Hunger Games/Harry Potter

[ghoti_mhic_uait]

Now, I haven't read Hunger Games (although B has and says he thinks I might like it), but I have been reading some of the hype about the movie. This morning's offering, in which so called fans are shocked by the way the casting director chose black actors to play black characters, had me thinking.

It took me an astonishingly long time, as I believe I've mentioned, to work out what was wrong with Emma Watson as Hermione. Her acting's fine, she fits theoretically, but in my head Hermione was black. There's nothing in the books to contradict that impression (I went back and checked).

Do you think it was anticipation of the same sort of outburst that led to Watson, rather than a black actor, being cast? Or do you think the casting director merely had a different mental image? I'm hoping the latter, but even that's a problem, when the immediate mental image of a hero is white.

Oh, and just to make Martha relevant, I'd just like to say, I'm still hoping for a non-white Doctor. It could happen, we've been told it could.

Comments

[1ngi.livejournal.com]

Hermione was white in my head.

I can't quite believe my eyes reading some of those tweets. It's always disconcerting when a character you supposedly 'know'* is portrayed differently but blimey and then some.

I remember being challenged when I saw Denzil Washington cast at the Prince in Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing and I think it taught me something. I think those tweeters who revealed such stupid sentiments need a lot more challenging.

(*which clearly they didn't)

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

He was excellent, I remember not having realised that was such an attractive character before, because it's not so much what he says as how he says it.