I didn’t see much discussion or outright hate towards Hathaway Fantine and Jackman Valjean (a bit, but I was late to the party that was the Les Mis tag at the time) but lately, my God, all I see is ‘Taylor Swift or Lea Michele = shoot me now.’
I’m not a big fan of Lea Michele of course. I think she’s got a good voice, but I got tired of Glee and basically stopped watching it this year. Glee has tainted my view on her pretty much, but why would her being Eponine bother me?
Can she sing? Clearly. Has she played the role before? Apparently. Can she act? Relatively well; I had no real complaints for her acting in Glee.
Taylor Swift would be interesting to entrust the role to as well. She can sing, but no one’s heard her go for the Broadway stuff (as far as I know). But her appearance can certainly serve as a good Eponine (at least in my mind) and if the casting director has enough faith in her, that should be good enough.
JVJ is supposed to be old, but c’mon: really now. Its Hugh Jackman. I think we can all overlook some JVJ characteristics for some Hugh Jackman.
Helena Bonhom Carter as Mme Thenardier? A good choice, however I wasn’t one of the (surprisingly many) who jumped up and down with joy at her announcement: the problem being that she’s often in that type of role in movies. Its almost typecast, and I desperately want to see her break free from that.
Geoffrey Rush rumored as Monsieur Thenardier? YES. Perfection, imo: I hope he accepts the role (if it is to be asked)!
I don’t know this Eddie Redmayne guy who is said to play Marius, but from what I heard of (apparently him singing) Ave Maria, he’s pretty good. I look forward to see his take on Marius.
In short, I’m dead surprised so many people are complaining over these choices. I haven’t had one single complaint besides Helena Bonham Carter working another dark/grungy type of role.
