Casting

[vincentjh]

Joan wrote:

> as someone already brought up this issue in another post, why does 
so 
> many people picture Cedric as a "light hair/Blonde"??? (see Steve's 
> reference of "more Brad Pitt, Matt Damon type) when in the canon 
> Cedric was described to have dark hair?? Almost 99% of the casting 
> suggestion I came across in many HP board for Cedric are all your 
> typical blond pretty boy when Cedric is supposed to have 
dark/darker 
> tone hair!
> 
> This is quite similar to the case of Draco. Even though it's 
clearly 
> written in the canon more than once that Draco has "white Blonde 
> hair" (aka blonder than your average blonde!). However when the 
first 
> movie came out, lots of people complained that "Draco should have 
> dark hair" or screamed "I always imagined Draco having Dark hair" 
and 
> claimed the movie people "made a mistake" blah blah. This just 
really 
> puzzle me. 
> 
> or could this be some kind of deep-root stereotypes in which 
a "nice 
> popular handsome boy" should be a blond pretty boy, while 
the "nasty 
> bully" should be a dark hair ugly guy or something like that? Can 
> those who always imagine Cedric as blond or Draco as dark can 
> enlighten me your reasons?

I would just raise my hand and say that "someone" who brought up the 
issue of Cedric being dark-haired was me. However, I've never come 
across anyone who suggested that Draco should have dark hair.

As far as I know, it's fairly common in Hollywood to have 
innocent/angelic blondes and evil brunets, more so in female 
characters than male. The latest example I can remember would 
be "Chicago," in which the more seasoned Velma is dark-haired and the 
young, innocent Roxie has blond hair. (Of course, Velma isn't evil 
and Chicago isn't entirely new material. But it's still in line with 
the tradition.) And I am sure in YA films, more than half of 
the 'cute guys' are blond. Not just blond, but blond with long, 
flowing hair. Perhaps that's why some people automatically picture 
Cedric to be Jack Ryan, or, worse, Aran Cartter (sp?) look-alike. 

However, I,too, wonder whether or not Britain has the same tradition. 
I don't know that many blond British actors. So I often think that 
perhaps British don't fetishize blonds so much. Then, maybe it's just 
because I don't know many that British actors to start with.

Interestingly, JKR seems to have a thing for dark hair. Harry, James, 
Sirius, Cedric, Snape...lots of "good" caracters have dark hair. Even 
the ultimate evil Voldemort was a charming young man with dark hair. 
On the other hand, many on the "bad" side have blond hair--the 
Malfoys, Barty Jr., Aunt Pettura and so on. If the division by hair 
color is to be trusted, I am almost certain that Bagman would be 
evil...

VJH,
who's not sure what she's talking about.