The Tudors

[garbon]

He's a total pretty boy.

Yep, though now he often looks sleazy.

[Syt]

I liked him in Velvet Goldmine. That was a fun movie. In large part because it depicted the era my English textbooks in school were from.

[garbon]

I liked him in Velvet Goldmine. That was a fun movie. In large part because it depicted the era my English textbooks in school were from.

I like him there and Vanity Fair.

[grumbler]

This thread has a Riefenstahl tinge.

[Drakken]

I liked him when he sniped Liam Neeson in the head with a Lee Enfield.

[Sophie Scholl]

It just felt miscast. King Henry was always a huge guy, allegedly good-looking when young, a total ogre when older. He was never a pretty-boy type. 

He was hardly the only one.  One you think the entire English Aristocracy was selected by a kingdom wide 'Hot or Not' vote rather than by birth.

True, but Henry's ogre-esque appearance (as well as temper) later in life is sorta central to the plot here. 

Yeah, but I think casting someone pretty makes the point of how he physically (and morally) degenerates. Especially because the public image of Henry is entirely fixed by his corpulent later life. Every documentary I've seen on the Tudors makes a big deal of how handsome and svelte he was as a young man because it's so against how we imagine him.

Sure, he was allegedly handsome as all hell when younger - but he was always a big, physically imposing guy: over six feet tall, and big in proportion. An athlete with a trim figure but broad-shouldered and well-muscled who beat opponents to a pulp in jousting, was first at the death in hunting, etc.

This phyiscality was what people noted about him - very positively when he was young: he looked every inch a king.

I wonder if he inherited that from his mom.  Edward IV was supposedly equally big and physically imposing in his youth and went to waste as an older adult.  I don't think anyone has denied Elizabeth of York being Edward IV's child, simply that she may have been a bastard along with her brothers.

[crazy canuck]

I wonder if he inherited that from his mom.  Edward IV was supposedly equally big and physically imposing in his youth and went to waste as an older adult.  I don't think anyone has denied Elizabeth of York being Edward IV's child, simply that she may have been a bastard along with her brothers.

Probably more a question of diet than genetics.  Fresh fruit and vegetables were considered peasant's food. 

[Queequeg]

I think Henry Cavill would have been better for the lead. He's a better actor.

[Queequeg]

And less inherently trashy.

Watching the 1998 Elizabeth. Opinions?

[Phillip V]

And less inherently trashy.

Watching the 1998 Elizabeth. Opinions?

Meh.

[Camerus]

R-M as Henry VIII was definitely one of oddest casting decisions I can think of.   Maybe the point was to show potential viewers the show was to take a "to hell with history" approach?   

[Admiral Yi]

I imagine they were trying to grab the soap opera audience.  Women watch TV too.

[Queequeg]

Yeah but I bet Cavill has inspired more fantasies than Myers.

[Eddie Teach]

Cavill was an unknown when the show began, making him a riskier casting choice. Plus he seems too nice. It would take a lot of range to be a convincing Henry VIII and Superman.

[garbon]

Yeah but I bet Cavill has inspired more fantasies than Myers.

I don't think he was particularly well known when they cast the show. He was/is certainly the more attractive of the two, but a glance at wiki doesn't show any big credits to his name.