Elves in movies

[Wolfie65 1270xp 2]

In the appendices to Peter Jackson’s The Desolation of Smaug , a Kiwi casting director complains that actors to portray Dwarves, Hobbits and Orcs are easy to find, but Elves are a nightmare.

“We would need supermodels”, she says.

No, you would need Scandinavians. Northern Germans and Dutch would also work. I have personally come across quite a few people from especially Finland and Sweden who could very easily  be transformed into Elves with little makeup required, just put some pointy ears on them and you are already very close.

[grantinvanman 8228xp 0]

Agreed, Finnish people were the inspiration. The Kalevala highly inspired Tolkien, and it’s Finnish.

[a27cromwell 3216xp 1]

It would be easy to find people to portray Elves today , as they would be short , chunky and of swarthy complexion . Modern day casting of historical / fantasy properties sucks

[grantinvanman 8228xp 0]

That’s dwarves you’re thinking of. Elves were always described as being fair.

[TinyHeadbones 117xp 2]

Reminds me of this story from the casting rooms of the LoTR films from Brett McKenzie:

 

[a27cromwell]

You’re right Elves are fair , but in todays Hollywood that’s flexible . Just like the variety of peoples in  rural villages in the Witcher , you would think for the time period they would be a single ethnic / tribal group , you would find diversity in major / capital cities ( Enoys , Merchants , Diplomats and there households ) or port cities where foreign sailors might have decided to leave their ship . Most historicals today are populated by a crowd of people that you would find at your local tube station or bus stop . It takes me out of the story

• This reply was modified 1 week, 3 days ago by a27cromwell.

[Wolfie65 1270xp 0]

“There were always Black people in Laketown!”

Ahem…

The origin of the word Elf is the proto-Nordic Elb or Alb which means white. Tall, fair, slender and of unearthly beauty, that description has always made me think of Scandinavia more than anyplace else.

[TinyHeadbones 117xp 0]

Laketown isn’t an Elven settlement.

[Wolfie65 1270xp 0]

No, it’s a Human settlement in the very north of Middle Earth, FAR FAR AWAY from Harad or the ‘Southlands’, in a setting where travel beyond one’s village is difficult and extremely time-consuming. And I do not recall reading the name Kalergi in any of Tolkien’s works.

[Author]

Posts