whoa whoa whoa!! halle berry?!
sounds interesting...
this was a crap book anyway
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MovieChat Forums > Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005) Discussion > whoa whoa whoa!! halle berry?!
I thought it was a wonderful book...I don't think I would have cast Halle though. We'll see how it goes!
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This was a great book, actually. I had no idea they were doing it til today - Halle Berry's on Oprah. I'm interested to see how it turns out.
shareI so proud of Oprah and Halle for bringing Zora Neale Hurston's masterpiece to the big screen. Zora Neale Hurston she is such an amazing black feminist heroine. Their Eyes Were Watching God I hope is a success and I hope that Zora would of proud. If only Zora Neale Hurston knew how much she was loved over 44 years since her death in 1960. It's so amazing that two black women Oprah and Halle are bringing back this black feminist novel to the small screen.
shareI really love this book. Hurston's prose is so lyrical and poetic; it was a joy to read. Halle Berry isn't the first woman I think of when I imagine Janie, but I trust her interpretation.
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I'm ok with the Halle Barry casting if she pulls it off...I mean if she can perform on the same caliber as when she was in Monsters Ball that's cool. My problem lis mostly in the using Alicia Keyes "Falling" in the commercial. Hopefully it will be good.
shareThis was the best book i have ever read. Halle Berry is a fine actress, but I think she may be too young for the role. In the book, towards the end, Janie is nearly 50 years old. then again I guess the makeup artists will do a great job of making her look older.
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I enjoyed the book and I actually think Halle is a good choice for the film. I'm not her biggest fan, but I still think she'd be pretty good.
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sounds interesting.....?
this was a crap book anyway.....?
then why bother posting a message if you're so bored?
this book was a revelation! A MAJOR step forward for female literature, especially BLACK female literature. who else paved the way for such lovely ladies as Alice Walker and Toni Morrison? "Their Eyes Were Watching God" is described as "one of the finest of all time" and placed in the same category as other greats works, i sincerely hope the producers and directors do this masterpiece justice. i have no love for Halle, but my respect for and admiration of this groundbreaking piece of fiction is forcing me trust Ms. Whinfrey (something i'm not too comfortable with)and her producers i hope they have made the right decision. all i know is the director better know what the f*** he's doing or Ms. Hurston will be turning in her grave. God rest her visionary soul.
as for those who couldn't "read" it or "understand" it because of the dialect Ms. Hurston used in the novel,(God forbid you should WORK for your education or MAKE AN EFFORT to try to understand something NEW...) stop insulting the rest of us with your whining and go post a message elsewhere. perhaps you'll find like minds at the teletubbies fan site.
"The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see."
- Zora Neale Hurston, "Their Eyes Were Watching God"
I think Halle will do a terrific job. She's really quite a versatile actress. Reference Monster's Ball (in which she plays a poor woman in the contemporary South), Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (in which she plays a 1940s/1950s Hollywood actress), and Queen (in which she plays a slave over several decades). Speaking of Queen... the person who's concerned about Halle Berry not being able to pull off age 50 need only reference the miniseries.
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I am also happy that the book will becoming to the screen, however I am not crazy about the casting of Janie. I do agree with some-I do not feel Halle Berry is appropriate for the lead role, in “Their Eyes were Watching God.” But the character Janie is described as very fair and biracial, and the Hollywood establishment including Oprah loves Miss Halle Berry right now. I did enjoy her as Dorothy Dandridge in the HBO biopic, but truly hated the movie Monster's Ball, for which they gave her the Oscar.
If I could have cast the actress, it would have been Vonette McKee as the older Janie, and Michael Michelle as the young Janie. Sometimes I want to shake the Hollywood movers and shakers and tell them to give others a chance. Sometimes it seems like the marginalized Spike Lee is the only one that comes close to doing that. I like most of Halle Berry’s work, but I believe that there are other actresses out there that are worthy of major roles. The only difference is that they don’t share all their life drama with the world.
SKIM THIS IT'S A LONG POST.
I think the different marriages will be a breeze for Berry---she's good at portraying women in difficult relationships, probably because she actually has been in quite a few bad relationships. It's the part of the title that said that Berry's character challenges her town that I'm not sure she can pull off. Berry as a new, forward, challenging-the-narrow-minded type person? Berry tends to be better at playing lonely, desperate type characters who have been greatly emotionally depleted. So if this role is aggressive or girl-power-ish, well, I don't know that she can pull it off. She's been through a lot of hardship, both in her personal life and through her art, so getting into an older character I doubt will be a problem for her.
