Casting Harry's parents

[Richard]

At 20:24 12/01/2006 , Steve wrote:

>Part of my earlier point was that if Harry's parents take on a more
>dominant and visible role, they probably will be recast. Also, I
>suspect part of the casting was based on available actors. They chose
>the best from what they had to work with.

There is no reason intrinsic to canon to indicate that they'll take on a 
more visible role, with one exception. And that's explaining what happened 
at Godric's Hollow. The details are one of the great unknowns about the 
unfolding plot and I recall talk from JKR and Columbus from when PS/SS came 
out, that her writing of the flashback scene for that movie was done very 
carefully: there is clearly more to be found out.

In any case, although they are meaningless to most others, Rawlins, and 
especially Sommerville, are "names" in the UK. Frankly, re-casting them 
would be equivalent to re-casting Fudge or even Snape. OK, Rickman's an 
"international name", so it's not quite to the same degree, but the 
principle holds. The actors were clearly (to me) cast with a view to 
keeping the roles for the entire series.

>While I certainly can't read the minds of the casting directors, I
>also wonder if they weren't trying to cast actors who created the
>preception of parents, in a sense, playing on a stereotype of what
>'parents' look like. To a little kid, his parents look more like
>ancient dinosaurs than young active vital people in their 20's. To
>cast parents in their 20's would have created more the preception of
>partying college students than good and wise parents.

I'm not sure that's valid argument. There is no such thing as a generic 
"parent". regardless of whatever information is available in the books and 
JKR's other comments about James's and Lily's age at the time of their 
demise, it stands to reason that if they were in the same year as Snape, 
Lupin and Black, they should appear about 15 years younger than the adult 
actors in PoA. Completely regardless of the fact that Snape in particular 
is cast about 10 years too old (in appearance if not strictly calendar age 
- age itself is irrelevant) and *looks* like he's in his late 40s (with 
Lupin and Black appearing to be mid 40s),  it should stand to reason that 
Lily and James should *appear* to be in their mid 20s.

30-something Shirley Henderson, convincingly playing the apparently teenage 
(specific age not given in the movies) Moaning Myrtle or 20-something 
Christian Coulson playing (slightly less convincingly) Tom Riddle who is 
stated to be 16, were cast for their appearance rather than their age as such.

I predicted at the time of CoS's movie release that teenage Riddle would 
re-appear in the storyline at some point - this is the only reason for 
casting an adult rather than a teenager; the difference in appearance 
between, say, 25 and 30 is fairly negligible; the difference between 16 and 
21 is *huge* (assuming five years between filming CoS and whatever volume 
would see Tom's re-appearance - he certainly shows up in HBP and it remains 
to be seen whether we'll see him in Book Seven).

It remains bizarre, however, that the casting people chose established 
actors for Harry's parents who are in Snape & Co's "present" age-bracket, 
rather than that of a dozen years ago or so. Sommerville is instantly 
recognisable; Rawlins less so, as he's wearing a wig (and, it seems to me, 
contacts, because his eyes are naturally very, very blue), so I can only 
assume that the casting people wanted memorable actors - but why not get 
(recognisable, if necessary) actors who really *are* in their twenties 
rather than actors 20 years older who need to be made to look 20 years 
younger than they are?

I can't believe that 20-somethings can't appear "parent-like" enough. 
Indeed, Sommerville and Rawlins do get away with looking like they've not 
hit 30 yet in PS/SS and even CoS, but in GoF, apart from the "ghostly" SFX, 
they don't come anywhere close.

Completely by coincidence (of such coincidences is life made...), as I 
started writing this message, I looked up to the TV at the other end of the 
room to see none other than Adrian Rawlins staring out of the screen. I've 
made a few grabs so you can see what he actually looks like nowadays. I've 
uploaded them to the album to which the photos of Dan's parents were added 
yesterday:

http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/hpfgu-movie/lst?&.dir=/Dan%27s+parents

Details about what he was in (including a small photo) are here:

http://www.channel4.com/more4/documentaries/doc-feature.jsp?id=21


Back to the point, though: I suspect that the most significant reason for 
casting those particular people to play James and Lily is because, as they 
are really recurring cameos (in the case of CoS and PoA, nothing more than 
photographs!), actors would be needed whose careers were unlikely to go 
stratospheric any time soon, and thus become unavailable, not to mention 
too expensive!

Geraldine Sommerville is all but retired from acting (little-known fact 
about her: she has British Royal blood in her veins, and indeed lives in a 
castle on the Isle of Man: her full name is triple-barrelled and titled, as 
is her husband's); Adrian Rawlins has always wanted a low profile and 
almost all his work has been on British TV or in small independent films 
(my own liking for the latter is one of the reasons he's immediately 
recognisable to me).

The casting people have thus got the perfect combination of talented people 
who are also cheap and available for short spurts of work for years ahead.

>I believe I heard Dan comment in an interview that he was studying for
>his 'A-Levels'; Advanced test that are necessary if he plans to go to
>college/university. So, he still has a lot of serious studying to do.
>I'm also pretty sure that Dan said he would, as much as possible, try
>to maintain the same filming workload he had when he was studying for
>his GCSE's.

Technically (i.e. legally), A Level students are allowed to hold part-time 
jobs because, by the very nature of A Levels (they are, like NEWTs in the 
books, taken subject-by-subject in subjects relevant to the student's 
future study plans), a full curriculum is not followed and thus a fairly 
typical A Level student spends probably no more than about 8 study periods 
(of 40) in school each week (plus home study, of course). We have been 
given no indication of which A Levels Dan intends to sit (or what 
university studies he might wish to pursue), but it's a safe bet that like 
most Brits, he'll be taking English and Maths (basic pre-requisite for most 
university courses), plus one or two subjects, perhaps drama, art, or music 
(given his interests and potential career choices).

Furthermore, the regulations regarding working hours (which are distinct 
from the separation of school and work) no longer apply, because he's over 16.

In practice, these two factors mean that he could do significant amounts of 
filming without worrying about schoolwork time, which could be organised to 
require no more than two full days a week. He could, in practice, be 
available before the cameras for 3 full 8-hour days a week (plus the odd 
evening) without interfering with his studies, the law of the land, or 
acting union regulations.

Of course, he and his parents are within their rights to negotiate whatever 
conditions the production team will allow them to get away with, such as 
half-day filming four days a week, or whatever. The main practical problem, 
however, which all the directors to date have complained about, in that the 
child actors can only before available for an hour at a time, then a 15 
minute break, and for only 4 hours a day, is in the past, and so the 
schedule for OotP should be able to be a lot tighter than it has been on 
the movies to date.

--
Richard, 600 posts behind and counting...