In a genius casting move, R.I.P.D. has brought on Victoria’s Secret model Marisa Miller to act as a beautiful, empty vessel. That’s not a knock on Ms. Miller (who I don’t know personally and couldn’t judge), but a grand statement on the minor trend of hiring models to act. So far, the scientific results of the experiment have been a failure. Although, in a karmic way, I imagine it’s partial payback for so many movie stars being hired as voice actors. They push voice actors out of work, and now models are pushing them out of jobs. The only end to this circle is to see voice actors become models. Billy West in a bikini is our new future now.
In the film, Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges both play dead detectives who wrap up cases with dead souls who refuse to move on. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Miller will play the body that Bridges’s character chooses to manifest his ghostly self as when walking amongst the living. It sounds like a small role to be used solely as a gag (and hopefully with Bridges’s gruff tones coming out of Miller’s mouth).
So, yes, in a play of stunning exactitude, a super model has been hired to walk around, look good and be inhabited by a better actor.