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Most extreme cases of Adaptational Attractiveness in movies/TV
- Thread starter Squid Bunny
- Start date
Reggie Ray (the large fella) has a goddamn tragic iMDB profile
Ron Lester (1970–2016)
Funny enough, I juuuust bought book 1 today! Can't wait to jump in after loving the show. However, I didn't realize this guy was a buff hunk. The show does a great job of portraying him as this quiet, meek, nerd of a botanist.For those who don't know, "Adaptational Attractiveness" is when a character described as not very attractive or with physical traits considered unattractive in a book/comic book get cast in the movie/TV adaptation by an actor that is very, very attractive. This is a bit unavoidable since Hollywood's beauty standard for actors is definitely above-average (to say the least). But some cases are very extreme. Tyrion in GoT is a classic example.
But I bring this up because I'm reading the The Expanse books and I haven't watched the show. I like, however, to look up the characters and who plays them in live action. So I was very surprised when the meek, small, biologist Prax was played by Terry Chen, who is, pardon the expression, a total hunk.
What other examples do you guys find interesting or even particularly egregious?
Nah best take on Doom is that the first time it was just a mini scar and he was so crazy he saw himself as a abomination.Hi, Doctor Doom.
He was horrible in Season 2, and the fact other characters would be like "omg you're so ugly" when he barely had any scratches on his face was pure absurdity. S1 was so amazing, S2 let me down.Jigsaw in Netlix's The Punisher :
those scars will ruins his sanity, poor poor guy
I thought we just called this "TV ugly". Guess there's fancy words for everything.
Reminds me of a scene in Hell on Wheels, where the protagonist, Cullen Bohannon, gets piss drunk and fights some guy and gets all bloodied and muddied and the next day he'd supposed to be a total mess, with dirty clothes, suspenders falling off, his hair and beard a mess... but he's still so damn hot that the messy look only makes him look even hotter lol
The TV version of Ichabod is even sillier than Johnny Depp then, because he's legit one of the most handsome men I've ever seen in my life
Yeah, I think this guy wins. xD
Yes, and he's literally in the OP.
First one I thought of.
lmao, those are amazing.
Close enough.
From Mortal Engines for reference.
...Nah dude that guy is still mega-attractive haha.Part of the reason why I loved Logan is how "ugly" they made Hugh Jackman look.
Reminds me of a scene in Hell on Wheels, where the protagonist, Cullen Bohannon, gets piss drunk and fights some guy and gets all bloodied and muddied and the next day he'd supposed to be a total mess, with dirty clothes, suspenders falling off, his hair and beard a mess... but he's still so damn hot that the messy look only makes him look even hotter lol
Why, was Ichabod supposed to be unattrac....
Irving's characters drive the story and are most memorable because of his detail in describing each. He says of Ichabod Crane (the main character), 'He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck, to tell which way the wind blew.'
According to Irving, Ichabod looks like a goofy, old scarecrow who has escaped the cornfield.
...............LMAOThe TV version of Ichabod is even sillier than Johnny Depp then, because he's legit one of the most handsome men I've ever seen in my life
Yeah, I think this guy wins. xD
The film adaptation of The Help really bothered me as a fan of the novel. the protagonist is named Skeeter because her brother said she looks like a mosquito, she's almost 6 feet tall and has hair she herself describes as "pubic." She's repeatedly said to not be considered beautiful.
Here's how she looks in the film
Here's how she looks in the film
If he just showed up looking like that you'd say "ok, lame, but that's what they're going with". But they specifically had a long, long scene of the Punisher absolutely ruining his face at the end of Season 1, like he shouldn't even have working facial expressions from how shredded he left him, let alone a normal face.Jigsaw in Netlix's The Punisher :
those scars will ruins his sanity, poor poor guy
Didn't she become more canonically attractive as the books went on? I mean they have 6 years to get hit with puberty.
Not just puberty of course, they gave him those goofy false teeth and had a little wire gimmick to push his ears out to make him look more unfortunate.The Potter kids were fine in the 1st two movies, then nature cast puberty on them and did it's miraculous job.
