Your favorite actor/actress in HP movies

[Carol]

zanooda wrote:
> 
> Oh, Rickman is wonderful, yes :-). However, I just can't get over
the fact that he is way too old for this role ;-(. I know that it
doesn't matter for most people, but to me it does, unfortunately. 
> 
> For me, one of the greatest appeals of the Marauders' (plus Lily and
Snape :-)) story is that it is about such young people, who lost 
their lives so early. Think about it, Snape is less than forty when he
dies (and so is Lupin, who dies the same day) - just a boy in my 
view, LOL! Sirius was even younger when he died, and Lily and James
were simply kids ;-(! 
> 
> So when a 60-year old plays Snape, it *does* seem old compared to
the  books (same goes for Gary oldman). 

Carol responds:
I agree with you. Of course, the casting director and whoever else is
responsible for such decisions didn't know that the Snape of SS/PS was
only 31 or 32, in effect, twenty years older than Harry. JKR didn't
give that information til right after GOF (the book) came out, IIRC.
By that time, Rickman was well-established as Movie!Snape and the fans
would have been very upset if the casting had been changed (not that
WB would have considered it). 

I can't remember when the ages of James and Lily were established, but
we learn in Book One that James went to school with Snape, and by PoA
we know that Snape, Lupin, James, Wormtail, and Sirius Black were all
in the same year. Lupin is described as being "quite young," which
means that the others are equally young (or would be if they were
still alive). In spite of that, I remember being surprised when JKR
said that Snape (as of GoF) was only 34 or 35. I thought of him,
somehow, as being in his forties. At that point, I realized that
Rickman was much too old to play Snape, but also that it was too late
to change. (And besides, he has the facial expressions and gestures
and sarcasm down pat, and sometimes, when the makeup and lighting are
right, he seems ageless. Unfortunately, when they're not, he seems
like a contemporary of Dumbledore.)

OTOH, I thought right away that the people cast as James and Lily were
the wrong age, far too old to be the parents of one-year-old Harry.
They look like the parents of an eleven-year-old or even a teenager,
not of a baby. Maybe the casting director wanted Harry to picture them
as they would look if they had lived; after all, it would be odd if an
eleven-year-old looked at a pair of twenty-one-year-olds and thought
of them as his parents. Also, I don't think it was clear early on just
how young they were. And yet, for all that, that particular bit of
casting, especially of James, has always bothered me.

Gary Oldman was about 46 in PoA, around the age I originally thought
that Snape was (though "young Sirius Black" as the source of the
flying motorcycle suggests a younger age for him), but by that time, I
knew how old they were supposed to be, so that casting bothered me,
too. I guess they wanted someone who could pass as Snape's
contemporary, which meant that they had to cast someone older than
Blsck would be in the books. (Also, of course, Azkaban had aged him,
so that could excuse the casting as well.) He looked like he had
starved himself for the role. What I hated was the tattoos. (And he
didn't look as if he had ever been handsome, but I can't fault him for
that.) David Thewlis is a little closer to the right age but he never
looked like Lupin to me. maybe it's that little mustache, which I
hate. (not as much as Barty Crouch's in GoF, though. Did they mean to
make him look like Hitler?)

zanooda:
> I also don't like it when they make movie!Snape hit people on the
head with a book - this is sooo out-of-character! Snape doesn't need
to do this - his sharp tongue is scarier than any beating :-)!

Carol:
I agree. The students are silent the moment he walks into a room. He
even cows Death Eaters. I guess they wanted a bit of slapstick humor
(and well-deserved punishment for talking!) from the "mean teacher"
(not to be compared with the sadistic Umbridge in the next film), but
I didn't like it, either. Completely out of character. The students
may fear that he'll turn them into something unnatural (to paraphrase
Sam in LOTR) or give them a most unpleasant detention or treat them to
some embarrassing sarcasem, but he would never hit them with a book or
anything else. As you say, he doesn't need to.

zanooda: 
> I realize of course that it's not the actor's fault - he just does
what the director tells him. And once again, Rickman is a wonderful,
wonderful actor - always liked him! And he certainly does what is 
humanly possible to bring Snape alive, which is not easy, considering
how little screen time he gets!

Carol:
I'm hoping all that will change with HBP!

Carol, off to watch the closing ceremonies of the Olympics