i am the centurion's hound, to lie at the centurion's feet
My id apparently wants me never to stop doing these. More of a discussion this time, though, because I had more trouble deciding some of these roles, and I think if you changed some of them round (which you could very reasonably do) then the whole feel of the cast would change, too. Also I am rubbish at thinking of actresses, it took me forever to come up with a shortlist, so if I've missed anyone...!
The Eagle
a genderswapped casting by citruses
Marcus Flavius Aquila
Channing Tatum → Michelle Dockery
It was hard to pick my girl!Marcus, but I kept coming back to her. I think all that pretence at propriety in Downton Abbey makes it easy for me to imagine her saying "Did I dishonour myself?"
Esca
Jamie Bell → Emma Watson
Think about it for a second. I know, I know, she's Hermione, but imagine her with that short hair she has now all scruffy and tangled, with bruises and tattoos and covered in grime, in the ring with the gladiator. Imagine her giving herself her death. If you don't see it then, you never will.
Lutorius
Denis O'Hare → Catherine Tate
Ignore the gingerness, and imagine her cautioning Marcus that the men will hate him if he wakes them for nothing. I don't know, I might be biased because I fucking love her.
Druid
Lukács Bicskey → Sinead Keenan
Badass. 'Nuff said.
Cradoc
Douglas Henshall → Emilia Fox
I realise we only glimpse him in the movie (when I saw it I didn't even realise it was Douglas Henshall, much less that he was supposed to be Cradoc), but he's in my casting(s) because he features much more heavily in the book. Emilia Fox was my lady!Agamemnon, so evidently I have this impression of her as being kind of an ambiguous character -- perfect for Cradoc, who's Marcus's friend until he isn't.
Uncle Aquila
Donald Sutherland → Dame Judi Dench
DAME JUDI MUST BE IN ALL GENDERSWAPS. Erm, she's hilarious and I love her? I've not heard her try and pull off an American accent but I bet it'd be fly.
Tribune Servius Placidus
Pip Carter → Christina Cole
Slimy bitch Caroline Bingley = perfect snooty Placidus. The other actress who I nearly put in here was also an ex-Caroline -- Kelly Reilly.
Guern
Mark Strong → Sarah Parish
Firstly I love Sarah Parish almost as much as I love Mark Strong, but also I just. Can imagine her being such a good Guern. Like, so good that it hurts me that this will never happen outside my imagination.
The Seal Prince
Tahar Rahim → Keeley Hawes
It was hard to think of actresses who could create the Seal Prince aura, y'know, like you might actually be scared that they were going to kill Marcus? But when I remembered Keeley's Lady Macbeth, this was a done deal.
Seal Boy
Thomas Henry → Ramona Marquez
Because she is amazing, basically.
Cottia
[uncredited] → Michael Socha
Bonus bookverse love interest for Marcus! Was there a ginger girl in the amphitheatre scene of The Eagle who put her thumb up and got other people to do the same? I thought there was. Anyway, Michael Socha is not ginger but he could do that and more, all the Cottia stuff. He's wide-eyed and innocent and feels things fervently and I can imagine him taking care of Cub while Marcus was gone. It makes my heart hurt a bit to imagine it, actually. Michaelll ♥
...But you know what? I finished this and looked over it and felt like, 'this is all so white'. I didn't include any actresses of colour because of so-called 'historical accuracy', but frankly it's not historically accurate for Marcus and Esca to have ladyparts, either, so. I felt like yet another remix was in order. Hence:
The Eagle
a chromatic genderswapped casting by citruses
Marcus Flavius Aquila
Channing Tatum → Freema Agyeman
It took me a while to get Marcus, like with Michelle Dockery, but then I realised that Martha Jones was pretty much a block of wood in exactly the same way Channing Tatum can be a block of wood, so I think Freema could do this.
Esca
Jamie Bell → Anika Noni Rose
Tbh as soon as I thought of Anika as Esca I knew I had to do a full chromatic casting around her. I couldn't find any caps of her being fierce from No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency but trust me, her "I GOT 97 PERCENT" stubbornness is all Esca.
Lutorius
Denis O'Hare → Christine Adams
Seen her disciplining dogs and falling for Emerson in Pushing Daisies? Even if you haven't, believe me that she's got the balance of strength and kindness that is basically all Lutorius has to do in this movie.
