Casting; ages; accents

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 12310

Gwen wrote:
  
> As to relative ages, I have a question about the JKR interview: She 
said
> that Dumbledore is 150, and that McGonagall is 70--but did she 
actually SAY
> that wizards have longer lifespans? 

Yeah, she said McGonagall was 70 and that that was middle-aged for a 
wizard.

Another reason we know MM was teaching during the MWPP years:  she 
talks about James, Sirius and Peter's student days in PA (the 3 
Broomsticks scene).  She might even have been the Transfiguration 
teacher for years before Dumbledore became Head--he might've done 
something in between.  

(Also, even if Hogwarts has only ~280 students, there DOES have to be 
more than one professor in a subject like Transfiguration.  I know JKR 
doesn't tell us about them, but one teacher can't cover 20+ classes 
per term.  Uh, without magic, that is.  <g>)

> We are told in PoA and GoF that Lupin and Black both appear to be in 
>their mid-thirties. 

Where?  I only recall that Lupin, at least, is "young-looking," 
whatever that means to Harry (probably no more than 40, IMO).

> A final comment about American actors and British accents: I must 
take
> exception to this remark. Kevin effing Costner aside, I am a 
professional
> actor, I am an American, and I can do a number of British dialects. 
Maybe
> not 100% perfectly, but in point of fact, it took two Exchange 
Student
> friends in high school--one English (Simon) and one Scottish 
(Malcolm) to
> teach me NOT to pick up other people's accents. It can be 
learned--just like
> British actors (such as Jeremy Irons, Alan Rickman, and even Cary 
Elwes) can
> learn to speak with an American accent. So there! ;^P

No offense, Gwen and all fine acting professionals, but *most* actors 
just can't pull it off to the satisfaction of the native speakers.  
Somewhere along the line they slip up in a way that only a native 
would notice.  Bob Hoskins is the only actor I've ever heard who could 
really hold it for a whole movie.  Okay, and Antony Sher did a really 
good NY accent on the stage in Torch Song Trilogy.

I remember seeing a production of Deathtrap in London and wincing 
throughout at the wavering American accents--which probably sounded 
just fine to the British members of the audience, just as all you 
usually have to do to convince Americans that you're doing a British 
accent is to drop your r's.

I just like the commitment to casting British actors because I think 
Hollywood is way too dominant in the world movie scene already.  Every 
time the banner for "Sixth Sense" flashes here on my YahooGroups 
screen, I whisper thanks to JKR for holding her ground against Haley 
Harry Joel Osment Potter.  But I fancy an American Lockhart as 
British revenge for all those U.S. movies that make all the Nazis and 
other evil characters have British accents.  Clash of Empires!

Amy Z

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Ern jerked the wheel so hard that a whole
farmhouse had to jump aside to avoid the bus.
                 -HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban
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