Thuringwethil

Haakon

Administrator
Staff member
Although the actress playing Thuringwethil will be covered in prosthetics and makeup, we will need someone with the right kind of energy as well as good acting skills. What do you think - does she have to have a special look? I mean like a bat? That will be hard to find.... I think the most important thing is to find someone with the right kind of eyes. So...what would that mean?

I'll start by suggesting Kristen Stewart. (Oh the irony!)
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She has been roasted for her acting abilities....though it's possible that she was told to make Bella stutter and have a flat effect. But, I mean, Twilight aside, she was also in 'Snow White and the Huntsman' and I was surprised to find that a better movie than 'Mirror Mirror' - I mean, if asked in advance if I thought the version of Snow White with Julia Roberts or Kristen Stewart would be better, I would have gone with Julia Roberts, easily. But, nope. [The trailers give away which movie took its story seriously, of course.]

Jennifer Lawrence certainly did well with full body paint/prosthetics for Mystique in the X-men reboot films, so I'll toss her name in as well.

We probably will want someone who has at least attempted a villain before, though.
 
We brought up Krysten Ritter for Ungoliant, but her look would work for Thuringwethil as well. I also like her as an actress more than I do Kristen Stewart.

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Also, I do not know just how much prosthetics we need if she is a true shapeshifter, going from batform to humanoid when she wants.
 
She has been roasted for her acting abilities....though it's possible that she was told to make Bella stutter and have a flat effect. But, I mean, Twilight aside, she was also in 'Snow White and the Huntsman' and I was surprised to find that a better movie than 'Mirror Mirror' - I mean, if asked in advance if I thought the version of Snow White with Julia Roberts or Kristen Stewart would be better, I would have gone with Julia Roberts, easily. But, nope. [The trailers give away which movie took its story seriously, of course.]

Jennifer Lawrence certainly did well with full body paint/prosthetics for Mystique in the X-men reboot films, so I'll toss her name in as well.

We probably will want someone who has at least attempted a villain before, though.
The general opinion of her acting skills have changed recently, I understand.
 
I mean, I have no clear image of what type of personality Thuringwethil is meant to have - I'm picturing her being part of Sauron's posse, but other than some level of loyalty to him, I don't know what she's 'about'.
 
Well, with a character like Thuringwethil, like John Callen, who played Oin in The Hobbit, said, it's either "Crikey, we got nothing to work with" or "Crikey, we've got carte Blanche!"
 
It would be kind of on the nose to cast Kristen Stewart as a "vampire" again.
I think casting Stewart would have good as well as bad effects. I think she could do it well (hey I suggested her and don't regret it). But the more I think about it, the more I feel it would be funny in a distracting and therefore bad way. I think Ritter would be better.
 
Ritter sounds like a good choice. Also could see her as someone who says something sarcastic to Sauron every now and then, Krysten Ritter is known for sarcastic characters like Patty from She's Out of my League and Jessica Jones.
 
Are we imagining a dark-hair, "Gothic" Thuringwethil? I don't disagree with that, necessarily, but I do agree with those above that this character is a complete blank slate, and we might want to pause and think of traits/appearance notes before settling on an actor.

I'm tempting to imagine Thuringwethil as blonde and beautiful, both because it's against expected type, and because we know the balrogs are at this point twisted and ugly. It would be a natural contrast for our "Mr. Bingley" Mairon to surround himself with beautiful people, who can be visually associated with light as well as, of course, a sleek and elegant large cat ;)

Then again, the dark-haired Thuringwethil is a more obvious parallel to Luthien, who will eventually take her form.
 
There was some discussion of Thuringwethil's character in the latest session. She wants to know all the secrets, so her interest in Mairon is wanting to know what he's up to, and she shares his interest in trying to figure out how the elves 'work'.

And to make sure she's not confused with Ungoliant, she's *not* meant to be a sexy femme fatale type character.
 
to make sure she's not confused with Ungoliant, she's *not* meant to be a sexy femme fatale type character.

That's why I like her as a blonde. This sweet, almost ingenue little thing that is secretly horrifying.

I'm thinking "Mean Girl incarnate". Would fit with her obsession with secrets.
 
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I also like that she's not someone you look at and think "sex symbol". I for one am exhausted of the trope of the female lieutenant villain who loves/lusts for her superior. I'd rather her be motivated by literally anything else.

EDIT: along with that, the female villain who "uses her sexuality as a weapon". This almost always doesn't actually represent anything more that the go-to justification for any hyper-sexualized female villain (Emma Frost, anyone?)
 
Is this character an opportunity to cast a more mature actress, maybe one in her 60s? We don't have many such chances, and if there's no reason to avoid it I'd hate to miss this one.
 
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