Casting without Considering Appearance- Page 8

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 9:39am

That's true about the blond wig on Garland, but actually in the book Dorothy's hair color is never mentioned. And the original W. W. Denslow illustrations show her with sort of auburn hair.

But the illustrator who did the rest of the series (and wrote two of his own) always depicted her as blond.

Either way, there's no reason her hair can't be any color at all.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 10:41am

I'm sure I'll piss off someone, but I'm just gonna add that people who bring hair color into a discussion like this cannot possible be being serious. I'm never sure why I'm always accused of not wanting to have a discussion when I happily spell out why I believe what I do, whilst they who disagree resort to nonsense that has nothing to do with anything.

[suestorm]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 10:52am

Perhaps Phyllis you didnt read the title of this thread. its "Casting without Considering Appearance" note, its not about just race. so that includes gay, straight, skinny, fat, young, old, short, tall, blonde, brunette as well as race. not everyone is obsessed about race

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 10:53am

Am I gonna have to start popping a fresh batch of popcorn today?

[newintown]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 10:57am

If you share it with me, 'cause I'm only observing from here on out.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 10:58am

How does gay or straight factor into "casting without considering appearance"?

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 10:58am

I'll share with you newintown.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 11:00am

Thanks, suestorm, I thought you were a kid? No school today?

[suestorm]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 11:10am

Phyllis, sorry that came out toney... you have a point about gay/straight, but earlier in the thread the gay/straight thing was mentioned which is why i included it

Updated On: 1/17/13 at 11:10 AM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 11:15am

But I'll bite and pretend you're serious about the hair thing. Since casting without regard to hair color has been around since people have been performing and there's never ever been a serious contingent of people (and anecdotal parents at a high school don't count) who have been against such a practice and there's no history of it being considered an offensive or divisive practice, there truly is no room for it in a serious discussion.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 11:17am

The parents may have just been upset their child was not Dorothy, and used the hair as a point of contention or scapegoat instead of just plain jealousy.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 11:19am

Real parents and made up for message board parents - they all alike!

[newintown]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 11:21am

I can share this story (with absolutely no opinion connected): when Christine Andreas, a brunette, played Laurey in the 1979 revival of Oklahoma!, they changed Jud's lyric in "Lonely Room" from "her long, yeller hair" to "her long, raven hair."

I think some blonde actresses did picket the Palace briefly, but back then, no one took much notice of such things.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 11:23am

They be all alike in their prejudiceses.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 11:26am

^^^^Why are we picking on Sue? Her point was just that some people take their preconceptions about a character's appearance VERY seriously. Wasn't it only a decade ago that some theater in New Jersey got death threats because they cast an African-American as Jesus. (I guess black Judases are okay.)

I'll even admit that *I* was surprised by the blonde Belle on the current TV show, ONCE. I just didn't send ABC a death threat over it. I thought, "Oh, well. Different version, different interpretation." But I'm terribly sophisticated that way.

***

Thank you for the correction, Regi. I must have gotten the blonde Dorothy from the illustrations in the later books, because I remember being surprised as a kid, well before I ever heard about the Garland wig. (I assume the latter was more an attempt to make her look like Shirley Temple than an effort to be true to the books).

Updated On: 1/17/13 at 11:26 AM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 11:37am

No one is picking on Sue.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 11:39am

I think the blonde wig for Garland was initially chosen because blonde was in at the time. I don't think it was necessarily an attempt to subconsciously make people think of Shirley Temple, especially as the styling of the wig was nowhere near the look of Temple's trademark curls.

And, going off topic because I love talking Oz, even the Baum books are riddled with inconsistencies. For instance, Ozma is blonde at the end of The Marvelous Land of Oz when she is first transformed back into Ozma (and not just in the illustration, Baum describes her as fair haired). Then she must start visiting the royal beauty parlor because she is illustrated as dark haired (I don't remember if Baum describes her as such or just ignores it) in the rest of the books once Dorothy is brought back into the series.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 11:44am

I wouldn't call Belle blonde. If anything, she's a bit ginger or just light strawberry brown.



I do remember when Jennifer Lawrence, an Oscar nominated actress even at that time, was cast as Katniss and people lost their minds. "She's horrible for the part. Her hair is not the right color." And then when they cast a brunette boy to play a blonde Peeta? Ooooh, child.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 11:45am

People also lost their sh*t about Rue, a character who was clearly written to be dark-skinned in the book, being playing by an African-American actress.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 11:45am

You may be right, AEA. I was speculating about the blonde wig, because we know that Mayer tried to get Temple for the film.

***

And I certainly don't want to quarrel with you, Phyllis, since we are on the same side of this issue. But you've called Sue "not serious" twice and then you suggest she invented the anecdote. All because she shared a story about a few people taking hair color too seriously.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 11:48am

People also went crazy about Willow Smith, who played Prim, because the headshot available at the time showed her with a unibrow.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 11:57am

I wouldn't call Belle blonde. If anything, she's a bit ginger or just light strawberry brown.

Your usage is the first time I've ever heard the term "strawberry brown". LOL.

Whatever the color, it's much lighter than the animated Belle, whose brunette-with-auburn-highlights hair is based on that of Paige O'Hara, who supplied the voice. (As I've said elsewhere, Paige and I grew up together, so I'm sure I'm much more aware of her hair color than I am with most actresses.)

But there's a tidbit of insider info for those who don't know: not always (FINDING NEMO, anyone?) but often Disney animators will base the appearance of a character on that of the voice actor playing the part. Belle looks quite a bit like Paige did 20 years ago.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 11:57am

Gav, in her short tenure here Sue has offered some odd and uninformed opinions on a variety of threads. And I don't think you're quarreling, but I still maintain that there's no bullying happening.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 12:00pm

Fair enough, Phyl. I'll stay out of it. It just seems to me that THIS thread is all over the place anyway, so there's room for different approaches to the issue of "appearance".

[Wynbish]

Posted: 1/17/13 at 12:12pm

The only casting complaint I have on OUAT is the differences in accents, like how Aurora has a standard USA accent, while Philip keeps the actor's British accent.