Tavia wrote:
Shane:
if you draw a picture of any one of these it is the actor's likeness you are reproducing, cause the character doesn't have a likeness independent of the actor
There are certainly some actors/actresses who are similar in many of
their
roles, Emma Thompson for one, who was almost indistinguishable in 'Sense
&
Sensibility' versus 'Carrington' despite playing two very different
women.
However, I've always considered that to be a sign of bad acting...
I wouldn't. It's rather a sign of a different style of acting. For example some actors play it the same because that is what the director and the audience expect. Roger Moore may not be a character actor, but he was a very successful James Bond, and appeared in many very successful series that traded on his name and the way that he would play the role. A character actor like Tony Robinson has a greater range of physical appearance in his roles, but would not make such a good James Bond :-).
I guess all I'm trying to say is that a skilled artist (i.e. not me!!)
might
be able to capture an image that is the character and not the actor/actress, despite some physical similarities between the two.
If we are talking about impressionist painting, then possibly. But still we have to admit that it requires an actor to play a character, and therefore, unless they are under heavy make-up, that actor is going to physically resemble that character. The actor is also going to bring a part of himself to that character; therefore, that version of that character becomes undeniably his, unique to that actor.
The process would be assisted by the actor/actress being of the school
that
tends to look/feel radically different between parts, and hindered by the opposite.
You _can_ change your clothes, change the way you walk, wear a wig and a false nose, change your voice to some degree, that's all true. But none of the actors in Blake's 7 were required to do so much. In the end Avon still looked like Paul Darrow, and sounded like Paul Darrow, and had some of Paul Darrow's mannerisms. And if you went to a convention, you wouldn't mistake Paul Darrow for Jan Chappel :-). Darrow my be older now, and a bit wider round the waist-line, but he still is very recognisable, especially to fans of the series.
Perhaps particularly in the case of women, it would also be
helped by casting based on acting ability rather than merely in
conformance
with the prevailing views on feminine beauty.
Yes, but unfortunately, totally the opposite is happening today in the world of showbiz.
I fear, if only from reading 'Blake's 7: The Inside Story', that at least one of the female crew members was cast predominantly on appearance.
True, it certainly wasn't for her acting ability. However, to get back to my point, that certain actor, 22 years after her appearance in B7, is still identifiable as the actor who played that certain female crew member. She's even got the same 70's hair for goodness sake :-).
Shane
"You don't win wars by running away and hiding." -- Servalan
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Shane Little