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G4EBT > MOVIES 22.10.08 18:57l 117 Lines 4812 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 0D9269G4EBT
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Subj: Henry VIII works wonders!
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Sent: 081022/1449Z @:GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU #:14667 [Blackpool] FBB-7.03a $:0D9269G4
From: G4EBT@GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU
To : MOVIES@WW
Whatever else Henry did, he's worked wonders for the film and TV
"docu-drama" industry with all the boddice-ripping sex-romp movies
in which producers are more interested in ratings and marketability
than a factual representation of history, as the recent series shows,
the third series of which is underway, with a fourth certain to follow
next year.
It would have been the ideal role for Marlon Brando at the end of his
career, but instead, the final days of the rotund Henry VIII are to be
depicted in a fourth series of The Tudors by the svelte Jonathan Rhys
Meyers, Irish heart-throb actor, without the aid of a fat suit.
[For the avoidance of doubt, Myers doesn't make my heart throb!]
In his last years, the English monarch is thought to have expanded to well
over 20 stone, with a waist measurement of 54in, requiring a crane to
hoist him on to his horse.
However, the makers of The Tudors - already accused of taking too much
artistic licence, want the Irish actor to keep his 'matinee idol looks'
right to the end of the saga.
"We still want him to be appealing," said Morgan O'Sullivan, an executive
producer - "we don't want to destroy his good looks. An exact portrayal of
Henry is not a factor that we think is important". [It wouldn't be in a
work of fiction, which is what The Tudors series has become].
"We are not in the business of making Jonny look like Henry VIII. We have
accepted that from day one. We've been criticised for not casting someone
with red hair".
"But you either cast him exactly like Henry VIII or you choose to deal
with it differently. We chose from the start to have him looking fit. So
there will never be a fat suit. That would be unreal".
No it wouldn't - it would be historically accurate, but
perhaps rather too real, and not very appealing.
In short, a turn-off rather than a turn-on.
The producers argue that actors 'aren't famous because they're pug ugly
[errm Charles Laughton as the Hunchback of Notre Dame?] and that there
was no point in selling a historical drama 'to a country like America'
featuring 'a big fat 250lb red-haired guy with a beard'.
The third series of The Tudors is currently shooting at Ardmore studios in
Co Wicklow, and a fourth series is almost certain to be shot there next
year. 'We'd be fairly confident that it will be made,' said O'Sullivan.
'We have to air season three before the next one is committed, but it has
gained tremendous popularity globally. We are in over 70 territories and
now have journalists visiting us here from all over the world, including
Brazil and Colombia.'
The third series, which will wrap at Ardmore next month, will take the
saga of Henry VIII up to his divorce from fourth wife Anne of Cleves,
played by the singer Joss Stone. It will be broadcast next year. The
fourth series, which will be the last, features the monarch's final two
wives.
from obesity, Henry VIII is thought to have suffered a variety of other
ailments in the last years of his life, including boils, gout, an
ulcerated leg and even a sexually transmitted disease. Given that Hirst
has said The Tudors is just 85% accurate, some of these gory details may
be avoided.
The idea of beefing up to get into character was made famous by Robert De
Niro, who put on 60lb to play boxer Jake La Motta as a bloated loser in
the latter half of Raging Bull.
Film buffs will know that subsequent examples included Charlize Theron
who gained 30lb to play murderer Aileen Wuornos in Monster. Her uncannily
accurate portrayal of the serial killer deservedly won her Best Actress
Academy Award, the SAG Award and the Golden Globe Award, and the first
South African to win an Oscar for Best Actress.
The Oscar win pushed her to The Hollywood Reporter's 2006 list of
highest-paid actresses in Hollywood; earning $10,000,000 for both
her subsequent films.
So, packing a few extra pounds and being made to look pug ugly and mean
didn't do her career any harm. Nor did it George Clooney who put on 35lb
for Syriana.
Julia Roberts put on a fat suit in order to appear about 14st when she
played Catherine Zeta Jones' younger sister in America's Sweethearts.
Eddie Murphy got into a giant latex suit to play Sherman Klump in The
Nutty Professor, and Gwyneth Paltrow donned a 300lb fat suit to star in
Shallow Hal. Ray Winstone wore a fat suit to play Henry VIII in the 2003
TV mini-series, which he acted excellently.
Corney joke of the day:
Q: What did the hunchback say to the rent man?
A: I'll pay you when I get straight.
Sorry.
Best wishes
David, G4EBT @ GB7FCR
British Vintage Wireless Society Member
G-QRP Club Member, No: 1339
Cottingham, East Yorkshire.
Message timed: 15:44 on 2008-Oct-22
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