Twilight The Movie - soompi forums

*Sigh* There goes my Gaspard Ulliel dream~ all things considered, Robert Pattinson is ...decent looking. Like someone else mentioned, I think he makes a better presence on screen then in photos. And it would be shallow to immediately dislike someone because of their looks. We want to make sure he can act like Edward can't he? And maybe he'll blow us all away~ (HEY! I've seen what a bit of movie makeup does to you). Unfortunately, his eyebrows are REALLY bothering me. It's not their bushman or anything but they're definitely distracting me too much. T_T Anyways some other people that people posted I never even heard of but when I saw this picture of Colton Haynes:

I thought that if Gaspard couldn't do it, then he most certainly could of. Bahhh oh well~ may as well accept it. Silent tribute to Gaspard is in need though ;___;

And to celebrate our new Edward

And I agree that Steven Strait would make a perfect New Moon Jacob! ;D

Hahahaha someone's rant in the twilight community on LJ about Edward and I thought it was a good read. I guess ppl should just suck it up and accept that Robert will be playing Edward.

QUOTE

1) "HE DOESN'T LOOK LIKE EDWARD!"

You mean, he doesn't look like the image of Edward you've so carefully formulated and treasured these past few months. Remember what your Eng.Lit teacher has no doubt drilled into your head in the few minutes you did pay attention in class-- EDWARD IS NOT A REAL PERSON. He is a character, designed out of Stephenie Meyer's imagination, written into the story for a purpose and was never intended/never will be anything more than a fictional character desrcibed from words.

Therefore, a direct statement such as the above simply cannot be applied to Edward, because in reality you are expressing your views about a figment of one's imagination-- there is no way to prove whether Pattison looks exactly like Edward or not, he will only look (or not look at all) like the personal image you have created inside your brain. We use Gaspard and Colton for our fanarts because, in our view, they are the physical interpretation of that ficional image. We can't use a picture of the 'real' Edward, because he is basically non-existant. You can't put a blank space where Edward's head is supposed to be, can you?

Of course, in the books we have been given some basic criteria as to Edward's appearance. A tall, lanky 17 year old with an angular face, messy bronze hair, deep topaz eyes that sometimes change colour, and pale skin. While that provides our imaginations with a basic blueprint, so we know for sure he's not big and tanned with big blue eyes, it's not enough to complete the picture. We have to take the basics and make up our own view about the parts we don't know. Do we know the shape of his lips? The size of his nose? His eyebrows? What exact shade of bronze is his hair? His feet size?! That sort of thing.

Therefore, nobody (except maybe Stephanie) can know exactly how-- or how Edward should look like. The wonderful thing about books is that each reader is given room to form their own views about something-- often a good book is so much more rewarding than a good movie because part of the experience becomes your own. In a movie, if you wanted to find out what exact colour the lead's hair was, you'd simply check what shade of dye he used. In a book, the author has neither the time nor reason to describe all these things im immaculate detail-- you, as the reader, must figure it out yourself. And this means you can tailor your image of these beloved characters to your liking. For instance, we know Alice has spiky, short black hair. How short and how spiky? Well that's up to you. If your version of Alice has a more rebellious, spunky personality, you may imagine her with slightly messier spikes than someone who thinks of her as more of the pretty pixie type. You know? So everyone's ideal Edward is different-- it is impossible to form the basis of your hate based on his looks alone.

And yes, you know all about the wonders of make up-- I don't need to delve into that. Basically, an actor has some basic criteria to matchc before he can be cast, for instance, (with no offence meant whatsoever) Edward could simply not be an Asian or African-American actor. Once they match the basics, and they can act the part and give off that 'aura' of being the character...well the rest of the process is up to the make up artists. Look what they did to the guys in White Chicks. Or Orlando Bloom as Legolas.

Just as a side note, I personally thought he looked a lot more like Edward than normal:

And for my fellow Gaspard fans-- Edward never had a scar on his cheek nor did he have a French accent. But did that stop you from 'casting' him as your personal Edward? I don't think so.Same with Colton and his blue eyes. So the real question is, are you outraged at Robert for not matching your ideals of Edward, or simply because he's not as devastatingly handsome as you perceived Edward to be? This leads on to my next point...

