So thank goodness I found this site to help me in my pickle. I'm having writers block for sure, well I guess you can say character block. I usually start in my mind a character based off a look of an actor or actress. Just by looking at the face I can build something for myself and for my story without really knowing the actor or their characters. So for the first time I know what I want for this character but I'm at a loss for the look!!! I need suggestions for an actor I can vision as my King. I say King not literally as King but in the role of King. Someone who is adored by the public and others (Think King Arthur scenario) Doesn't have to be an old person, they can be youngish and still impressive, wise, balancing, could go from good to bad depending on the situation, authoritative, has a war story or two to tell......Kingish. If you guys have any actor in mind (can be old, young, dead.....whatever, popular or not, etc) Please please please post!!!!! Thanks a toodles! M.
Anyone playing Hamlet wouldn't fit the bill for me (he wasn't stable, wasn't adored by his people much and was as mad as a lorry). Try Sean Bean as Eddard Stark in Game of Thrones. He was kingly, even if he was not a king. or Battlestar Galactica's Edward James Olmos as Adama. He was as good a king as any.
Ian McKellen in the channel four version of King Lear you should watch about 20 mins of this he is a great c.
I'm liking Kenneth Branagh or Sean Bean from your suggestions! Sadly I can't image Ian McKellen as the King because he's already portrayed as another character!! But I did watch that, it was excellent.
Someone I always imagine as a king (maybe it's his voice over his looks) is Brian Blessed. If anything, that's a voice a king should have!
Your question is very interesting, because often the physical look of a character is one of the last things that comes to my mind. In one case, with one of my MC's I was still modifying my picture of her physical looks after I'd written the entire novel. Very tough to answer your question about a king. How about James Earl Jones? He was a king in Coming to America, which is re-shown constantly on cable. Although the movie is a comedy, he has a very refined, reserved air about him. Or, if you want to go younger, and want almost-universally adored, how about going to real life and basing him on a future king -- Prince William?
