This summer, my world will most likely be rocked by the Starz release of the drama series, Outlander. Outlander, the first in an epic 8+ book series written by Diana Gabaldon, is my all-time favorite book. It's the book I would choose to bring with me should I ever be stuck on a deserted island forever more. I've read it countless times already, and anticipating the series premier this summer, I recently picked it back up again, just for a refresher, though I'll probably be done with it months before the premier.
Anyway, for years, there've been blog posts by the author which stated that the rights had been purchased by this company or that, to adapt the story for screen, all of which came to nothing. So it's always been a tease. And then one day, she announced that Sony had purchased it! I immediately knew it would be on screen for sure, if a huge company like Sony bought it. Sure enough, it was announced that the story was being adapted and they were bringing in some big names to work on it! I was so excited, although once I found out it was going to be on Starz, I was *slightly* less excited, as we don't even have cable, let alone a premium channel like Starz. But a friend is also a big fan, and she has cable, so I think the plan is that I'll go halfsies on Starz with her, and we'll have Outlander dates every week.
Back to the main topic though... the casting details. The two main actors cast, Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan, have obviously drawn a lot of attention from fans. So many love the story of Jamie and Claire, and everyone has a mental image of what each one looks like. No one actor was ever going to fit the image of every reader, so some were going to be disappointed. The funny thing though, is that many are choosing to focus on one little insignificant detail found in the books, which won't happen on screen. And that is the color of Caitriona/Claire's eyes.
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| Caitriona Balfe as Claire |
In the books, Claire's eye color is often referred to. They are whiskey colored, or golden brown, or hawk-like. Caitriona's eye color is blue. She is not wearing golden colored contacts, nor is the production team going to go in after filming and alter the color in editing. And some are swearing off the whole thing over this. Not the acting. Not the screenplay. Not because it's going to be on Starz. Because of eye color! It boggles my mind. Honestly, I don't think the eye color has
any importance in furthering the plot. None. It's a nice minor detail that we get reminded of often in the books, but I doubt a production company is going to waste precious time and money over it.
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| Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter |
This reminds me of another eye color switcharoo that didn't turn out so important after all, even though some thought it would ruin the movie. That's right. Harry Potter. In the books, we're often reminded that Harry's eyes are green, and that they look exactly like his mother's. It's actually more important later on in the series, what with Snape still holding a flame for Lily. Anyway, the actor cast to play Harry, Daniel Radcliffe, has blue eyes. Big bright blue eyes. And further more, the actor cast to play Lily, Gerladine Somerville, has blue eyes as well. But they're not exactly like Daniel's. The shock! How could Snape look into Harry's eyes and see Lily's when they're not even the same? Yeah, I don't know either. Yes, my sarcastic font is on.
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| Jonathan Rhys Myers as King Henry VIII |
But you know when it does kind of matter? When you cast a famous historical figure. The most recent mis-cast, besides apparently Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher
(which I've never read nor care about), is that of Jonathan Rhys Myers as King Henry VIII on the Showtime series, The Tudors. Jonathan is listed at about 5'10", and based on his body, I'd hazard a guess that he's less than 200 pounds. The real Henry was about 6'2" and later on in life, was a very portly man. Completely different body types. Very early on, the production team said that Jonathan was not going to gain weight. Nor dye his hair red, as Henry's actually was
(red, not dyed). For a long time, this mis-cast bothered me a lot. Jonathan just was not physically imposing on screen, something which I'd always assumed was needed when Henry VIII was involved. But he acted the hell out of the character, so he eventually made me forget it. Mostly, anyway. Either way, THAT'S when details matter... not when the actor has a different eye color than was originally written.
In the end, I don't want to sound like I'm not valuing the opinions of other people. I do. Really. It's just that *my* opinion is that it's silly to focus on something so little, and of not great importance. So I'm saying so, as is my right. Hopefully, the series will rock and will make people forget whose eyes are what color, or that that shade of red isn't red enough. Only a few more months! Oh, and if you haven't read it yet, now's the time to start!