Druid
Lukács Bicskey → Nina Wadia
Her homophobic EastEnders character's tirades can get pretty Druid-like sometimes.
Cradoc
Douglas Henshall → Angela Griffin
Again, ambiguous-seeming actress who I have previously cast in a similar role! Well, it was Polyphemos the Cyclops, but, y'know, that's kind of similar?
Uncle Aquila
Donald Sutherland → Meera Syal
I adore her and she'd be perfect. Enough said, tbh.
Tribune Servius Placidus
Pip Carter → Lenora Crichlow
Her Being Human giggling/tea-making persona may never seem to be able to keep a straight face, but I think she could be bitchy enough for this. I also considered Antonia Thomas from Misfits and I think she'd be just as good if she could avoid seeming, um, too 'modern'?
Guern
Mark Strong → Sophie Okonedo
Liz 10! Erm, I mean, yes. Very serious casting decision-making process. (In all seriousness, actually, she'd nail it.)
The Seal Prince
Tahar Rahim → Ruth Negga
Another time when I started off with "I LOVE HER SFM" and ended up thinking she'd actually be amazing at this. I think she could kill somebody.
Seal Boy
Thomas Henry → Willow Smith
I'd admitted defeat at trying to think of literally any well-known child actresses of colour, and then I was thinking about how, if it weren't genderswapped, Jayden Smith would be good... Good thing he has a sister, eh?
Cottia
[uncredited] → Sacha Dhawan
Akhtar from The History Boys stumbling around looking all wide-eyed and principled was one of the (very few) good things about The Deep. So I reckon he'd be good at wide-eyed, vehement little Cottia.
NOTES
• One of the reasons this was so fucking hard was because literally ALL the characters in The Eagle are male, so it was actresses all the way. I couldn't fall back on my usual gang of David Tennants, Russell Toveys, Colin Firths, Benedict Cumberbatches, Matthew Goodes, et al.
• Apologies to those of my f'list (basically all of you?) who really do not care. Come in and look at the pretty actresses, maybe?
• I'm linking to this post at ninth_eagle, so if you've come here from there, feel free to discuss anything and everything about this in the comments. In fact, please do! I would love to get into a dialogue about all of this. And it would be so nice to think that somebody other than me actually gives a fuck! :)
The Eagle
a genderswapped casting by citruses
Marcus Flavius Aquila
Channing Tatum → Michelle Dockery
It was hard to pick my girl!Marcus, but I kept coming back to her. I think all that pretence at propriety in Downton Abbey makes it easy for me to imagine her saying "Did I dishonour myself?"
Esca
Jamie Bell → Emma Watson
Think about it for a second. I know, I know, she's Hermione, but imagine her with that short hair she has now all scruffy and tangled, with bruises and tattoos and covered in grime, in the ring with the gladiator. Imagine her giving herself her death. If you don't see it then, you never will.
Lutorius
Denis O'Hare → Catherine Tate
Ignore the gingerness, and imagine her cautioning Marcus that the men will hate him if he wakes them for nothing. I don't know, I might be biased because I fucking love her.
Druid
Lukács Bicskey → Sinead Keenan
Badass. 'Nuff said.
Cradoc
Douglas Henshall → Emilia Fox
I realise we only glimpse him in the movie (when I saw it I didn't even realise it was Douglas Henshall, much less that he was supposed to be Cradoc), but he's in my casting(s) because he features much more heavily in the book. Emilia Fox was my lady!Agamemnon, so evidently I have this impression of her as being kind of an ambiguous character -- perfect for Cradoc, who's Marcus's friend until he isn't.
Uncle Aquila
Donald Sutherland → Dame Judi Dench
DAME JUDI MUST BE IN ALL GENDERSWAPS. Erm, she's hilarious and I love her? I've not heard her try and pull off an American accent but I bet it'd be fly.
Tribune Servius Placidus
Pip Carter → Christina Cole
Slimy bitch Caroline Bingley = perfect snooty Placidus. The other actress who I nearly put in here was also an ex-Caroline -- Kelly Reilly.
Guern
Mark Strong → Sarah Parish
Firstly I love Sarah Parish almost as much as I love Mark Strong, but also I just. Can imagine her being such a good Guern. Like, so good that it hurts me that this will never happen outside my imagination.
