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Actors who 100% embodied character from book

246 replies

NEtoN10 · 07/07/2019 20:15

I was just thinking today about book to film adaptations and actors who I thought 100% embodied the character as I imagined them.

For me Helena BC as Bellatrix Lestrange, Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort, the whole cast of Matilda!

Who does it for you? Interested to hear !

OP posts:
Sewrainbow · 08/07/2019 21:47

Alison Steadman was.the perfect Mrs Bennett!

I agree about a lot of HP characters but then didn't JKR have a lot to do with the casting?

I thought the BBC Narnia had the characters pretty good, especially puddleglum, but not Lucy. The film Lucy was a little better but not quite, I'm sure she was described as blonde and Susan was dark haired.

Kate Winslet was a good Marianne but she was too old as was Emma Thompson at the time the girls should be 17 & 21.

Sewrainbow · 08/07/2019 21:48

Oh yes switched that dark is rising off once they changed the setting and the plot! I loved that book Sad

summerofladybird · 08/07/2019 21:54

Liam Neeson was ideal to play God in Rev.

springydaff · 08/07/2019 23:15

Everybody in Rev!

Lessstressedhemum · 09/07/2019 00:03

Morgan Freeman as God in Bruce Almighty. He was amazing.

SushiForAmateurs · 09/07/2019 01:27

Everyone in Sense and Sensibility was too old. Mrs Dashwood would only have been 40, max. Probably more like 36 or 37.

Still loved it, though.

cannycat20 · 09/07/2019 01:55

Anthony Andrews as the Scarlet Pimpernel and also as Sebastian in Brideshead Revisited.

Matthew McFadyen looked more like my idea of Mr Darcy from the books but Colin Firth was perfect personality wise and with Jennifer Ehle they were magic. I agree with a previous poster, that is the definitive adaptation of that novel. At least for my generation.

While I'd never thought of him as blond, I thought Rupert Penry-Jones was a very good Captain Wentworth and Sally Hawkins a lovely Anne in Persuasion; I liked the Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds version but thought he was unfortunately just a little too old for the role.

Edward Petherbridge and Harriet Walter as Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane.

Most of the Game of Thrones cast.

Most of the Harry Potter cast.

Sam Heughan as Jamie. I was never quite so sure about Catriona Balfe as Claire, not that she's not a good actress and she's got better as the seasons have gone on, it's just the character of Claire herself that sometimes annoys me. Is there anything that woman cannot do?! Though she is more annoying in the books than on screen.

Richard Armitage in North and South, despite the fact the scriptwriters changed the character arc at the beginning.

Patrick Swayze and James Read in the other North and South (actually, most of the cast in that series).

While the film series were not good adaptations, Shailene Woodley in Divergent. I would have said Theo James as well if they hadn't aged the book character so much that the "instructor romance" thing really made me uneasy.

Another one for Jennifer Lawrence and pretty much all the cast of the Hunger Games.

More recently, definitely Michael Sheen and David Tennant in Good Omens. I wish there'd been more of them, they were so funny and charming together. And I liked the little bit of Josie Lawrence as Agnes. I'd love to see an adaptation of the Tiffany Aching books, but only if they don't turn any of the characters into Americans....although I will make an exception for the Archangel (insert rude word here) Gabriel...

SquatBetty · 09/07/2019 06:51

Julie Walters as Adrian Mole's mum in the first TV adaptation of the Secret Diary - don't think I've ever seen such perfection of character embodiment since.

FenellaMaxwell · 09/07/2019 07:30

@Sewrainbow Winslet was only 19 at the time!

shieldmaidenofrohan · 09/07/2019 07:32

Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. usually i don't much care for him but he really made that role his own

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 09/07/2019 08:42

Sophie Thompson as Miss Bates in Emma and Juliet Stevenson as Mrs Elton - both perfectly cast. Sophie Thompson is an amazing actor and completely overshadowed by her more famous sister!

SlocombePooter · 09/07/2019 09:06

Excellent examples here! Agree about Sophie Thompson.

ImpracticalCape · 09/07/2019 09:08

John Hurt as Winston Smith in 1984.

Clawdy · 09/07/2019 09:17

Jason Isaacs as Jackson Brodie.

SemperIdem · 09/07/2019 13:22

Totally agree Clawdy

I wish Kate Atkinson would write more of that series.

Clawdy · 09/07/2019 13:42

The new Jackson B. novel "Big Sky" is just out, let's hope they decide to televise it!

ErrolTheDragon · 09/07/2019 13:49

To be sure, DT in Good Omens was most appropriately the embodiment of 'snake hipped'!Grin

SlocombePooter · 09/07/2019 14:01

He really does slink !

thecatsthecats · 09/07/2019 14:55

The older generation of GOT actors suffer the same issue as Harry Potter - too old! Stannis, Ned and Catelyn were supposed to be about 33 when the series began, only a year or two older than Jaime and Cersei.

This may be blasphemy to some, but Sirius was supposed to be sexy! I thought that Richard Armitage would have played him beautifully.

RandomNameChange415 · 09/07/2019 15:11

33 would be pushing it given the way they aged up Rob and Jon, but I agree that a younger Stannis in particular would have been good - Stephen Dillane was brilliant but he’s five years older than Mark Addy and looks it.

SapatSea · 09/07/2019 15:11

For me, I think they have never quite got the new wife in Rebecca right, the actresses are always far too good looking same goes for Jane Eyre , the closest match IMO is the girl who plays Jane in the Timothy Dalton version (although she wasn't emaciated enough,but small and fairly plain).

As others have said Richard Armitage as John Thornton is just how I imagined him as is Clarke Gable as Rhett.

RandomNameChange415 · 09/07/2019 15:20

I know we’re a bit off topic but the character who’s always cast wrong in the opposite direction is Harriet Smith from Emma. The whole point of the character is that she’s really really pretty in a Barbie Princess sort of way, and she’s never portrayed like that which makes a nonsense of the plot.

thecatsthecats · 09/07/2019 15:25

33 would be pushing it given the way they aged up Rob and Jon, but I agree that a younger Stannis in particular would have been good - Stephen Dillane was brilliant but he’s five years older than Mark Addy and looks it.

Yes, I agree, but they could have gone a little younger - late thirties, early forties at most. The casting was very well chosen - if you could have magically re-aged the actors!

pontiouspilates · 09/07/2019 15:28

Deadringer you beat my to it. Gregory Peck absolutely is Atticus!

ErrolTheDragon · 09/07/2019 15:32

right, the actresses are always far too good looking same goes for Jane Eyre , the closest match IMO is the girl who plays Jane in the Timothy Dalton version (although she wasn't emaciated enough,but small and fairly plain).

I though Sorcha Cusack in the 1970s bbc version was about right, but the Rochesters are nearly always far too good looking - Timothy Dalton FFS?

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