Last night while innocently checking Facebook, a reader forced me -- literally forced me -- to read unpleasant news, reaching through the screen, yanking my eyeballs out and plopping them right down on this news that Taylor Swift was joining the cast of Tom Hooper's Les Miserables as Eponine.
I said "Don't make me think about THAT!!!". I mean, I'd just shared my top ten list so I was still hooked up to an IV joy drip and he wanted me to focus on THAT. I couldn't do it! THAT would have to wait until tomorrow, I said.
But here we are in tomorrow and THAT is still whatever it is. So let's recap what's going on with the casting of the most important movie musical in the pipeline.
The Three Roles The Whole Thing Rests On
Jean Valjean.......................... Hugh Jackman
Inspector Javert .................... Russell Crowe
Fantine ................................ Anne Hathaway
We know that Jackman and Hathaway have spectacular golden age quality movie musical voices and that all three of these movie stars can really act. That's a crucial thing since Les Misérables is actually an epic weepie and not the more commonly seen musical comedy. If "Bring Him Home" (Valjean) and "I Dreamed a Dream" (Fantine) don't ruin you emotionally, Les Miz will lose 87% of its dramatic potency.
Crowe? Have we heard him sing outside of rock music? Hooper is supposedly NOT doing this musical in the typical way of pre-recording and then lipsynching / acting later on. Instead, or so we hear though it sounds complicated given the chaotic milieu of the story, that the actors will actually be singing while they act. This might make for an electric movie experience (I mean the source material is already great) but who knows.
the rest of the cast after the jump
The Young Love Triangle
Cosette (Fantine's Daughter).... Amanda Seyfried (offered)
Marius .................................... Eddie Redmayne
Eponine .................................. Taylor Swift (offered)
"Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" is maybe my favorite song in the show so I'm hoping Eddie Redmayne has a beautiful voice. He seems to have everything else. Amanda can really sing (Mamma Mia! sucks but she has pipes) and has gargantuan eyes just like Anne Hathaway so I see no reason to object to this casting.
Taylor is famous for singing so maybe it'll work. But it still seems like utter madness when supposedly it was down to genuine big screen star actresses like Evan Rachel Wood and Scarlett Johansson or Glee's Lea Michele. And they went with Swift? It'd be hysterical to suggest that Les Misérables can't work if you have a dud Eponine -- ah, the blessings of ensemble pieces -- but in terms of the emotional fix of the show, a lot less rides on, say, Cosette so it's a pity that Seyfried and Swift can't switch roles! Unless they rearrange the musical -- as some movie adaptations do -- Eponine's big moments will be "A Heart Full of Love" (sung with the other two members of this triangle) and her solo "On My Own" an eternal cliché favorite on the musical theater audition circuit.
But I must note that these are also acting roles. I have not seen Valentine's Day but was Ms. Swift embarrassing in it or capable? Not that you should judge an actor by one role in a Garry Marshall movie. I mean it would be grossly unfair to judge Anne Hathaway by The Princess Diaries alone. My greater concern is her voice. I was reading this lengthy fascinating New Yorker profile on her some months ago (no matter how disinterested you are in any subject matter the New Yorker will make it interesting for you!) and didn't it mention that she is sometimes off key in concerts. This is not good if they're recording the music live!
More Supporting Players
Monsieur Thénadier .............. Sacha Baron Cohen
Madame Thénadier ............... Helena Bonham Carter
Enjolras ............................... Aaron Tveit
Aaron Tveit, for those of you who don't know him, is a looker with a terrific voice. He played the DiCaprio role in the Broadway musical version of Catch Me If You Can and was recently seen as James Franco's boyfriend in the biopic Howl. Enjolras is a friend to Marius (who is the romantic lead of the show even though he's a supporting player) and though Enjolras is rarely obsessed over in discussions of this musical it's an important role; he sings a lot and he's the leader of the student revolutionaries.
The Thénadier's are the comic relief though their daughter Eponine has a dramatic role. I can't imagine Taylor Swift as the progeny of Helena & Sacha (Eponine being the Thénadier's daughter) but I suppose we have to suspend disbelief. We know that Helena can't sing but her big song here is considerably less demanding than the ones she had in Sweeney Todd and it's easy to imagine Sacha and her enjoying and selling the nasty comedy of these slum lords.
But What About Gavroche?
The only major role that we haven't heard an actor's name for is Gavroche, the street urchin but we don't suppose it'll be a known player anyway. I mean, how many famous little boy sopranos are already running around on the big screen?
Can Thomas Horn or Asa Butterfield sing?
Les Miserables begins filming in March and plans to be in movie theaters in just 338 days, just in time for next year's Oscar competition. If it's great-- or perceived to be -- expect a massive nomination tally including, especially, hoopla about Actor (Jackman), Supporting Actor (Redmayne & Crowe) and Supporting Actress (Hathaway and [gulp]... THAT).