Eh, I think there is a bit of acting needed to try and convincingly play a man who is lost in his own past and loss, to the point of pushing everyone around him away, in a vain attempt to shield himself from further loss, by not making emotional connections. Otherwise it will look cliche and tropey. Just like you can do "plucky and infuriating child companion, that pushes the grumpy adult into feeling again, and living life" badly as well. It's all down to chemistry between the leads, and if they can really make us think they are portraying that role well. And you can absolutely do it badly.
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as Joel and Ellie in upcoming Last of Us show.
- Thread starter Samtemdo8
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Seeing as Joel was Josh Brolin's character from No Country For Old Men and Ellie was Elliot Page's character from... anything Elliot Page's been in, I'd say neither should be too hard.
Yeah, Gamer was bad, the only bit I loved, was, like I said, Michael C. Halls performance. His dance routine with the puppets to "Under My Skin" by Sinatra was just, fabulous, and was the inspiration for a Marvel telepath/psychic character I played online for a while. Loved that bit from just a pure visual, cinematic standpoint. Everything around it was a festering turd.
God I forgot about Crank. That movie was just so fucking nuts. I saw the first one in theaters, never bothered with the second.
I know Joel is seen as the typical angry, bearded guy, but Troy Baker gave him this warm but reluctant daddy energy that can easily get lost if they just go for angry, bearded guy.
You're not missing much. It's just more of the same. I used to have both movies, but I ended up selling both of them. The most interesting thing from the sequel is this:
I dug it at first, but a couple years later, Crank 2 got boring for me. It also was another one of those films that has late 2000s shittiness.
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I agree, which is why I think it's not a role that you can just phone in. I mean...you CAN phone it in, but it won't be very good, and everyone will see through it.
Can Pascal pull it off? *shrugs* , but I know Butler can't do it convincingly, regardless of looking more like Joel than Pedro.
Every time this comes up, all I can ever think about, is the Dresden Files tv show. Where the character of Murphy, a small, 5ft nothing blonde, cop, in the books, was played by a relatively tall, slightly model thin (but not waifish) woman with darker skin, and jet black hair. And while, cosmetically, she should've played Susan (the tall, smoldering skinned latina, with jet black hair, journalist), her personality, was WAY more in keeping with Murphy. Even Jim Butcher was like "Yeah, visually, she is more like Susan, spunk wise, she was totally Murphy." So I don't really care if the actor chosen, doesn't look like the character in question. Frankly, Joel is about as stock footage standard of a visual stereotype as it gets, so is anything really being lost from his "character" if he's not Bog Standard Scruffy White Dude Protagonist ? If the best actor for the role was Pascal, more power to him.
.....*blinks*.....wow, for a second there, it felt like a live action scene of inFamous, with Cole McGrath pulling electricity from nearby power grids to keep fighting. And...then it went Godzilla by way of Genesis' Land of Confusion video.
Part of me kind of admires the "coke fueled fever dream logic" of Crank, like an action movie had sex with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and just ran around with it's dick out, flapping in the wind. The rest of me is like ".....why?"
Not that I'm trying to compare acting talent here, but I feel someone like Tommy Lee Jones or Denzel Washington has that soft, rough guy vibe that Joel sports in the first game.
Maybe this would be their chance to turn her into someone likeable (which is debatable, I dunno I haven't played the game and I don't plan on doing so).
OT: I quite like Pedro Pascal. I mean, I've seen him in like two things. One was great and the other was absolute shit, and he was a bright spot in both. I don't really care much for TLOU (zombies are blegh), but Pascal's Mando becoming a daddy was fun in The Mandalorian so I could see this show doing well enough.
I mean they could use the REAL WOMAN that they used to render her. Or any number of female weight lifters with her "unrealistic" proportions that are out there. Since hey, apparently making them look accurate to material is the most important detail.
You know, I find it kind of bizarre. We're totally fine with them hiring voice actors who look nothing like the characters they portray, and just digitally render some other face on theirs, no problem, THAT'S fine. But when you try and do it the other way, suddenly it's a problem. I mean, shouldn't fans be complaining "sorry you can't use that voice actor, as he doesn't LOOK like the rendered character, so it's not source accurate"
Not bitching at you Shinji, just griping in general about everyone so hung up on they look of actors, instead of performances.
I mean I don't dislike Pascal, but the casting is less than obvious and bordering on Mad Libs. I don't get why this guy in particular. I can probably think of dozens of better choices for Joel. I simply don't get "leading man" from him. But that's just my opinion.
Wait wasn't Elie literally based off of Ellen Page at the time? Why not just get him to play the role?
I think either "inspired by" or "totally it's a coincidence, you can't sue us". Though in any case, Elliott might be too old nowdays, even despite looking much younger.
Well they made an effort to redesign Ellie so she wouldn't look so much like Paige, so it would be pretty weird to get him to do the role. Not to mention he looks hella old (relatively) these days.
Maybe this is their chance to unfuck TLoU2's plot entirely, but that's unlikely since that story is rotten to its core. At the very least they can attempt to make the characters not boring, scowly dickheads.
That's actually where my brain went automatically as a joke.
Yeah, though I think Joel is supposed to be what, in his 40s or so? Those 2 actors are WAAAAY past "action lead" age. I mean Denzel's already done Joel for all intents and purposes, with Man on Fire. It's pretty much the exact same concept of main leads. I know he could DO it, just not sure if he should at his age.
Of the other names tossed around in this thread, (i mean it's all just fan theory, we know who is going to play it) I think Josh Brolin would do it very well. I suspect there will be a lot of fighting, close combat in the show, and since it's a tv show, we're talking about potential long term as the character, over years. So getting someone young enough to, you know, not break a fucking hip because they are literally senior citizens, is probably a good idea
and Brolin is both talented enough as an actor for the role, and young/fit enough to safely do lots of combat work (though I dislike the demand to have actors be stunt men, that's what fucking stunt men are for) . But we've got Pascal, so it's all fan fic wankery basically. Again, I'm not really hugely invested in TLoU personally, I enjoyed the story well enough, especially the everyday banter between Joel and Ellie, but the gameplay frustrated me to no end. I'm curious about the show somewhat, as it can mean I can experience the story without yelling at the PS4 about wonky controls. I liked the young woman they've slotted for Ellie. She was an enjoyable character in GoT when she was there, so I'm curious to see what she does. And I like Pascal well enough. We'll see how it turns out.
And...he is too old now. Given that its gonna be little girl Ellie with Joel.