Cast the Characters of Trek Literature

[Christopher]

What do you guys think of Janina Gavankar as Jasminder Choudhury?

I was the one who originally suggested that in this thread back in August 2008, and you replied an hour later with "Cool, I like her look to so I think I might go ahead and change my Choudhury entry." There was a general consensus that she was a reasonably good choice.

This thread's gotten so old and enormous that I find it's a good idea to search it for any names of interest before posting. You never know when you might've forgotten a previous conversation about a given character or performer.

 

[WarsTrek1993]

Yeah, I recall reading a similar post, too. But still, that actually works really well! I love that idea, gentlemen.

Okay, here's a casting subject that hasn't been discussed: what sort of voice/accent do you expect from a Breen? (One that speaks basic, not that electronic noise from DS9).

I tend to imagine some with a Russian accent.

 

[JD]

Oops, the thought popped into my head while I was watching one of her True Blood episodes, and I just posted it right away.

 

[Sci]

Okay, here's a casting subject that hasn't been discussed: what sort of voice/accent do you expect from a Breen? (One that speaks basic, not that electronic noise from DS9).

I tend to imagine some with a Russian accent.

Honestly, I tend to imagine a standard Midwestern American accent. I see Breen society as an exaggeration of the modern American concept of meritocracy. As with the Cardassians, I don't imagine them to have a non-American accent -- though I don't tend to imagine the Breen as having the somewhat British-influenced style of vocabulary that the Cardassians often have.

 

[Paper Moon]

Okay, here's a casting subject that hasn't been discussed: what sort of voice/accent do you expect from a Breen? (One that speaks basic, not that electronic noise from DS9).

I tend to imagine some with a Russian accent.

Honestly, I tend to imagine a standard Midwestern American accent. I see Breen society as an exaggeration of the modern American concept of meritocracy. As with the Cardassians, I don't imagine them to have a non-American accent -- though I don't tend to imagine the Breen as having the somewhat British-influenced style of vocabulary that the Cardassians often have.

Only tangentially related, but on the subject of accents: I'm doing my best to hear Akaar's dialogue in my head with a Russian accent, since I picture him as being played by Johnathan Hyde, as he played Ilya Gavrik in the 10th season of MI-5/Spooks, mainly because of Gavrik's relatively deep voice. (And he's pretty tall, too.)

I've been making efforts to hear Choudhury with an Indian accent, though it now occurs to me that her accent is identified as "Denevan," and who knows what that sounds like in the 24th century.

I read First Minister Asarem's voice in the voice and cadence of a friend of mine who is from Nigeria. As I recall, she is described as having rather dark skin, so I imagine she might be played by a Nollywood actress.

Generally speaking, I'm trying to give different characters distinctive accents and voices in my head, to make them stick out more in memory.

 

[Thrawn]

Ever since I played the Mass Effect trilogy, I have instinctively heard Admiral Hackett's voice for Akaar.

EDIT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ9PsYqSbXY At the 1:00 mark, his section starts. Actor's name is Lance Henriksen. I hadn't seen what he looked like until searching this video right now, maybe not exactly right, but the voice is perfect.

 

[Christopher]

^Wow, you only know Lance Henriksen from Mass Effect? Maybe it's a generational thing. He's been a genre icon since he played Bishop in Aliens (and was James Cameron's first choice to play the Terminator), and he starred in the TV series Millennium for several seasons. And he's done quite a lot of voice acting in recent years, notably the villain General Tesler in TRON: Uprising and Amon's lieutenant in The Legend of Korra.

 

[Thrawn]

I do, indeed, happen to have missed all of those films & shows. I'd believe you that he's a genre icon, though - he's fabulous in Mass Effect.

(In general, BioWare's voice casting is amazing. In the Mass Effect trilogy alone, Seth Green, Keith David, Marina Sirtis, Martin Sheen, Yvonne Strahovski, Michael Dorn, Armin Shimerman, Claudia Black, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tricia Helfer, Freddie Prinze Jr, Dwight Schultz, Michael Hogan, and Adam Baldwin all play important roles. Lots of genre icons in that list )

 

[JD]

^Yeah, the cast has been one of the favorite things about the ME games. It first came to my attention because I hear Marina Sirtis and Seth Green were in the first game.

 

[Christopher]

You left out Jennifer Hale, the female Commander Shepard. To those of us who follow animation voice actors, she's one of the greats, and has certainly been one of the most prolific voice actresses of the past two decades.

 

[TJ Sinclair]

I'm still firmly in the Vladimir Kulich camp for Akaar. He's not quite tall enough, but in every other aspect, I'd say he ticks the mark, including a small resemblance to the original Teer Akaar.

As far Asarem, I'm sure there's an actress I don't know who would be perfect for her, but of the ones I do know, I'm kinda leaning towards Viola Davis. If Alfre Woodard hadn't already been so high profile in Trek, I'd probably be picturing her.

So, can anyone more familiar with non-American actresses suggest a better one for Bajor's first minister? Someone who can go toe-to-toe with Stephen Macht.

 

[Zedferret]

From someone who hasn't been here long and hasn't dragged back all those pages to see what has been suggested. I am also not going to suggest people no-one has heard of.

