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Bór

MithLuin

MithLuin

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Bór is going to be one of the Easterlings, and we've decided to give him a bit of a gregarious personality.

He's a consummate soldier. He's the leader of an army of chariots and charioteers. He and Ulfang are old campaigning buddies. They know each other well, and have known each other for a long time. Perhaps Bór can be seen as a larger-than-life, boisterous, Brian Blessed-type character.

We're hoping he's have a Slavic appearance, and be in his 40's.

It occurred to me that anyone who does justice to the role of the Ghost of Christmas Present in a production of A Christmas Carol can likely do a good job with Bór. Also, I cannot think of any actors who have played that role who are currently in their 40's (or not a muppet/animated).
 
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MithLuin said:
Bor is going to be one of the Easterlings, and we've decided to give him a bit of a gregarious personality.

He's a consummate soldier. He's the leader of an army of chariots and charioteers. He and Ulfang are old campaigning buddies. They know each other well, and have known each other for a long time. Perhaps Bor can be seen as a larger-than-life, boisterous, Brian Blessed-type character.

We're hoping he's have a Slavic appearance, and be in his 40's.

It occurred to me that anyone who does justice to the role of the Ghost of Christmas Present in a production of A Christmas Carol can likely do a good job with Bor. Also, I cannot think of any actors who have played that role who are currently in their 40's (or not a muppet/animated).
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Why Slavic? Much to early and much too pale for the time-period. Make it West-Asian. Would also tick some diversity point in a context conform manner. Also the Breelanders afterwards do not look in any way Slavic. And people go paler over the millenia in those latitudes, not darker, especially when farming and not hunting. Making them looking Slavic makes simply no sence whether for the time-period depicted nor for the future development of this population. Or do you mean Bulgarian? Bulgarian might work as they have much West-Asian and Middle-Eastern mixed in, even if most still tend to look too "slavicized" nowadays.... But for sure not Eastern or Western-Slavic - much too pale and much too modern a phenotype for such an ancient population! [BTW, am a Western-Slav myself, so no need to accuse me of Slavophobia].
 
My first thought has been someone like Dave Bautista mainly due to his role as Drax the Destroyer, but he appears to be out of the age range.
 
Yes, we are looking for someone a bit younger. Bor does have adult sons, but they're young men (late teens, early 20's), so he should be in his 40's. Dave Bautista is 55.

You are certainly welcome to nominate an actor of Bulgarian descent for this role!

Keep in mind that this show is casting real people for roles in a fantasy world. I recognize we aren't going to find someone who 'really' looks like an artist's image of the characters, and that's fine. The goal with Bor is that he ought to look distinct from Ulfang, Uldor, Ulfast, and the Emperor of Bree. On the podcast, we chose Slavic.

During the script discussion of the episode in which he is introduced, we decided that he would be a gregarious, cheerful, larger-than-life, laughs-in-the-face-of-death kind of guy. Not the malicious 'why so serious?' of the Joker, but rather the 'come in and know me better, man' of the Ghost of Christmas Present. The actor's portrayal Nick clearly had in mind while talking about this was Brian Blessed, but obviously a much, much younger Brian Blessed (who is currently 88). So...someone like that. If you are not familiar with Brian Blessed, I chose his portrayal of Cluny MacPherson in the 1990's Kidnapped as a good example of the type of energy he brought to a character.
 
Does he look easterling to you? I'm not sure. He could. Many Slavs i know are pale and blonde, they could play northrons... i guess that is not what you intend by "Slavic"?Others have dark hair and bright eyes... they could play Beorians or Dúnedain... but Easterlings? I think all we know is they were smaller and more stocky than the Hadorians and Beorians, swarthy or "sallow" complexion... whatever he meant by sallow, i suppose not east asian.
 
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Haerangil said:
Does he look easterling to you? I'm not sure. He could. Many Slavs i know are pale and blonde, they could play northrons... i guess that is not what you intend by "Slavic"?Others have dark hair and bright eyes... they could play Beorians or Dúnedain... but Easterlings? I think all we know is they were smaller and more stocky than the Hadorians and Beorians, swarthy or "sallow" complexion... whatever he meant by sallow, i suppose not east asian.
Click to expand...
1735504931934.png
compared to a medieval German composite:
1735505704765.png
or Balts
1735505853935.png
you see Slavs are somewhere in between those two
 
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Keep in mind that these Easterlings live in Eriador.

Here is Brian Blessed in the Flash Gordon show a long time ago, and as an older man as Cluny MacPherson in Kidnapped. We're looking for someone who can deliver this type of performance. Keep in mind that contacts can be used to alter eye color, and hair can be dyed or wigs can be used. We do want our Easterlings to be bearded, but it's understood that not all actors are going to keep beards all the time.


 
My brain keeps going to actors who are around the 50 mark. For example Javier Bardem and David Harbour could nail the type of character we are after but do we think they’d get disqualified on the basis of age (49 and 55 respectively)? Both I think also pull off the look we are after.
 
49 certainly counts as 'in his 40's'. Whether or not someone gets 'disqualified' due to age, height, racial background, or any other physical characteristic is very much subjective. The guidelines are provided so you know what type of actor we're looking for. I don't want anyone to be discouraged because they nominate someone who they think would be great for the role, and then on the podcast we pan that choice as 'nah, not what we had in mind.' That wouldn't be fair, so we let people know some inkling of what we're going for up front. But we're hardly professional casting directors, and the process is meant to be fun rather than rigorous.

An actor who is 50 would certainly be way too old to play Húrin, and it's only fair to tell people that, as we know the character will live to be older in later seasons....but that's not what we're looking for and that's not who we have in mind for that role.

Bór is a much more minor character, so we can take the 'nominate and find out' approach. I will point out that Javier Bardem may be a better match for Ulfang than for Bór, but it's up to you to nominate actors for the roles you think they'd be best for.
 
i'd loved to cast Danny Trejo, though he is latino, i don't really care i think he could deliver a good easterling as well... he is very old though, maybe we could cast him as Brodda or Lorgan.
 
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