DE: Faces

[bjornwilde]

 I'm braindead this morning so one from the DE Suggestion box today. yakalskovich would like to know:

When you were looking for your pup's PB, what would have been the alternatives to the one you're using? If you have a pup from a visual canon: has anybody else ever played the same character, and if not -- if you need to re-cast your pup's PB for some reason (as one does): who would it be?

And an addendum, if you have no answers or ideas for yourself, comment with a request for suggestions!

Comments

[damncompass]

Joshua and Helena are their PBs. I really don't want to change them, because, well. Yes.

Valentine is technically on her second PB, however, if I age her up, I'm going to use a different person, mostly because Natalie Dormer didn't really exist when I was first playing Val, and she works better than Alicia Silverstone for this version of her.

Mark is Anthony Rapp. I guess if I ever wanted another PB, I might use Neil Patrick Harris, but to be honest, I think the only person who actually was ever cast by Jonathan Larson is good enough for me.

Fantine is going to get a PB change because as much as I love Anne Hathaway, she just doesn't work for my mental Fantine, and neither, really, do any of the people I've seen play her. I'm considering Claire Danes.

[inlovewithwords]

Thumbs up to the thing about Mark. Because really.

[damncompass]

Seriously. I've had fights with people who say Mark should have brown hair before I point out that Jonathan Larson cast Anthony Rapp. In fact, he really was the only person he cast, because he was in both the NYTW version and Broadway.

Suck it, fandom.

[camwyn]

I originally didn't bother using a live-action pb for Gordon, just fan art. I did have one human photograph that I used for him, a black-and-white shot of Charlie Sheen in "The Arrival" looking all scientific in his glasses. Then one day Ramen pinged me after watching the Speed Racer live action movie and told me to go watch it, because Inspector Detector was live-action Gordon, just a little shorter and blue eyed instead of green. If I had to recast, I'd just go back to fanart and commission some pieces of him with one eye missing if need be.

For Shephard I went looking for somebody vaguely average-looking and pale skinned, because the only thing we know about Shephard's canon appearance is that his forearms have pale skin (it's in his box art). John Cusack fit the bill, and his performance in The Jack Bull indicated that he could do hellaciously stubborn if I needed. Most of Shep's icons are taken from The Thin Red Line, which I think is the only movie where Cusack wears a uniform, even if it's the wrong one. If I had to recast him I'm not sure what I'd look for instead. Probably go back to fanart of guys in gas masks until I found somebody else.

Ellen's original PB was pulled out of thedailies.grimfandango.org because she a) was Korean and b) looked young enough. There were, I think, two or three Korean actresses who fit the criteria and I wound up picking Yoon Eun Hye because I liked her smile. If I had to recast her I'd go with the Thai martial artist/actress Jeeja Yanin, as I've already used her image for several Ellen icons- she may be Thai, but she bears an eerie resemblance to Yoon Eun Hye, and has the advantage of being from canons where she gets beaten up and makes more facial expressions than 'calm' or 'vaguely pleasant smile'.

Medic used fan art and screen caps; he didn't have a PB until relatively recently, when someone suggested Stephen Colbert. I'd just go back to fan art if I had to recast, I think.

Edward Kenway was mostly screen shots until I looked at bearded Charlie Hunnam and realized he just needed a short ponytail to fit the part. I think I was considering Chris Hemsworth as an alternative PB; I might go with him if I recast.

Varric has no PB. It's all screen shots. Aimo's fan art would probably do if I needed an alternative.

NO RECASTING OF STACKER PENTECOST. NO. HE IS AWESOME AND THAT IS THAT.

And the only possible recasting of El Santo would be for me to use images of Hijo de Santo- the name his RL son uses in the wrestling ring.

[inlovewithwords]

I somehow had not realized you used Colbert for Medic PB. That is one of the funniest and best things.

And yes. No recasting of Stacker Pentecost. Ever.

[hecu_marine]

I don't use Colbert often, since there's plenty of screen caps and fan art, but the handful of live action shots I use of anybody for Medic are of Colbert. I think Leesha was the one who pointed him out as a candidate to me.

