Changing roles feels somehow wrong?

Like so many of us during this pandemic, the wife and I have occupied our evenings with entertainment from Netflix, the latest of which is the series "The Crown", chronicling the life of Queen Elisabeth. The unenviable task of portraying the early years of such an iconic historical figure was first accepted by Claire Foy. I have to admit that I thought she was my favourite character in the first 2 seasons. Although I'm in no way, shape or form a "Royal" (monarchy supporter), I felt that Foy captured what I understood the Queen to be, right down to her Windsor accent.

Taking a break from the series, we happened on the 4th instalment of the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series, and we decided to take a chance since we had watched .. and enjoyed ... the first 3 in the quadrilogy. Is that even a word? It took about 15 minutes of the opening action to come to the realization that Foy was the latest female in the lead of the heroine, Lizbeth Salander. It won't mean much to you if you haven't watched the two roles play out on the "big screen", but believe you me that the two characters couldn't be more diametrically opposed. While Foy's Queen Elisabeth was a very believable British aristocrat and all that you could expect as Queen, her Salander continued the dark and deeply troubled lesbian computer hacker who has more lives than a cat, as the saying goes. 

That brings me to the subject of this particular ditty ... the phenomenon of getting used to actresses/actors in significantly different roles, and more to the point, my acceptance of the stark contrast that arises. This is not a new occurrence, especially considering that being nearly 57 I have watched a ridiculous number of films and shows that have featured the re-casting of characters I came to identify with certain characteristics. Accepting that is a whole different matter. 

Being COMPLETELY unfair to Daniel Radcliffe ... Harry Potter ... I simply cannot accept him in any other role. I've tried to make it through a couple of his other pieces of work and have failed miserably. The cherubic, cunning, courageous hero that thrilled us through eight blockbuster films (plus I read all of the books with my kids as they grew up) became so synonymous with the Harry Potter character that I cannot believe his subsequent roles and came away with an empty feeling each time I tried. It was hard enough watching the adolescent Radcliffe physically mature over the 11 years that it took to make all 8 movies, losing his innocent boyish charm for the whiskered, deeply troubled young man who finally bested Voldemort in the epic culmination, but some of the other films were, IMHO, not very entertaining. Incredibly, Radcliffe has a lengthy bio (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0705356/) that far exceeds the comparably short list of Potter movies. Good for him!

One of the other Netflix series we watched the entirety of was "Outlander", the story of a romance between a 20th century New England surgeon and a 17th century Highlander that spanned the ages due to some curiously odd time travel. In the series, Jamie Fraser's (Sam Heughan) chief nemesis is Jonathan Randall (Tobias Menzies), a British officer who is a sociopathic gay man with a hankering for rugged kilted Scots like Fraser. Imagine my horror, if you can, to find the middle aged Prince Phillip in the series "The Crown" being portrayed by Menzies, in all of his posh, polished accented glory. It's just not okay says my brain!

Now, using all of your imagination, try to understand the dichotomy that presented itself when we started the 3rd season of "The Crown" and were challenged with Helena Bonham-Carter's casting as Princess Margaret. Considering my introduction to Bohnam-Carter as the profoundly detestable Bellatrix Lestrange from the Potter series, I found the portrayal of the spoilt, party-hound, bratty Princess slightly more on point than others I have posed in this post. Still, it is hard to get my mind around.

I am not standing on my soap box, trumpeting type-casting as the way to do things. I am not insinuating that actresses/actors limit themselves to a particular type of role/character. I am simply saying that it becomes a lot for my aged, routined, regimented mind to deal with. 

And that's enough of that.