New Frontier

Calhoun - Christian Bale
Shelby - canon
Soleta - Olivia Wilde (watch her in Tron Legacy)
Burgoyne - Kristanna Loken (hard to find a fit for an androgynous warrior)
Lefler - canon
Selar - canon
Mchenry - Zac Efron
Mueller - Charlize Theron (see prometheus)
Ci Swan - Idris Elba

Vanguard

Reyes - Antonio Banderas
Pennington - Ewan Mcgregor
Quinn - William H Macy
T'Prynn - Emily Blunt
Fisher - Robert Duvall
Ganz - Jason Statham

Others

Hugh Cambridge - this has to be Hugh Laurie mixed with his House character.
Rhea McAdams - Rachel McAdams (similar name put her pic in my head)
Elias Vaughn - Christoph Waltz
David Gold - Richard Dreyfuss
Dominica Corsi - Victoria Smurfitt
Carol Abrowitz - Linda Cardellini
Christine Vale - Jessica Chastain
Dr Xin Ra-Havreii - Robert Downy Jr
T'Ryssa Chen - Ginnifer Goodwin
Zelik Leybenzon - Paul Giamatti
Jasminder Choudhry - Frieda Pinto
Aneta Smrhova - Olga Kurylenko
Nanietta Bacco - Helen Mirren

 

[JD]

Viola Davis is a pretty good pick, but I still prefer Angela Basset for Asarem.
As for the accent thing, since Trek never really gave the different alien races specific accents I tend to just imagine them with your standard American accent, unless it states otherwise in the text.
EDIT: I never thought of Christian Bale for Calhoun, but I like that one.

 

[Thrawn]

You left out Jennifer Hale, the female Commander Shepard. To those of us who follow animation voice actors, she's one of the greats, and has certainly been one of the most prolific voice actresses of the past two decades.

She's actually my favorite voice in any of the games, bar none. I just figured she wouldn't be as well known as the rest, having not been in live action genre work.

 

[TJ Sinclair]

From someone who hasn't been here long and hasn't dragged back all those pages to see what has been suggested. I am also not going to suggest people no-one has heard of.

New Frontier

Calhoun - Christian Bale
Shelby - canon
Soleta - Olivia Wilde (watch her in Tron Legacy)
Burgoyne - Kristanna Loken (hard to find a fit for an androgynous warrior)
Lefler - canon
Selar - canon
Mchenry - Zac Efron
Mueller - Charlize Theron (see prometheus)
Ci Swan - Idris Elba

Vanguard

Reyes - Antonio Banderas
Pennington - Ewan Mcgregor
Quinn - William H Macy
T'Prynn - Emily Blunt
Fisher - Robert Duvall
Ganz - Jason Statham

Others

Hugh Cambridge - this has to be Hugh Laurie mixed with his House character.
Rhea McAdams - Rachel McAdams (similar name put her pic in my head)
Elias Vaughn - Christoph Waltz
David Gold - Richard Dreyfuss
Dominica Corsi - Victoria Smurfitt
Carol Abrowitz - Linda Cardellini
Christine Vale - Jessica Chastain
Dr Xin Ra-Havreii - Robert Downy Jr
T'Ryssa Chen - Ginnifer Goodwin
Zelik Leybenzon - Paul Giamatti
Jasminder Choudhry - Frieda Pinto
Aneta Smrhova - Olga Kurylenko
Nanietta Bacco - Helen Mirren

Uhm... Wow. Most of these are... really, really far off from anything I would picture. RDJ is an interesting choice for Ra-Havreii, though, and I can certainly picture Idris Elba as Si Cwan (maybe my favorite suggestion for him yet, actually).

But as for the rest... yikes. Especially when a bunch of these choices go against the specifically stated ethnicity of the characters. T'Ryssa Chen has very Asian features. Choudhry is ethnically Indian. Ezekiel Fisher is black.

And Christoph Waltz as Vaughn?

 

[Thrawn]

^ A couple of those are good. I like Wilde for Soleta, Macy for Quinn is a really interesting mental image, and Idris Elba is definitely perfect for Cwan.

 

[Skywalker]

You left out Jennifer Hale, the female Commander Shepard. To those of us who follow animation voice actors, she's one of the greats, and has certainly been one of the most prolific voice actresses of the past two decades.

She's actually my favorite voice in any of the games, bar none. I just figured she wouldn't be as well known as the rest, having not been in live action genre work.

She's technically not a "big name" like all those other actors, true. In the world of video games and voice acting she's very well known, but all of the actors you mentioned in your post are probably better known to the average person.

 

[Thrawn]

She is unbelievably fantastic though, either way

 

[Skywalker]

Yep.

To be honest, before I played the first Mass Effect game I never really noticed her, but now I can easily recognize her voice in all kinds of shows and games.

 

[Christopher]

You left out Jennifer Hale, the female Commander Shepard. To those of us who follow animation voice actors, she's one of the greats, and has certainly been one of the most prolific voice actresses of the past two decades.

She's actually my favorite voice in any of the games, bar none. I just figured she wouldn't be as well known as the rest, having not been in live action genre work.

And it's kind of a shame that Jennifer Hale has done so little live-action work, because she's gorgeous. Same for Tara Strong, one of the other most prolific and famous voice actresses today. I mean, I can understand why a really beautiful actress might want to go into a field of acting where she wouldn't be cast for her looks and could get a broader variety of parts than she might be offered otherwise. But it's still a disappointment for us viewers.

But as for the rest... yikes. Especially when a bunch of these choices go against the specifically stated ethnicity of the characters. T'Ryssa Chen has very Asian features. Choudhry is ethnically Indian. Ezekiel Fisher is black.

Actually Frieda Pinto is Indian too. The problems with her as Choudhury are that she's a decade too young and a bit too short.

Also, Rhea McAdams is supposed to have mixed European/Asian features, at least according to her description in The Body Electric. I'm thinking maybe Lexa Doig for her, as a nod to the fact that she's played an android before (on Andromeda).