Vorkosigan saga headcasting

[lotesse]

a few days ago I left a comment on philomytha's dwidth to the effect that Katharine Hepburn plays Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan in my head - and then I went looking for pictures - and then I started thinking of others - and then I wanted to know what others thought! So below the cut is a picspam of my Vorkosigan Saga headcasting. I love knowing what books characters look like in people's heads, and I couldn't cast several key figures, so supplements are super welcome!



Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan - Katharine Hepburn




Aral Vorkosigan - this one was hard, but I went with Sir Richard Burton, the actor not the explorer, because somehow he pings the right sexy/daddy vibe




Simon Illyan - Ethan Hawke




Alys Vorpatril - Olivia De Havilland




Ivan Vorpatril - I struggled with this one too, but Ioan Gruffud has the right kind of classical western good looks




Elena Bothari and Elli Quinn - Morena Baccarin and Aishwarya Rai, because she is after all the most beautiful woman in the world




Ekaterin Vorsoisson Vorkosigan - Genevieve Bujold, although admittedly the eye color is wrong




Miles Naismith Vorkosigan - obviously visually casting Miles is difficult, because he doesn't actually have dwarfism. For the purposes of headcasting I went for the right face as opposed to the right body, but I'm not terribly surprised that the Saga hasn't been filmed, you know? Robert Sean Leonard, although again the eye color is wrong




Laisa Toscane Vorbarra - Adele, with her old nose



I'M MISSING GREGOR HOW COULD I BE MISSING GREGOR?! and a lot of other people. So. Ideas? Supplements? Alternates?

Comments

[flourish]

The other problem with Miles is that he doesn't have dwarfism of the same sort as most people with dwarfism, you know? So while I'd be perfectly happy to see Peter Dinklage play him (Miles is quite close to Dinklage's character in Game of Thrones in some ways, which convinces me!) the looks still wouldn't be spot on. I'm sure there's some wonderful undiscovered actor with dwarfism out there who could do it without computer graphicsing, though.

[lotesse]

Bujold didn't make him terribly accessible to cinema! In rl, I'd think that casting an actor like Dinklage would be the best solution - certainly casting an able-bodied actor wouldn't do.

[bookblather]

And Dinklage is AMAZING. I have such a terrible crush on him. I fully believe he could make Miles' madcapness work, and be sympathetic.

[executrix]

I'm actually kind of surprised that no TPTB said, "We need a project for Peter Dinklage while he's still hot...oh, wait, how about the Vorkosiverse?"

[lotesse]

NGL, I would totally watch that in an hot minute.

[feuervogel]

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0618057/ Ulrich Mühe (RIP) for Simon Illyan.

[philomytha]

That's definitely my pick!

[feuervogel]

Aside from playing Stasi officer Wiesler, he had that perfect bland part-of-the-furniture look Illyan does.

[princessofgeeks]

WOW

[executrix]

Ian Richardson!

[philomytha]

Piotr or Ezar, surely?

[lotesse]

Oooh, I love his eyes!

[philomytha]

My Aral is always going to be Oliver Reed as he played Athos in The Three Musketeers. I have some pics somewhere on my LJ, but you have to see the film to really get the full force of his power and charisma in motion. *drools a little*

I love your picks for Elli and Elena! My mental Alys looks vaguely Indian, but I don't have any particular actress in mind.

[lotesse]

*googles* ... yeah, wow, I can definitely see Reed! I'll have to put that adaptation on my to-watch list, it's been a while.

[philomytha]

My pictures are here, but unfortunately the YouTube video is dead now. But he does Aral's smile perfectly :-). And it's a very good version of the story, much better than most of the more recent ones.

d_generate_girl mentioned Tim Roth for Aral, and I can sort of see that too. At least, I can see that Aral breaking his political officer's neck with his bare hands.

And there's my Gregory Peck for Duv, too.

[bookblather]

My personal Cordelia will always be Patricia Tallman. She just seems so... perfect.

[princessofgeeks]

oh wow that is also perfect.

[princessofgeeks]

these are wonderful. OF COURSE Kate Hepburn is Cordelia.

I APPROVE.

I have cast Orlando Bloom as Gregor in my head.

And I understand Bujold herself said her "head-casting" for Aral was Oliver Reed. :D:D:D:D

When I first hear about the books, back in LOTR fandom, a lot people liked Elijah Wood for Miles.

FUN.

[busaikko]

The guy who works at my local glasses shop is a dead ringer for Miles Vorkosigan. I really wanted to tell him that ("Pack bags! Go to Hollywood!" but worried I'd seem like a nutter....

[lannamichaels]

Gregor Vorbarra = Christian Bale.

