{post #37} casting disney ladies
So. A little background, before the picspam! I've wanted to make a Disney casting picspam ever since I learned how to start using Photoshop, which was about five years ago. I'm not certain why I never got around to it; Lord knows I've made plenty of picspams in the meantime. Then, pic_spammy was created at the close of 2012, launching with a Disney theme, which was just the push I'd needed. Now, making this picspam was doubly difficult for two reasons. One, I did not want this to be a White People as Everyone kind of picspam. I wanted to be sure to respect the characters' cultural heritages as much as possible. Second, I also wanted to stay true to the characters' ages as much as I possibly could. Disney's ladies range in age from fourteen to twenty at most, but due to Hollywood's insistence on having adults play teens, it was rather difficult to find age-appropriate actors who were also culturally appropriate. As it is, all but one of the actresses I've chosen are twenty-five and under, with the exception being twenty-eight. Anyway, I really enjoyed doing this and I quite like the end result; hope you do too!
Snow was the most difficult role to cast! She's fourteen in the original movie, so I wanted to find an actress who was under twenty, but she also had to be pale, dark-haired, and exceptionally beautiful. I thought of Jessica early on, but I couldn't convince myself, and so I spent two weeks trying to talk myself out of Jessica, and now I don't know why. She's clearly perfect, or as perfect as any actress can be. She's gorgeous, pale, dark-haired, and she's adorable enough to be believable as a teenager.
Cinderella is one of my least favorite princesses; I always thought her lifeless. Eventually I ended up creating my own canon for her where she is clever and sultry and attends the ball with the specific purpose of snagging a prince or rich nobleman in order to escape her life. I intend to write this spin-off someday. In any case, I feel like Holliday breathes life into a princess with very little personality, and she's got the regal bearing of a queen, as well as that perfect combination of innocence and devilishness required to play Cinderella.
I was originally going to go with Dianna Agron for Aurora, but she seemed a little too drab, and she is the popular choice for Aurora, so I wanted to go with something different. It didn't take me long to think of Freya. With her freckles and her not-so-straight teeth, Freya is real, and she is beautiful. She brings colour to another princess I'm not so keen on.
Very easy to cast! Obviously I needed a redhead, which limited my choices, but I didn't need to think for too long. Amy is the perfect choice for Ariel's bubbly, energetic personality.
Okay, so Emi is actually Japanese, but I don't know any young Chinese actresses, and I didn't want to cast any random actress. I've seen Emi in a few dramas, and she's pretty damn fantastic at subtly conveying various facets of emotion. She's also very intense, which is how I've always viewed Mulan.
For Pocahontas I knew I wanted an actress who was at least partly Native American, and I had almost forgotten about Q'orianka until I saw a Princess Kaiulani poster. Funnily enough, after I had cast her, I realized that Q'orianka actually played Pocohantas before, in The New World, which means I'm not the only one who thinks she's an insanely perfect fit, from her facial structure to her hair to her lips.
I'm actually still a little on the fence about Leila; I'm convinced there is someone better out there. Not that I don't adore Leila, I just don't think that she is perfect for the part of Jasmine. First off, by my standards, she's too old for the part, at twenty-eight years old. I can make her appeal to me if I try, and I think she could fit the part well, but I feel like there could be someone better if I keep looking. The lack of well-known actresses of Arab descent doesn't make it easy, though. Anyway, that's not to say Leila isn't a decent fit - she walks the line between girl and woman rather nicely, and she carries herself well.
Alia came to me out of the blue, but I knew immediately that she was perfect. I had been vacillating between Lea Michelle and Oona Chaplin and leaning towards Oona, but Alia is a better fit than either of them. She certainly looks the part, especially with her figure and her hair, and she's very down-to-earth. I have no doubt that she would portray Belle's intellectualism very well.
This was a last-minute decision, but I couldn't be happier about it! Originally I was going to go with Zoe Saldana - I had the graphic made and everything. I wasn't one hundred percent happy with Zoe, because at thirty-two she was way too old to play nineteen-year-old Tiana, and she is also the popular choice. Then I remembered Tru Jackson and I looked Keke up, and it took me exactly three seconds to realize she was the perfect fit. Not only is she gorgeous, she's spunky and has a smile that lights up the world. Plus she's exactly nineteen, which makes me happy!
Easiest person to cast! She was also the first person I cast. I know Meg is not technically part of the Disney princess line-up, but she's my favorite ever and Phoeobe was such a perfect choice for her that I couldn't resist. From her cheekbones to her snarkiness to her voice to her unconventional beauty she embodies Meg more perfectly than anyone else I can imagine.