher Plummer is a good shout too.

Going in a totally different direction, I was wondering that seeing an actor known more for their larger-than-life or tough-guy persona (like Eastwood, Schwarzenneger, Boris Karloff) could also be interesting, even though they may not have the acting chops of the former bunch.

I know he was still young when he passed but I keep coming back to Peter Finch. Dude would have been intense.

Yeah, all these guys could have done it. Sutherland showed he still has a lot of spark left in The Undoing.

Apologies on the length .........

Not sure how many people will agree with this but to me it almost necessitates a theater actor because it is still very much a play in its timbre and story arc and in the speech rhythms. That's what's so amazing about it - it should have been the stagy-ist film but it is not - at all.

Now we argue all the time about stage actor vs. film actors - but basically when you film something EVERYBODY is a film actor anyway.........but this piece almost requires somebody who read a lot of plays to play the part and acted in a lot of plays and understand the text in that same way. There's a lot of thought in what Hopkins did - and a lot of stage craft in conception.

One of the things Hopkins does triumphantly - and I've said before he was better than Langella - who won the Tony and was pretty great - is that he suggests the characters entire past life - whether that life is real or false - in a way Langella did not. When he dances you can see him dancing as a young man etc. - and that's tough to replicate, it's not only physical - it's ...........like rascally or mischievous in how he suggests a whole (possible) backstory, that deepens the movie. This is the actor functioning as "co-writer" in a way......that's why I think this is the one 2020 performance that will studied/deconstructed/analyzed in acting classes etc.

I'd pick Jeremy Irons actually who in all his best roles offered a disconnect between the mind, the body and his intent.  He's a little young - he's just 72 - but I think he could pull it off and he has elements in his presentation that fit the role. I think it ties into his best past roles which suggested a youthful abandon that now would now be stunted.  If he's too young ..........Michael Gambon would be suitable replacement I reckon - he has the bravura and the ability to withdraw much like Hopkins does.

Two side notes for Hopkins that I think are interesting:

In the McKellen/Hopkins argument is McKellen was more or less overtaking Hopkins as the leading actor of that age group prior to to The Two Popes in some ways - big ways even..........McKellen's Lear destroys Hopkins imo (and was Olivier nodded) and filmed Lear too - he has triumphed as Lear in different ways - which is amazing - and McKellen was better opposite Hopkins in The Dresser imo.......and then he has that documentary that argues him as the great actor of his era AND a more socio-cultural voice - a gay icon etc.

And then.................within just about 1 year Hopkins has 2 Oscar nominations including an all-time performance and McKellen (imo) basically got his ass handed to him in The Good Liar by Helen Mirren.........you never know when actors will back and others will slip. 

Also it's worth noting that Hopkins Lear features several scenes that are like a warm-up for The Father in how he incorporates dementia or a kind of "foggy memory" into the role - it doesn't work as well in Lear, but it sometimes works spectacularly ..........and I think he used Lear for The Father which gets back to that "theater actor" thing.

I think the late, great John Hurt would also be amazing in 2010.

I actually think most of the Alien guys (Hurt, Holm, Stanton, Kotto) could've given incredible performances with this character, all of which having far different flavors than the other.

What has Caine done in the last 20 years that’s as good as DeNiro in The Irishman, or even The Intern?

Well, he's still alive, so technically he could still do it.

Caine also gave a really sympathetic good late period performance in Last Love, which was otherwise little seen and poorly received romance film. I have no doubt he could have done The Father rather well.