Casting Roland: The Impossible Dream

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Takoren

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Nov 25, 2015
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There will never be a harder role to cast than that of Roland Deschain.

There are a hundred actors who could be good as Eddie, or actresses who could do Susannah well. Somewhere out there is a badass child actor who could play Jake well.

But Roland? Casting him is so hard because almost no one seems able to agree on what he looks like.

It's been a while since I've read the Dark Tower books (they're being re-read by me in order, as is King's entire bibliography) but to the best of my knowledge, details on what Roland looks like are pretty sparing in the first four books or so. We are told about his eye color, and that he looks weather-beaten, but mostly we have old artwork to go on, and nearly all of that portrays him as looking about 35 or maybe a youthful 40, with short black hair and fairly handsome features.

In the last three books, it's really driven home that Roland looks much older than the youthful 40 we all seem to picture him as. He could look as old as 50 or even 60. In SOS, he meets Stephen King at a point when King is 30 years old and Eddie realizes how much they look alike, to the point where they could be father and son. He specifically says they wouldn't look like brothers due to the age difference, but could be father and son. This means Roland looks at least old enough to have a son that's in his late twenties or early thirties. I know that The Gunslinger ends with him wakening to realize he's aged ten years, but all that means is that he started out looking about 40 or 50.

As for his depiction as a lantern-jawed handsome man, well, King poops all over that, too, by repeatedly having other characters note that Roland is not at all physically attractive. It's his smoldering personality that draws the women he sleeps with, not his handsome face. As I said above, Eddie notes how much Roland and Stephen King look alike, and while King isn't ugly, there's a reason he's not on People magazine's "most beautiful people" list.

And yet nearly all the casting suggestions I've seen are for standardly handsome men, like Christian Bale, Viggo Mortensen, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Anson Mount or the man who was almost Roland on screen, Javier Bardem.

Then there are people who think Roland should be played by Clint Eastwood, or actors that look something like "a young Eastwood" such as Timothy Olyphant, or even Scott Eastwood, Clint's son. This ignores Roland's age and the fact that he is, at best, not classically handsome.

I'm not naive enough to think we're gonna end up with a Roland that looks like King, nor do I think King himself should play him. But I would probably not care much to see him played by a Harrison-Ford type or James Bond-type.

Then there's the problem of Roland's voice. See, he dresses kinda like a cowboy and spends a lot of time in the desert so there are people who honestly think he should talk like a cowboy as well. But he doesn't. At one point he refers to "yon privy" and the dialect in the Gilead scenes seems much more formal and stilted, almost (but not) British. With all the "thankee sai's" going on, I pictured most people from Roland's world speaking with light Irish accents.

I think I would really have a problem if Roland was depicted with a heavy southern drawl. I would be less bothered by a soft English or Irish accent. I would prefer a flat, inflectionless voice, but a southern drawl would ruin it for me.

I've had a few ideas come to me for actors to play him, but few of them are "big name" actors; Kevin Durand, Hugh Laurie, Ray Stevenson, Jerome Flynn, et al.

Am I off base or do others feel the same?
 

Takoren

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Nov 25, 2015
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...I like your thoughts, but I always have and always will picture him as Eastwood and King has stated that's who he had in mind....
Did he say he had Eastwood in mind to play the role, or that Eastwood's characters, like the Man with No Name, are what partially inspired Roland?

I can't hear Eastwood, or even Olyphant or Scott Eastwood, saying Roland's lines, especially once he gets florid, which he does on occasion.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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Did he say he had Eastwood in mind to play the role, or that Eastwood's characters, like the Man with No Name, are what partially inspired Roland?

I can't hear Eastwood, or even Olyphant or Scott Eastwood, saying Roland's lines, especially once he gets florid, which he does on occasion.
...it was the "Spaghetti Western" version of Eastwood he had in mind....sorry, I should have been more clear...no "fancy" in that acting....
 

kingricefan

All-being, keeper of Space, Time & Dimension.
Jul 11, 2006
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While Roland may not be drop-dead gorgeous, it is the 'bad boy' aura he gives off that makes those women swoon over him. They all know (at least since Susan) that he is cold at heart and will drop them without a second thought when his Tower calls him onward. I actually think Clint Eastwood's son would make a good Roland although I don't know how good of an actor he is (he did get great reviews for the one film he's done). He's pretty much an 'unknown' at this point, he's old enough to play Roland and young enough to make it thru the filming process without aging too much and would probably jump at the chance to act in this story as it will probably make him a superstar.
 

Takoren

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Nov 25, 2015
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While Roland may not be drop-dead gorgeous, it is the 'bad boy' aura he gives off that makes those women swoon over him. They all know (at least since Susan) that he is cold at heart and will drop them without a second thought when his Tower calls him onward. I actually think Clint Eastwood's son would make a good Roland although I don't know how good of an actor he is (he did get great reviews for the one film he's done). He's pretty much an 'unknown' at this point, he's old enough to play Roland and young enough to make it thru the filming process without aging too much and would probably jump at the chance to act in this story as it will probably make him a superstar.
The biggest problem is that he's too young.

I know that they won't hire an ugly guy to play Roland but, again, I would prefer someone who is not classically handsome. At one point Daniel Craig was attached. He'd be okay. A bit on the short side, but I can live with that.

For that matter, the other day I seized on Iain Glen. I mean, he's a really handsome guy, but I still think he could work. He's more lined and weathered these days.
 

Takoren

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Nov 25, 2015
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Now being a man I'm no expert, but I'm not so sure if Clint Eastwood looked attractive in his younger years. Maybe the attraction was more in him being an actor than his looks.
I also am a guy, and straight, but I think young Eastwood could be described as handsome. Handsome in a very hard, cold way, but handsome. Again, I don't think they're gonna cast an ugly guy, but I'd prefer someone with heavy lines on his face, easily made weather-beaten.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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