[bjornwilde]

Jennifer Connelly has always fit my mental picture of Jessica Drew but recent fancasts have been very strong; specifically, Meghan Ory, Evangeline Lilly, or Julia Voth. I'd likely recast as Meghan if I had to.

With Hank and Anton, I am fine with the casting of their respective movies, i.e. Nicholas Holt and Konstantin Khabenskiy. I also love Jamie Chung for Mulan and can't imagine anyone else since Ming-Na Wen is busy elsewhere. I honestly can't imagine anyone else for these three.

Brimstone is sort of unique for this as he has a ram's head. I did start using some of the Pan from Pan's Labyrinth for more expressions but it doesn't quite work. I'd love any suggestions for expressive ram headed sources.

Andrea was a tough choice for me. I first tried Alicia Silverstone and Reese Witherspoon, but I could never find fierce expressions. I also tried Yvonne Strahovski, but she seemed too tall and typically too fierce. Then I came across a fancasting of Allison Mack and it just clicked. If I were forced to recast, I might hunt further with Alicia Silverstone.

For Quin, I can't imagine anyone else but Jason Momoa and not just because of the dreads.

And finally Lady Trent. I ended up with Georgina Reilly from Murdoch Mysteries due to facial expressions, costuming, and the fact the character she plays is a forensic doctor; so I get a more scientific and practical look and fell. Looking for a younger face, I came across Lucy Boynton from Sense and Sensibilities, which again fit for costuming and facial expressions. I can also tell myself she looks enough like Georgina that she's believable as the younger self. I still need to find a good elder and perhaps middle-aged face for Lady Trent but I've some time.

[minkhollow]

Claudia, Red and Woolly are all so much their PBs that I can't imagine recasting them.

I also can't imagine recasting most of the ones I've picked out. Natalie Dormer and NPH are perfect for Cata and Sam, respectively, and Orlando Bloom has been my mental Imp since 2003. That one's really not budging.

I did look at several options for Apollo, but Jensen Ackles worked the best of anyone I found. In theory I could skew younger, but I don't know if anyone else would really look right.

Regulus is actually on his second PB in the time I've played him; the first wasjust never in use here. First game I had him in, the person playing Sirius suggested Colin Hanks (in part because he'd played Sirius' PB's brother on Roswell), and then when I apped him here Quinn suggested Robert Sean Leonard ca. Dead Poets' Society.

[mnt_mike]

I hadn't ever seen "Scrubs" when I chose Zach Braff to be Raph's human face. The only thing I knew him from was the "Garden State" trailer, where he just sort of looks...awkward and had a distinctive nose. That's like...one thing I knew Raph would have, was a nose that people noticed.

Later though, I totally went with a mixture of Dominick Lombardozzi, Michael Chiklis, and Jason Statham, all for various reasons.

Originally, when I went to make Mike human, I just wanted someone with a big smile. In my mind that's the thing that distinguishes Mike from his brothers the most: he smiles...all the time. So I was thinking Ernie Reyes Jr. because he has a lovely smile, and because of the meta.

But in the end I couldn't find enough images of Ernie, so I went with Breckin Meyer, he of the big dopey smile.

Ages ago I drafted the brothers for a Harry Potter AU, and in that AU Dante Basco is Raph, and Lucas Neff is Mike.

Splinter was almost Mako, but then Muji suggested George Takei, and really who am I to argue with that?

The Loompas are either the actual Loompas from the Gene Wilder movie, the Korn Kids from the video for "Freak On A Leash," or...random children with mohawks from Getty.

[ceitfianna]

I know someone suggested James McAvoy as Will for me, before that I was searching redheaded models and not finding anyone that worked. He completely clicked for me and I can't imagine anyone else as Will.

James McAvoy is also perfect as younger Charles.

For Ivan, I was looking for someone dark, handsome and kind looking, TL spotted David Conrad who works well for me. I wish I had more icons of him and I don't think I'd recast him unless I found someone even more perfect.

I ended up with Jude Law for Moist as I was browsing Hollow Art for blond men and he had an icon with this perfect smirk and suit combo and I knew I had him. I know in the Going Postal movie, he was played by another actor who I do like but he's not my version of Moist.

