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vulgarweedI suppose just about everyone has to do this sooner or later, because everyone has looked at everyone else's fancasts and had lots of feelings about why everybody else is SO WRONG.
I tried to be less wrong in my own eyes, which is sure to be SO WRONG in someone else's. This is a work in progress--I am complete shite at remembering actors, for one thing. I've also only done the supernatural characters so far, frankly because they're the easiest and the most fun. I'm actually kind of surprised by how many current fan favorites turned up in here.
Angels and Demons
Aziraphale
Kenneth Branagh
Crowley
Cillian Murphy
Hastur
Benedict Cumberbatch
Ligur
Mark Sheppard
The Metatron
Alan Rickman (again!)
Beelzebub
Ron Perlman
The Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse
War
Rooney Mara
Famine
Tom Hiddleston
Pollution
Tom Felton
DEATH
Christopher Lee (again!)
What say you?
It does bother me that they're all white. And yet, the characters in GO are so cartoonish in so many ways, especially the supernatural beings, that casting them as PoC can lead to a different kind of problematic-ness. I'd welcome feedback on this too.
I tried to be less wrong in my own eyes, which is sure to be SO WRONG in someone else's. This is a work in progress--I am complete shite at remembering actors, for one thing. I've also only done the supernatural characters so far, frankly because they're the easiest and the most fun. I'm actually kind of surprised by how many current fan favorites turned up in here.
Angels and Demons
Aziraphale
Kenneth Branagh
Crowley
Cillian Murphy
Hastur
Benedict Cumberbatch
Ligur
Mark Sheppard
The Metatron
Alan Rickman (again!)
Beelzebub
Ron Perlman
The Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse
War
Rooney Mara
Famine
Tom Hiddleston
Pollution
Tom Felton
DEATH
Christopher Lee (again!)
What say you?
It does bother me that they're all white. And yet, the characters in GO are so cartoonish in so many ways, especially the supernatural beings, that casting them as PoC can lead to a different kind of problematic-ness. I'd welcome feedback on this too.
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Date: 2012-05-25 12:19 am (UTC)Aaand now you've got me contemplating my own dreamcast
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Date: 2012-05-25 12:27 am (UTC)I'd be very interested in yours too!
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Date: 2012-05-25 12:35 am (UTC)hmmmm
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Date: 2012-05-25 12:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-25 01:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-25 01:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-25 01:50 am (UTC)...no i'm not kidding.
But otherwise, I'M WITH YOU.
P.S. Oh...and A MIDDLE-AGED AZIRAPHALE! YES. YEEEEEEESS!!! If he's not over forty he's just NOT AZIRAPHALE TO ME.
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Date: 2012-05-25 01:59 am (UTC)AZIRAPHALE DOES NOT LOOK YOUNG. *brofist* I mean, if even Madame Tracy couldn't manage to flatter him that way, then...And she's attracted to Shadwell! Attractive in a middle-aged way, definitely, but no way does he look under forty. And Branagh totally has the versatility to walk that line between effete-and-harmless-looking and kind-of-otherworldly-off.
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Date: 2012-05-25 08:13 am (UTC)At least we know that Hiddles can be fiendish! And he doesn't make me want to hide in a corner. XD
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Date: 2012-05-29 01:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-25 02:02 am (UTC)Branagh looks so right there. I like your horsemen. Crowley looks too young and attractive - though I know Cillian can be fiendish
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Date: 2012-05-25 02:05 am (UTC)Thank you! I do see Crowley as looking younger and more conventionally attractive than Aziraphale - I see his human form in the late-20s to mid-30s range, and he canonically has good cheekbones. Cillian's fiendish aspect is one of the things I like about him.
<3 Branagh.
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Date: 2012-05-25 03:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-25 04:00 am (UTC)It's not because I don't love those actors. It's because I do. (Look at BC lurking in that picture. He was born to lurk!)
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Date: 2012-05-25 07:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-25 08:22 pm (UTC)Martin Freeman could make a good Aziraphale, though, definitely.
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Date: 2012-05-25 08:26 am (UTC)Since they're all supernaturals, I suppose they probably chose white corporations to wear in Europe, because those will blend in best with the natives.
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Date: 2012-05-25 08:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-25 02:20 pm (UTC)As to race... An all-white cast is definitely problematic, though slightly less so in the UK (where about 90% of people are white) than it would be in the US.
I'd still vote for Crowley being played by a non-white actor (though I have no one specifically in mind; I'm bad at casting), perhaps Indian, or Pakistani. Sure, a non-white demon ties into unfortunate medieval associations, but you can stop those by having the other demons be white and making sure the background cast isn't monochromatic-looking, especially in London. Crowley is the one of the main characters and possibly the most sympathetic one in the whole book, so that should outweigh the fear about catering to stereotypes.
Also, Anathema could be mixed-race. Her great-great-great-... grandmother may have been a native Brit, but that doesn't mean the current generation of Devices still has to be all pasty-faced. ;) And she (while of course still a comedic character) doesn't come with any of the negative cartoonishness that would make having, say, a black Famine... unfortunate. (It's darkly amusing that casting a Chinese-British actor for Pollution wouldn't be half as immediately uncomfortable, even though it's equally problematic. 'Acceptable target', anyone?)
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Date: 2012-05-25 02:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-26 01:31 am (UTC)True, but so much of the story takes place in London, which is very diverse. I've seen the idea of Crowley being played by a non-white actor go both ways in people's opinions. I tend to agree with you: he is really the hero and protagonist of the book, and we do sympathize and empathize with him thoroughly most of the time. I think it's OK for Crowley not to be white, as long as the far more actually demonic Hastur and Ligur are. But then, keeping all the supernatural beings white-looking makes a kind of sense too, since they're actually all sort of wearing human "costumes" and not their true forms. Maybe if they're all white, they would actually appear less truly human than the much more diverse cast of actual humans. None of them actually have a race or ethnicity in human terms at all!
Wensleydale or Brian or both could be PoCs too. I'd say Pepper and Adam, except that they're described as having red and blond hair respectively. (And of course a PoC Antichrist would take us back to the offensiveness issue, even though he's not in any way actually evil.) Anathema could certainly be mixed-race, and Newt as well.
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Date: 2012-05-28 08:13 am (UTC)I don't think I'd survive this movie.
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Date: 2012-05-29 01:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-02 03:51 am (UTC)The more I think about it, my choices for Aziraphale (Colin Firth, Kenneth Branagh) and Crowley (Tom Hiddleston, Cillian Murphy) could be pretty well mixed up. I think I still tilt toward Branagh/Hiddleston or Firth/Hiddleston most strongly, but you could give me Branagh/Murphy and I think that'd be peachy keen :)