It's not KB's heritage but the way she looks and her lack of magnetism. AG was universally exotic; she convincingly looked a multitude of nationalities and easily portrayed Spanish, Italian, Anglo-Indian, mulatto. What's ironic is KB's Burmese ancestry, yet she isn't exotic in the least but distractingly English Rose, and comes off as very "vanilla" and blue blood/to the manor born. AG had a scrappy/street-smart quality, a salt of the earth type equally at ease at a dive bar or highbrow party.
AG had a larger-than-life, force of nature presence which KB does not. The ideal would have been Angelina Jolie, her modern equivalent and incarnation. AG caused a sensation with her exotic dark beauty, feral sex appeal and potent charisma. She wowed and inspired the greats in the literary/music scene e.g. notoriously difficult Miles Davis was enamored of her...Hemingway was dazzled...she was a muse of Robert Graves...and of course she influenced Sinatra greatly.
KB simply is not believable as "all that". Too bland and uninspiring, not intoxicating and captivating. Apparently Scorsese's 1st choice was Gwyneth Paltrow, which reinforces just how strange his vision of AG.
Marcia Gay Harden's portrayal of AG in "Sinatra" is how it's done. Although she didn't have AG's great, legendary beauty, she had the womanly, sultry smoky looks; and most important, she totally nailed the essence. She completely embodied the role, which says a lot about her capabilities as an actress. KB has talent, but she showed her limits here with her complete inability to own the part.
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greenleafie
8 years ago
According to the trivia section, Gwyneth Paltrow had signed on to play the part, but then dropped out. Beckinsale was a last minute replacement. But Paltrow also seems a little frail to play the likes of Ava Gardner.
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Eurasiana
8 years ago
If one wanted to give Scorsese the benefit of the doubt, then perhaps since he had to scramble at the last minute to cast AG, the pickings were slim because (established) actresses were not available/filming other projects.
But I'm dubious this being the case given that evidently Paltrow was cast in the first place when there was lots of time to find a suitable actress. One would think he was casting for a refined WASP-y type like Grace Kelly or Oona O'Neill when the role called for a the total opposite!
As unsatisfactory as KB was, Paltrow likely would have been just as much so, if not worse.
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spookyrat1
8 years ago
Much as I like the movie, I don't think Beckinsale was the weakest link, insofar as her character was written with so little depth. The Hughes/Gardener relationship wasn't explored, just roughly sketched out and from the moment she is introduced, all we see her really do with Hughes is argue. Wow! Like that's it? They came together to argue?
In that context any number of actresses probably would have achieved a similar result.
Blanchett has rightfully received acclaim for her portrayal, but at the same time she had a far greater range of material and experiences with which to work.🐭
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