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Rose-tree Dryad wrote:Her biggest scene is the one in which she is trying to talk Rilian, Jill, Eustace and Puddleglum out of believing in Narnia, and I think it's imperative that her voice has a very lyrical, hypnotic quality to it. I would love for the words and music to be so artfully, gently persuasive, putting the listener in such a dream-like state, that the audience actually empathizes with Rilian and the questers when they begin to believe that Narnia isn't real at all.

Quite so, but what about her other scenes? LOTGK goes white with rage and can have a deadly, icily calm sort of voice when she first arrives after the Prince. That is Barbara Kellerman's take on her in the BBC version of SC.

So whoever plays her needs more than "gently persuasive, putting the listener in a dream-like state". I can appreciate what you say about lyrical and hypnotic. The book suggests she plays a mandolin, not a very common sort of musical instrument. One of the only ones I've seen played in any film are in "Return to Oz", an old film whose Princess Mombi character does seem to resemble LOTGK a little.

I really like the way they made Angelina Jolie look in Maleficent. Not the costume, and not that I want her to play LotGK. I mean the face, her weird eyes, the way her cheekbones don't look human. This might have been mentioned earlier, but what if LotGK had snake eyes with a slit in them. I can kind of see Rillian, as Puddleglum gives his final declaration, looking into the witch's eyes and seeing the eyes of a snake. His own eyes widen in horror as he realizes who she is a split second before the rest of her proceeds to transform.

waggawerewolf27 wrote:Quite so, but what about her other scenes? LOTGK goes white with rage and can have a deadly, icily calm sort of voice when she first arrives after the Prince. That is Barbara Kellerman's take on her in the BBC version of SC.

Very good point! The actress needs to have a great deal of range for this role; her sweetness needs to be believable, and her fury needs to be believable as well, at least for the lines of "What are you doing? Dare to touch my fire again, mud-filth, and I'll turn the blood to fire inside your veins." Lewis makes a point to tell the reader that her voice sounded utterly different from all of her sweet tones previously.

I don't know if her words to the Earthmen are icy inasmuch as they sound serious and concerned because the "prince is unbound from the chair that was his only safety", since Lewis doesn't mention her voice changing between talking to the gnomes and talking to Rilian. On the face of it, though, it certainly looks like an icy, deadly sort of sentence.

Anfinwen wrote:This might have been mentioned earlier, but what if LotGK had snake eyes with a slit in them. I can kind of see Rillian, as Puddleglum gives his final declaration, looking into the witch's eyes and seeing the eyes of a snake. His own eyes widen in horror as he realizes who she is a split second before the rest of her proceeds to transform.

Ooh, that's a wonderful idea! I really like that; I hope they do something like that in the film. The LotGK's pupils turning into slits would be the perfect beginning to her transformation. I also love the idea of Rilian putting two and two together just a split second before she morphs into the serpent.

I don't know of any specific actress I would like in the role. I think I'd be happy with an actress that not many people know about. I do like some of the well known actresses, or could even see them working in the part, but I'm afraid I'd probably see them as their characters in what else they're in as well.

As far as looks go, I've always thought of her as having a dark brown hair, or possibly really light blond, though I have a more vague picture of that. I think thirties would be a good age for the actress to be, or at least look.
I agree that the voice is really important. I still remembering listening to the Radio Dramatization and her voice is quite lyrical and relaxing to listen to. I do think that the actress needs to be able to do both lyrical/hypnotic and an icy, furious voice as well.

Yes, voice is important. Someone with a Scottish/Irish accent would be best I think. But you have to be careful which Scottish or Irish accent. An American accent wouldn't be too bad either, since they don't suppress "r" sounds.

