James--Biggerstaff as Wood

[caliburncy at yahoo.com]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., Penny & Bryce <pennylin at s...> wrote:
> ---caliburncy at y... wrote:
> > Adrien Rawlings?  Isn't that the name of the person who was JKR's
> > date to the premiere?  I could be remembering wrong, but I thought
> > that's what I read.  Interesting.
> 
> No, her current partner & date to the premier is Dr. Neil Murray.

Thanks for setting me straight, Penny.  Well, I guess I was just 
being an idiot, then.  But I wonder then why it is that the 
name "Adrian Rawlings" seems so naggingly familiar to me.  I checked 
out a couple of Angela's links (thanks Angela!), especially the IMDB 
listing, and nothing really struck me.  So perhaps I'm just imagining 
that I recognize it . . .

**********

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., Penny & Bryce <pennylin at s...> wrote:
> [Regarding Biggerstaff as Wood]
> General merit as an actor & he did a good job of conveying Wood's 
> character too I thought.  Listen to how reverently he talks about
> the balls & their function.  "You catch that Potter & we win."
> (paraphrasing).

Yeah, I did catch the reverance and even some of the dedication and 
pleasure (during the match), so I guess that worked well.  The part 
that seemed curiously absent to me was the outright obsession to 
win . . . and I always thought Wood's dedication came across in the 
books as at least as hyperactively fanatical as coolly reverent, if 
that makes any sense.  Of course, the way I'm describing it sounds 
like I'm now getting really nitpicky about the personality, which I 
don't think I am, but I guess I could be.  It really seemed to me 
like a fundamental aspect of Wood's character was just not there.  A 
tiny bit more on this further below.

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., "Cindy C." <cindysphynx at h...> wrote:
> Now that you mention it, however, I have been surprised that some
> of us have *very* fixed ideas about how characters are supposed to 
> appear in the movie.  I never really cared whether Harry or Ron was 
> taller.  Whether Draco's eyes were grey.  <snip rest of long list
> of character description discrepancies>

Well, I didn't really mean whether Biggerstaff met Wood's physical 
description.  I don't really care much about discrepancies of 
physical description either, unless they hold some very special 
relevancy.  I especially don't even notice eyes and that sort of 
thing, so I am immensely impressed by people like Heidi who are able 
to point out inconsistencies with minor characters like Ginny's eye 
color.  That's far beyond my L.O.O.N.iness.  For example, my original 
mental image of Snape has always been with much shorter hair than the 
canon descriptions of Snape are. . . . so although I factually record 
canon description, every once in a while my imagination defies it a 
little bit anyway.

But anyway, what I meant was that Oliver Wood is so stereotypically 
hard-core dedicated to "win, win, win" and I didn't really get that 
from Sean Biggerstaff's performance: Biggerstaff was, as Catherine 
put it, more laid-back, I thought.  But (and I keep repeating myself 
here), I don't really think Biggerstaff probably had a script 
opportunity to portray this relentless drive anyway without a 
practice or pep talk.

> So I guess what I'm saying is that (1) I didn't have much of a fixed
> impression of a minor character like Wood; (2) the actor won me
> over in the end with the quality of his performance; and (3) I
> can't readily separate "his general merit as an actor," from
> whether he "really capture[d] Wood's character." 

Actually, this is a more useful answer than you might think, Cindy, 
since it at least explains to me that part of the reason it was easy 
for you personally to accept Biggerstaff as Wood is that you simply 
don't have a strong impression of Wood.  That's a very interesting 
answer to me, since I would have said his character is really quite 
easy to get a feel for (if a little "one-sided", since we only get to 
see his personality as regards Quidditch, and for all we know he 
doesn't even *have* a personality beyond that), but since I respect 
you as a careful and cognisant reader I assume there must be an 
identifiable reason why it is you don't have as strong an impression 
of him.  Hmm . . .

Or was "fixed" the operative word there (see above quote)?  Maybe I 
misinterpreted your reply and you meant that you do have a strong 
enough impression of Wood's personality; you just don't mind if they 
change it a little in the movie?

-Luke