February 12, 2010

Richard Armitage: Richard III & Is the Role of Heathcliffe in His Future??

Something RA & Laurence Olivier have in common - Richard III...















In reference to the following thoughtful information from sue, found some interesting pics & facts about the role..

Sue said... "It's been announced that Andrea Arnold is going to be the director of a film of Olivia Hetreed's adaptation of the Emily Bronte novel Wuthering Heights. I don't think they've cast the leading roles yet but surely Richard must be in with a chance. There is a photo of Richard where his hair is all tousled and wet looking and he reminds me of how Heathcliff looked when he had been out on the Yorkshire Moors in a scene from Wuthering Heights. There have been many remakes of this but sadly they lacked any menancing atmosphere which the original film in black and white had starring Lawrence Olivier. Richard even reminds me of him a little, who even played Richard III. Could this be an omen? I would rather see Richard playing Heathcliff than Charlie any day. Leave the macho men to the empty-headed hulks that can't do anything else. Richard excels in tortured role characterisations and there was none more a tortured soul than Heathcliff if done properly. "

Find the resemblance between the two actors rather startling in the following pic and also in the one of Olivier as Richard III.
Not so much in others...
The wet, tousled, tortured look mentioned above...was it Guy or John? (Update: sue says it was neither, rather an older photo of RA w/the wet look)
More details on Sir Laurence Olivier's version of WH...

It's available for viewing in several parts on youtube.com...just follow the yellow brick road:) and imagine RA as the tortured soul who constantly showers his female love obsession with dark, smoldering, yearning, tormented looks.

3 comments:

Sue said...

Thanks Ricrar for this thread. Actually the tousled look was a photograph that was taken during a photoshoot where his hair looked wet but it was (I think) styling mousse. It's a fairly old pic but a good un! By the way there is more than a passing resemblance to Ted Hughes whose poems were read by Richard. Now if they ever film his life story, Richard's the man for the job!

Ricrar said...

Thank you sue for the WH tip:)

I've read about the controversy surrounding the relationship between Ted Hughes & his wife. IMO his life story could make for an interesting movie. Hughes profile fulfills RA's stated preference for complicated, shades of black&white-type characters.

Anonymous said...

I have been ranting on to anyone who'll listen for ages about how Richard was born to play Heathcliff. He would be beyond perfect! Is there any way we can bombard the producers with less-than-gentle persuasion? And yes, I saw the Ted Hughes resemblance and was shocked.