Arwen

[Letty]

Am I the only person here who thinks that Liv Taylor is too ugly to play Arwen?
Not to mention Elrond...

*** Edited by The Barrow-Wight for language. No swearing/cursing allowed. Watch it! ***

[Valier]

I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, for I find Liv Tyler to be quite enchanting as Arwen.

[Anguirel]

I think she's visually perfect.

However, I do agree that somehow her Arwen gear doesn't do her justice. Watch her in Eugene Onegin and you'll be in love for weeks.

(And that's a perfectly unisex statement. I watched it once with each of my parents and they both took ages till the glint of love unrequited left their eyes...)

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Letty

Am I the only person here who thinks that Liv Taylor is too ugly to play Arwen?
Not to mention Elrond...

My male cousin found her so physically repulsive that he can't bear to watch .... says she looks like an alien.

She isn't what I imagined Arwen to look like and always looks like someone has just applied a hefty kick to her posterior.

Hugo Weaving - well I have been in love with him since I was 13. I think he is marvellous and he works for me as Elrond..especially in armour *thud*

[Boromir88]

Liv Tyler is what I like to think of classic beauty. She just seems to look gorgeous no matter what. Not like a lot of actresses who have to pound on make-up, starve themselves, and have loads of plastic surgery to look good. Liv Tyler (to me) is like that typical, ordinary, beautiful girl on the street, because she doesn't have to do anything spectacular to look good. (Though I will say she does have her father's lips and that's a bit of a problem... )

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

Liv Tyler (to me) is like that typical, ordinary, beautiful girl on the street, because she doesn't have to do anything spectacular to look good.

But Arwen shouldn't look ordinary or freaky ... she is meant to strike people dumb in the presence of her beauty (or like a girl I was at college who caused guys to crash their cars just by walking by ). But really I probably could have got over the look if she acted better. She never seemed more than an adolescent throwing a tantrum; never gave the impression that she had lived three millenia ...... Miranda Otto and Viggo Mortensen were not how I imagined Eowyn and Aragorn either but they were utterly convincing.

[Cailín]

I must say I agree with Macalaure and not with you, Mith. It is impossible to find a girl who everybody will think drop dead gorgeous. As Valier said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There are some women in the filming industry nowadays - like Angelina Jolie and Jessica Alba - who are considered to be the top beauties, but neither one of them could have made a convincing Arwen, I think. I wonder who you would have in mind. I personally think PJ was looking for the otherworldly quality instead of a regular beauty.

When you look at the modelling industry today (I am a fashion freak, I admit it) you see that models like Gemma Ward and Devon Aoki are scarily successful: all women who have something freaky or alienesque about them. Ten years ago, no fashion editor would have glanced at them twice. In the days of Yeats, Maud Gonne was considered the edge of beauty. When you look at her portrait with a modern eye, hardly anyone finds her so.

With such shifting views of what is beautiful and not, Arwen needed to be timeless. While in many eyes she may be ugly and while we cannot predict whether future generations will see her beauty or not, Liv Tyler does have this Elvish quality, the something not quite ordinary aura surrounding and that will remain.

Added to that, the people who do think she's gorgeous, think she's divine. There's hardly an in between. Some men will certainly freeze in midstep when seeing her walk by. Besides, isn't having such power freaky in itself?

Of course, I am totally prejudiced. But that's not the issue.

P.S. I cannot judge her acting skills. Blaming the director for that.

[Mithalwen]

I think you misunderstand what I was saying...I meant that it was illogical to praise Liv Tyler for the role because of her ordinariness when Arwen was meant to be amazing.

I have to admit that I haven't "found" my ideal Arwen yet ... but as I said it is her acting rather than her looks that failed to convince in the end - I ended up illogically hoping the silly girl would die just to stop her pouting Maybe she was not served well by the script.

I feel that Cate Blanchett, somehow was perfect even though if you analyse her features then you might say they are not "classic" - but as Francis Bacon said there is " no beauty that hath not some proportion of strangeness in it." She really is lovely, timeless and other worldly ..and can act... but maybe I am biased towards people with aquiline noses and rusty hair

[Macalaure]

As Valier said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Liv Tyler is definitely a strange kind of beauty, who cannot match everybody's taste (she does quite match mine). But I think it was exactly this kind that Peter Jackson looked for. Whether you think Liv Tyler, Hugo Weaving or Orlando Bloom are beautiful or not, they do not look like everyday people. And nothing would have been more fatal than casting an "ordinary" beautiful person to play an elf. They should look different - to make the otherworldliness visible, which seems to be very difficult to catch for a film-maker otherwise.

edit: cross-posted

[Letty]

That`s exactly the point. Arwen is supposed to be awesome. Stunning. Amazing. Terrific. Unique. Incredible.
OK,maybe Liv Taylor is not ugly,but she is none of the above,either.
She played her role well,but not too well. There was no wisdom in her Arwen, no aura of three milennia. No deepness in her eyes.
As for Hugo Weaving-his Elrond was not too bad,but it`s just that I didn`t imagine him that way.

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Letty

As for Hugo Weaving-his Elrond was not too bad,but it`s just that I didn`t imagine him that way.

So how did you imagine Elrond, Letty? A bit more homey?

[Letty]

I imagined Elrond older and,of course, more handsome

[narfforc]

'And Elves are wondrous fair to look upon', so sayeth Faramir Captain of Gondor. At that point he must not have seen Miss Tyler, I am far from saying she is ugly, but Arwen is not just another elf, she is supposed to be of the likeness of Luthien the most beautiful of the Children of Iluvatar. I am sorry she is just so plain, she is'nt anywhere near being the most beautiful of mankind even, I believe there were better choices than fish-lips Tyler.

[Elu Ancalime]

Its a good thing it wasnt for a Silm movie. Who would they choose to be Luthien? Perhaps Kelly Monaco? (A femals who was on dancing with the stars, and apparently has a job in, lets say, a modeling corporation.)
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