If you ever heard Katie Leung, who was Harry Potter's sweetheart (Cho Chang) in GOF and OOTP you might have noticed the odd, dreamy, almost sing-song cadence in the way she talks. This is not at all the sort of English accent most Chinese speakers might have. It is a particularly Northern English or even Glaswegian sort of accent, reflecting her place of birth, and which would really work well. It is even pleasant to listen to, and I could listen to that sort of accent for hours. Except when it is angry, of course. It is important that the actress who plays LOTGK can trill her 'r's. Saying Mur-r-ray not Muwway the way we have a tendency to do.

Someone like Cate Blanchette could do a really good LOTGK, but I think she'd need to stop being quite so blonde. A ginger or brown haired actress would do fine, though someone darker would make a nice contrast with the White Witch. Perhaps brown/green hazel colouring would be most suitable. And why not someone like Katie Leung, who has grown up now?

waggawerewolf27 wrote:If you ever heard Katie Leung, who was Harry Potter's sweetheart (Cho Chang) in GOF and OOTP you might have noticed the odd, dreamy, almost sing-song cadence in the way she talks.

I am familiar with her accent! She's actually a really good example for the soft Scottish accent that I mentioned on the previous page.

waggawerewolf27 wrote:Someone like Cate Blanchette could do a really good LOTGK, but I think she'd need to stop being quite so blonde. A ginger or brown haired actress would do fine, though someone darker would make a nice contrast with the White Witch. Perhaps brown/green hazel colouring would be most suitable.

I was just thinking about the Lady of the Green Kirtle's coloring earlier today. It seems that maybe brown or hazel eyes would work best with her green dresses (green eyes with green outfits kind of seems a little too monochrome), or maybe even a blueish green. Bright blue eyes seem like they might contrast with her wardrobe a little too much.

I think I'd definitely want her hair color to be something other than blonde, since they already made Jadis a blonde in the LWW film adaptation. A soft, unassuming shade of brown might be nice, or even a light, reddish brown that's teetering on strawberry blonde. Dark brown or even black could work as well.

waggawerewolf27 wrote:Yes, voice is important. Someone with a Scottish/Irish accent would be best I think

That's interesting, I never once thought of LotGK as having an Irish or Scottish accent. I never even really thought of her as having a British accent either. Something closer to American, but not exactly American....if that even makes sense, lol. Though now that you mentioned it, an Irish accent would sound very nice, provided it was soft and silky enough.

I always imagined the LotGK to be a very soft, almost glowing character. I personally think you have to first think of her as very gentle so that when she suddenly turns into a snake, it takes you completely by surprise.

The Rose-Tree Dryad wrote:I think I'd definitely want her hair color to be something other than blonde, since they already made Jadis a blonde in the LWW film adaptation. A soft, unassuming shade of brown might be nice, or even a light, reddish brown that's teetering on strawberry blonde. Dark brown or even black could work as well.

I was really hoping that they make her blonde, but not the white sort of blonde like in LWW, more of a deep sort of yellow, a dark blonde I guess you could say, with perhaps a red tint to it, but just a tint. I'm against brown or black hair, I don't think it would match her character, but that is of coure just my personal opinion. I'm thinking, maybe a deep red would be interesting. Not an orange, carrot sort of red, but perhaps a darker shade.

I'd say maybe Tilda Swinton.

jewel wrote:I'd say maybe Tilda Swinton.

Please tell me you're joking. Please

I really don't know which actress would work the best, but do you think that they should go for someone who is short? Well, not short, exactly, but not tall, as a contrast to the White Witch. Didn't they have Tilda wear platform shoes to make her tower over everyone?

Seeing that the LotGK uses a different method of controlling people, perhaps they could show it by making her less imposing. Just a thought.

I don't know if I saw this suggestion here or not, but what about Ginnifer Goodwin? I think she has the coloring to pull off a range of different looks, and she can do the sweet, innocent act... and slightly more imposing...

Impending Doom wrote:

jewel wrote:I'd say maybe Tilda Swinton.