And my Alys is Tiffani Thiessen, because fandom is evil and bunnied me hard about Padma/Alys/Simon as the White Color OT3.

[mmegaera]

Well, there's this: http://solostar.org/dendarii/Gwynne's%20Casting%20List%20v1b%20rev.pdf, and this: http://books.rocketgranny.com/bujold/vs_casting_sfolse.php And there are several other lists like this running around that are more or less "were these people reading the same books I was?!?"

Not that I agree with many of them. The two actor/character combinations I'm pretty dead set on myself [g] are Francesca Hunt as Cordelia, and Goran Visjnic. I'm pretty dead set against Peter Dinklage for Miles because his body type is all wrong and he's actually too short as well, but it's really a shame because he's a brilliant actor. Given LotR-level work on the movie, I'd like to see David Tennant play Miles. His 10th Doctor certainly shows he'd make a brilliant Admiral Naismith, and his Hamlet shows he can do the serious stuff, too.

[mmegaera]

Argh. That's Goran Visjnic as Gregor. Sorry.

Also, the guy who plays the lead in Grimm, David Giuntoli, looks rather a lot like my idea of Ivan. Unfortunately, Ioan Gruffudd is busy over on the Amelia Peabody movie set, playing Ramses, so he's not available for Ivan [g].

I have spent way too much time mentally casting both series...

[avendya]

oh, that's a perfect Ivan

[thistlerose]

I always pictured Cordelia looking like Kathleen York.

I can also see Julianne Moore in the role.

I'm trying to remember who I used to like for Aral, but it isn't coming to me. *thinks*

[avendya]

That is totally my Cordelia.

[ex_lionpyh573]

That was a completely irresistible cut-tag and I am only tenuously able to live up to it. I don't know enough actors to be able to play this game, but I love seeing other people's choices.

The Miles I imagine is almost the polar opposite of yours; I don't have a name at the ready but I think of him as having a rather sharper and less attractive face. RSL is too good-looking for me! I think of Miles as being much less handsome but more... charged, and having one of those faces that is homely if you don't know him or can't see the intelligence behind it, but almost electrically beautiful in rare moments if you do.

I have always imagined Cordelia to look sort of like Tori Amos (except only in, like, three photographs ever? Man, I just spent twenty minutes looking at pictures of Tori Amos and she is like eighteen different people. All I know is that someone I knew a while ago had a usericon that I always thought of, and that I believe they also thought of, as representing Cordelia Naismith, and I am pretty sure it came from a photo of Tori Amos). ANYWAY, LIKE THIS:



It's similarly hard to find a photo that looks quite right, but I always thought of Elli Quinn as looking like Vera Farmiga:



but I think this is a kind of sloppiness on the part of my brain, in that both Elena and Elli inhabit this vague Carrie-Ann Moss place in my imagination (I, like Miles, clearly have a type) -



I just typed a whole paragraph about how I imagine them to differ physically and then erased it because I realized I have no idea if it's based on canon or made up out of whole cloth. I wish I could remember the actual lines that describe them, though I seem to recall LMB being respectably parsimonious with all her characters' physical details.

(How about Bel Thorne? I looked at the casting list linked above, and when I saw k.d. lang for Bel Thorne I kind of raised my eyebrows, but then I did a desultory image search and uh



I'll consider it.)

I have a really distinct mental image of Illyan (which is interesting; again, how much description does he actually get in the books? I can't remember), though I can't think of an actor for it, and for Gregor; but the amount of men I ogle is clearly lacking in proportion to ladies, haha. I will think on it.

[auroramama]

k.d. lang seems too glib a fancast, but the expression in that picture...!

[holyschist]

Duv Galeni - Vladimir Mashkov: http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzwbnuFNkF1rqp1jro2_400.jpg (I have also considered him for Aral, but I think he's too good-looking and probably not the right build)
Ivan Vorpatril - Kal Penn: http://xfinity.comcast.net/blogs/tv/files/2011/11/kal-penn-robbed.jpg (I know Bujold probably thinks of him as white. I don't, and I think Penn has both the charm and the ability to play slightly jerky to fit Ivan).
Cordelia - Emma Thompson

Bel Thorne - Possibly Tilda Swinton, which might be a little cliched, but she's demonstrated being good at gender ambiguity and complexity in the past.

[ilthit]

Cordelia, Ivan, Elena and Miles here go really well with what I imagined, except for Miles' height, and also when did he ever look that innocent. XD. Hawke and Burton are a bit unnecessarily hunky. Ivan at least was meant to be hunky. Well, I suppose Aral was too. I'd accept Burton if he grew a 19th century moustache.

But, of course, people imagine them differently from other people!

Adele's old nose was so cute.