2) "EDWARD'S MEANT TO BE INSANELY/ IMPOSSIBLY/ BREATHTAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL!"

Think of it this way-- everyone has different tastes. If we all fancied the exact same type, there would be a LOT of lonely girls and guys in the world! So what may be 'hot' to one person may be completely 'eww' to another. Some people love the rugged sexiness of a guy with long rockstar hair; personally I'm much more of a short, spiky hair kinda gal (hence my slight preference for Edward over Jacob lol). Some of you may love blue eyes, some of you love brown. That kind of thing.

Like the point above, it is all a matter of opinion. If anyone here's studied Economics, think of the concept of positive statements versus value judgements. Do you see my argument? (Sorry, I'm technically meant to be studying for an Econ test right now). Again, you cannot claim Robert is not beautiful enough to be Edward because in some people's eyes, he is. And of course, he can't be, because there is no criteria to match in the aesthics department, in terms of beauty alone (see above). Remember the phrase 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'?

The other key issue about this point.is, what Steph Meyer put so clearly, there are NO REAL GUYS WITH EDWARD'S PERFECT BEAUTY. The reasons: firstly, as mentioned, beauty is all a matter of opinion, so there is no standard 'level' of the ideal. We would never be able to universally agree on who was beautiful enough to be Edward because we all have our different perceptions of the beauty. Secondly, this perfection, no matter what our opinion simply does not exist. This is why Edward is not real, remember? The reason he can be so flawlessly beautiful (in everyone's books) is because his image is left to your imagination.

I personally know lots of people who didn't like Henry Cavill as Edward, even though that was Steph's personal choice, because he simply didn't fit their ideals of 'perfect beauty', which is what Edward epitomizes. Often when we yell "He's not pretty enough for Edward!" we simply mean "He's not my kind of pretty!". And as a sidenote, take notice of the word impossibly beautiful. It is there for a reason.

2) "BUT I WANTED GASPARD/COLTON/TOM...THEY ARE THE ONE AND ONLY!"

First things first: I was 300% supportive of Gaspard as Edward. He's featured in all my fanarts. His face is plastered over all my Twilight wall. I signed the official 'Gaspard for Edward' petition. So to the thousands of fellow Gaspard!Edward lovers out there, I understand the disappointment.

But? The news was hardly surprising at all. We all hoped, wished and begged for the lovely French actor to grace our screens as our dream vampire, but I think we all secretly knew it was nothing more than wishful fangirl thinking. And quite honestly? It might actually have been a good thing for him, though it was definately depressing for us.

Think about the roles Gaspard takes. He's not just a simple teen heartthrob (though he very well could be), but he takes on diverse and challenging roles. Not just the big mainstream French movies like A Very Long Engagement, but also more controversial films like the homosexual Le Dernier Jour. Let's face it, in the end, Twilight is not going to be an epic film masterpiece, it will simply be a film brought on by a book and have its content and ideas adapted for the largely teen audience of the fans. A

And much as we love him, Gaspard simply does not do these sort of roles. Can you imagine if he was cast in say, Harry Potter or Stormbreaker or something? All fairly uninteresting and dissapointing screen adaptations because they had to seriously edit everything to make sure it was approriate for the majority age group. It might seriously damage his career to do a 'silly little vampire teen flick' like Twilight (I'm talking in his context here) and he would be forever typecast as Edward Cullen, just like Dan Radcliffe is as Harry Potter. Most of us already do typecast him as Edward, so much so that gasparfans even had to stop members posting Gaspard!Edward material as we were getting distracted from the efforts of the actor himself.

So, realistically speaking, we knew he wouldn't be Edward. But we still continued to hope, fervently, and that's probably another reason for the enormity of this backlash-- we'd been building up all the expectations and anticipation to see Gaspard in the role, and we need a scapegoat to let out all the pent up frustration on. How fair is that? To lash out at Robert simply coz we didn't see Gaspard (or whoever) in the role? The role that (remember, again) was a personal ideal individually tailored to all of us. It's impossible to think he could satisfy everyone.

