Why characters in films are more attractive than in books, and how this affects the plot

Beauty still sells

It often happens that the character of the book is described as not very attractive, awkward, with distinctive features such as scars or burn marks. But for the film adaptation, an actor from the top five of the rating of the sexiest people in the world is taken for his role. Book lovers can only shrug their shoulders - especially if appearance was important for the plot.

The film studio wants to make money on the film, which means that people should like it. Beautiful people in the frame are one way to draw attention to the picture.

No matter what folk wisdom says, research confirms that looks are important. Companies with more attractive CEOs usually have higher incomes Beauty is Wealth: CEO Appearance and Shareholder Value. Screening Job Applicants: The Impact of Physical Attractiveness and Application Quality are more likely to be hired. From the outside they seem to be happier What Is Beautiful Is Good.

So the desire to make the characters more beautiful, in line with modern trends, fashionable is understandable. For example, in the film adaptation of Psycho, director Alfred Hitchcock deliberately cast Anthony Perkins for the role of Norman Bates, although he was not fat and middle-aged like the character in the book. According to Hitchcock, it will be easier for the viewer to sympathize with the more attractive hero.

However, it happens that the film company is looking for an actor whose appearance completely coincides with the description, but someone less similar successfully passes the test.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to embellish the characters. But there are nuances.

The inconsistency of the actor with the character affects the plot

Often, the external features of the character determine the course of the plot. For example, the hero from childhood was unattractive and was laughed at at school. Therefore, he grew up angry, quiet or handsome, who is trying to prove something to someone. Or maybe injured and rethinking life. Situations vary. But the essence is lost if the external flaw is weakly manifested. In this case, if the viewer has not read the book, he may simply not understand the character's motivations and plot twists.

Here are some examples.

Patrick Suskind, "Perfumer"

Orphan Jean-Baptiste Grenouille has faced difficulties and hardships since birth. A perfumer's talent could bring him fame, money and wealth. But he was obsessed with the desire to get the perfect scent - albeit at the cost of human lives.

The film based on the book came out great, but the main character played by Ben Whishaw bears little resemblance to his book prototype. And this somewhat smears the effect. Even taking into account the fact that Grenouille was a pink and well-fed baby, by the age of six, his life had battered him.

He was strong in build and possessed rare endurance. Throughout his childhood, he experienced measles, dysentery, chickenpox, cholera, a fall into a six-meter deep well and burns from boiling water, which scalded his chest. Although he had scars and pockmarks and scabs and a slightly disfigured leg that left him with a limp, he lived.

Patrick Suskind "Perfume"

By adolescence, the hero of the book looked "just like a child, despite his knotty hands, pockmarked, all with scars and pockmarks, his face and an old nose like a potato."

Grenouille is an antihero, and his appearance is essential to the climax of the plot. Despite the fact that he is unpleasant on the outside and has committed a series of monstrous deeds, thanks to the perfect scent, he completely changes public opinion and gains freedom. But the movie villain is too good-looking for us to see this contrast. Even in the worst moments, he looks like a sex symbol.

"Perfumer"

Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

In the finale of this most popular romantic story, protagonists Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester find each other. Both of them are not very beautiful, but they love each other for their inner qualities and refuse to unions with more attractive partners. In films and TV shows, this is not obvious, since the main characters are played by Joan Fontaine, Mia Wasikowska, Timothy Dalton, Michael Fassbender and other generally recognized beauties.

Jane Eyre, 1943, starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine

Jane Eyre, 1983, as Rochester - Timothy Dalton

Jane Eyre, 2011, starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender

Romantic stories with good-looking actors are undoubtedly more enjoyable to watch. But part of the author's intention is lost, because it's easier to love beautiful people - in fact, that's why they are filmed in films.

Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera

The ghost of the Paris Opera instills fear in all its visitors, but takes the aspiring singer Christina under its wing. Thanks to him, she begins to perform the parts so that she gets the main roles. The viscount Raoul de Chany is in love with the girl, and she reciprocates. The book is filled with mysticism, adventure, but the romantic line still remains in the center.

Christina emphasizes the ghost's ugliness several times.

Imagine, if you can, the mask of death, which suddenly comes to life in order to express inhuman rage, the fury of a demon with its black eye sockets, the failure of the nose and mouth, and imagine that there are no eyes in these eye sockets, because, as I learned later, his eyes are visible only late at night. Nailed to the wall, I probably represented the image of insane horror, and he was a monstrous ugliness.

Gaston Leroux "The Phantom of the Opera"

In film adaptations, we are usually talking about the defeat of a part of the face covered with a mask. And from time to time the ugliness becomes less frightening. In the case of Gerard Butler, who played in the 2004 version, the external changes are not significant enough to scare people with the force with which it is described in the book.

The ghost's ugliness is an important plot element that has influenced the character's life. The smaller it is, the closer the story is to a banal love triangle.

"Phantom of the Opera"

J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter series

Hermione Granger is described in the books as a girl with lush, permanently matted hair and front teeth "a little longer than necessary." As JK Rowling herself admitted, she represented "a strange wild Hermione, an ugly duckling," and Emma Watson turned out to be much more beautiful than the character had intended.

Honestly, you, Rupert and Emma are too pretty!

J. K. Rowling in conversation with Daniel Radcliffe

This practically does not affect the course of the plot, with the exception of one episode. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Hermione's appearance at the ball made a splash.

Immediately behind him was Krum with an unfamiliar beautiful girl in a blue robe. Harry turned away: he didn't want to talk to them now; his gaze fell on the girl standing with Krum, and his mouth fell open in surprise. It was Hermione! Only not at all like herself. The hair, which usually resembled a crow's nest, was smoothly combed and twisted at the back of the head into a beautiful shiny knot, a light robe of sky-blue color, and it was kept quite differently.

J. K. Rowling "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"

In the film, the degree of the event is much lower, since the character of Emma Watson is an attractive girl, then a girl throughout the entire epic. However, this cannot be called a flaw, since this often happens to those who have been friends since childhood: they once notice that a friend has changed, and for this it is not necessary to undergo cardinal transformations.

"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"

Inconsistency between an actor and a character raises complexes

The example with Hermione makes it clear that situations when an actor is more attractive than a character are not always critical. The scene at the ball still works, although there are no stunning changes to the heroine.

It's the same with Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones. He is described as a man with a blurry face and white hair, having lost three quarters of his nose and part of his lip in battle. In the series, he is played by an attractive actor, and this has little effect on the plot.

"Game of Thrones"

Fanart, nhexus.cgsociety.org

There are a lot of similar examples. And it would seem that if the changes do not affect the plot, then there is nothing wrong with them. Except for one nuance.

When the characters in the film are presented as ugly and not receiving the attention of the opposite sex, and are played by Gal Gadot, Chris Evans, Margot Robbie or Chris Hemsworth, it does not add confidence. If they are positioned as not very attractive, then what do viewers think of themselves as they munch on popcorn in front of the screen?

What to do about it

Take into account. Understanding this mechanism partly solves the problems that arise due to the inconsistency of the actor's appearance with the book description of the character:

You have a simpler attitude to fan wars when someone green-eyed was taken on the role of your favorite blue-eyed character.
You spot the holes in the plot and figure out the scenarios if the actor was a little less attractive.
You do not complex about the appearance of the hero and understand: if according to the plot you were told to believe that Angelina Jolie is so-so, then this is a convention. You don't have to cultivate an inferiority complex.
You understand the importance of representing people with different physical characteristics. The more the scope of conventional beauty expands, the more chances that the characters in films will become like prototypes of books, and it will become easier for us to live.