I wouldn't have been happy with him in any role in Crouching Tiger but if we're excluding wrong race and wrong gender roles then maybe either Bill or Ted. I was going to say Kevin McCallister but that's not true, I would like to see that
IMO he would elevate any role. Even the dad in The Brady Bunch, but thank the stars that didn't happen and instead we got a mediocre TV family AND Popeye Doyle (plus one of the best car chases in cinematic history)
'Could' play - so, making the assumptions of 'same age as the character' and 'a role that could have been offered' - Tony Stark. I could see him being cocky and arrogant like Downey, but there's be an aggressiveness that would have turned people off of the character.
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Actually, that would have been great, especially with *zero* explanation as to how Leo could be Hackman's father. I'd watch that but I have issues
BUT - I bet dollars to doughnuts that he might have won a damn Oscar for comedy on either of those!
like maybe a Wes Anderson or even a pre-Space Balls Mel Brooks role