Actors and the Characters They Portray...

[accioslash]

For those who wonder why I've been posting more than usual, I saw via magnetic_pole that there's a challenge afoot to create more of the journal-based (mostly) fannish content we all say we want more of by posting regularly for a month. I don't think I can manage daily posting, but I can manage more than usual

Comments

[evening12]

I don't care one way or another what the actors look like. I know that Rickman looks older than Snape is. But that was made for casting reasons, same goes for why Harry Potter has blue eyes in the movies even though they are green. They tried to put Dan in green contacts but he was allergic to them, and then tried to alter his eyes with the computer but it looked fake so they made the call to keep his eyes blue.

I think the way I read is just different from other people. I know loads of my friends imagine characters to look a certain way when they read but when I read I'm either so focused on the words that I don't imagine anything or when I do I'm imagining characters as stick people (because I imagine books as drawings as oppose to real people...and I can't draw so my mind draws stick people).

[accioslash]

You read like I do! Yay! You are the only other person I have ever heard say this. Even though I am an artist, I'm not an especially visual person. I can likely tell you who is tall or short or has a big nose, but those kinds of details never really coalesce into an image in my brain.

And while I did know they tried contacts, but DanRad was allergic, I never knew they tried to alter his eye color using a computer.

I never have any specific casting preferences in mind, but there are portrayals that changed my mind. For HP, the biggest change was Oldman's Sirius. While I think his looks are all wrong for the part, he made me believe that Sirius really cared about Harry as his own unique person rather than just as James's son. I also feel a bit in love with the twins because of the movies. I think they are complete bullies and fairly horrible in canon. OH! And Luna! Evanna Lynch really just owned that role.

[akatnamedeaster]

For HP, the biggest change was Oldman's Sirius. While I think his looks are all wrong for the part, he made me believe that Sirius really cared about Harry as his own unique person rather than just as James's son. I've seen this POV expressed a few times over the years by different people and I don't understand it. Sirius shows by his actions that he very much cares about Harry and if he mostly thinks of him as James' son, well, it's a pretty natural thing. He hasn't had any time to form a real relationship with Harry outside of him being James' son, he's either living in caves while on the run or interacting with Harry very sparingly while stuck at number 12. I imagine his relationship with Harry is very like one that would be between a child and any relative they never really spent time with or got to know

[accioslash]

You raise a good point that true parental bonds aren't formed overnight and I do think it's natural for Sirius - who missed out on so much of his youth while he was imprisoned wrongly in such a dreadful place - to want to recall happier times. But Sirius was understandably damaged. And I don't think canon!Sirius ever was able to separate Harry from James. It felt to me more like a desperate attempt to get the Marauders back together again than a desire to get to know Harry as his own unique person. And his attachment to Harry read, again to me and not necessarily to anyone else, more for Sirius's benefit than for Harry's. He didn't have a chance to grow up, gain perspective, or even properly grieve. I don't fault him for that at all. And, trust me, I understand impassioned defenses of beloved but flawed characters.

[akatnamedeaster]

I'm going to probably be the outlier on this thread but as you know I hate Alan Rickman as Snape, the casting choice was one of the major things that ruined the movies for me. To me, he's physically wrong, too old, too low energy, and just all around terrible. AR plays him like an old curmudgeon given to slapping students on the head with books instead of the high energy, emotionally volatile, and in the end emotionally tormented guy his is in canon. And that wig made me want to ask why the hell the wardrobe dept. bought his hairpiece at the dollar store when they had a multi-million dollar budget. Even the voice doesn't match what's in my head, my Snape is more of a tenor than a nasal baritone.

Hehe, sorry, I obviously have strong feelings on this. :P

I don't really like any of the movie characters to be honest, I suppose Dan Rad is okay, as is Ron but beyond that I just can't cope with any of them and hope they give the franchise a proper reboot one day.

[accioslash]

Hahahaha! Honestly, I don't think you will be. Most people I talk to think Rickman was wrong in so many ways for the role. Heh, and the wig! Oh, dear. That really is terrible. I think your comment about low energy is interesting. I can see either side. I love the slow, measured pace. I can believe Snape is very controlled and see how his very deliberate actions are a reflection of that. But I can also see him as intense and twitchy with this swirling mass of emotions just teeming beneath his skin.

