Top Five Casting Decisions: Harry Potter

Despite the youth focus, it’s all grownups here.  No surprise – while many of the young actors bring their characters wonderfully to life, the franchise is so stacked with incredible British talent that the adults crowd the kids out.  After a tough winnowing-down process, here’s my top five.

Alan Rickman as Severus Snape

How much does Rickman rock this role?  Let’s put it this way: he was way too old to play Snape, about 20 years too old, plus his casting necessitated filling the other roles from that generation with actors much older than their characters (from which, of course, great things were born – Gary Oldman’s Sirius, anyone?)  However, I don’t mind the liberties at all, because he just rocks that hard.  Don’t know if I’d ever be able to picture anyone else as Snape.  Too perfect.

Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy

Isaacs is just a treat in this role, and for me, his first appearance in The Chamber of Secrets is one of the highlights of that film.  He’s sleek and sinister, he’s haughty, he’s insidiously cruel, and he’s 100% otherworldly from the word go.  This is a man steeped in the wizarding community, someone from an old family who believes disgusting ideas about blood purity and is majorly intimidating even before he breaks out his wand.  Topnotch performance – love it!

Brendan Gleeson as Mad-Eye Moody

Gleeson is terrific as the shrewd, irascible dark-wizard hunter.  He captures how dangerous and volatile Mad-Eye is while simultaneously showing why he’s one of the good guys.  The Goblet of Fire is his big hurrah, naturally, but even in smaller roles in the later films, he’s always reliable.  I have to say, though – the fact that The Order of the Phoenix doesn’t have my favorite Mad-Eye line (urging Harry not to keep his wand in his back pocket because “better wizards than you have lost buttocks, you know!”) is, in my opinion, a serious misstep of the franchise. 

Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort

Oh my goodness, Fiennes kills it in this role.  The graveyard scene in The Goblet of Fire is one of my favorites in the whole series, and it’s largely down to Fiennes’s horrifically menacing performance.  He’s sooooo good – he does creepy-quiet and wild-raging with equal aplomb, striking an excellent balance and, even when he goes big, never going over-the-top.  “Don’t you turn your back on me, Harry Potter!  I want you to look at me when I kill you!  I want to see the light leave your eyes!”  I mean, just… holy crap!

Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge

As Umbridge, Staunton is just everything.  She’s perfect – the sweet little voice, the pleasant smile even as she’s torturing children, the tightly-wound control that she so gradually loses over the course of the film.  She’s like malicious marshmallow fluff, and Staunton perfectly conveys that cognitive dissonance.  Creepy as all get-out and completely twisted.  I love it so much.