Who would make a good Honor Harrington in a Movie/TV role?

roseandheather wrote:That's really an excellent point. I doubt Honor would be a classical beauty, because if she was she really would have no reason to doubt her looks - but I definitely get the impression that she's still holding on to gangly, adolescent Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington. And you're right about how easy it is to downplay someone's looks - just look at Gwendoline Christie!

It's more of a psychological thing at this point. In On Basilisk Station, one of the reasons that Alistair McKeon reacted so strongly against her was the fact that she was so attractive.

On Basilisk Station wrote:McKeon's sense of personal injury grew perversely as he realized how little justice the photo in her personnel jacket had done her. Her triangular face had looked stern and forbidding, almost cold, in the file imagery, put the picture had lied. They hadn't captured the life and vitality, the sharp-edged attractiveness. No one would ever call Commander Harrington "pretty," he thought, but she had something far more important.

There's a lot more detail, but you get the idea. In the previous pages she had self-described herself as sort of severe and plain. She'd moved past the gangling midshipman idea of herself, but not by much. In fact, her old mentor in Honor of the Queen commented how she had grown into such a beautiful woman, and lamented that she hadn't yet realized it.

So, she really isn't gangling midshipman Honor Harrington anymore. It's all in her head, thanks in many parts to That Giant Bastard Young.

[quote="dulsin"][quote="roseandheather"][quote="dulsin"]Rachel Grant is a lovely phillipino actress and practices martial art

All,
Agreed. But of course you do remember that Honor's feelings of inadequacy began in her very formative years. That most impressionable and insecure age we all endure. Factor in the physical effects of first gen prolong on an already lanky body, preventing her from naturally growing into herself...no wonder the kid didn't need therapy. Add in further the fact that she had to constantly gaze upon her extraordinarily beautiful mother...and certainly the norm of experiencing so many altered imitation beauties from biosculp, etc.
Now that I think about it. I'm going to send the gal a case of Old Tilman, for her obvious strength of character alone.

Is one reason I like Stacy Hauptman so much...no biosculpt fake anything there!

Great admirals don't make wars great, bad admirals make great admirals' wars great.
-cthia

Kristen Kreuk.

Has the look and can act.

Can fight well enough.

Lord Skimper wrote:Kristen Kreuk.

She's short, though. Average height for a male is 5'10" and 5'4" for a female. Honor is noted as being tall, which in my world means anything 5'10"+ for a woman. Then again, I'm 6'4", so maybe my viewpoint is a little skewed.

Morena Baccarin or Moon Bloodgood are my 1a and 1b. I slightly favor Baccarin because she's done a ton of military sci-fi work already.

61Cygni wrote:Why does Honor have to be a 50/50 mix?

This, I agree with. Remember, Allison Harrington's maiden name is Allison Benton-Ramirez y Chou. That's three different ethnicities in a single surname.

Fyrwulf wrote:

61Cygni wrote:Why does Honor have to be a 50/50 mix?

This, I agree with. Remember, Allison Harrington's maiden name is Allison Benton-Ramirez y Chou. That's three different ethnicities in a single surname.

But it's stated in one of the books that she's of almost 100% ethnic Chinese descent.

Names don't really mean anything in the Honorverse as far as determining a person's ethnicity.

Fyrwulf wrote:

Lord Skimper wrote:Kristen Kreuk.

She's short, though. Average height for a male is 5'10" and 5'4" for a female. Honor is noted as being tall, which in my world means anything 5'10"+ for a woman. Then again, I'm 6'4", so maybe my viewpoint is a little skewed.

Morena Baccarin or Moon Bloodgood are my 1a and 1b. I slightly favor Baccarin because she's done a ton of military sci-fi work already.

Definitely Morena Baccarin! I hadn't even thought of her. She has played a very broad range of characters and easily meets Honors profile regarding looks.

MaxxQ wrote:But it's stated in one of the books that she's of almost 100% ethnic Chinese descent.

Note the almost. There's probably some Anglo and Spaniard in there as well. Anyway, most Chinese (and Japanese, for that matter) women are every bit as pale as those of European descent. Then there are those that are fairly tan. Skin tone, than, is not an issue. However, you don't see many European or Hispanic women with the catlike eyes that are common among Asian women.

Fyrwulf wrote:

MaxxQ wrote:But it's stated in one of the books that she's of almost 100% ethnic Chinese descent.

Note the almost. There's probably some Anglo and Spaniard in there as well. Anyway, most Chinese (and Japanese, for that matter) women are every bit as pale as those of European descent. Then there are those that are fairly tan. Skin tone, than, is not an issue. However, you don't see many European or Hispanic women with the catlike eyes that are common among Asian women.

Don't know where skin tone came into the discussion. I'm perfectly aware that Asians have a fairly wide range of skin tones - I have nearly 10,000 pics in my wallpaper folder of Asian models - most Japanese - and the variety of skin tones is obvious.*

That subject aside, when I see "almost 100%", I'm thinking 90% or better. Just because she has an Anglo and Spanish name doesn't mean she has to have an equal mix of all the ethnicities implied. If her father was 100% Chinese, and her mother was 75% Chinese and the other 25% was mixed Anglo and Spanish, then it's perfectly possible for her to be "almost 100%" Chinese, while still having multiple surnames of differing ethnicities. Considering the current number of Chinese people in the world today, I have no doubts that a situation such as what I just described could be possible.

IMO, you're giving the name(s) too much credibility in determining someone's ancestry. As I said earlier, names in the Honorverse are poor indication of a person's ethnicity.

*I believe I may have mentioned elsewhere that I have a thing for Asian women.

MaxxQ wrote:Don't know where skin tone came into the discussion.

Neither do I. I can maintain multiple conversations at once when I'm paying attention. Unfortunately today was a long one and by the time my shift was almost over my brain refused to work correctly and my mental organization went straight to hell. Unfortunately that means all the forum threads I was juggling in my head were a garbled mess and what I typed wasn't mucb better. Meh.

Anyway, I think the point I was trying to get across was that Honor won't necessarily look half Chinese. Genetics doesn't work like that in general and with the actual ethnic melting pot of the Honorverse I'm not at all sure that parental ethnicity has a huge correlation to offspring features unless it's a hard coded genetic modification. Come to think of it, aren't both Doctors Harrington genies?

Anyway, my thought are starting to run on and become jumbled again. I'll stop here.