Let's cast the Silmarillion

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Nogrod

How about making it really radical? So forget al the "fan-poster"-idols and those more "beautiful than life" and cast a film with actually ordinary looking people? Well as they would be elves (and the Valar, the Maiar and the baddies) in the case of Silm as most, they should share some characteristics of them, but anyhow. So dissing all the "supermodels" and the fan-magazine -guys. Just making it for real in a sense?

I agree to some point. I think Elves should be cast with some really unhuman-looking people (yeah, like the few scary looking archers in Lorien and the elf-guy who was accompanying Arwen to the West in the movies). But they shouldn't look like commoners, no way! They should be special. And they should be beautiful in some way at least, because surely there has never been anything like ugly elf?

As to the Men, I agree with you. We really should see normal people in these roles, as long as it isn't in contradiction with what they are described to look as in the books. For surely it can't be a very normal looking person who plays someone who is said to look e.g. noble and elf-like. I mean, the descriptions of the characters would pretty much ruin the commoner-looking -cast. Too many of them are described with words you can hardly use for every second guy you see. (And this is not to mean that filmstars'd be any better for these roles...)

The third point is that before we should cast the Silm, we should consider whether we'd like to have a pure fantasy tale, a legend or would we try to add some depth and make the story more human (which could ruin it; in the end, Silm's main merit is nobleness and high beauty and the feeling of a legend) and make the people look like real people. If we want to see the Silm as a legend, we shouldn't maybe have commoners in the main roles. A legend tale where e.g. Túrin is 170cm tall, a bit plump and has a potato-shaped nose slips over the edge to comedy. And surely that's not what we want. If we'd try the "more human" version, I'd be warmly recruiting a bit more commoner type actors. For I'm too a bit bored to se the same botox-faces all the time...

So, it depends on the viewpoint.