Monday, June 24, 2013

Casting Coin

     First of all, I just realized that Blogger has for some unknown reason stopped sending me notifications when people post comments, so if you've posted a comment on this site and I haven't replied to it, thank you for posting and sorry I haven't replied yet.
Now for today’s post!

WARNING: Spoilers for the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. 

   If you're a Hunger Games fan, then chances are you probably check a lot of sites like Down with the Capitol, Mockingjay.net, and HGFiresidechat. If you do, then you've also probably noticed that there's been a lot of talk about Alma Coin, the tough military president of District 13 in the final book of the Hunger Games trilogy, "Mockingjay." Nearly every Hunger Games fan site out there has thrown out suggestions of which actress should embody this amazing character.
  So, although I'm not really a fan site centered on the Hunger Games, I thought I'd throw in my two cents.
  First, let's talk about what we know about Coin. She first appears on page 10 of the U.S. hard cover copy of "Mockingjay." Katniss describes her as such, "She's fifty or so, with gray hair that falls in an unbroken sheet to her shoulders... Her eyes are gray, but not like those of people from the Seam. They're very pale, as if almost all the color has been sucked out of them." Already she sounds a little bit dangerous.
  We also know that at first, everyone trusts her. Katniss doesn't necessarily like her, but she doesn't kill her immediately, which is a good sign. That not only means that the actress assigned to play Coin must get the audience to trust her, but that she still has to seem dislikeable enough that when Katniss kills her, they aren’t so taken back that the whole thing becomes unbelievable and they find it cheesy, or think that the writers needed something else to shock the audience, got lazy, and decided to kill someone off randomly.
   That's probably the biggest problem with some of the fan casts for Coin. A lot of people are trying to get actresses that played villains into him past, to play a villain in this movie. If you saw the Wicked Witch of Narnia on screen playing Coin, you'd probably realize immediately that she was up to no good, and be shocked when any of the characters trust her.
  So, no. I'm sorry. No villains please. Don't give away the ending.
  There's also the opposite problem that the characters might trust her too much. If the audience trusts Coin too much, grows to care for her, and is head over heels for her, when Katniss shoots her, no one will be thrilled. Plus, if Coin doesn’t act suspicious enough, it'll seem pointless to kill her in the first place, and her whole character looses its purpose.
  So what actor can act sincere enough to get the audience to trust her while still kindling a spark of suspicious in the back of their mind?
  The fist actress that pops into my head is Alex Kingston. I've only seen her in Doctor Who (and I'm still only on the 6th season,) but she seems perfect for the role. Admittedly, she doesn't quite look the part--her hair doesn't fall in a perfectly straight sheet--but the makeup department can work that out;
  Think about it. The more you see her in Doctor Who, the more you know something's up with her, and the more you suspect she may not always have the best intentions in mind. Despite that, you can't help but trusting her with the Doctor's life.
  And that's exactly what Coin needs to do. She has to be a strong leader, who can convincingly play a woman willing to sacrifice anything for the greater good of the people while still seeming ruthless, and a little bit crazy.
 
    Anyways, that's my little rant about casting Coin. What actress do you think should play Coin, and why? Do you think Alex Kingston would make a good Coin? What else makes a good Coin? Leave a comment!

1 comment:

  1. Hmmm I can't say I even remember who Coin is...but you have good reasoning!
    I was actually led here by your profile name. I thought you would be someone helpful to answer some questions I have in my post this week. Here's the link:
    http://melstorie.blogspot.com/2013/08/school-at-home.html

    ReplyDelete