She wasn't attractive enough to believe a grown ass man would leave his respected doctor wife and son for her. And she looked wayy to young.
shareHe was a man child so yeah it's pretty believable.
Btw, everyone has different options of beauty, and yours definitely isn't a world guide line.
You're right, she's not that attractive, but that's Brits - generations of inbreeding have really screwed up the gene pool.
shareBritish casting has always been a lot less plastic then American. It's something to do with a strong theatrical heritage. They seem to understand something what many Hollywood execs understand less and less. A Helen Mirren or Emily Mortimer can make you believe they are a homewrecking vamp, a schoolteacher, a cop or really dowdy. Casting for talent means your actor can make the ad audience believe they are sexy or innocent, Smart or dumb. And honestly I think what they were going for here was innocent. And this actress that delivers. She reads very young, her character has all the self-importance and certainty of youth. Which is probably what the husband character found so appealing.
Is it honestly it possible to believe that Hollywood execs today would have the insight or confidence to cast a Bette Davis or Katherine Hepburn or Barbara Stanwyck? They were phenomenal actors but they were not pornstar "hot". And yet they could set the screen on fire...ahem Stanwyck in The Lady Eve, one of my favorite movies.
Part of this I think is driven by the British media's love for a specific British type, which is often a slim brunette, seldom voluptuous but occasionally somewhat bosomy for their otherwise slender and boyish frame. They are usually pretty but have kind of a very demure sexuality about them.
There are, of course, exceptions (Helen Mirren is quite voluptuous), but there are so many others that resemble this. Mortimer, Claire Foy, the actress who plays Gemma (who is a ringer for Phoebe Waller Bridge), Kristin Scott Thomas, the list is endless and they are all sort of interchangeable.
It's not to take away anything from their acting talent, indeed as you note they are capable of a wide variety of characters. But there's a certain repetitiveness there that American casting seems to defy with more physical variety, even if that variety tends towards a certain level of excessive sexuality.
She was beautiful and the fact that she was very young was the whole point.
share