Again, puberty.
How he was in movie 1
But wait, I am not talking about adaptational attractiveness where characters that are supposed to be ugly are actually rather attractive instead.
i am talking about characters that do appear ugly but are played by attractive people in makeup
I think this applies to a lot of GoT characters. Jon describes Ygritte as pug nosed with crooked teeth and eyes which are too far apart. Also, the Hound is supposed to be monsterous to look at but in the show he just looks like a regular bloke whose mates shaved off an eyebrow for a joke.
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Daario Naharis is one of my faves when it comes to the changes. XD
If we're talking "adaptations" of history and myth, Fate GOes so out of its way to make their characters hot that their looks and backstories barely resemble them.
King Arthur
Jeanne D'Arc
Mordred
Emperor Nero
Okita Souji-oh you fucking get the point by now.
Fate is stupid taking its world and lore seriously since Apocrypha.
King Arthur
Jeanne D'Arc
Mordred
Emperor Nero
Okita Souji-oh you fucking get the point by now.
Fate is stupid taking its world and lore seriously since Apocrypha.
To be fair, in interviews, the director of Holes does actually bring this up. They main reason why they decided to go with a skinny actor was because the weight loss Caveman goes through over the course of the movie was too unhealthy for the amount of time shooting was done. Otherwise Holes is a fairly direct adaptation of the book. I would hope a director making sure the actor doesn't suffer for art would be better than making things 1:1 perfect to the novel.
Oh how I still love her.invisible boring outsider dork that no man would be attracted to
stunning hottie that drops every jaw as she walks by
Josie and the Pussycats
I don't know if this counts but Prince Zuko in the Avatar the Last Airbender movie has his scar dramatically toned down. Granted I know he has a rabid fangirl following both in and out of universe so it's not like the original scar was stopping them
Speaking of:
In the book of Ready Player One, Art3mis' birthmark was supposed to be this huge Domino-style mark over her face
If I hadn't brought it up would you have even noticed it in this picture?
It should be bigger but it wasn't across her face. What's really different is in the book she was heavier, wide hips etc.
She hates her birthmark in the book and thinks others will to. When Wade meets her irl he finds her beautiful.
Daario Naharis is one of my faves when it comes to the changes. XD
Man, I forgot how fucking weird book Daario is. Martin's description makes him sound like a literal clown and yet Dany gets instant vapors for him.
I'm just about through the first book, and I can say that the show does a very good job of covering the book, or at least the first anyway. Definitely some differences regarding this thread topic though; "Belters" are supposed to be tall and lanky with somewhat oversized heads and thin fingers, from growing up in reduced gravity, which we don't really see in the show. Alex the pilot was also supposed to be kinda "chubby," which....no.
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Show Daario number 1 embraced the character's total sleaziness. Daario number 2 was just a bland beefcake.Daario Naharis is one of my faves when it comes to the changes. XD
Still holding out on GoT Brotherhood to get true Daario.
I'm really sad now.
Sort of the opposite, but Snow White and the Huntsman was trying to sell that Kristen Stewart's Snow White was the fairest of them all, but the entire rest of the cast was better looking.
Nah, you know what? FUCK THAT ONE TOO. THIS IS THE THREADSTOPPER
GRENDEL'S MOTHER is the winner
Needless to say he doesn't bang her in the poem
Her appearance is never directly described in Old English. And scholar's have a lot of debates about her character. The term "aglæc-wif" is what specifically causes debate.
As for this adaptation, the screenwriters, Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman, wondered why Beowulf goes to kill Grendel's mother and comes back with Grendel's head, with no proof the mother is dead. Grendel is also half demon half man. That put the thought in their heads that Grendel'a Mother was a succubus. So Hrothgar was seduced. And so was Beowulf.
If we're talking "adaptations" of history and myth, Fate GOes so out of its way to make their characters hot that their looks and backstories barely resemble them.
King Arthur
Fate is stupid taking its world and lore seriously since Apocrypha.
