Casting Questions

[GulPlum <plumeski@yahoo.com>]

Steve (bboy_mn)wrote:

<snip pertinent remarks with which I largely agree, leaving just the 
last sentence>

> Lupin is the guy your mother wants you to marry (in terms of
> personality); and Black is the kind of guy you father absolutely
> will not allow you to associate with.

I'd add a few further attributes to each of them which I consider 
just as important (in some ways related to the above quote).

Apart from Lupin's gentleness which Steve underlined so much, I see 
him as having a very distinguished bearing, despite his external 
shabinness. His poor appearance is due to lack of funds rather than 
as a direct result of his lycanthropy (his condition makes it 
difficult for him to find work and thus feed or dress himself 
properly). He's very aware of his talents and abilities (as a human 
being, if not necessarily as a wizard) but is also permanently aware 
of the limitations imposed by being "ill" regularly for about a week 
in every four. I see him as a man who, despite his shabby appearance, 
immediately commands respect, but not fear. More than just about any 
other character in the Potterverse, I see him as representing the 
best of the British middle classes. 

This is perhaps very idiosyncratic, but the way I see his eyes is 
very important to me. They should be warm and non-threatening, but at 
the same time world-weary and tired.

One thing which is very important to me is the way people speak; I 
appreciate that for people unattuned to the diversity of British 
speech patterns this might be irrelevant or not discernable, but one 
thing about the casting to date which has impressed me the most has 
been the care taken with that aspect. The kind of voices and the way 
the actors speak has been spot on.

The way I hear (rather than see) Lupin is therefore quite important 
to me, and further to above, I hear him very much with an educated 
middle-class accent and all that goes with it. Not quite as clipped 
as Emma Watson's Hermione, perhaps, and not quite as populistically 
West London as Alan Rickman's Snape, but somewhere in the middle.

As I've said many times before, Jeremy Irons is one actor who 
immediately springs to my mind as representing the attributes I've 
listed (if he downgrades his natural accent just a little). Others 
(of whom non-Brits may not have heard) are Simon Williams (no pics on 
IMDB, but I found a fairly recent one here: 
http://www.bigevent.co.uk/live/home/news/simon/sw1.jpg - he's on the 
right; or a hard closeup of his face on this page: 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/07_01_02/tuesday/info3.shtml) 
or Nigel Havers (again, no pics on IMDB, but there are several on  
this site which is about his stance on a particular UK political 
issue rather than his acting talent; his father was a prominent 
figure in British legal and political life: 
http://www.nigelhaversalliance.com). 

Sirius, on the other hand, I see as quite the opposite of Lupin in 
many ways. Though obviously physically emaciated after a dozen years 
in Azkaban, he's very physically imposing - he should have something 
of the boxer's build about him (no, I don't necessarily mean a 
heavyweight!) and a physical certainty about himself. He's very "in 
your face", and the kind of person whose apparance you don't forget 
very quickly. He's a very intimidating presence. Unlike Lupin, not 
someone you immediately feel compelled to respect, but if not fear, 
then at least feel anxious around. Quite clearly from canon, he's got 
a short temper, and doesn't mind people knowing it. I actually 
wouldn't like for him to played by yet another middle class actor 
with a typical middle class British accent. I see a definite 
roughness in his speech, though not necessarily a regional accent. 

To be perfectly honest, the kind of actor I'd think of is Jason 
Isaacs, if he wasn't already engaged elsewhere in the Potter 
series. :-)

I was going to comment on the ongoing conversation (which I had to 
interrupt for the last week or so) about their being believable as 
Alan Rickman's contemporaries, but I'll leave that for a separate 
post as it's already gone 5am... :-)