Friday, January 10, 2014

Fan Casting For X-23: The Wide World of Choices

So for this entry, I gave myself one stipulation.  I cannot choose my default choice.  Nope not for this entry.  Cannot praise her vast amounts of charity work and how dedicated she has been to trying to uplift her fans.  Can't talk about how I wonder what kind of shelf or mantle she uses to hold all those awards that it doesn't break, and can't go on and on about how amazingly perfect she could be in the role to define it for a decade to come.  Nope can't do it.  Not in this entry.  Not one word about her depth of talent nor her smile that can light up and soften any situation or eyes that could hauntingly portray Laura unlike any other.  Nope, not one word.  Not one iota for this entry.  Not even one bit about how her inspirational role-model status can help further this character to new heights!  Not even a mention of how she's developing a filmography as diverse and well rounded as Angelina Jolie, Sandra Bullock, or even Jennifer Lopez.  Nope.  It's not allowed for this entry.  Also can't go into any hindrances either.

For this entry, I'm forcing myself to look at what other actress choices are out there that can fit the role of Laura Kinney.  This list was not done in any particular order.  In fact, it wasn't even written in order!


Lucy Hale
Lucy Hale is an actress with a wide filmography and decent world wide exposure.  While currently she's one of the stars of the much beloved Pretty Little Liars and is now kicking off her dream of a music career (Go check out her new solo country single You sound good to me!), she also has many geek show connections that could play in her favor for this kind of role.  She portrayed the little sister in the relatively recent 2007 Bionic Woman reboot, and even had a guest spot on Wizards of Waverly Place.  Seemingly she's used to filming TV thrillers as the show Pretty Little Liars focuses on being, but she's also done film work for sequels of cult classics such as Scream 4.  Psychological thrillers aren't new to her filmography either with a film like Fear Island, and she's also well rounded in having featured in family comedies about trust, life, friendship, and legacies as shown in Sorority Wars.  Her career is diverse to reflect a skill set that can handle almost anything thrown her way and can flip even direct to DVD sequels like Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants 2 and A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song from what's normally sequel cliche pandering to becoming on par if not better than their previous films from the acting having a natural onscreen charm to it that makes the characters come alive as real and genuine.  She also has that piece of country soul that often gets connected to Laura Kinney that could help make the character pop on screen.  All around she is a potentially heavy contender for the role with the wide aptitude of talents she's displayed on screen.  Personally by all accounts, she's almost tied with my first choice for the role due to the ease of softness to furious she can portray alongside her genuine and down to earth manner to which she holds herself.  Also doesn't hurt that the 2007 Bionic Woman reboot had a "haven't seen the moon in 1,023 days" line in it from another modern geek iconic actor.  (I'm a sucker for coincidences, what can I say?)


Julia Goldani Telles
One of the stars of the much loved but sadly canceled Bunheads, Telles is an actress that has a wide range and history in ballet.  She shares similar traits that have been proven to be successful in a transition to a role like Laura Kinney as Summer Glau had shown with her ballet history to transition into River Tam of Firefly.  Her acting range has yet to be fully defined, and with being mostly an unknown still yields strong possibilities for this to be her breakout movie stardom role.  Being one of the youngest actresses on this list, she also presents potential for character portrayal scattered across many sequels by at least three years longer.  Having no real action film previous experience may be a hindrance, but again as shown with Summer Glau, the transition from dance choreography to action choreography can often go in quite poetic and surprising swings.  With having only begun her career rather recently, she is entirely a wild card slot that does not as yet have a filmography to draw on for reference.


India Eisley
She's displayed an aptitude to action roles in similar forays outright.  Between Kite and Underworld Awakening both, she has become a fan favorite for the role of Laura Kinney.  Many fans have made artwork depicting as such with her being their personal choice.  Underworld Awakening gave the fans a chance to see at least half the range that would be needed for the role of X-23.  Kite looks like it may yield the other half with the everyday girl expression range.  With having these action heavy blockbusters at her backing, it's easy to see why she would be their choice.  Both films have shown she has effects and stunt training on par to what would be needed for the role, as well as potentially being capable of  evoking the kind of presence needed to portray such a character.  With her filmography already becoming quite action heavy though, the question would be does she fear of being typecast by continuing on in these roles, or is it deliberate because she wants to become one of the future female badasses of film with names such as Michelle Rodriguez. Gal Gadot, Milla Jovovich, and her fellow Underworld Awakening co-star, Kate Beckinsale.


Saiorse Ronan
While not predominately an action star, the film Hanna did give the fans an interesting look into the potential of her as Laura Kinney.  She's a well versed and talented actress that brings all her roles to life as believable characters.  Whether it's her portrayal of a girl still finding herself as in How I live now or even her earlier work with Atonement, she is a star that has a wide range of unique talents that could be a perfect fit for X-23.  On top of the wide spectrum of roles she's conveyed, she's often been praised for having an ear for accents to help deliver foreign language dialogue with an unmatched ease.  She can seemingly slip in and out of various tongues that sound natural to the region she's attempting to evoke.  This is a skill that could play in favor of the X-23 role as Laura is a character that within her own origin tale bounces between three languages with natural ease and seamlessly perfect accents.


All 5 of these actresses present strong potential for the role of Laura Kinney if she were ever depicted on film.  So who would you like to see take on the role?

No comments:

Post a Comment