Sometimes when I read a book I can picture a character perfectly. Sometimes this is due to the description (like June in Legend) or it's because of the cover model (like Rachel in Defiance). But when there's no cover model, I find it hard to put a face to the character. I can get the hair, the eye color, the body type, but the face is always kind of blurry in my head. Like I can't quite see the person clearly. Does this happen to you guys?
This has happened to me with Tris from Divergent. I could picture everything about her except her face. And now it's been made into a movie so we have Shailene Woodley (who does not look like Tris in my opinion). But this point poses another question: once a book has been turned into a movie do you only picture the character as the actor/actress? When I think of Katniss now, I see Jennifer Lawrence. I haven't reached that point with Shailene Woodley and Tris yet, but I think it's because I'm not 100% on board with that casting yet. When the casting is done well though, the actor or actress will forever become the character in my head.
I know that some people dream cast characters, but I really don't. Part of the reason is that I don't watch enough TV or movies to know who all the hot actors and actresses are. Seriously, my sister has to use character names when talking to me about celebrities, not their actual names or I won't know who she is referring to. It drives her crazy.
So I guess what my question to you is, do you picture a face when you're reading about a character? Do you go with the cover model? Or do you dream cast? Once a book has been turned into a movie do you picture the actor/actress?
I'm really bad at picturing people in books so once the actors are cast, I usually just picture them. And sometimes I do try to picture an actor or actress so I can have a mental picture of them in my head. I was reading a NA book recently and the MC was 18 and the guy was 33 and was described as movie star gorgeous (and he was her teacher). I had to picture Damon from Vampire Diaries so I wouldn't be going ewww. What's hard for me is when the guys are described as having long hair, curls, or something that's just really hard for me to picture as attractive (I'm not a big long hair fan). So I try to picture Heath Ledger's hair in different movies when it was long. That helps. A Lot. So for instance, Dimitri from VA. I had such trouble picturing him with long hair, for some reason I pictured Angel from Buffy. And the guy that's been cast as him in the upcoming movie is gorgeous face-wise, but not his hair. Ugh. At least in the pictures and scenes I've seen. Ugh. Ok, I'm rambling so I'll stop. Interesting post! ~Pam
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm pretty bad at it too. Like I said, I normally can see everything but the face which is like blurred out in my mind. But then normally once they cast for the movie, I can't not see the face of the actor/actress. Sometimes it's good (like Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss) and sometimes not so much (Like Jamie Campbell Bower as Jace from Mortal Instruments....ew.) I also hate when guys are described with curly hair. I can handle long hair, but there's something about curls that just freaks me out. Lol.
Delete