What actors would you cast as your characters?

[James118]

Maybe you've outright imagined some actors playing certain characters of yours. I haven't done it often, but I'll share if you guys do the same.

Anna Arndale - Rebel Wilson, Anna's a young blonde elf, a little on the large side, a straight-talker with a big heart who would do anything for her friends and family. I'd just hope she could pull of the right accent. >_>

Malabeck - Gerard Butler. Looking like Leonidas straight out of 300, Malabeck's a tall, muscular, goateed fellow, stern and humourless but always willing to do right by his people (he's a royal counsellor).

Narsau Harraflass- Julie Walters. This character's look is actually based on an image in my head of some actress in some film, I guess, but I can't pinpoint it. If I think about it, she looks most like British icon Julie Walters, an unstoppable, joyful twinkle in her eye and a huge, warm smile on her face.

Turtas - Sean Harris. Bit of a weasel, this one, and looking like Micheletto from the Borgias. Pointy-faced, wirey yet tenacious. Also ginger.

That's all I can think of for now. What about you lot?

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

OK, I'll play. For my latest Spaced, I have two leads to fill.

The first is Dr Carmichael Simons - an exo-archaelogist who's sort of awkward, clever, a little angsty and a little on the pathetic side. I was thinking Johnny Galecki - Leonard from Big Bang, might be good.

Next is Detective Annalisse Samara - tough, clever and determined and also courageous. Sandra Bullock springs to mind fromher Miss Congeniality days and maybe a little of The Blind Side.

I also have a pair of villains to cast - the first is Kendra an android bang bot who looks devestatingly cute and completely innocent but has no problems killing her lover while being cute and innocent! - Chantelle Stander maybe.

And then there's Max White - a genetically engineered psycho who dresses like a businessman and smiles constantly but would cheerfully rip your head off - literally. - Well I know he's long dead but it would have to be Vincent Price!

Cheers, Greg.

 

[MemoryTale]

I've never really thought about this, but one item on my bucket list is to write a character in the police, army or whatever who's going to retire in two days, shows others pictures of his family and is constantly talking about what he's going to do after he retires... And have this character survive. If he was in a film he'd be played by Sean Bean. Wearing a red shirt.

 

[Biskit]

I don't, and I would give myself a slap if I started, because I know that I would be writing the character as a pale copy of whatever role I had last seen that actor playing.

 

[RX-79G]

It does seem like a dangerous road to go down, because your conception of the character is then being "written" by you impression of someone else's character - like the ones your actor has played.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I always "cast" my main character. I find it useful to have an actor or person I can stalk round YouTube. I take notes about their physical ticks, facial expressions, movements etc It's also useful for keeping things like eye colour consistent and for adding unusual descriptions. My writing has faults but I've never accused of copycat characters.

Ian Black from Black's Nest is Martin Shaw (but 5 years ago) his partner Wilf is Bill Paterson.

Angus from Mayhem is a bit different as he's changed (as a result of a potential cover issue) but as I was writing a martial artist Semmy Schilt was the inspiration. His brother Socrates was John Barrowman (but about 10 years ago )

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I rarely do this but occasionally have moments of inspiration. In my current wip, Anne Hathaway would be good as my journalist. For Abendau and Inish Carraig, I have no real idea. But since for Inish they'd all have to be able to handle a Northern Irish accent perhaps Liam Neeson as my army colonel, John Lynch as Sanderson, one of my cops (mainly cos I like John Lynch), Colin Farrell as an increasingly dishevelled Henry and, perhaps, the guy who did Merlin - Colin Morgan - as John, although he might be getting a little too old.

Oh, and a cameo for Jimmy Nesbitt. Because he's in everything set in Northern Ireland.

 

[ErikB]

I don't generally think of these things. But I think that the "correct" answer is Christopher Walken to spice things up. Throw in some male and female eye candy (gotta have a few expendable hottie's), and perhaps a popular action hero sort like Jason Stathem or Vin Diesel or a strong female lead like Kate Beckinsale or Charlize Theron and wah lab, what could go wrong eh?

LOL.

I never really write thinking who should play this if it were a movie or TV special. Too distracting. I'll leave the casting to the pros... though it is fun to play with possibilities.

 

[Phyrebrat]

It does seem like a dangerous road to go down, because your conception of the character is then being "written" by you impression of someone else's character - like the ones your actor has played.

This.

Why do half a job? Make your own characters because the reader will picture their own. Aren't we writers, not portrait artists.

pH

 

[ErikB]

This.

Why do half a job? Make your own characters because the reader will picture their own. Aren't we writers, not portrait artists.

pH

Um... actually I am an artist that does portraits occasionally in addition to being a writer... but that's neither here or there! LOL.

I concur!

 

[AnyaKimlin]

This.

Why do half a job? Make your own characters because the reader will picture their own. Aren't we writers, not portrait artists.

pH

Because it makes for a better job. Being able to watch how a character moves, speaks, how their facial expressions are in certain circumstances, how they interact with the world around them, how they use their senses, plus a myriad of other reasons helps build them and make them more realistic.

I have absolutely no doubt my readers won't see Ian in the same way I do. But for me he looks like Martin Shaw, roughly about the time he played Adam Dalgleish.

