Picspam: Casting Temeraire

[dramaturgy]

picspammy has a second chance challenge! I really wanted to do this the first time around but I had read like three chapters at that time. And Temeraire is yay. In here there are general spoilers for the series -- nothing plot wise, but there are a few characters that I cast that don't appear in the first or even second book. Anyway! Yes.

I love Henry Cavill. I'm going to marry Henry Cavill. He's only a couple years older than me (aka not as old as I thought he was) but he is amazing at playing older than he is. His BFD role is Charles Brandon in The Tudors and for my money (not that I pay any) he is one of the best parts of that show. The picture in the middle there is Regency period, but it is from a few years ago when he was much younger. Just update it with a bottle green coat and I think you won't be disappointed.

It was Garfield or Ben Whishaw, but Garfield won out. SORRY BEN, STILL LOVE YOU, but I see Granby as closer to twenty than thirty in the twenties range.

Jane kicks ass. Period. But despite everything there is something genuinely feminine there, in an awesome, kickass sort of way, and there's only one person I could have cast in this role: Emma Thompson.

I honestly believe that if this ever gets made then the role will go to an unknown (because child actors are, by definition, mostly unknowns) but I needed someone to fill the role and she's adorable. So why not.

Holly is just stunning in absolutely everything I've ever seen her in. Robin Hood, Merlin, and Demons is on my list. The most impressed I've ever been is a pilot for a show I think was called DisConnected, where she played a girl who committed suicide, leaving a group of not mutual friends and acquaintances wondering why. She was wonderful.

Everyone I thought about for this role seemed either too old, too young, or just not right. I'm still not sure, but I love Stevenson in Rome, I think he's a total crackerjack. Give him some hair and we'd be in business. He's solidly built -- it's less muscle than overweight, but I don't really think of Berkley as overweight, just probably solidly built in his youth and as he gets older his body redistributes. Fuck you, bodies.

1. Because I fucking can, 2. Kickass seems to follow in his wake, and 3. I want to get him in period grab. Mrowr.

Jamie "The Bam" Bamber. The reasons for chosing this guy are numerous, and most of them end with me dreaming about taking his clothes off, but I think it's a nice role and Jamie would be good in it. Besides, no period drama is complete without Jamie Bamber.

The dragons were harder. Voices can't be seen, obviously, so I had to listen to them, and I had to depend on my ears. It was an interesting exercise and lots of time wasted on YouTube.

I won't even tell you how long I hemmed and hawed about this one. I went between this guy and Jamie Campbell Bower, but in the end, I think James would give better readings. I love JCB but I am just not sure if he has a big enough personality to carry over into voice talent. For Temeraire, I was looking for someone with a light, airy voice, and even though I think James Callis is probably on the less airy end of the scale, I feel like he has the talent to adjust to that, and the bigger personality.

And why wouldn't you want Helen Mirren? She is a classy, classy lady. Aside from Dame Judy Dench, I tend to think of her as the quintessential English lady. She sounds like a mother, and I think Lily sort of is a mother to Harcourt sometimes.

Derek Jacobi is one of my favorite actors, probably ever. He's so calm when he's just talking to you, but he can bring the noise when he wants to, and what range. Maximus is one of the biggest dragons, he needs a little bit deeper voice, and maybe a little more gravelly.

Well. Arkady doesn't speak much English at first but picks it up eventually. As the de facto leader of the feral dragons he's kind of smooth, talking in in circles. And there's only one person who can do smooth and silky properly while being kind of foreboding and intimidating, and that is Jeremy Effing Irons.

BAHAHA. Okay. I knew there was only one person to be Iskierka, and that was Shirley Henderson. If you don't know who she is, you will once you see her in the video. She's probably best known amongst the fandom crowds as Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Her normal voice is high and girly, lilting, and when she gets in a rage, wow. Stand aside, 'cause fire's going to go.

Honestly, what led me to Gong Li (Li Gong? I don't actually know which way is the Chinese way and which is anglicized) was the memory of her in Memoirs of a Geisha. As Hatsumomo, she creeped be the hell out, nay, even scared me a little. I think she'd be a perfect Lung Tien Lien.

(OH, P.S. I found all the dragon art on the Temeraire Wiki.)