The Seal Prince
Tahar Rahim → Keeley Hawes
It was hard to think of actresses who could create the Seal Prince aura, y'know, like you might actually be scared that they were going to kill Marcus? But when I remembered Keeley's Lady Macbeth, this was a done deal.
Seal Boy
Thomas Henry → Ramona Marquez
Because she is amazing, basically.
Cottia
[uncredited] → Michael Socha
Bonus bookverse love interest for Marcus! Was there a ginger girl in the amphitheatre scene of The Eagle who put her thumb up and got other people to do the same? I thought there was. Anyway, Michael Socha is not ginger but he could do that and more, all the Cottia stuff. He's wide-eyed and innocent and feels things fervently and I can imagine him taking care of Cub while Marcus was gone. It makes my heart hurt a bit to imagine it, actually. Michaelll ♥
...But you know what? I finished this and looked over it and felt like, 'this is all so white'. I didn't include any actresses of colour because of so-called 'historical accuracy', but frankly it's not historically accurate for Marcus and Esca to have ladyparts, either, so. I felt like yet another remix was in order. Hence:
The Eagle
a chromatic genderswapped casting by citruses
Marcus Flavius Aquila
Channing Tatum → Freema Agyeman
It took me a while to get Marcus, like with Michelle Dockery, but then I realised that Martha Jones was pretty much a block of wood in exactly the same way Channing Tatum can be a block of wood, so I think Freema could do this.
Esca
Jamie Bell → Anika Noni Rose
Tbh as soon as I thought of Anika as Esca I knew I had to do a full chromatic casting around her. I couldn't find any caps of her being fierce from No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency but trust me, her "I GOT 97 PERCENT" stubbornness is all Esca.
Lutorius
Denis O'Hare → Christine Adams
Seen her disciplining dogs and falling for Emerson in Pushing Daisies? Even if you haven't, believe me that she's got the balance of strength and kindness that is basically all Lutorius has to do in this movie.
Druid
Lukács Bicskey → Nina Wadia
Her homophobic EastEnders character's tirades can get pretty Druid-like sometimes.
Cradoc
Douglas Henshall → Angela Griffin
Again, ambiguous-seeming actress who I have previously cast in a similar role! Well, it was Polyphemos the Cyclops, but, y'know, that's kind of similar?
Uncle Aquila
Donald Sutherland → Meera Syal
I adore her and she'd be perfect. Enough said, tbh.
Tribune Servius Placidus
Pip Carter → Lenora Crichlow
Her Being Human giggling/tea-making persona may never seem to be able to keep a straight face, but I think she could be bitchy enough for this. I also considered Antonia Thomas from Misfits and I think she'd be just as good if she could avoid seeming, um, too 'modern'?
Guern
Mark Strong → Sophie Okonedo
Liz 10! Erm, I mean, yes. Very serious casting decision-making process. (In all seriousness, actually, she'd nail it.)
The Seal Prince
Tahar Rahim → Ruth Negga
Another time when I started off with "I LOVE HER SFM" and ended up thinking she'd actually be amazing at this. I think she could kill somebody.
Seal Boy
Thomas Henry → Willow Smith
I'd admitted defeat at trying to think of literally any well-known child actresses of colour, and then I was thinking about how, if it weren't genderswapped, Jayden Smith would be good... Good thing he has a sister, eh?
Cottia
[uncredited] → Sacha Dhawan
Akhtar from The History Boys stumbling around looking all wide-eyed and principled was one of the (very few) good things about The Deep. So I reckon he'd be good at wide-eyed, vehement little Cottia.
NOTES
• One of the reasons this was so fucking hard was because literally ALL the characters in The Eagle are male, so it was actresses all the way. I couldn't fall back on my usual gang of David Tennants, Russell Toveys, Colin Firths, Benedict Cumberbatches, Matthew Goodes, et al.
• Apologies to those of my f'list (basically all of you?) who really do not care. Come in and look at the pretty actresses, maybe?
• I'm linking to this post at ninth_eagle, so if you've come here from there, feel free to discuss anything and everything about this in the comments. In fact, please do! I would love to get into a dialogue about all of this. And it would be so nice to think that somebody other than me actually gives a fuck! :)