another anon 🙋🏻 but kinda still on the topic of redesign sebastian.. i always thought that ben barnes circa 'the picture of dorian gray' would be really amazing playing sebastian if another live action movie was made.. my question is, what western actor would you cast as our favorite demon^^?
Dear Anon,
I personally don’t know Ben Barnes at all besides as Prince Caspian… but that might not be a role that is representative of what Barnes is capable of.
This is just me personally not knowing many white, western actors, but to me, casting Sebastian is mostly a process of negative elimination.
As I explained in this post, the first process is eliminating any actor who is not white, male and at least young-middle age. For me, the second process of elimination is the level of masculinity. Sebastian is a butler and has a very confident but subdued masculinity about him. So any actor who is alpha-male or muscular is automatically rejected. Then it leaves us with basically maybe 3 actors? 😂
In my personal opinion, Benedict Cumberbatch might be pretty good?
Cumberbatch has a very refined kind of masculinity about him, and a threatening aura that comes from overwhelming intellect, not manliness. Cumberbatch seems rather subtle when he is just standing. But when he wishes to impress, it is as though he suddenly grows taller and bigger, which - to me - is exactly what Sebas is. More than: “oh, this man will beat the hell out of me with his guns 💪,” Sebas needs to be threatening in the way that no matter how brilliant you are, he will outsmart you, neutralise you. It is as though Sebas is always sending out a silent threat that one should not try play the smarty-pants-card on him. In my opinion, Cumberbatch delivers this message perfectly.
Cumberbatch’s face might not be what would pop up in most people’s minds when thinking about Sebastian, but his face has a very otherworldly kind of elegance mixed with edge. I think he is very weirdly attractive, but more than face, it is probably his majestic and threatening charisma that does it.
