Forum Topic
Mr.Shadly
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 2:21 PMNow I don't know the first thing about film casting, so mabey someone can help me out here...My question is, why did Ridley Scott cast Idris Elba (an Englishman) to play Janek (an American)......cast Rafe Spall (an Englishman) to play Milburn (an American).....cast Noomi Rapace (Swedish) to play Shaw (British).......and most confusing of all.....cast Guy Pearce (who is in his early 40's) to play Weyland (who is approximately 85 - 100 years old)?......Don't get me wrong, I thought the actors gave excellent performances (considering the garbage script the had to work with)...but it seems kind of unnecessary to cast actors to play characters from different demographics, especially considering the number of actors out there who would've been much better suited for the roles........(I read somewhere that poor Noomi had to Lear English and develop a convincing accent just to get the part.....see what I mean by unnecessary)..........(btw: when I say there are actors out there better for the roles I mean like getting an old actor to play an old guy.)
11 Replies
legion
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 2:38 PMYou sir are correct in your assumptions. I was wondering the same thing, I know Idris plays the American accent well, Guy I am at a complete loss about that one. The others I don't know, someone who knows about accents should answer that but they seemed pretty good to me.
I guess that's why they're called actors, they're multitalented.
Promethian Man
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 2:47 PMNoomi Rapace failed to have an English accent - she sounded entirely Scandinavian - made all the more confusing, by the little girl portraying the young Shaw being perfectly English-sounding.
Also, her dad was played by Patrick Wilson - an american.
Svanya
AdminPraetorianJun-07-2012 2:44 PMNoomi had to learn a British accent, she already knew how to speak English. I suspect Ridley wanted great actors regardless of where they were from. I think people forget Charlize isn't American, she is South African. Marshall Logan Green is American. Anyways, what does it matter, actors do just that, they act and they can change their accents to fit each role. Idris did a great job imo. They all did. :)
Mr.Shadly
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 2:49 PM@legion.I know right. I must say though...I was pretty impressed with Rapace's performance...she nails the accent (mostly) which surprised me after watching some of her interviews...you can still here the Swedish in her.....but yeah...when I was watching the bits with old Weyland at the movies all I was thinking was " why the f**k would you not use an old actor"...,the make-up looked pretty fake.
Mr.Shadly
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 3:00 PM@Promethian Man. Meh...I thought she did okay, some bits I definitely heard the Scandinavian but all-in-all I bought it...interesting about Patrick Wilson....that just adds to my question....surly having an Englishman play an Englishman would produce a more authentic performance...but like legion said above...they're actors....they're ment to be multitalented.
BioShock
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 3:01 PMSo because they dont speak english it's strange casting. I wouldn't consider this a make a brake in a movie. Lots of nationalities that are American.
Promethian Man
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 3:05 PMit's interesting to hear different opinions of course, I and my friends who watched it ( who are all in the U.K. ) couldn't understand if she ( Noomi Rapace ) was attempting an accent at all - she just sounded like a very well spoken Scandinavian, whose English incidentally normally tends to be great.
But she didn't sound English in the slightest.
ADH0983
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 3:10 PMEnglish people are notoriously better at doing American accents than Americans are at doing English accents.
Idris played Stringer Bell in The Wire for five seasons and he sounded like he was fresh out of Baltimore. I had no idea he was English until three seasons in to The Wire.
There's no problems with people doing other accents, as long as they can pull it off well. Idris CAN.
Mr.Shadly
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 3:18 PM@BioShock. That's not what I'm getting at.....I'm asking why are there are so many actors in the film that play characters from different nations to their own?......I'm certainly not saying it's a bad thing.....I'm saying it's unusual and that it seems kind of unnecessary.......put it this way...(and if anyone finds this following comment offensive or racist, I apologize in advance)....if your making a movie and your looking to cast an actor for you protagonist who is a middle aged Australian man.....do you cast an American, an Italian or an Australian actor?.....in my eyes casting an Australian actor would be a lot more straight forward and would probably be more authentic.......you get me?
Mr.Shadly
MemberOvomorphJun-07-2012 3:52 PM@ADH0983. You got that right. I've seen some pretty appalling attempts by SOME American actors to try and play an Englishman, Scot, ect..... Whereas most English people can pull off a Yank accent with relative ease..... I dunno.. Mabey American accents are just so much easier to fake.
javablue
MemberOvomorphJan-05-2013 1:12 PMAnyone here know anything about accents? A lot of the actors play characters that have different accents to the actors native accents - - Janek, Chance, Milburn, the young Shaw and her father, maybe Ravel and Shaw at times lapses into a Manchester accent.
The sticking points are Holloway (who may be Canadian), Vickers (Theron is South African) and Weyland (Pearce was born in England to an English mother and NZ father and moved to Australian quite young) - all their accents are hard to tie down. Fifield's accent may match Sean Harris' native accent.
I need some experts on accents.
Add A Reply
