Nessa

[Alex Long]

Francesca Hayward- Royal Ballet Bio

Where do you look when casting Valar who embodies dancing? You go to an opera, of course. Francesca Hayward is a First Soloist of the Royal Ballet in London. What does that mean? I haven't the faintest idea except that this beautiful 23-year-old can dance. Can she act? Also, I can't say- I know nothing about ballet and the talents required to advance as far as Ms. Hayward has in the craft. But we are casting Nessa after all. We don't exactly need to cast an Oscar contender for a character who will be spending all but one or two episode meerly frolicing in the background. Also, the girl seems delightful. Just watch the video below.

See what I mean? Delightful. Also, she is of Nairobi and Kenyan descent. I bring this up because the actor I nominated to play Orome, Nessa's brother, is also black. Ethnic similarity between the Valar 'siblings' is weirdly important to me.

 

[Nicholas Palazzo]

Similarly to Alex, I thought of a dancer who I believe would fit Nessa perfectly.

Summer Glau, of Firefly/Serenity and Terminator fame is a dancer/actress who also has the ability to transform into an action heroine if the need arises.

As a dancer:

As a "non-damsel-in-distress"

Oh, almost forgot. She can do this ...

EDIT: WAS CHOSEN; OK BY EXECS

 

[MithLuin]

Pssst, don't forget the IMDB link!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1132359/?ref_=rgmd_ph_nm1

Summer Glau has done a lot of TV work, and I could definitely see her in the role of Nessa.

 

[Bee Wilson]

Corey and co mentioned that they would be interested in using a Maori actress last episode, so I would like to propose Bianca Hyslop. She has an IMDB link, but it isn't very informative, so here are the links to her profiles at her talent agency and dance company.

Bianca hasn't acted in many major productions yet, but she does have acting experience and is pretty talented in quite a few other areas: she has previous experience as a stuntwoman, has training in ballet, contemporary dance and hip hop and is confident doing some gymnastics work too. She is in her 20s, but looks young, cheerful and energetic, which I think would suit Nessa's character. Also, her background in stunt work means that she would probably be able to pull off any action sequences that we needed her for.

Here is a link to a little clip of her dancing

As a last point in her favour, I think it might be quite nice to cast some relatively new or less well known actors for some of our characters, and maybe especially for the Valar, given that they won't have much of a role past this first season.