Originally Posted by Karen 18th February 2006


The Ginger Man has a full cast of "characters" that appear on every page. Who would you cast? Pretend money is no object and everyone's schedule makes them available for your shoot. Have some fun on a Saturday with this one.

Lots of great characters.... to start with...

Kenneth O'Keefe
Egbert Skully, the landlord
Tony Malarky
Percy Clocklan
Marion Dangerfield
Chris
Miss Lily Frost
Mary

and more great small bits.

Deppraved


I don't know why, but I could see and hear Mary so clearly whilst reading this!

And she was......

Martine McCutcheon--Natalie from Love, Actually.

I'll have to ponder this all day, and get back to you later.

Karen


I love these questions as I always have an opinion about who should be cast. LOL Take your time, consider the options.

Lynxxx67


Oooh, what fun this will be! I admit to having a brief thought of Martine McCutchen when 'casting' Chris. Then I thought of Christina Ricci in either the role of Chris or Mary.

As for the rest, well here goes, lol......

O'Keefe - Richard E Grant.
Skully - Paul Whitehouse. (JD connection #2)
Malarky - Alfred Molina.(JD connection #3)
Clocklan - Bill Nighy.(OK you know where I'm going here, but he just cracks me up!)
Marion - Laura Linney.
Lilly Frost - Emma Thompson.

Looking forward to hearing everyones ideas!!

Giselle


good question and interesting choices.........i can't even begin to think.......no one came to me visually......actually, not even johnny....i'll have to ponder....

Karen


I'd love to see:

Maggie Gyllenhaal as Miss Frost

Kelly Reilly as Mary

Kelly MacDonald as Marion

Julia Stiles as Chris

Jeremy Northam as Percy Clocklan

still thinking.......

Deppsdarling


For O'Keefe the guy from Capote. Phillip Hoffman.

Deppraved


I have to admit I did consider Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy and Emma Thompson for roles. Laura Linney as Marion is an excellent choice.

However, here is my casting decisions:

O'Keefe--
Cillian Murphy ( a bit against type--that's a good thing-and one could believe he had a penchant for being AC/DC)

Skully--
Billy Connolly
(I also thought maybe William H. Macy for Skully)

Malarky--
Jonathan Rhys-Myers

Clocklan--
Brendan Fraser

Marion--
Jennifer Aniston (yes, I think she could)

Chris --
Rachel Weiss would be perfect

Miss Frost--
Cate Blanchette

Mary--
Martine McCutcheon

Karen


Oh I never thought of William H. Macy for Skully.

This is fun....more ideas anyone?

PSH for O"Keefe? Interesting.

Actually everyone's ideas are interesting. Isn't it amazing how differently we all see the characters?

Deppraved


O'Keefe is such a sad sorry sack--so down in the mouth all the time.

Karen


Yes he is...it will take a special sort of actor to capture him.

Lynxxx67

That's why I thought of Richard E Grant, sort of based on his performance in Withnail and I. That character was so wonderfully bitter and twisted too, though REG may be a bit too old for O'Keefe. I'm hoping that age will be pretty irrelevent when it comes to casting.

Really love reading everyones very different ideas, though!

Deppraved


It is established toward the end of the novel that Dangerfield is 27 yrs old. It's a good assumption that Skully is a much older individual, but what of all the others? My instinct tells me they are generally in the same peer group as Dangerfield, if not younger. Miss Frost seems older, but is she? I assume she's in her 30's--pushing 40 even?

My point here is that Richard E. Grant and also Johnny will need much make-up to play late twenties, but sure it seems like a good fit for O'Keefe.

Grant is older than JOhnny and as young as Johnny looks, he's not getting any younger.

Deppraved

This happens often!

Karen


I am wondering if they won't "ratchet" up the ages here just a bit when they cast it. I can't help but also wonder if Mr. Donleavy will "age" his characters just a bit too?

Lynxxx67

I think it's quite conceivable for Dangerfield to be portrayed as a rather more mature law student, even older than late twenties. It's also conceivable that JD (along with REG as O'Keefe) could play him as a man in his mid thirties, with a relatively new wife and a young child/baby. That doesn't sound like much of a stretch at all, in my humblest of opinions!

Karen

Especially when you consider that SD fought in WW2 and is on the GI Bill for his education. They could easily be moved into their early to mid 30s and a bit of makeup can easily move JD back 8 or 10 years. LOL