Ah, the movies. I'm pretty sure I'm the outlier here. I love them. Always have. Before canon closed, I loved them because from them, I knew what was 'important' so I could work on my ~theories about what would happen in subsequent books. And there were some scenes that no amount of my imagination (since I'm not a visual person) could have ever done justice to - Snape's on-screen death was, for me, perfect. So I could ignore the TERRIBLE werewolf!Lupin and Snape's dreadful wig, and just boggle at the awesomeness of Hogwarts

[akatnamedeaster]

But I can also see him as intense and twitchy with this swirling mass of emotions just teeming beneath his skin. This. AR, in my eyes, played Snape in a way that made him come across to me as slow-witted and completely broken by life and I never got that feeling from canon Snape. Film Snape does not come across as a guy who invents spells and potions and duels like a pro, he comes across as someone who grudgingly does what he's told while he waits to drop dead

[accioslash]

Interesting. What you see as slow and dull-witted, I see as intensely controlled

[emrys_mk]

The casting of Alan Rickman was an odd choice for Snape, but if it weren't for AR, my love of Snape would be nowhere near what it was/is, and that is sad to think about--Snape is a character we all need to learn to understand When I read the books I imagine a younger AR and I am fine with that.

Ron and Luna are two characters who were cast perfectly imho.

[accioslash]

Ron and Luna are two characters who were cast perfectly imho.

In my opinion, too! I can't imagine better casting for either of them. I never have any specific casting preferences in mind, but there are portrayals that changed my mind about a character. Even though I am an artist, I'm not an especially visual person. I can likely tell you who is tall or short or has a big nose, but those kinds of details never really coalesce into an image in my brain. So, yeah, Rickman IS older than he should be for Snape, but, for me, he made it work.

[celestlyn]

While I understood their reasons for going with the blue eyes, it was disappointing. The green would have been lovely.

Alan Rickman was too old for the role, but I loved him anyway. That voice was hypnotic and he was riveting on camera. Rickman mademe care about Snape.

Maggie Smith as McGonagall was perfect and she gave the character such a lovely, sardonic wit. I enjoyed the character more.

The Weasleys were pretty much like I imagined. Percy was perfect.

Emma's Hermione was more attractive than canon, otherwise I thought she was a good match.

Tom was a perfect Draco, although he's very attractive and made it hard to dislike him.

Bellatrix was great, but a bit too over the top. And Narcissa seemed too matronly. She could have been Draco's grandfather.

Mostly I was happy with everyone. Luna was perfect. Neville and his transformation was beautiful to see. Lavender was done well.

[accioslash]

*Nods* I understood the reasons for DanRad's blue eyes and actually at the time was grateful for it. Because I was very invested in creating predictions for what would happen in subsequent books and knew that anything truly crucial couldn't be altered. JKR said in an interview that Lily's eyes were an important clue, so clearly the color green wasn't what was important. So it allowed me to let that go and explore other options.

I never have any specific casting preferences in mind, but there are portrayals that changed my mind about a character or gave them an extra dimension. So much love for you mentioning Percy. He seems to get a bad rap in most of the fanfic I see him in, but I love him as a character. And, yes! I forgot about Maggie's McGonnagall. She was fabulous. Narcissa grew on me. At first she really wasn't at all what I had in mind, but I liked everything about her by DH.

[celestlyn]

I started reading the books just as the first film came out, so I think that was why the characters blended so easily for me. Seeing the movie and reading at the same time sealed the characters for me and there was never any disconnect.

[accioslash]

I actually read fanfiction before I read canon (a favorite author tried their hand at HP fic, so I gave it a go) and sought out the movies before I read the books, so I am sure both things shaped my views.

[citiesandsigns]

The films definitely brought Luna to life for me, but all the other HP characters are much more shaky. Some of them I enjoy watching but not really if I think of them as the same characters - I do think Rickman's Snape is entertaining but he's very far from the Snape in my head. That's ok, for me - not least because I have some sort of block about writing characters from anything live-action at all. I don't really know why, but I find it impossible. So I always have the book characters in my head for fic, and I'd probably find HP tough going if their film counterparts resembled them more closely. We have our quirks, I guess.

[accioslash]

I always liked Luna in the books, but Evanna Lynch just owned that role. She is Luna. When they do a reboot of the series (and I think this is more of a 'when' than an 'if'), that would be the one role I think would be too difficult an act to follow. Much luck to whoever is cast.

I think it's a very good thing you can separate book from movie characterization. As much as I love the movies, and I do, canon characterization, imo, is the one people should generally try to emulate.

[citiesandsigns]

Oh! Yes, I probably put that badly; I always loved Luna, it's more that it was startling to see her moving around on screen looking just like I thought she would.

The films are inevitably rather shallower in terms of characterisation, to start with. In general I'm in favour of picking up details from different versions of any canon to suit one's story, I don't think it's a problem, but while I enjoy watching the films I do have a specific and surprisingly strong preference for book-based stories for HP. The films can give ideas sometimes but then I'd rather ground them in the books. (e.g. Snape and McGonagall giving the universe identitcal bitch-stares from behind Dumbledore in the films is fantastic and kind of makes me want the two of them as complex not-quite-friends, but what would interaction between them be like if one was working more from the books, to name a specific thing I've attempted.)