I know this has all been about Gaspard, but it applies to any other actors you had in mind (except maybe the 4th paragraph). It's just that, as the majority of people here were Gaspard!Edward supporters, it seemed more relevant. Just think back to when Bella was cast-- most of us wanted Emily Browning, but after giving Kristen a chance and researching a bit, most people seem to be content with the casting. And also this is getting ridiculously long and I have to move onto the next paragraph. But hope you got the point.

3) "CEDRIC DIGGORY? EW."

One word: TYPECASTING. Are you really going to determine Robert's approriateness for the role of Edward by other movies he's done? In some cases, this may be justifiable, if he has played a similar character in the past. Yes, the character of Cedric Diggory was also charming, good looking and had (sort of) supernatural powers. But he was in no way vampiric.

Besides, do you really think Harry Potter provided ample room for Robert to shine? They already cut out many, MANY scenes from the books, leaving no choice to limit Robert's screen time to maybe...15 minutes? Not much serious acting was involved in his role, there were no moving or dramatic scenes that suggested deeper character development, and in the end, Harry Potter was pretty much tailored to become a kids' movie.

Edward is a much more complex and challenging role, and we know this will shine through in the script, for those who have read the sides already, and also because the main PLOT of Twilight centers around Edward (and Bella). This is not like Cedric, who was just inserted into Goblet of Fire as a supporting character, to make Harry jealous over Cho, to be a fellow Hogwarts competitor and to eventually display the full ferocity of Voldemort's evil. As Edward, Robert now gets center stage and will be given a much larger room to shine.

In addition to the 'He can't act!' ploy, think about it. Summit has spent months and months auditioning hundreds of potential Edwards. They know of the huge fanbase Twilight has. If we hate Edward, we won't watch the movie. If we don't watch the movie, they'll make no cash. (And we'll make Steph very unhappy).

These people know what they are doing. Robert beat out thousands of other competitors, and Summit had a huge responsibility on their shoulders to cast the right Edward, given the media attention of the film. If they did not feel Robert was the perfect choice, why would they risk this? Besides, they said he has great chemistry with Kristen. Colton/Tom supporters-- I'm NOT suggesting anything-- but suppose the reason neither of them got cast is because they simply did not click with Kristen as well? And then imagine if they still got cast? What's worse-- Twilight with an Edward who's not your personal preference, or Twilight where Edward and Bella simply look like...well. 2 actors spitting out a bunch of memorized lines? I think the answer is obvious.

FINALLY...(YES SRSLY)

I think I've said WAY MORE than enough on the matter-- I've probably caused some people temporary blindness by the ridiculous word length by now. This post was not targeted just to defend Robert because I support him as Edward or whatever-- I don't mind him, I don't have anything against him, and I'm going to give him a chance to prove himself, rather than jump to conclusions-- but merely as I was so disappointed by the ludicrous negativity here.

C'mon guys, Steph called us the best fans in the world. Do you really think this is how she wants us to act? We'd support anything she does, so why, instead of celebrating that Twilight is finally well on its way to production ( a milestone in Steph's achievements, I'm sure) are we choosing to react to the news by screaming about refusing to watch the movie, destroying summit, and primarily, verbally shredding Robert into pieces before he's even started filming? We have so many talented artists/writers/fans in general here. It's so sad that we've resorted to such vicious bitching just for the sake of it, without even bothering to back up an argument or opinion.

I am by no means trying to change your opinion of Robert's casting, if by the end of this, your resentments over the official Edward remain, then I'm not going to stop you complaining. I just hope that through this long, looonggg writing you get a chance to perhaps stand back and see if your outrage was not due to Robert's casting itself, but out of the disappointment of your own personal hopes as a fan.

SO LET'S BE TEAM SWITZERLAND ON THE EDWARD CASTING SIDE Y'ALL.

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