Logan Lerman is my William since his portrayal in the movie is why I play him, same with Anne Hathaway for Jane, James McAvoy with Tumnus and Kevin Kline with the Pirate King.

When I was looking for Sameth's PB, I wanted this combination of someone who looked right with dark hair and a slightly daydreamy look. I found this one icon of Will Young and he fit my mental image. That's usually how it goes for me, if I can find an icon that fits my idea of the character, that's the PB I go with.

With Demeter, it was key to me to have two PBs for the summer and winter, both with blonde hair. I think again it was looking through Hollow Art that I happened to find Dame Judi Dench and Kate Winslet looking the way I wanted. I really can't imagine shifting either of them.

[damncompass]

One of these days, I need to have Val doubletake at William, because my headcanon for Peter is Logan Lerman.

[ceitfianna]

I"d love that as he's had that happen before since at one point we had a Percy Jackson and Albus Potter both had Logan as his PB. This reminds me I need to look into finding him some more icons as he's had more movies coming out lately and he's not looking as young as he was in the movie.

[inlovewithwords]

Henry: unique PB from visual media, and I approve. I am not thinking about adult PBs yet, okay.

Eriond: Goodness. I don't remember all the candidates I looked at, but I'm pretty happy. I'd just go hunting down more vaguely innocent looking blonds.

Tavi: for younger versions of Tavi I don't recall who else I considered, but I've never been entirely happy. Raoul Bova I stumbled across in my first Hollow-Art search for 'Roman' and 'green eyes.' I never looked elsewhere, so I have no freaking clue.

Lois: ...oh, Lois, Lois, Lois. She gets a post all her own, I think, so people can skip the tl;dr if they like. Summary: so many options for Lois, sob; never ever re-casting Smallville!Lois.

[bjornwilde]

I actually was thrown this season when Henry spoke and his voice was so different. =]

[genarti]

River is PBed by her actual actress, of course, and I have no idea who else I would possibly use. Anyone else's version of River would be very different from Summer Glau's, and she's not exactly the kind of character you can use any random actress to PB.

Regan is also PBed by her actual actress, Isabella Hofmann, but she's only in one very short scene and there aren't a ton of pictures of her floating around. I wouldn't be inherently averse to choosing or adding another PB, if I played her more and found my icons lacking. But I don't have any particular inspiration for it.

Thor is played fantastically by Chris Hemsworth (I love that casting so much; I love all the MCU casting a whole lot) and I have no desire to replace him. Also, he's another for whom it'd be hard to find a replacement as PB -- the hair, the expressions, the build, they're just not generic. If I were playing the comics version, I'd use comics pictures rather than a live-action PB, though.

Trowa, I have no idea. (I'm pretty sure that if I ever give him a haircut, I'll have to switch to a PB, and if I ever switch to a PB I'll have to give him a haircut...) I would have thought about Keanu Reeves if he weren't too old, too dark-haired, and most importantly already PBing Havelock. Technically speaking, though, Trowa is already pushing ten years older than his icons show, so who knows; maybe sometime I'll recast him. It'd have to be somebody with the right build and narrow-but-not-delicate face shape, the right coloring, ideally Latino and/or Mediterranean heritage, and a lot of mostly impassive microexpressions. Also, ideally more average-looking than Hollywood-style hot.

Clare has enough variety of situations and expressions -- uh, inasmuch as the CHARACTER even changes expressions mostly -- for me to be satisfied. Thankfully, there are some excellently diligent fans who've made a lot of icons out of hand-colored scans from the b&w manga, too. If I wanted to switch to a PB, though, she'd be easier than some, because she is young and canonically pretty. I'd need to find an actress who was 18-20 and had blond hair in the right kind of bob, and then spend a lot of Photoshop type bleaching out her hair and skin and turning her eyes silver. And I'd probably still have to keep anime and manga icons for her sword and armor.

