[HPFGU-Movie] Casting of Sirius (Was The Casting Game)

[patientx3 at aol.com]

Cindy wrote:
>>I am merely pointing out the bit from the book to dissuade the argument 
that 
Sirius isn't supposed to or was ever supposed to be good-looking. Obviously, 
Rowling meant for him to have been quite the looker while in school <g><<

But that's while he was in school, when he was fifteen. I didn't say he was 
never good looking (which he certainly was, which was part of his 'cool-guy' 
status I suppose), but the adult Sirius isn't ever described that way (see 
below).

In a message dated 5/13/2004 10:52:07 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
anmsmom333 at cox.net writes:

>>I read or saw a JK interview where she mentioned 
that James, Sirius and Remus were good looking while in school. 
Well...that doesn't mean they are now<<

And that's exactly what I've been trying to say. I respect that everyone has 
a different mental image of the characters, but its not fair to blame the 
director/casting director etc. for the actor not fitting your image, especially if 
its not based from Canon. Its not just here that I've heard this, but on 
several other boards, and, personally, it seems like people have a strange idea of 
what Sirius looks like. 

[PoA - Chpt 2]
"Compared to the man on the television, however, whose gaunt face was 
surrounded by a matted, elbow-length tangle, Harry felt very well groomed indeed."

[Chpt 3]
"Stan had unfurled a copy of the Daily Prophet and was now reading with
his tongue between his teeth. A large photograph of a sunken-faced man
with long, matted hair blinked slowly at Harry from the front page."
....
"Harry looked into the shadowed eyes of Sirius Black, the only part of
the sunken face that seemed alive. Harry had never met a vampire, but he
had seen pictures of them in his Defense Against the Dark Arts classes,
and Black, with his waxy white skin, looked just like one."

[Chpt 17]
"A mass of filthy, matted hair hung to his elbows. If eyes hadn't been
shining out of the deep, dark sockets, he might have been a corpse. The
waxy skin was stretched so tightly over the bones of his face, it looked
like a skull. His yellow teeth were bared in a grin. It was Sirius
Black."

[Chpt 20]
"Black's gaunt face broke into the first true smile Harry had seen upon
it. The difference it made was startling, as though a person ten years
younger were shining through the starved mask; for a moment, he was
recognizable as the man who had laughed at Harry's parents' wedding."

[GoF - Chpt 20]
"Sirius looked different from Harry's memory of him. When they had said 
goodbye,
Sirius's face had been gaunt and sunken, surrounded by a quantity of long,
black, matted hair - but the hair was short and clean now, Sirius's face was 
fuller,
and he looked younger, much more like the only photograph Harry had of him,
which had been taken at the Potters' wedding."

[Chpt 27]
"Sirius was wearing ragged gray robes; the same ones he had been wearing when
he had left Azkaban. His black hair was longer than it had been when he had
appeared in the fire, and it was untidy and matted once more. He looked very 
thin."

[Chpt 36]
"Sirius was standing there. His face was white and gaunt as it had been when 
he had escaped Azkaban."

[OoP Chpt 22]
"Sirius was hurrying towards them all, looking anxious. He was unshaven and 
still in his day clothes; there was also a slightly Mundungus-like whiff of 
stale drink about him."

(the only other descriptions of him in OoP just mentioned him having long 
black hair)

I don't see one mention of him being anything like his old attractive self. 
Then again, when I was looking through the books I noticed that he never does 
get a chance to get back into good health. In GoF he's stressed about Harry's 
scar and the other odd things going on, and in OoP he's depressed and bitter 
(except for Christmastime, which of course doesn't have a description). There's 
just a brief period in GoF before he get's stressed, and then he's just 
'younger' not exactly gorgeous or even 'handsome'. The point in PoA is he's supposed 
to look nearly unrecognizable, according to PoA, Harry would have never 
guessed he was the same person in the wedding photo unless he knew it was the same 
person. In most of his movies he's playing the 'bad guy' so he's purposefully 
made up to look sort of repulsive or ugly. Again, I really think you should 
watch Rosencranzt and Guildenstern Are Dead, he looks fantastic in that (and it 
has a very young Tim Roth in it too).

My only criticism with how Sirius looks is that his hair is *far* too short. 
Does that bother anyone else? Honestly, would it have been that hard to put 
him in long tangled wig? The ratty hair is a *big* part of the SCARY!Sirius. 


-Rebecca


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