I love reading as many of you might know by now. I also enjoy reading books that I know are going to be made into movies. While the movies rarely live up to the books, most I still enjoy. It's not exactly the movies fault either. Turning a 400-page book into a two hour movie is easier said then done. Scenes have to be cut or reduced in length, sometimes at the cost of fully developing the plot. The main plot usually shines through, but it can be shallow without the charm or intensity of a books. The moviemakers are faced with another challenge of turning descriptive words into real places. Words can be rich with detail, while in a movie many of these details are overlooked. With all that said, in recent years I feel the biggest downfall in the transition format print to film is the casting. For some reason casting directors often use their own ideas of what characters should look like instead of following the descriptions given by the author.
In so many cases, the movie loses an element by not casting the right person for the character. People have already connected with the characters through the book so what is the reasoning behind the changes. The most recent casting oversight was announced just this week. Jennifer Lawrence won the lead role in the upcoming Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is the first of movies inspired by a trilogy of books. Yes I know these books are geared toward a younger audience, but I wouldn't consider their material only for teenagers. In fact, I thought the gruesomeness of the books would be a little daunting for 12 year olds. Anyways, Lawrence is set to portray Katniss, a 16-year-old with olive skin and dark hair. Obviously the hair can easily be dyed as for the skin who knows, but my biggest problem is her age. At almost 21 she looks nothing like a 16 year old.
The casting director defended his choice by stating they want the movie to appeal to an older audience because teens will show up regardless. Wow- ouch. Sorry teens, your demographic doesn't matter at all here even though you are supposively the target audience for the books. The author also backed this choice stating Katniss is really a young woman not a teen. Umm, but she is a teen. Isn't the point of the book to show the cruelness of the country's government? I wouldn't exactly want to live in a place that found kids murdering each other entertaining. It's a sick concept, but why try to downplay the fact that it indeed features children killing each other. The casting director and author's reasoning simply doesn't make sense. They are losing a major concept in the book by casting older actors. Katniss isn't supposed to look like a likely opponent to win the games. She comes from a poor district and is basically skin a bone. At 16, there are still competitors who can be as much as two years older than her. With Lawrence's age, she looks to be one of the older competitors when she is not. To make matters worse, they are considering casting an almost 24-year-old as the male lead who is also supposed to be 16.
Another reason their defense doesn't work is Harry Potter. Those were books set for a young teen audience, but they didn't cast 15 year olds for the three lead roles who were supposed to be 11. Instead they took a risk and cast three relatively unknown 11 year olds, and I don't think its audiences have suffered. They captured the essence of the books by casting actors that were actually they right age. The three actors grew with their characters, and audience were able to relate to them no matter their personal age. In the movies you saw the innocence of the actors and felt a realness to their struggles to overcome the odds.
Okay rant finished. You might be wondering, well who would I pick for the lead roles in The Hunger Games? Haliee Steinfeld for Katniss. Yes, I know she is only 14, but she would be 15 by the time shooting started. She had the right skin, hair and obvious acting chops- hence her best supporting actress nomination. For the male lead I would love to see Josh Hutcherson from The Kids Are All Right. While he is 19, he has a very young face, which also happens to resemble the character. He is not just a pretty face either, which the casting directors have been leaning toward. Maybe I should consider a career in casting haha, you never know.
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