FOLLIES - MOVIE CAST - Age-appropriate, please!

[Pgenre]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 4:58pm

I know there is one of these threads every few months but the thread over at ATC prompted me to really think this over and this is my IDEAL cast for FOLLIES were it to be filmed tomorrow, with all actors actually age-appropriate, I believe.

That being said, I'm sure many will take issue with a few of my choices, but I think this would be the perfect cast:

Robert Downey, Jr. as Buddy
Hugh Jackman as Ben
Nicole Kidman as Phyllis
Renee Z as Sally
Meryl Streep as Carlotta
Liza as Hattie
Susan Sarandon as Solange
Queen Latifah as Stella
Mickey Rooney as Theodore
Mitzi Gaynor as Emily
Christopher Plummer as Weismann

Thoughts?

P

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 5:12pm

I'd rather see Vanessa Williams as Phyllis...I don't think Nicole really has the bite required. And Renee is too young still, I'd be more apt to cast Meryl there, and put someone like Mitzi Gaynor or Liz Taylor or Liza as Carlotta.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 5:17pm

Sorry, but those choices are just not age-appropriate or even close which is the whole reason I started this thread as FOLLIES dream cast threads are always littered with ludicrously inappropriate casting, at least age-wise. Film always skews younger, to boot. Meryl is over 60 and even Vanessa is too old, or reads as such on film.

P

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 5:20pm

Williams is 46, and Phyllis is 49.

I would love to see Zeta-Jones as Phyllis, but right now she is 9 years too young.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 5:31pm

Liza is 64, De Carlo was 50, and really, the addition of ten years makes Carlotta more believable. Assuming that De Carlo was working during the depression, she'd have been at the youngest 16, being born in 1922, that would have made it 1938...the last years of the depression. She probably did not stand in breadlines. Add 10 years, and yes, she would have. Mitiz is 78, but she reads younger (well...sorta, she's kinda waxy, but I could still buy her as 60)

As ljay pointed out, Williams and Phyllis are close enough to the same age to be believable. Kidman is only 42. Williams reads early 40s, Kidman reads mid-30s. Renee is 40, almost 41. Sally and Phyllis are the same age, give or take a year or two.

I'll give you that Meryl is about 10 years over Sally's age, but she still reads as being in her 40s.

So, mine still stands as being age-appropriate.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 5:38pm

Whatever you say... they are gonna need A LOT of Vaseline for that lens if that's how those actresses "read" (Meryl, 40s, really?)...

P

[NYadgal]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 5:42pm

So, YOUR opinion is fact and everyone else's opinion is wrong?

[Pgenre]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 5:45pm

"Once, yes, once for a lark,
Twice, though, loses the spark..."

P
Updated On: 2/4/10 at 05:45 PM

[Mamie]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 6:04pm

I'm really looking forward to this but if they cast your Phyllis and Sally, I'll stay away.

I'd love to see Donna Murphy as Phyllis (we already know how well she'd do it) but they'll never cast her. They'll want one of their big stars and not give a d... if they're right for the role or not.

(Downey and Jackman sound like good choices.)

Posted: 2/3/10 at 6:12pm

Nicole Kidman as Phyllis? Are you planning on adding a line about how she was in a horrible car accident and her face was repaired by a blind plastic surgeon?

I don't think Nicole Kidman will ever be able to play a human again.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 6:17pm

I think Sharon Stone would make a brilliant Phyllis. (She can also sing, I believe)

[Jon]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 7:41pm

I had the idea of Sam Mendes directing a reunion of the American Beauty cast:

Kevin Spacey asd Buddy
Annette Bening as Sally
Peter Gallagher as Ben
Allison Janney as Phyllis Updated On: 2/3/10 at 07:41 PM

[BrianS]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 8:04pm

Nicole Kidman? Seriously, out of anyone you pick her? Did you see/hear her in Nine? what are you smoking?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 9:14pm

I veto each and every member of your cast.

I am PalJoey, and I OWN THIS SHOW.

Understand that?

It belongs to me.

And upon my death it is bequeathed in equal shares to husk-charmer, ljay889 and Phyllis Rogers Stone.

(Unless of course Phyllis is found guilty of murdering me, in which case it goes to husk-charmer and ljay, both of whom are capable of murdering me for the rights and framing Phyllis. I wouldn't put it past them...especially that husk_charmer. Charm can be deceiving.)

At any rate, Pgenre, you have no rights to suggest casts for Follies here. Begone. Before somebody drops a house on you. Or the remains of a decaying old vaudeville palace.

Or even a chandelier.

But over my dead body will Renee Zellwegger play Sally. And a Mickey Rooney comeback?

Is that your idea of a sick joke?

Grotesque. Your whole cast is miscast and would RUIN my property.

Updated On: 2/3/10 at 09:14 PM

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 9:26pm

Awww, I promise you PJ, to respect the intelectual integrity of Follies.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 9:51pm

I promise not to murder you!

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 9:56pm

Promises, Promises!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 9:59pm

The more I think about it, the more I suspect that when I go, it will be Miss Pennywise, in the library, with a candlestick.

Updated On: 2/3/10 at 09:59 PM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 10:05pm

Although, I like Susan Sarandon as Solange. I think I've said that one before.

I think P can want whomever he wants in this, but I don't get the call for age-appropriateness when he has a woman in her 30s as Stella.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 10:17pm

How DARE he cast Mitzi Gaynor in Follies!!!!!

AFTER THE MONSTROSITY SHE MADE OUT OF COMPANY!!!!!!


Mitzi Gaynor MASSACRES Company

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 10:25pm

When I saw A Chorus Line for the fist time as a kid, Mitzi Hamilton played Val. A few months later there was some Mitzi Gaynor special or something on and I said to my dad, "That's the lady who was in A Chorus Line!" He was like, "I don't think so."

I've thought that perhaps a way to skew the women in Follies a little younger would be to make the reunion twenty-five years instead of thirty. I'm not sure how much damage that would do to themes of the the show, though.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/3/10 at 11:07pm

Just leave a little something in your will for ME and I, too, promise not to murder you, PJ.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 2/4/10 at 12:39am

After that night in the weinerwald next to the Winter Garden after a FOLLIES might Joey, U were the chicken of my eye and you promised all kinds of things.
After NINE Nicole should be locked up and banned from any movie musical or any movie at all.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/4/10 at 12:42am

I wasn't just chicken during the run of Follies, I was jailbait!

[Marquise]

Posted: 2/4/10 at 12:45am

What PalJoey said...