I think i remember that Saber was described by Rin as being muscular and not overly feminine, Yet in the show she's just as lithe and waifu bait as any of the other characters. In general it's fine i guess because she's always wearing full clothing (at least in Unlimited Blade Works)
I got why they did the change, but in general the translations seem to agree on a sort of monstrous or ugly appearance.
Bear in mind that Angelina Jolie is clearly some kind of glamour or illusion. The film does show her true appearance reflected in the water, she looks like some kind of half-fish thing.
I'm just about through the first book, and I can say that the show does a very good job of covering the book, or at least the first anyway. Definitely some differences regarding this thread topic though; "Belters" are supposed to be tall and lanky with somewhat oversized heads and thin fingers, from growing up in reduced gravity, which we don't really see in the show. Alex the pilot was also supposed to be kinda "chubby," which....no.
Funny thing about alex is that they keep throwing in jokes about his weight, Bobbie especially. Like, the guy might not have a six pack (don't recall the actor ever going shirtless unlike most of the other male leads) but he is hardly out of shape. Heck, I'm not sure it's been mentioned, but the guy playing Amos is TOTALLY not what book Amos looked like in my head.
Sure it's been mentioned but She's All That is basically an entire movie based on Rachel Leigh Cook being ugly lmao
Came to post this. In the comic book, Jigsaw is a monstrous face-stitched-together villain. In the TV show, Ben Barnes (who is ridiculously attractive) has some scars that make him look more interesting, not uglier.
I thought the chick not being ugly in Ready Player One was the whole point. Does anyone in the film acknowledges that she's ugly? I thought it was just her own insecurity.
It's the fricking very first line of the book, dude:
Interesting. Yeah, Alex on the other hand. That guy is suave and sexy as hell. I'd be curious to know how they describe his accent in the book.I'm just about through the first book, and I can say that the show does a very good job of covering the book, or at least the first anyway. Definitely some differences regarding this thread topic though; "Belters" are supposed to be tall and lanky with somewhat oversized heads and thin fingers, from growing up in reduced gravity, which we don't really see in the show. Alex the pilot was also supposed to be kinda "chubby," which....no.
She looks the same in the source material.
I've seen a lot of Japanese series say someone's beautiful, but artists never put in the to give a proper contrast between them and everyone else. Pretty much a consequence of relying on sameface.
Now granted, they really only took the name, and not the actual character, but Negasonic Teenage Warhead in her brief appearance in the X-Men comics was a gaunt blue gothic sort of woman.
In the film she's just a conventionally pretty regular girl with light punk stylings.
While she is more or less a brand new character just with the same name, some of the earliest concept art done well before the film actually went into production or casting had a more accurate design which they eventually moved away from, but still drawn as much more pretty than the comics version
In the film she's just a conventionally pretty regular girl with light punk stylings.
While she is more or less a brand new character just with the same name, some of the earliest concept art done well before the film actually went into production or casting had a more accurate design which they eventually moved away from, but still drawn as much more pretty than the comics version
I don't know if this counts but Prince Zuko in the Avatar the Last Airbender movie has his scar dramatically toned down. Granted I know he has a rabid fangirl following both in and out of universe so it's not like the original scar was stopping them
Speaking of:
In the book of Ready Player One, Art3mis' birthmark was supposed to be this huge Domino-style mark over her face
If I hadn't brought it up would you have even noticed it in this picture?
Lol. My friend and I were so confused in the theatre. And then they followed it up with some ass shots. It was bizarre.
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From what I've seen of the show, Amos is much younger in the adaptation. Also has a bit of a rivalry with Holden, that isn't on the books (at least until half of Caliban's War).
Huh. I read Gone With The Wind twice and completely forgot. It was the way men respond to Scarlett that I focused on.
Also, to be fair, that kind of charisma would be so difficult to get across on the screen. I could see someone like an Elizabeth Moss, Clea DuVall or Mia Wasikowska pulling it off, but they don't have Scarlett's features. To be clear, all three are attractive women in their own right, but they're not the standard Ellen-faced, doe eyed Hollywood starlets either. With the right makeup, I could see them being outshone in a room of southern belles until they opened their mouths.