Mental Casting: The Dresden Files

[jedibuttercup]

Since I wrote my first Michael Carpenter story a couple of years ago-- my first non-crossover bookfic ever, if I remember right-- I've started populating the Dresdenverse with actors' faces. (Prior to that, believe it or not, I didn't actually visualise the characters at all; I tend to think neither in pictures nor in words, but concept-strings). And something hit me today, when I was rereading the bit in "Dead Beat" where Harry explains what's going on to Mac, proprietor of McAnnally's.

Mac? On whom bald looks good, and doesn't talk much, but is clearly tough as nails? Is totally Bruce Willis as DH4's John McClane. And Luccio's original body? Is now Dame Judy Dench, to me. LOL. Those are new; I'd been picturing Neal McDonough as seen in Tin Man as Michael and George Clooney in his Ocean's 11 guise as Marcone for awhile now. And Jordan Hinson as Eureka's Zoe Carter has been creeping in to play Molly lately.

I still don't have a Harry, though, other than the miniseries' not-quite-right Paul Blackthorne, or a Murphy-- I'd pick SMG, but her Buffy's too sharp-edged in my mind to ever qualify as "cute". Anyone have any suggestions, for them or any other significant book characters?
~

Comments

[beachkid.livejournal.com]

Geroge Clooney (from Syriana/with the beard) actually tends to be my mental!Michael. mental!Marcone is trickier, but got pretty tightly lodged as Ray Liotta from his Smith days. mental!Murph has, lately, looked a lot like Kimberly Caldwell (http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a238/binzinmotion/kimberly-caldwell.jpg), and my mental!Harry gravitates towards a slightly rougher version of Andres Velencoso [http://niwde.blogspot.com/2008/11/catalan-model-andrs-velencoso-segura.html -- a whole bunch of images. some nsfw].

eta: that original!luccio looks like Emmylou Harris to me.

[jedibuttercup]

I haven't seen much of Ray Liotta's filmography, it looks like, but not bad.

Very good Murphy image, though! And, nice; I appreciate the suggestion for Harry. Actually goes fairly well with the above suggestion of Ben Barnes for Thomas, too. =)

[beachkid.livejournal.com]

Thomas i've always found super tricky, especially since he and Harry aren't supposed to really resemble each other, so he sort of bounces around from some overly-pretty models (i.e. Jon Kortajarena for when he's being wangsty) to Richard Armitage when he's being brotherly.

[beachkid.livejournal.com]

er, that was missing half of what I meant to say. apologies. I'm liking a little more... aggressive version of Kimberly Caldwell for Murphy mostly because of the nose. Cute, blond, cheerleader, upturned nose, yet sufficiently physical to have "gymnast legs" and be built for service is a surprisingly tricky combination!

For Harry, he has the skintone, nose, chin, cheekbones, skinny, height, and broody dark eyes going for him -- and the occasional GET A HAIRCUT hair. ;)

[jedibuttercup]

Yeah, I can see that, in both cases. =) There's not so many actors that fall into those descriptive ranges.

[jedibuttercup]

Hmmm. I'll have to look up the passage in Blood Rites where Harry mentally compares them again; but you may be right. I always imagined them as having similar basic bone structure; Harry's just taller, scruffier, a lot more battered, and minus the supernatural "pretty" factor. Plus he never looks in a mirror, so he might not notice. =)

Those sure are some pretty suggestions, though.

[beachkid.livejournal.com]

late reply to say that i've seen matthew bomer's name tossed around a lot as a thomas (he definitely has the ridiculously attractive thing going on), and that emily rose (er, actress not made-a-movie-aobut-her figure http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2448361/mediaindex) just jumped near the top of my mental!murphy list.

newbody!luccio tends to look rather like anna belknap to me; shorter, slightly curvier, not-supermodel-beautiful but sweet, and a bit of dimple. hendricks tends to be a slightly more redheaded version of lee reherman.