Do little details matter in casting a movie?

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.

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.

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.

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!

Stuff

It's Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and I'm tired. Although I'm not a Black Friday shopper normally, I did come across some good sales on things I was looking to get anyway, so I spent some time online in the wee hours of the morning shopping. It would have gone quicker and smoother had the vendors' checkout system not crashed. But it got fixed and I got my stuff. I'm super excited about it, too. :) No. You can't know what I got... there are people who read this blog whose Christmas gifts would be spoiled if I told. But trust me. It's awesome!

Thanksgiving went well. It was me, DH & 2 other friends. DH & I cooked. And I must say, my turkey came out really well. I zested an orange, mixed it with a stick of softened butter, and then slathered it on. Then I sprinkled dried rosemary and black pepper on top. As more flavoring, I quartered the zested orange and quartered an onion and stuffed it all inside (I stuffed before I lathered the butter on... way less mess). Chicken broth was the liquid of choice in the pan. Although I don't eat the skin so didn't taste the orange, the meat was super moist and flavorful. If I keep this up, I'm going to be forced to cook the turkey every holiday (up until last Christmas, DH and/or my FIL did the holiday cooking... and it was good).

In other news, I chipped the corner of one of my front bottom teeth while I was sleeping. Don't know how it happened, but I vaguely remember feeling the chipped part on my tongue, and picking it off and putting it on my nightstand. It's not visible since it's on the bottom, and it doesn't hurt. So I'd considered not bothering to go have it fixed. But my DH wisely pointed out that while it's not a problem now, it likely will be in the future, so why not get it fixed now? Good point. I knew there was a reason why I married him... he's all logical and stuff.

19 Kids and Counting

This morning, it was announced that Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are expecting their 20th child. Immediately, there were posts on the internet slamming them for various reasons, most of which though were aimed at their common sense. But that is probably nothing new to them, as they've probably heard it since their 10th child.

So here's how I feel about it. Am I happy for them? Yes. They are living according to their religious beliefs regarding children and don't think they're doing it just because they have a TV show. Their first baby born on camera was #15, so you just gotta know they'd keep having them regardless of whether the camera was there or not. It's clearly what they want, and they should be allowed to practice their religion, even if it is something neither you or I would choose ourselves. And if they were on welfare or other public assistance, I would think differently. But they can afford the amount of children they have, so I can't fault them there.

But do I question the wisdom of having more children after Michelle developed severe enough preeclampsia that #19 was born at 25 weeks? Definitely. There is a pretty good chance she'll have it again, which is life-threatening, and with her age (45) the chances are also good of having a baby with some handicap. They've been extremely lucky so far, and I hope this one falls in that same category. But sooner or later when you play Russian Roulette, you're going to lose.

At the same time, I'm also very sad for their existing children, specifically the older girls. For those unfamiliar with the family, Michelle actually does very little parenting, instead leaving it mostly for her 4 eldest daughters. They are 21, 20, 19 & 18. The babies these girls raise clearly consider their older sisters as mothers, and Michelle as that one who calls herself their mother, but is only occasionally around. And there's another daughter who just turned 14... you gotta believe this next baby will be hers for the primary care after Michelle's done breastfeeding. So far she's avoided the bulk of child-rearing, mostly due to her age, but now she's a "woman" in their view, and it's time to learn.

It's all kind of sad and happy at the same time.

Randomness

I'm tired of talking about infertility... for a little bit at least. So this post won't be about it. Yay!

But it will be a very random type of post. Because that's how I roll. :)

First, we have apples up the wazoo. Our apple tree had a bumper crop this year, and for once, we're actually going to be using them. Usually we just let them go. But anyway, we got our first frost last night, so after my husband got home from work, we took a few hours and did some picking and some major pruning... the tree is so huge that we will be unable to get the apples near the top. The only problem is though, is that I have no idea what to do with them all. He's going to be taking 2-3 boxes to his workplace, but we'll be keeping the rest. I'm thinking I'll make some apple chips, apple leather and apple sauce. It might involve me going back to Walmart and buying more jars for canning though. That's okay I guess.

Second, figure skating Grand Prix season starts tomorrow, and I'm super excited! I'm an uber fan and watch all the competitions online, whenever they may be on... which is sometimes at ridiculous times since most of the competitions will be held in Europe or Asia. But this weekend, it'll be in the US (Skate America), so I won't have to rearrange my sleep schedule. Yay! I have yet to actually attend a competition, but it's on my to-do list.

Third, I think I've lost about 5 pounds since I've started swimming. Yay! It just amazes me how much weight I'd gained while I worked. I was at 115 when I started working in June 2003, and at my max in March 2010, I weighed 145 and I was just about ready to move up a dress size... not cool. But then I got laid off, and 2 days later, got all 4 wisdom teeth out and really couldn't eat much for 2 weeks, so I lost about 10 pounds right there. And ever since then, it's just been coming off so gradually that I really haven't noticed until recently. Now I'm skirting around the 122-125 range, and I wouldn't mind getting back to 115. But my clothes fit well now, so I'm not sure I wanna try to get to a smaller size. We'll see. With the holidays coming up, it might be a tough battle to stay at this weight, but I'll give it a go. Good thing I don't normally eat a lot of Christmas cookies!

An Introduction

Hello. I thought I'd give this blogging thing a try, and share interests, challenges and just the randomness that is my life.

A little about me... I'm a 29 year old female living in a small city in North Dakota. I've been married for over 2 years to the wonderful guy I met in college, though we've been together for for 9 years total. I am a new homemaker, and still trying to learn the ropes of that... it's more work than it sounds like. And for the past 2 years, we have been actively trying to conceive... and not getting very far. I hope to share some of the challenges as we try to figure things out. I can't promise there won't be any rants or poor-me posts... because most likely, there will be, because it goes with the territory of infertility.

My blog won't be solely about infertility.... it'll just be about my life and whatever is going on at any given point in time.

Enjoy!