Vorkosigan casting
Aug. 3rd, 2012 10:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraVorkosigan casting! Unlike fanfic, this is something I can actually think about while my parents have the Olympics on.
Miles Vorkosigan: How about this guy?
I know it's a little weird to say I want to cast a visibly disabled actor and then turn around and cast a presently-able-bodied athlete, but sadly I don't *know* of any visably disabled actors (I guess Peter Dinklage might count, but he just doesn't look anywhere near fragile enough, to me), and, I don't know, Weir just looks right, to me, and I think he's got the flamboyance to pull off Miles' grandiosity. I was sort of hoping when he occurred to me that he was a really little guy like Scott Hamilton, and he's not, he's 5'9", but, enh, I guess everyone else wears lifts, or stands on boxes, or they do forced perspective tricks or whatever.
Cordelia Naismith: My first thought was Cameron Diaz, but even wanting Cordelia-the-Betan to look young for her age, she's a little too young. Helen Mirren is too old. So: Cate Blanchett.
A brief digression regarding race in the movie Vorkosiverse: so I think all of the Vor characters should be white, ideally Nordic or Slavic except for the Greekies who are obviously Greek, and the rest of the galaxy should be really aggressively multiracial, to try to visually underscore how much of the rest of the galaxy is this cosmopolitan community and then Barrayar is sort of this isolated racist backwater in comparison. (The Cetas aren't exactly in community with everyone else, but we know they take genetic material from everyone and engineer besides, so I think they should if anything have even greater than real-world variation, like, slightly unreal skin and hair colors.) So, given this, should Cordelia, a galactic, be played by a white actress? I sort of think there's something in canon about how she can pass for Barryaran as long as she doesn't talk, so, white actress, but I'd be curious if anyone disagrees.
Aral Vorkosigan: Mitch Pileggi, cleanshaven?
Ivan Vorpatril: Justin Timberlake, also cleanshaven. Tall, athletic, and it wouldn't be a huge stretch for him to play someone following the lead of his shorter, darker-haired, more manic comrade ::grin::.
Bothari: We need creepy. We need Crispin Glover.
Elena: I want to say Ellen Page, except she's way too short. Who's a taller Ellen Page lookalike?
Quinn: So, Miles bought her the prettiest face he could, right? Aishwarya Rai?
Gregor: Matt Bomer? I can picture him on that balcony...
Laisa: I would love for Laisa to be a fat actress, an actress of color, a fat actress of color if we could have that which I suppose in a fantasy casting we can, although I don't actually have one in mind. Nikki Blonsky or America Ferrera.
Bel Thorne: I'm sort of thinking that casting someone already known for androgyny might be fun here. Jaye Davidson is sadly too old. Andrej Pejic, maybe, with darker hair, or Jo Calderone (Lady Gaga's drag identity - I bet she and Johnny Weir would have fun working together).
Let's see, who's left. Taura is going to have to be done by motion-capture like a Na'vi, so no strong opinion there. I haven't come up with anyone good for Ekaterin, Simon, or Alys... anybody?
Miles Vorkosigan: How about this guy?
I know it's a little weird to say I want to cast a visibly disabled actor and then turn around and cast a presently-able-bodied athlete, but sadly I don't *know* of any visably disabled actors (I guess Peter Dinklage might count, but he just doesn't look anywhere near fragile enough, to me), and, I don't know, Weir just looks right, to me, and I think he's got the flamboyance to pull off Miles' grandiosity. I was sort of hoping when he occurred to me that he was a really little guy like Scott Hamilton, and he's not, he's 5'9", but, enh, I guess everyone else wears lifts, or stands on boxes, or they do forced perspective tricks or whatever.
Cordelia Naismith: My first thought was Cameron Diaz, but even wanting Cordelia-the-Betan to look young for her age, she's a little too young. Helen Mirren is too old. So: Cate Blanchett.
A brief digression regarding race in the movie Vorkosiverse: so I think all of the Vor characters should be white, ideally Nordic or Slavic except for the Greekies who are obviously Greek, and the rest of the galaxy should be really aggressively multiracial, to try to visually underscore how much of the rest of the galaxy is this cosmopolitan community and then Barrayar is sort of this isolated racist backwater in comparison. (The Cetas aren't exactly in community with everyone else, but we know they take genetic material from everyone and engineer besides, so I think they should if anything have even greater than real-world variation, like, slightly unreal skin and hair colors.) So, given this, should Cordelia, a galactic, be played by a white actress? I sort of think there's something in canon about how she can pass for Barryaran as long as she doesn't talk, so, white actress, but I'd be curious if anyone disagrees.
Aral Vorkosigan: Mitch Pileggi, cleanshaven?
Ivan Vorpatril: Justin Timberlake, also cleanshaven. Tall, athletic, and it wouldn't be a huge stretch for him to play someone following the lead of his shorter, darker-haired, more manic comrade ::grin::.
Bothari: We need creepy. We need Crispin Glover.
Elena: I want to say Ellen Page, except she's way too short. Who's a taller Ellen Page lookalike?
Quinn: So, Miles bought her the prettiest face he could, right? Aishwarya Rai?
Gregor: Matt Bomer? I can picture him on that balcony...
Laisa: I would love for Laisa to be a fat actress, an actress of color, a fat actress of color if we could have that which I suppose in a fantasy casting we can, although I don't actually have one in mind. Nikki Blonsky or America Ferrera.
Bel Thorne: I'm sort of thinking that casting someone already known for androgyny might be fun here. Jaye Davidson is sadly too old. Andrej Pejic, maybe, with darker hair, or Jo Calderone (Lady Gaga's drag identity - I bet she and Johnny Weir would have fun working together).
Let's see, who's left. Taura is going to have to be done by motion-capture like a Na'vi, so no strong opinion there. I haven't come up with anyone good for Ekaterin, Simon, or Alys... anybody?
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Date: 2012-08-07 01:23 am (UTC)I really like your idea about non-Barrayar being very multicultural/multiracial. Cordelia's pretty definitely white, though, and has reddish hair. Much as I adore Cate Blanchett, I think she might be too exquisitely beautiful for Cordelia, who I picture as more ordinary-looking--there's that lovely bit in Barrayar, I think, where she decides the only mirror she needs is Aral's eyes, because in them, she's beautiful.
Crispin Glover is perfect for Bothari.
Inspired by my NCIS watching, I think Daniela Ruah might work for Elena--tall, slim, dark-haired, combines poise and elegance with bad-assery. And Cote de Pablo might be a bit young for Ekaterin, but she could do the very self-contained thing and then totally smash things to bits when necessary.
And speaking of NCIS, someone needs to get in a time machine and get a young David McCallum (the photo at the top seems the right age) for Simon, because it was his character on The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Illya Kuryakin, that Bujold was apparently picturing when she wrote Simon Illyan (note the name, as well).
no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 01:54 am (UTC)"The syntax was self-conscious but the sentiment naked-sincere in his mirror-bright eyes. In those mirrors, I am altogether beautiful, Cordelia realized warmly. Much more flattering than that one on the wall upstairs. I shall use them to see myself from now on."
So, yes. :^)