So to sum my opinion up, she might be good here, she might not. It all depends. She's a good actress, not terribly versatile. Her characters tend to be desperate, in emotional turmoil, emotionally exhausted, and have a lot of their life in control of someone else. One thing she can do, however, that does signify a certain versatility, is portray a mother-child relationship from the mother's or child's perspective. She can be the cruel mother or the product of a cruel mother. So..yeah. That's all my massively disorganized thoughts, thanks for listening!
im with you....great novel. groundbreaking.
shareThis was a fantastic book. One must appreciate the metaphorical value and how it relates to the Jim Crow South of the 1920s. I really despise a lot of Halle Berry's work, but I feel like she could pull this off. She has the physical characteristics of Janie (somewhat fair skinned and very beautiful) and she did a great job in Monster's Ball and Gothika. I hated her in X-Men and Catwoman though...ugh (but that could have been from lack of character research/development and a crappy script).
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Well guess what? Janie was never "full." She was fit, brown, and beautiful. One of the trade marks of her character is her long striaght hair which she gets from the Caucasian in her. Halle is half white so when I see her with long straight hair I think I'll be able to buy it.
Others are knocking Halle for acting, but she's a very capable. Her performance in Gothika for example was commendable but the story fell apart at the end. How are you going to be married to someone for that long and not realize theat person has a thing for sexually abusing and killing women while then making porn of it? That person needs psychiatric help, but somehow that person is the one giving it. Dorothy Dandridge and Why Do Fools Fall In Love? really showcased her ability and were good movies too. X-men and X-Men 2 were great movies, but they're not about Storm so Halle didn't have much time to shine. With the little role she had opposite Nightcrawler I though I could have felt more from her on that theme of faith. She didn't pull it off for me. Catwoman was just plain bad, but most of my gripes about that movie have nothing to do with Halle.
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I'm sorry, although Halle Berry is a decent actress, there are better black actresses out there that would have been perfect for this role. Why is Halle suddenly the "store front" for black actresses in Hollywood? I heard that Oprah turned down Lynn Whitfield, among some other talented actresses that didn't gain the recognizition they deserved. I just think that by throwing in Halle, they figured that they'd attract more viewers.
Don't get me *bleeping* started!
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"What's wrong with them wanting to attract viewers?? Plus Lynn Whitfield is old."
There's nothing wrong with wanting viewers, but to front Halle for the movie just commercializes the whole thing, IMO. And, for the record, if you called Lynn old, you might as well call Halle old, too. She's no spring chicken, either. I'm sure there are plenty of young, black, talented actresses that could've took on this role, and it would've been good to get a chance to peek at a new face and new talent for a change. Also, in the book, we saw the character Janie at various stages in her life..why not get different actresses to portray each different stage? IMO, Halle is just getting a bit stale, especially when it comes to these types of roles.
Don't get me *bleeping* started!
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still there is a BIG difference in look when it comes to halle and lynn - i personally have ever though that lynn whitfield was pretty (and from waht you people are saying janie is suppose to be very very pretty) - it may have been a good idea to use 4 or 5 actesses to play diffrent stages of her life - maybe they just wanted to stick with one person - who knows - we all need to ask OPRAH - oh and by the way i feel you on halle becoming stale because maybe she is playing another role of being in love out of love and all that stuff (heartache) or whatever - but it surprises me that white actresses play same types of roles all the time but we never talk about that - all we do is put down our own all the time -
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i think lynn whitfield is a great actress BUT i think it's easier to work with a younger looking actress and make her look older at the end -instead of taking an older looking woman (lynn) and trying to make her look young throughout the picture and then playing herself at the end -
shareWhen I read this book back in the 10th grade, I envisioned Halle as Janie, so it only seems too perfect (and coincidental) that she was chosen for the role.
shareI personally would have preferred to see Thandi Newton as Janie...And Michael Ealy as Teacake...no...Teacake is dark skinned and he is def not that....I think this movie could have been cast waaay better.....
shareI think Halle Berry is a perfect choice. I envisoned her from the very begining. As for Michael Early, more of the problem is we haven't seen enough of his work more then him not being as dark as you think he should be. Based upon my interuptation of Tea Cakes description, the issue was him being so much younger then Janie. The only person going on about his color was Mrs Turner - and lets face it, she was all about white w/with features. So if you didn't have a narrow nose, straight hair and house *beep* features, then you were a dark skin *beep* in her eyes. The book was a masterpiece and I'm proud that this is being brought to screen. The Alicia Keys song goes right along with the love story. Please see the move first before making so many judgements. I have a really good feeling about it.
shareTHE PERSON BELOW SAID HE DOESN'T REMEMBER ANYTHING ABOUT HIM BEING DARK SKINNED
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