Thursday Threesome: Best Character Adaptations!

Book adaptations into television shows or movies are a given, but often the adaptation doesn’t quite do the source material justice. Under the cut I talk about my favourite three recent adaptations of book characters for television and film and why I think they do their source material and their on-screen roles justice.


1. Katniss Everdeen – The Hunger Games

Jennifer Lawrence’s turn as the prickly Katniss Everdeen of the Hunger Games series is integral to the new film franchise’s success. In the first film, although she looked the part, on many occasions I felt like the socially inept, sometimes confused and insensitive character in the books was watered down into something a little more palatable for a cinema-going audience. The second film Catching Fire does not make this same mistake. Any fears that I had over Lawrence not being able to bring the true essence of Katiss to the screen were completely steamrolled. Her acting prowess seems to have placated any concerns from the top about her ability to sell Katniss as she is written and as a non-typical Hollywood heroine, whilst also selling movie tickets. Lawrence’s performance is at times vulnerable and at others, blind with fury. The characters sense of self worth is at times non-existent and at others, it is her will to survive that inspires people to rise up against their oppressors. The Hunger Games series is shaping up to be a fantastic adaptation (which I didn’t think I would hear myself saying) and Jennifer Lawrence’s interpretation of Katiss, close to how she was written, has a lot to do with that.

2. Margaery Tyrell – Game of Thrones

When Natalie Dormer was cast as Margaery Tyrell in Game of Thrones I was very excited. This was because I had seen her work in the Tudors, but at the same time, having seen her work in the Tudors and read the Song of Ice and Fire series, I knew that there would be significant embellishments made to Margaery’s character. In the book series, we know very little about Margaery’s true motivations, though we get the sense that she knows how to handle herself. We rely on other people’s perceptions to make our judgements about how she will play the game and where this will lead her. It’s clear that the show runners of Game of Thrones wanted to explicitly convey their interpretation of who Margaery is underneath all of the façade and conjecture and picking Natalie Dormer to do it was a stroke of genius. Her characterisation contributes new readings to the source material whilst also, I am sure, providing great entertainment to the audience watching Game of Thrones. Her interactions with Olenna and Sansa are brilliant, her manipulation of Joffery is adept and her quest for power through both cunning and a shroud of false delicacy are enthralling to watch unfold. This is certainly one of the interpretations in Game of Thrones that I have enjoyed the most and has added enormous value even though it has not necessarily been 100% true to the source material.

3. Joan Watson – Elementary

Lucy Liu; what an absolutely genius of an actress. Seriously. A gender bend is a tough thing to pull off under any circumstance, but to do it with an incredibly old and well-loved character like John Watson is, and to do it with such grace and skill is something else. I have to say, I was not thrilled when I heard that the American Sherlock Holmes series would be re-casting John Watson as a woman, mainly because it seemed like some kind of cheap ploy and easy move to a love interest angle. As I have mentioned before, this could not have been further from the truth. Liu and her co-star Johnny Lee Miller, act as though Joan is a brand new character. She has some similarities with John Watson – she helps Sherlock, she’s a doctor – but for the most part they have enriched the role to be a partnership and made her a complex and intelligent woman rather than a bumbling pushover. Joan is more of a well-crafted homage to the source material rather than a direct cut and paste with a female twist and the result has been something magnificent.