 

[Cli-Fi]

Maybe you've outright imagined some actors playing certain characters of yours. I haven't done it often, but I'll share if you guys do the same.

Anna Arndale - Rebel Wilson, Anna's a young blonde elf, a little on the large side, a straight-talker with a big heart who would do anything for her friends and family. I'd just hope she could pull of the right accent. >_>

Malabeck - Gerard Butler. Looking like Leonidas straight out of 300, Malabeck's a tall, muscular, goateed fellow, stern and humourless but always willing to do right by his people (he's a royal counsellor).

Narsau Harraflass- Julie Walters. This character's look is actually based on an image in my head of some actress in some film, I guess, but I can't pinpoint it. If I think about it, she looks most like British icon Julie Walters, an unstoppable, joyful twinkle in her eye and a huge, warm smile on her face.

Turtas - Sean Harris. Bit of a weasel, this one, and looking like Micheletto from the Borgias. Pointy-faced, wirey yet tenacious. Also ginger.

That's all I can think of for now. What about you lot?

This is interesting. I have a pretty diverse cast of characters that I would have to portray and I am not sure if there are enough A-list actors to go around.

I have no idea who would play Juliet Carpenter. The book goes through a few stages in her life. From a naive young woman to a married empress who will do anything to defend her family. I don't like too many female actresses so the obvious choice would be Scarlett Johansson, or Robin Wright though Jennifer Lawrence might work. I'd rather be surprised by an unknown or exotic name. IDK if Lady Gaga is ready for a lead role on the big screen yet, but someone like that. Unexpected, because the character is.

For Henry Wilson, I definitely had Elba Idris in mind when I wrote the character. Tough as nails badass guy who will grab power whenever it is thrown at him. That's like every role he plays.

For Dorian Black, Someone like Will Smith could work. He's already done the sci-fi cop thing in Men In Black, and considering his role was overshadowed in Suicide Squad, I'm guessing he doesn't mind being second now that he's focused on his son's career. Other choices for Dorian could include Common, or Sterling K. Brown who is fresh off his emmy win but his skin is kinda too dark, so Terrance Howard could work as well.

I would love BD Wong to play Xieng Yang but I am not sure who would play the other Chinese characters in the novel.

Of course some CGI for the Flying Pigs will be involved, but I would love Patrick Stewart to voice them.

 

[Toby Frost]

For the main characters, I don’t really think along the lines of specific actors rather than people who look roughly like whoever it is. I image Space Captain Smith’s girlfriend as a mixture of Deanna Troy from Star Trek, Kate Bush and Inara from Firefly. His pilot used to look almost exactly like a comedian called Sally Phillips, but I’ve not seen her on TV for years. It’s very much a matter of writing the character and finding a face that fits afterwards, rather than imagining them as certain people when I’m writing it.

The secondary characters are different. A few a straight-up parodies of other characters (Felicity Fitzroy, spaceship captain and former Head Girl, or The Ringleader, a moustache-twirling Victorian gangster robot) or somewhat like real-life people (Major Wainscott is a mix of various real people and stereotypes, but probably owes a lot to Orde Wingate, a truly bizarre special forces officer from WW2). There are a few who aren’t anything in particular (or are a confused mixture of things) but have certain traits that work for particular actors: Celeste the talking horse probably sounds a lot like Kate Winslet. Overall, “casting” the characters isn’t something I think about very much while I’m writing: it probably doesn’t help that I don’t have a great memory for faces, but I can quite easily identify “types”.

 

[Nick B]

Because collaboration has enough issues, without having totaly at odds views of what people look like, casting makes our job much easier. So while we are light on description, having a definite model is great. So-
Col. JJ Tristan - Gerard Butler is perfect.
Shan - Hugh Jackman
Orlanda Nixon - Fan Bingbing
Roxana Mei-lin - Zoe Saldana
Billy (William Broady)- Woody Harrelson
Zack Taylor - Will-I-Am
Chekira - impossible to cast
Danar Jr- Tom Hiddleston

Plenty of others. We don't go on any personality traits or previous roles, solely looks/build/age
Works great.

 

[Phyrebrat]

. His pilot used to look almost exactly like a comedian called Sally Phillips, but I’ve not seen her on TV for years.

She's a regular on BBC's Miranda. I think she's great, too!

pH

 

[Gonk the Insane]

@Toby Frost , I have a Sally Phillips sighting!!! It's incredibly serendipitous, I remember seeing this thread a few days ago and your mention of Sally got stuck in my noggin as I loved Smack the Pony, and now you've mentioned it she seems a good fit for Polly, too. Anyway...

Just watched a new tv show on Dave* on catch-up called Zapped, starring one of the guys from The Inbetweeners. Halfway through a familiar face appeared and I thought it was Phillips - checked the end credits to be sure and it totally is her (and good to see on her TV again as well, she's funny).
The first episode was on Dave after Red Dwarf on Thursday, but I think it's repeated on Tuesday (or available via catch-up) if you want to check it out.
and the chances of me a) remembering a name in a thread, b) seeing the actress back on telly a few days later, and c) finding the thread again... well, pretty unlikely - total fluke!
Anyway, thought you might want to know

*Dave doing something other than re-runs may just be the craziest thing to happen this century

 

[Toby Frost]

[sets video]