What the hell, people?

[blamebrampton]

A ticker just rolled across the bottom of the morning news: 'JK Rowling joins actors in defending casting of black Hermione.'

HOW is this even a thing? We know three things about the way Hermione looks: she has bushy brown hair, she has large front teeth to begin with, and she probably has an epic side-eye given how clever she is and how much stupid she has to deal with when it comes to things like pure blood privilege. None of that says 'must be white' to me.

Can we not focus on the important things, such as get the chap playing Ron some red hair dye asap and HOW CAN IT BE that they have case YET ANOTHER actor as Harry Potter without looking for bloody green eyes??!!

As expected, my flist greeted the casting news with: 'Cool, awesome actor!' Because we have all actually read the books. One day, news producers will take their ticker notes from informed and engaged people, rather than the loudest knobends on Facebook. Alas, this is not that day,

Comments

[khalulu]

I believe we also know she has brown eyes, which also fits. She and Ginny both have brown eyes, as I remember, and one of them - Ginny? - is described as having chocolate brown eyes (which seems like an odd description of eye color, but oh well).

Maybe the actor for Harry can wear contacts - or maybe most people won't be sitting close enough to tell?

I like Ron's face.

[geinahop]

I have always described my son's eyes as chocolate brown. :)

[khalulu]

Milk chocolate? Dark chocolate? Hot cocoa? This is why I get confused! :)

[geinahop]

Like this. Probably milk chocolate? (Please ignore the red eyes. This was an extremely close up picture.)

[khalulu]

Okay, that makes sense!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Oxfam fair trade milk ;-)

[geinahop]

I had to Google it, but could be. They may be slightly darker in person. He has gorgeous eyes, the only one of my kids with my dad's dark brown eyes.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

They look very handsome! And it's also a very fine chocolate, with the profits going to lots of good programmes, so you're not being a piggy wiggy when eating it, you're saving children ;-)

[incandescent.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I didn't have a very set image of Hermione from the books. (I have such terrible images of characters in my mind). But this girl is gorgeous! It's so sad that defaulting to 'white' is such a part of society.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Yes, you're exactly right. There is no default 'this is what they look like' for most of the characters in the books, so there are a lot of wholly valid choices, all of which work.

Gorgeous and clever will work in dozens of ways for Hermione. I agree with you, this actress hits the essential notes!

[monrque.livejournal.com]

Are they making a new movie!!!
What did i miss!

[valkyrie17.livejournal.com]

I think it's going to be a stage play...

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

A play, though I am hoping they film it and make it widely available! (And if not, I will just be all Scamander all 2016 ;-))

[valkyrie17.livejournal.com]

I couldn't believe it either. What does it matter?

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I know! Right? I mean, the reason we love books is that the worlds are usually so open within them and we can all inject little bits of ourselves or those we find attractive. And since all three actors are good looking and have clever expressions that the Trio should have, it's all going to be good!

Unrelated aside: a story about Sepp Blatter is on my local TV news. They are scoring each of his appearances wiht Darth Vader's Imperial Death March. This amuses me unreasonably.

[enchanted-jae.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiosity, how many people do you know of with truly green eyes? I can only name two: my cousins TJ and Boo Boo. They're brother and sister; he's dark, she's fair.

I think about it at times, because so many romance novels have one character or another with green, gray ("silver", la!) or gold/amber eyes. I've known two people in my life with gray eyes, and only one with amber. All the rest of us schmucks have blue or brown.

I am also cursed with "mouse brown" hair. How many romance novel heroines have "mouse brown" hair, I ask you?! I only ever read about one, once upon a time, and part of her appeal (to the dashing hero), was that she was plain. Le sigh.

[khalulu]

Eyes are often a color that's hard to pin down in one word. My eyes are blue-gray-green (with an amber tinge around the pupils). I call them green because I can't claim they're blue, and there's too much color for gray. I agree that pure clear green or gray eyes are unusual.

There are several Georgette Heyer heroines with light brown hair (Frederica, in the book of that name, and Sarah Thane, in The Talisman Ring) or mouse brown hair (Jenny, in A Civil Contract, and Miss Morville, in The Quiet Gentleman; and I can't find my copy of Sprig Muslin, but I wouldn't be surprised if Lady Hester Theale also had light brown or mouse brown hair). It's true that they are initially overshadowed by showier (often younger) beauties, or even considered plain, but they are appreciated in the end. And they are great heroines!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I MUST read Georgette Heyer one day. I've tried a few times but always get distracted and accidentally reread Austen instead. But now you make me think on it, I'm pretty sure that Anne Elliot, the greatest-ever romantic heroine, has mousy brown hair :-)

[khalulu]

Austen and Heyer are somewhat different pleasures but I've greatly enjoyed them both.

I think Jane Austen is generally pretty vague about what people look like - although we all know that Elizabeth has fine eyes!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Not many, and I think that's why it was such a thing in the books, too. Ironically, Mr B has grey eyes and I have amber eyes when I have red hair, but take my hair back to brown or black and they go back to hazel ;-) What I actually have is reflective eyes ;-)

But to cheer you, the princess at the heart of my very slowly being written long fantasy novel has mouse brown hair and she is lovely and terrific and gets the very hot man!

[khalulu]

Definitely tell us when your novel is available to read!

[geinahop]

My mother had lovely light green eyes, and my dad had dark brown eyes. Mine are dark green, olive or forest. My grandmother had bright blue eyes. My sister has changeable gray eyes. I knew a guy in college that had gorgeous gray/silver eyes. He was also a blond.

My dark green eyes and my husband's light brown eyes resulted in one dark brown eyed kid and two greenish/hazel eyed kids. They all have brown hair, but more like my husband's medium brown rather than my dark brown. Actually, the one whose eyes I posted earlier has hair almost the same color as his eyes.

[catsintheattic.livejournal.com]

I like the actors. And I just can't believe that people are in an uproar about this casting.

The one who's playing Ron might just die his hair for the play. After all, that's what Tom Felton did for years, right? And didn't Isaacs get a wig for his role as Lucius. No green eyes for Harry? I don't expect a close-up in the theatre, so I guess most people won't even see his eyes.

As for Hermione: Word to everything you wrote.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I think it's all going to be grand. And as for the outraged, meh, some of them were the type to be upset by Rue's casting in the Hunger Games, a character described as dark skinned.

I'm a bit baffled by people who are now cross at JKR over everything , but then, it's Christmas, and if you can't have a good big old grump at Christmas, when can you ;-)

[metal-dog5.livejournal.com]

It makes much more sense to me than the casting of Emma Watson (although she did make a fine Hermione) in the movie version.