In the book Emma's faults lie with her inexperience with the world outside her own domain. Things have always worked out for her within her bucolic world. It is when she tries to take on the adult world that she falters. By casting an actor so clearly past her teens, Emma becomes foolish, not naive, in trying to order the world to her satisfaction. In that respect, Clueless was far truer to the original.
shareSpooky - I was just thinking about this, from the perspective of Cher in Clueless! I don't think Gwyneth was too old for a straight adaptation of Emma, set in the early nineteenth century - Emma is twenty one in the novel and would have been considered far more 'mature' than someone of that age today. But bring the story forward in time, as with Clueless, and Emma's age has to drop to make the story work - an adult woman would be considered stupid, rather than merely sheltered, if she made the same mistakes as Emma. So a teen Emma works for Clueless whereas a grown woman can play the character in an adaptation of Austen's novel.
"Tony, if you talk that rubbish, I shall be forced to punch your head" - Lord Tony's Wife, Orczy
Definitely agree. Also, how can anyone watching either film not grasp that foolishness is an integral part of the character, never mind a major source of the tale's comedy? Does anyone seriously NOT think Cher has a large amount of silliness?
Religion is like a rocking chair -- a lot of work to get nowhere.
Uh... Emma states that she is in her twenties.
Clueless is not the best way to look at Austen's characters!
In Jane Austen's novel, Emma is twenty-one years old. Paltrow was twenty-two when production of the film began, and turned twenty-three before filming was finished. She was not too old at all.
shareYes, Emma was officially 21 in the book, and in Regency-era-woman years, that makes her about 32 in modern woman years.
In those days nobody cared much about educating girls and girls of that social status weren't allowed to work, instead they were horribly pressured to get married before they turned the big 2-0. An unmarried girl of 21 wasn't considered to be college age, because girls didn't go to college, she was considered to be thoroughly grown-up and even getting a bit past her prime, someone who could expect to be ignored in favor of slightly younger girls. If I were casting a remake myself, I'd consider casting a 30-year-old, just so the audience thinks of her as a grown-up woman and not a girl.