Cosette, I kind of wish I had a PB for her who had actual 1830s hair -- the movie's fashion is pretty good, to my knowledge, but they just don't even try with Cosette's hair, which is fair enough because 1830s women's hairstyles were ridiculous. But still. I also would go with her bookverse hair color of brown if I could. But I'm otherwise really pleased with Amanda Seyfried, so this isn't really a complaint!

Enjolras... man, finding a really book-accurate PB for Enjolras is something I would love, but it's REALLY HARD. You can find people who have the right controlled fierce intensity, and you can find people who are blond and extremely androgynously pretty, but it's really hard to find someone who's both, and especially hard to find that in someone in period costume. And I very much do not want to have an Enjolras PB in modern dress. So I go with Aaron Tveit from the 2012 movie, because even if he doesn't look quite right to me (a little too old, not quite androgynously pretty enough) he does have the 1830s outfits and hair and fantastic expressions, and he's playing the actual role so he's doing a lot of hanging out on barricades with carbine in hand.

[presspasskey]

Thanks to Wikipedia, ladies who have played Lois Lane, Intrepid Reporter:
- In a musical (no, really): Patricia Marand, Leslie Ann Warren
- Radio: Rolly Bester, Joan Alexander (who also did the Fleischer cartoon)
- Animation (including video games): various voice actors, including Shannon Farnon, Monica Murray, Adrienne Mischler, Anne Heche, Kyra Sedgwick, Christina Hendricks, Grey DeLisle, Pauley Perette, Stana Katic, Maria Bamford, and of course most predominantly the inestimable Dana Delany.
- And, of course, Live Action: Noel Neill and Phyllis Coates (some random film-like things and the first Superman TV show), Margot Kidder (Reeve-era movies), Teri Hatcher (Lois and Clark: the New Adventures of Superman), Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns), Amy Adams (Man of Steel), and Smallville's own Erica Durance.

I would never, ever re-cast Smallville's Lois, not for a moment. Heck, I re-cast Superman Returns Lois to be Durance because I loathed Bosworth's performance in that stupid movie so much. Who Lois looks and sounds and acts like very much depends, for me, on which version it is (if forced into a live-action PB for DCAU, Dana Delaney!Lois I might go with Kidder, for instance), but Durance is far and away my favorite.

That said, if I had to go with a non-Durance PB... I would mostly weep for the world that there are no (or certainly not enough) pictures of young Joanne Carter, a model whose ad in the paper looking for work got the notice of Joe Schuster, who needed a basis for the journalist his partner-in-creation Jerry Siegel wanted as a love interest for their developing character Superman. Carter later met Siegel as well: "I remember the day I met Jerry in Joe's living room. Jerry was the model for Superman. He was standing there in a Superman-like pose. He said their character was going to fly through the air, and he leaped off the couch to demonstrate."

Joanne became Lois's middle name at some point in comics history, and Carter married Siegel. If I ever had to re-cast any Lois, or cast comics!Lois... I'd be devastated that young pictures of the original Lois Lane* probably don't exist.

*There is some evidence/argument that she was not in the end the original model. But screw it, that's a great story--even if Lois would object to going for the spirit rather than facts of the matter. Luckily, I am not a reporter.

[not_my_sandbox]

Amascut was originally going to be PB'ed by Christine Solomon, but I gave up on her pretty fast because of the lack of pictures of her that didn't have that silly sultry-serious sameface that fashion models wear. Then I found Yasmin Abd ElAziz! Yasmin's only problem for me, though, is that she resolved to never play any dramatic or action roles. Well, romantic comedy/drama is fine and slapstick violence is completely fine with her. I dunno who else I would use as a PB, though.

Fairy Fixit -- Gee, I don't know. I have a feeling Lisa Kudrow would work personality-wise but Zanaris fairies are fairly non-human. Bug-eyes and big heads. Pointed ears, but, eh. I have one altered photo of Amanda Seyfried as an icon but otherwise I use Fixit's in-game model and carefully cropped pictures of Winry Rockbell from Full Metal Alchemist. Suggestions?

