Do you ever poorly cast the "actors" in book? Like, the voices are inaccurate or flat or stereotypical?

Submitted by Censius t3_10j1y3a in books

You know what I mean? Like, I give Doctor Strange a British accent, even though he's from New York. Or sometimes I know that a character is supposed to have a higher or lower voices, or have some strange effect to it.

Or sometimes I imagine almost an offensive or annoying voice (which isn't helping by stereotypical writing).

And worst of all, sometimes I cast bad "actors" in my head that I know aren't giving a very nuanced performance.

I also resent myself when I use a real-life actor as an actor in my book. Can't tell you how many books Denzel Washington has starred in.

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AbbyM1968 t1_j5i40lx wrote

I don't really give them voices. When I listened to an audio book*, the narrator gave the characters different voices, and it threw me off. It never occurred to me to "read" (i.e., think) different voices for different characters.

[*the audio book was available: the nearest pb was a long way away. I ended up buying the pb later and enjoyed it a lot more]

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Mindbinder311 t1_j5ipgso wrote

Yes... in my head Crowley from Good Omens is played by Seth MacFarlane ..... so yes.

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TyrellSepi0l t1_j5ksujv wrote

Little late to this party but yeah I do this ha. I read Crooked House by Agatha Christie and used the entire cast of Knives Out. Turned everybody American and even swapped out some words/sentences when it didn’t seem like how an American would say it.

I always cast actors in the books I read too, I use RDJ and Jude Law for every Sherlock Holmes book I read because I wish they had more than 2 movies, and I use Timothy Olyphant for anything set in set in any southern states of America. He made a great Gus McCrae in Lonesome Dove 😆

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Precious_Tritium t1_j5i2g2o wrote

I was reading Pillars of the Earth and in my head Prior Phillip had small wire glasses. Unfortunately the book takes place about 100 years before glasses were invented. Didn’t stop my image of him that way though!

Same with voices or sometimes even physical characteristics. I do try to stay true to the book’s description though. Sometimes the actors work just as well for books too. When I read Song of Ice and Fire having the Games of Thrones actors in my mind actually helped in some ways I think. Totally depends!

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Censius OP t1_j5i95j3 wrote

Yes, sometimes I take artistic liberties with their look as well.

But to be fair, sometimes I only get their looks wrong because the authors don't mention a detail until chapters in, like mentioning a characters hair or eye color off hand, and I'm like "it's too late to change it now"

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Ironstriker t1_j5l19iy wrote

I do this with almost every book! I’m glad to know I’m not alone. I’m waiting for the day that the person I cast in my mind is cast in a real life film adaptation of the book.

If it’s high fantasy I typically don’t use real people but outside of that it makes imagining the scenes and story much easier for me.

Most recent examples:

Brad Pitt and George Clooney as the brothers in Sisters Brothers

Adam Scott as Miller and Micheal Peña as Havelock in The Expanse series (and Jeff Bakalar as Holden, but Jeff’s not an actor.)

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friedpickle_engineer t1_j5mld3i wrote

Same here. It's particularly hard for me to imagine Irish and Australian accents without cringing so hard at how bad it sounds in my head that I just switch back to imagining a British accent. Maybe watching something like Peaky Blinders would help.

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Thornescape t1_j5i96gc wrote

I'm not a purist. I don't get too fussy about "being true to the author's vision", etc etc. That's important when adapting a work for others, but I read for myself. If I'm enjoying the story, then I'm doing it right, however I'm doing it.

I suppose if I was reading it publicly for other people then I might need to do more research, maybe? Since it's never happened, I've never worried about it.

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Censius OP t1_j5i9hiq wrote

I guess I just have less faith in myself as a good "director". Like, I think I'm giving myself a poorer experience than if I was more faithful to the writer's description.

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Thornescape t1_j5ib86k wrote

I have zero faith in myself as a good director. None whatsoever! I have no doubt that I would be absolutely atrocious at the job. I don't think it would even be funny watching me try. It would just be painful.

However, I'm not directing for others. I'm simply entertaining myself. If I'm entertained, then I'm succeeding. If I'm learning something or expanding my perspectives, that's success as well. That's all that matters when privately reading a book.

How I enjoy a novel might be completely different from the next person. It probably is. It's not a competition, thankfully, and I have no interest in worrying about their expectations.

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Volcano_Tequila t1_j5j2by4 wrote

I have never done this,

But I noticed a bias I had that stunned me the other day: I was watching a dubbed-in-English movie, and they used British actors for the voices, and I watched it all the way through. Then a few days later, I was watching another dubbed-in-English movie and they used American actors, and I just could not take it. I reverted film to original language plus subtitles.

It was not bad voicing, but simply one sounded right to my ears and one sounded wrong. And I'm an American. Why such a bias? Beats me.

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PopDownBlocker t1_j5jepzz wrote

I cannot listen to anything dubbed in American English. I get irritated quickly for some reason. It's almost cringe-inducing.

Some dubbed anime are fine because recently they've started using more-professional voice actors, so dub quality has gone up.

But english-dubbed (American English) content on Netflix, for example, sounds really bad to me.

There's something very wrong with American-English dubbed content. It feels unnatural and it makes me uncomfortable.

I've read on other subs/websites that part of the reason is because the dubbed lines need to match a pre-set timespan and emotion/expression, so it IS unnatural because the lines and emotions are crammed in to match the footage. Whereas in American content, the lines can be delivered more freely and naturally (if the actors are talented), so the acting is more convincing overall.

British-english dubbed content still sounds foreign, so maybe we just attribute any weird quirks to the language difference instead of the dubbing process, even if the dub is sub-par.

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newmikey t1_j5l9a9e wrote

I read books with my eyes. Can't stand audio books myself. Great solution for visually impaired people of course. The one reason a book can be many things to many people is the fact it leaves some information out which every reader can then fill in individually. Part of that imagination is visual and part is audio. Having it pre-filled takes away my freedom to experience a book to the fullest.

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Censius OP t1_j5l9nwh wrote

But I'm not talking about filling in blank information, I mean accidentally replacing information with your own. Like I said, I'm told Doctor Strange has an American accent, but I give him a British accent

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newmikey t1_j5li2t6 wrote

Ok, I clearly misunderstood. Apologies!

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