Luna Lovegood is NOT supposed to be the hottest little thing at Hogwarts!

Cafe Society
1

So why does she look like this: WarnerBros.com | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | Movies
(pick Luna from the drop-down menu).

That girl is seriously cute. And while I understand the idea that practically all actressees, even British ones, are going to be attractive, they could have Luna-fied her for the movie. I feel the same way about Emma Watson, actually. One of my favorite things about Rowling’s writing is that she does portray strong, intelligent, capable female characters who aren’t necessarily beauty-queens.

I also take issue with Umbridge’s look. Isn’t she toady looking with a big bow? That women merely looks a little frumpy.

On the other hand, I think Ron and Harry are decent (although Harry is always supposed to have kind of long, shaggy hair, right? And aren’t Fred and George supposed to be stouter than Ron, not taller and thinner?). I think Tonks is pretty good too, although I pictured her a little younger. McGonagall is perfect, as she always has been.

What OotP and other Harry Potter characters’ appearances do you agree with? Disagree with?
Gestalt

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Dudders look perfect.

3

Luna is never described as anything other than a little weird. Okay, really weird, in the way she acts, but physically she just has big eyes and slightly crazy blonde hair, which it seems they’ve done.

Hermione is the one they missed the boat on way back in the first movie, IMHO. That actress was too pretty from the start - Hermione was definitely written as unattractive, very specifically. Having a pretty Hermione from the start (even her hair wasn’t as out of control frizzy as described in the book) really deflated the scene at the ball when she’s transformed into a beauty. And, frankly, I don’t think the role is so demanding or the performance is so astounding as to make up for it. Many other young actresses could have handled it and been a better physical match.

Umbridge, I’m sort of with you. But OTOH, the actress playing her is simply fantastic, and can really bring a creepy sweet/hostile vibe to the role that makes it so delicious. It’s a hard balance to strike without becoming a cartoon, and I think she might be able to do it. But you’re right, she’s also far too attractive for the role as written in the book. “Toad” is used several times to describe Umbridge, and this Umbridge is no toad.

4

I’m not really a Harry Potter fan (am I the only one who thinks “Cho Chang” sounds somewhat racist?), but I was reading an article in the New York Post yesterday about the actress who plays Luna Lovegood: she saw herself in the character and really wanted to play the role. She’s Irish. She sent films of herself playing Luna to Warner Bros. and J.K. Rowling telling how much she wanted to play the role, and although she got a very nice letter back from Rowling encouraging her, the screen tests weren’t seriously considered. Then it was announced there was a casting call, and she ended up getting the part.

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Tonks is horrible, IMO. Her hair looks like a wig, not magically recoloured, or even dyed (it’s also too long, IMO). She’s also too thin, relative to how I pictured her, but that’s just a matter of how I filled in unmentioned details, and isn’t really much of a criticism.

She’s the only one I have a problem with, actually.

Of the returning child actors, Neville’s the only one who grew up significantly different from the version in the book, to my mind - Matthew Lewis grew into an absolute beanpole, whereas in the books, Neville’s still a bit of a pudge. Emma Watson was too pretty for early Hermione, but the character grew into the actress. The twins, like Neville, grew into beanpoles, but, unlike Neville, that ended up better suiting the characters.

Umbridge isn’t at all how I pictured her, but since my mental picture was more like Helga Phugly than anything a real person could be made into without looking obviously made up, I can deal with it - from the picture used, she looks to be carrying herself in a way that suggests a toad (look at her mouth).

Luna, on the other hand, looks just fine - not how I pictured her, really (I always picture her hair longer, and lighter), but certainly within the same range. As WhyNot mentioned, she’s just described as a bit odd, which is why she’s offputting - nothing about her being unattractive. I’ve always pictured her as on the cute side, personally.

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I’m not sure why you think Cho Chang sounds racist. It’s an Asian name, she is Asian. What is so racist about that?

I’m re-reading OotP and yes, Umbridge does wear a “black Alice bow” and looks like a toad. Imelda Staunton will be perfect in the role. Also, I never got the impression that Hermione was really unattractive, just kind of a gawky adolescent.

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It sounds like a stereotypical Asian name to me- maybe because of Stephen Colbert’s “Ching-chong Ding-dong.” It doesn’t sound like a real Asian name.

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There’s a character named “Cho Chang?” Why not just name them “Ching Chong!?”

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Nymphadora Tonks is hawt too!

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“Chang” is the commonest surname in China and therefore the world, I once read in the Guiness Book of World Records.

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You do realize that reason “Chang” is such a stereotypical name for asians is that “Chang” is a very common name for asians? It’s like complaining that the author named someone “Smith”.

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Rowling’s Irish character is called Seamus Finnigan. And she has characters called Peter Pettigrew, Luna Lovegood and Pavarti Patel. She likes alliterative names whatever their origin, and when she gives a name with a distinct cultural origin, she seems to like to make it very obvious what that origin is. It doesn’t make her racist; at worst she lacks subtlety.

Besides, it isn’t like Cho Chang is portrayed as any particular Asian stereotype.

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Getting back to the OP, does anyone else think that the Luna actress is actually rather plain looking?

Cuz I do.

-Joe

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Indeed, she appears to have been raised in the UK, and but for her name you would never guess at Asian origin.

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and Kingsley Shacklebolt is highly efficient! (actually, somewhat disappointed in the look of the casting they did for Kingsley. I always pictured him to be a handsome bull of a black Englishman. Smooth, cultured. Like he could fit in within the PM’s office. Not so rugged and I guess “ethnic” as the picture on the Warner Bros. site. He looks like Morgan Freeman’s character in the Kevin Costner Robin Hood movie.)

16

I don’t see the hot in Miss Lovegood.

That’s kind of a good thing, though. I don’t want to feel guilty for any pangs of lust.

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Chang is believable to me, but the aliteration and putting “Cho” in front of it makes it sound like a stereotypical name to me- like all Asians have Asian first names. There are many famous Asians with Western-sounding first names and Asian-sounding last names, like Lucy Liu, Michelle Wie, etc.

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And there are even more famous (and even more more more non-famous) Asians with Asian-sounding names.

What’s the point of this, again?

-Joe

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Lucy Liu is a screen name; her real name is Liú Yùlíng. Michelle Wie’s real name is Wie Seong-mi Hangul.

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Cho was definitely chosen for the alliteration, as it isn’t actually a Chinese first name.