[aberration]

All of mine are from visual canons. The only one that's been played by another actor is Will Graham, who was played by William Petersen in Manhunter and Edward Norton in Red Dragon. I've only seen Red Dragon, but I know the version I play is a very different take on the character from either, so I don't feel much connection to them in how I play him. As a lot of how I play Will is tied specifically to Hugh Dancy's physical performance, I… don't really know how I'd recast him. It's not that I think no one else could play him, just that I think how I play him would be inherently different if he were being portrayed by someone else. (I'm more glad that I have the book version to fall back on, as this character in particularly has made me really aware of the differences in trying to portray various aspects/actions in visual vs. non-visual mediums.) My first thought is actually Bryan Fuller's genderbent suggestion of Hillary Swank, though that comes to mind even without my specifically thinking of it as genderbending.

My other live-action canon characters are Elle, who was played by Kristen Bell, and Leslie Knope, who is played by Amy Poehler. In the case of the latter, Amy Poehler really defines and I think to some extent created the character, so it'd be pretty much impossible to replace her. As for Elle… well, someone else probably could have played her, but I like Kristen Bell a lot so I have no interest in recasting her.

All of the rest of mine are animated. Though I guess Katara did have a live-action actress in that Thing We Don't Speak Of, but… we don't speak of it. The only one I sought out a real life person PB for was Asami, and ended up choosing Satomi Ishihara. Which, I wouldn't say I'm overly attached that choice, but I'd wanted some real life reference for Asami.

I don't have much idea for my others – for the most part it would just be too hard to find someone who looked right and had appropriate costuming, so. There have been people I've wanted to use as PBs, but have never had the chance/opportunity to. There are a lot of pretty people!! Thing.

[misslucyjane]

Most of mine are from visual canons or have acquired visual canons, so I use their actors. The only non-visual ones are tipsilyeverafter and goodnight_nightvale, both from podcasts. I was going to use Dita Von Teese for Sadie, but then I found some great pictures of her actual voice actress, Padget Brewster, and decided to use her instead. Cecil's icons are mostly nature scenes; the ones that are people are stock photos from the search "men in suits with tattoos."

[singthesong]

I don't use a PB! YAY! 8D

Seriously though, the reason is that I started doing this because I got to see Assassins on stage, which basically means that my own personal mental PB for the Balladeer is always going to be the actor who played him in that production. It's just different seeing someone live, as opposed to listening to the recordings of the original and Broadway shows, you know? Besides, Neil Patrick Harris would have been my mental picture before this, and I associate him with waaaaaaaay too many different things to make for a successful PB. I'd always just look at my icons and see Barney Stinson or something.

Since this particular actor was not super-famous, however, it would be horrible to try to find enough good pictures and variety in expression to use as icons, and I would feel like a creepy stalker for attempting it. So I decided to just forego faces at all and do some pretentious shit with photographs of instruments. Given that the character's name is the Balladeer, I think it's not a huge stretch.

[cameoflage]

I don't have a PB for Aradia; Homestuck panels and panel edits have generally been sufficient. However, I'd like to have one for ifwhen she picks up a human disguise the way Karkat, Nepeta, and Kanaya have, so if anyone has ideas I'd love to hear them.

Long story short, if I'd found an actual celebrity PB for Thurlow I would have used them instead of dressing up as the character and pulling faces. I strongly resemble them, have access to suitable clothing and a camera of acceptable quality, and it is really damn hard to find an androgynous PB wearing Victorian(esque) clothing at all, never mind one who actually looked anything like my mental image/previous drawings. Or at least the icon communities I go to have small pools of androgynous PBs and Victorian PBs, when they even have tags for those characteristics. I just kind of gave up on finding a conventional PB and this was my second choice. (I prefer live-action icons; if that weren't the case or if Thurlow didn't look like me, I might have just used the art I'd already drawn.)

[rudderless]

Clementine: Has a canon doppelganger, as played by Donna D'Errico. I imagine that'd be my choice if I had to switch it up.

Dixie: Mae West!

Juliet: *Cough*MiraSorvino*Cough*

Pinkie Pie: Her G1 Dopple, Surprise.

Eponine: There's a great wealth of Ep FC options, but I like the idea of Nikki best.