Casting

Films Plots

When thinking about casting for films our class was given 11 films plots to choose from and we had to pick 2 and say how we would cast them and why...

1) Brief Plot (Plot 1): The first film plot I have chosen is set in America and sees a young girl called Stephanie with a dream of being a Moulin Rouge dancer when she grows up. When she is 14 her mum dies of cancer. She has a bad relationship with her dad as he is an abusive alcoholic therefore her and her sister are put into care, and during this process they get split up. Stephanie ends up living in Washington where her foster family encourage her to be the first female president, and so to please them she follows this future, pushing her previous dream behind. However many years later she is reunited with her sister, who helps her rediscover he old self and they move to Paris together and she follows her dream of being a Moulin rouge dancer.

I would cast Dakota Fanning as young Stephanie and Kirsten Dunst as grown up Stephanie.

Why these Actresses? The character of Stephanie is very driven, ambitious and strong. I think it is a very hard part to play as the actress would have to convey convincingly to the audience her change from dreaming of dancing to politics and her change of heart back to dancing, as well as the heart ache of her mother dying and having an abusive father. Both of these actresses are very established and have proven that they can perform in a wide range of genres. Dakota Fanning has performed in light hearted comedy children’s films such as ‘The cat in the Hat’ 2003, but has also proved herself as a serious actress in box office hits such as ‘War of the Worlds’ and ‘Hide and Seek’ both released in 2005. Similarly Kirsten Dunst has acted in comedies; ‘How to Loose Friends and Alienate People’ 2008 and well as more serious roles such as ‘Spider man’ 2002 and ‘Marie Antoinette’ 2006. Furthermore we know she can dance due to her role as head cheerleader in ‘Bring it on’ 2000.
Additionally I chose these two for the role as they look alike making it more plausible and realistic for the audience, to see them as the same person.


2) Brief Plot (Plot 4): The second plot which I thought was really good is about a very wealthy woman in her mid 20’s living in London. The woman’s name is Elle, she enjoys having money but wants to feel normal so she has a normal job and takes the tube to work everyday, and her train driver observes this. He is a disturbed man in his 40’s named Ross who becomes obsessed with Elle. He finds out everything about her, including where she lives and steals small items from her house including a single stud earring. One day when she is alone in her carriage he goes insane and ties her to the train tracks, she is crushed. In the train driver’s cabin we then see rows of single stud earrings each representing one of his victims.

I would cast Angelina Jolie as Elle and I would cast
Sean Bean as Ross

Why these actors? The character of Elle has to be strong, stylish and caring. Additionally she should be pretty. Angelina Jolie is described by many as the most beautiful woman in the world therefore is would be very plausible for the audience to see why a man like Ross would fall in love and get obsessed with her so easily. Like Dunst and Fanning, Jolie has proved herself to be a fantastic actress in a wide range of genres; romantic comedy’s such as ‘Life or Something Like It’ 2002, action adventure movies such as ‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’ 2000 and even spy films such as ‘The Good Shepard’ 2006. In most of her films Jolie plays very strong characters, heroines, so I think she would be great at this part because despite her death at the end, Elle is the heroin of this film.

I have chosen Sean Bean to play Ross in the film because he has a slightly sinister look about him, perfect for playing the villain and he has done in many of his films; ‘The Lord of the Rings’ 2001, and ‘The Hitcher’ 2007. He is a very talented actor and I think he would be able to play a depressed, troubled man very convincingly making the movie far scarier for the audience.