ST TFA casting director choices 1-10

Finn - John Boyega 10 .. this guy has a steady voice, Can deliver lines perfectly.. also an unlikely but welcomed addition to star wars. Gives the cast personality.

Rey - Daisy Ridley .. 10... She is perfect for this role.. Loved her in TFA

Hux - Domhnall Gleeson 10 ... great for this role.. sinister angry eyes.. just a great actor

Po Dameron - Oscaar Isaac ... 10 again great for this role.... when he gets excited on screen he makes YOU excited.... the back and forth between him and Finn when they hit those canons on the underbelly of the SD and were just good old fashioned Star Wars fun..

Kylo Ren - Adam Driver ... 10... when he first took off his mask I didnt like that he was playing Kylo.. but then I realized .. he brings much needed diversity in appearance (especially facial appearance) to the role.. can't have another cookie cutter uber symmetrical face.. his features are unique.. so I realized in time he was perfect for it...and his acting was fantastic.. he was even able to change his resting face (if that makes sense) for the role, shed his comedic demeanor and adopted a serious dark aura.. great actor

Phasma - Gwendoline Christine ... 6 .. Ok first let me start off by saying... I am not against experimenting with a woman as a storm trooper captain.. I think it was a cool twist... refreshing.. but also let me say.. its kind of low brow to give the role to a women just because shes 6 foot 3...also let me say.. if Phasma's armor wasnt that silly mirror finish I would probably have rated her higher.. I think that mirror finish is just too "cheesy flash gordan earlier 70's sci fi"

I would have kept Phasma a woman, But I dont need her to tower over everyone else (while also wearing an obnoxious silly costume) as if to justify why a woman would make it as a captain of storm troopers.. give me a medium height tough gal.. heck even Ronda Rousey...or they could have gone Mila Jovovich (shes still incredibly fit) ...Kate Beckingsale..someone like that... I think a medium height tough gal actress would have fit in the scenes better and not presented as silly on the big screen...

And I have nothing against tall people, I'm tall, again I just think it too obvious with Phasma...the blatant attempt to have her stand out spoiled immersion and scene harmony somewhat

I guess the common theme in my post is .. next to ANH and ROTJ.... TFA has had the best casting director of any star wars film.. ever.... I actually think ANH/ROTJ are tied, with TFA a very close second, maybe even tied with them for first...

Do you guys agree? Disagree? any other cast members whom you felt were great for their roles? any you felt werent?

 

Yeah, for all my criticisms of TFA and it's unoriginality, the cast was by far the best thing about the movie. Easily the best acting shown in a SW movie.

 

Although I loved Rey (my favorite SW character now), and Finn was fantastic, I agree it was the best acting in a SW film.

Also, I thought Ford and Fisher fell right back into their parts seamlessly. Perfect-there was no difference in their tone, dialogue, demeanor or facial expression-apart from just the effects of their age. I could easily imagine their younger selves saying and doing those things the same way as their older selves-and that's huge.

I don't have an issue with Phasma, but I just think she was underutilized-you know, that old common complaint.


But great actors, all-even minor characters were great.

 

Boyega was excellent. Can't say the rest of the new cast did much for me.

 

Nothing wrong with the cast, it's the writing of the characters that's a problem.

Except for Harrison Ford. Terrible choice for Han Solo.

 

Cast was exceptional!

 

I love all 8 SW movies and agree this is the best acted SW film. I'm glad Boyega is getting some love as some have posted here that he overacted.

Great dig!

 

8?

 

I think Legions Of Lettow is probz from the future...

 

Wasn't one of the Ewok movies put in theatres?
Wait, so was TCW

Anyways

I wholeheartedly agree except for the thing about Phasma's outfit - SW has always been, from the start, inspired by serials and cheesy sci-fi shows or movies. It fits right in, if you ask me
And to say it's a bad idea just to cast her specifically because of her height is to say it's a bad idea to cast Peter Mayhew just because of his. In fact, he didn't even audition. He just stood up. I'm sure Phasma's actress likely competed for the role

And Adam Driver is one of the best things that's ever happened to Star Wars

 

I always thought Star Wars to be superior quality to other sci fi movies in its style*, set design, effects and props, I never considered costume or set design in star wars to be "cheesy"

I think even Star trek has been inferior and cheesier in all ways except maybe with its fictional technology.

Krull, Flash Gordon.. I could probably name a 25 or so from the 70's and 80s that I thought were "cheesy" and a lot of them used chrome plated objects on sets or mirror plastic armor..like a mesh of ancient roman/greek with science fiction..I don't like Chrome in sci fi.. for me Chrome is from the baby boomer generation and watches plated in chrome, chrome on cars..chrome fixtures in a house or chrome-lined diners are just tacky....(although in PT since Lucas was going for a "bygone era" I welcomed such things, so I didnt mind the high gloss finish on vehicles there)

anyway Peter Mayhew played an alien that was supposed to be tall.. Phasma didn't necessarily need to tower over everyone else...and if they wanted her tall.. I think they should have kept the suit a little more conservative (while still visually cueing that she was a captain)...either way I rated her in the positive (Still above 5 which would be average) and it didnt detract from my love of the movie.. just I would have gone about her character differently

 

TCW

 

I think just TCW.

 

I'm not quite sure what you mean there. The actual person who was the casting director?

I'll go with the ultimate casting director in Lucas since Lucas was that for I-VI. So in that case it's a six way "tie" of Lucas with himself and of course those carry overs into VII.

Lucas' casting is certainly one of his strengths as he knows what he wants in terms of the characters he creates.

So whether it's MH, CF or HF or HC, NP or EM he nails the parts over and over again.

As for TFA I don't even really know who most of the main characters actually are so how they will be used by the others for VIII and IX remains to be seen. This is the difference of one person casting then having someone else make the follow-up movies.

I'm not entirely sure what Finn was supposed to be in the first place and I'm not certain JJ did either.

Certainly he's one of if not the most uneven characters we've ever seen. That isn't about JB but the character. I don't know that anyone would have played him any better or worse.

The main thing seems to be to have Rey and Finn be likeable so if that was the point then they cast right.

 

I think Abrams is generally pretty good when it comes to casting his leads, I don't think anyone really gave a breakout performance(although Oscar Isaac might have if given the chance) but they all delivered as needed and Boyega held together a character that you could argue is dramatically quite inconsistent on the page. Ridley I think could argue was perhaps rather one note, not too different than Hamil in ANH I spose but the material in TFA was often more akin to ESB where I think Hamill delivered a more subtle performance, the script is obviously a big issue there though.

Where I think TFA really fell down was in its casting for the "character" roles, Gleeson as Hux most obviously. These roles should really be about building the credibility of the world and I think you can see in the OT they almost all went to middle aged or older actors with a lot of gravitas who could do this. Hux though was much more of a cartoon Nazi than any of the Imp officers plus the resistance leaders bar Leia were lacking relative to the OT as well.

 

The casting of TFA is absolutely one of its strengths. Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver are outstanding. Two of the best casting choices for Star Wars, ever. 10/10. Oscar Isaac and John Boyega both did a perfectly fine job. No issues with their casting. 8/10. I really enjoyed Maz. Great voice. 8/10. The 'retro' cast obviously had to be cast so not really an issue. In terms of performance, Ford was brilliant (9) as always and Hamill was appropriately haunted and powerful in his tiny role (7). Carrie Fisher struggled a bit I felt but she got the job done solidly enough. 6/10. For me the jury remains out on Hux, Phasma and Snoke. None of them really had a huge impact on me in TFA, although they certainly were't awful. (5)