Sirius: The Casting Game

[Susan]

---  
> teilani2002 at y... writes:
> 
> >>Hey all, new to the movie group, but not so new in the book 
group.  
> Anyways, re: Oldman as Sirius.  I understand that Oldman is a good 
> actor, but according to JKR, Sirius is supposed to be drop dead 
> gorgeous. <<
> 
>Rebecca wrote:
 Firstly, you can't be sure if she's referring to Sirius of the past 
(in 
> school and the few years between that and Azkaban) who is quite 
good looking, or 
> the older Sirius who she herself describes as both looking like a 
vampire and 
> looking like a corpse in PoA. Also, since I *only* read the books 
before OotP 
> came out and I got involved in fandom, the Sirius I had in my head 
was *only* 
> from those descriptions and that didn't involve anyone "gorgeous" 
(for a list of 
> Sirius description references look upthread, there was a list 
posted about 
> two days ago). 
> Anyway, would you rather have someone "hot" playing the role, or 
someone 
> who's a good actor? (not saying that the other actors you're 
thinking of are 
> 'bad', just that if you look at Gary Oldman's work, you'll see he's 
a fantastic 
> actor). It worries me that so many people are worried about what 
Sirius *looks* 
> like, when there is so much more to him than that. Personally, he's 
my favorite 
> character, and after I heard who was cast to play him, I went and 
watched a 
> bunch of Gary Oldman movies and became convinced that he was 
perfect for the 
> role. He has the intensity that Sirius has (and he has dark hair 
and he's 
> british and thin, so he fits the description good enough for me). 
As for other 
> casting, I haven't heard of anyone else being considered for the 
role.
> You're entitled to your opinion and all that (and if you're 
determined to 
> hate the casting, then you will), but at least wait till the movie 
comes out and 
> complain about something more than just what he looks like. 
> 
> 
Hey, I'm actually a huge movie buff and do think Gary Oldman is an 
excellent actor.  And yeah, JKR was probably talking about the young 
Sirius Black rather than the older one.  I read a lot as well, and 
it's usually difficult for me to read the book and then watch the 
movie, b/c you know, other people's visions can rarely meet up to 
your own imagination, and besides which, movies always have to leave 
stuff out, reposition stuff, etc.  I read, then reread Shogun, which 
was really excellent, then watched the *unbelievably* bad mini-
series.  The only movie I can think of off hand that's better than 
the book (imho) is Gone With the Wind.

Sorry to get OT there.  Just wanted to say that I do know Oldman's a 
great actor. The unfortunate thing is that I don't find him very 
attractive.  Even when he was Dracula, who's supposed to be hot and 
charismatic, etc., while I did love the movie, and his performance, 
he still wasn't my cup of tea.  And the guy I mentioned before, 
Greard Butler, actually played Dracula in Dracula 2000.  Now, I know 
Dracula 2000 wasn't as good as the one based on the book, but the 
guy's just cuter, imho.

I knew I'd get some flack for writing that because Oldman is a great 
actor, but I know so many people that agree with me, and they're 
movie fans as well, that I thought I'd throw that out there.  And I'd 
still like to know who else tried for the part.

Sorry about not looking up stuff in the archives.  I haven't really 
gotten a handle on that yet :-0
Susan (teilani)