Please tell me you're joking. Please

why is that? Some people say the white witch is the same person.

wild rose wrote:I was really hoping that they make her blonde, but not the white sort of blonde like in LWW, more of a deep sort of yellow, a dark blonde I guess you could say, with perhaps a red tint to it, but just a tint. I'm against brown or black hair, I don't think it would match her character, but that is of coure just my personal opinion. I'm thinking, maybe a deep red would be interesting. Not an orange, carrot sort of red, but perhaps a darker shade.

You know, Lewis does describe has as being a "shining woman" in the Parliament of Owls—you could almost guess that she's standing in a sunbeam falling through the strees when Rilian and Drinian see her. I don't know if we can infer her hair color from that description alone, but blonde is definitely a very reflective and eye-catching hair color. (Of course, you also have shades of black that almost reflect blue-silver, and shining shades of red, et cetera.) For some reason I was thinking that Pauline Baynes' drew her with medium brown hair, but looking back at the illustrations, it appears to be more of a golden blonde.

Maybe a blonde like the medium golden blonde in this chart? I also like that medium golden brown; it looks like it would be very pretty in direct sunlight.

aileth wrote:I really don't know which actress would work the best, but do you think that they should go for someone who is short? Well, not short, exactly, but not tall, as a contrast to the White Witch. Didn't they have Tilda wear platform shoes to make her tower over everyone?

Seeing that the LotGK uses a different method of controlling people, perhaps they could show it by making her less imposing. Just a thought.

I like that idea! Lewis describes her as being a "tall and great" woman in the description of her at the Parliament of Owls, but it doesn't seem that he was very keen on hiding the villain's identity in The Silver Chair. The filmmakers, on the other hand, will probably want to make that a twist. The Lady of the Green Kirtle being short and having an elfin look about her will make her reveal as the Queen of Underland all the more shocking.

Meltintalle wrote:I don't know if I saw this suggestion here or not, but what about Ginnifer Goodwin? I think she has the coloring to pull off a range of different looks, and she can do the sweet, innocent act... and slightly more imposing...

I think FK did on the last page? But I agree, she seems like a possibility. I would have an easier time picturing her in the role if her hair was longer, but her facial features seem like they could work for the part.

jewel wrote:why is that? Some people say the white witch is the same person.

Quite a lot of fans think that she's not, so casting Tilda would probably stir up some considerable controversy and I'm not sure the filmmakers would want to do that. Douglas Gresham also said that the LotGK would need to be a new cast when asked if Tilda might come back as the Lady of the Green Kirtle.

(Btw, if you want to discuss that debate, there's a thread for it in Talk About Narnia. )

jewel wrote: why is that? Some people say the white witch is the same person.

MOD NOTE: In order to avoid the casting topic going off on the "same person" belief, I have unlocked this poll from 4 years as it is even more relevant now.

Plenty of opinions already in it to look at.

jewel wrote: why is that? Some people say the white witch is the same person.

I didn't say whether I think she is or isn't the white witch. I don't want Tilda Swinton playing the role of LotGK whatsoever.

I hope they don't make her speak with a terrible accent, because I didn't liked the way the actress portrayed her in the BBC adaptation. Her R's were so annoying and artificial that I couldn't decide if I should laugh or cry about it. The idea of a Irish or Scottish accent is great! I think that they can find a midterm and do something like Andrew did in PC. The accent was good to me and I think that matched pretty well with the Telmarines, so I think they can find a way to create something like that.

As for LotGK, I always imagined her with brown/dark hair. I agree that they need to find someone with this fairly look, but at the same time, mysterious. I also don't think that they need to cast a very young actress. Rachel Weisz was always the one that came to my mind. I never watched anything with Katie McGrath, but she seems good. I just love Eva Green with all me heart, and she's such a wonderful actress. I can picture her as LotGK, but maybe she's too powerful. Olga Kurylenko? Jessica Brown Findlay? Gosh, I do agree that it's gonna be hard to find the right actress to do it.