hindsight: a better casting idea for Grayza?

[Burn Rourk]

I've had an idea rolling around in my head as to how TPTB should have casted the role of Grayza, and I'm curious what the fan reaction would be. I was thinking that they should have offered the role of Grayza to Virginia Hey.

It would have brought her back to the show, with hair, eyebrows, and no make-up. The role would challenge her as an actor, pretty much playing the anti-Zhaan. Just imagine Virginia with her long blonde hair slicked back into a tight ponytail, in a black Peacekeeper uniform. Just close your eyes and imagine her as Grayza, and let me know what you think.

[Clarsax]

I don't know, I kind of like Grayza the way she is. And I have a hard time picturing her played by Virginia Hey.

[Ouroboros]

I think that would have been too weird personally. Even with the blue makeup you could still tell it was her. Virginia Hey has very distinctive facial features. The begining of season 4 was confusing enough without people having to wonder why Zhaan died and turned into a Peacekeeper.

[Darth Buddha]

I've never seen Virginia Hey play a heavy (as in one of the major bad guys). I don't know how effective she would have been had she been cast despite Ouroboros' excelent point.

Rebecca Riggs, however, managed to play venemous with just an edge of hysterical breakdown underneath with aplomb!

[grinner]

I don't think it would have worked. I have yet to see any evidence that says that Rebecca Rigg was wrong for the part.

[Burn Rourk]

I never said Riggs was wrong for the part. I thought she did an excellent job. I just thought it would have been an interesting way to keep Virginia around. And she does have the range to play a heavy. Zhaan had plenty of rageful moments. She also played a venomous eyepatch lady (name escapes me at the moment.) eh, it was just an idea, moot point now anyways.

[Darth Buddha]

Where else do you think Ms. Hey could be cast?

[Burn Rourk]

Honestly, I think a role like Grayza is just anti-Zhaan enough to give us that buffer of believeability. Everything from her look, to her personality, to her dynamics with the characters would have to do a polar flip to make it work for me. She couldn't play another 'made-up' character, if only because she deserves to show off her natural beauty after three years of being shaved and painted blue.

If it "were" up to me, I would cast her as some sort of Peacekeeper officer. Perhaps something like a Peacekeeper Prime, since we've never seen their highest level of leadership. After all, even Grayza must be answerable to someone.

[Ouroboros]

I never said Riggs was wrong for the part. I thought she did an excellent job. I just thought it would have been an interesting way to keep Virginia around. And she does have the range to play a heavy. Zhaan had plenty of rageful moments. She also played a venomous eyepatch lady (name escapes me at the moment.) eh, it was just an idea, moot point now anyways.


Riggs is also a big sci-fi fan and from what I know Grayza was her first sci-fi role, wouldn't want to take that from her.

On Hey's range Zhaan was a LOT more interesting in season 1. Season one Zhaan had a strange sort of alien sensuality to her. She was mysterious and unusual. Odd how this was when she was supposed to still be a preist and she got dull later after she abandoned life as a monk. It was a shame that in later seasons they never did much more with her than use her as a morality alarm.


Where else do you think Ms. Hey could be cast?

Natira, or maybe one of the new Scarran characters:D

Ok seriously though we never did she John's mother did we. If they made her up right she might be able to pass for that. They could then use her in flash backs and stuff whenever she felt up to it. She could also be cast as another ancient in human form. It seemed inevitable that they would reappear at some point.

[sny]

Originally posted by Ouroboros


Ok seriously though we never did she John's mother did we. If they made her up right she might be able to pass for that. They could then use her in flash backs and stuff whenever she felt up to it. She could also be cast as another ancient in human form. It seemed inevitable that they would reappear at some point.

SPOILERS!







First time we see John's mother is in Won't Get Fooled Again, which is on Volume 2.4 in the season 2 set of DVDs. Prior to Zhaan's leaving Moya. And I seem to recall that Virginia needed quite a bit of time off in order to recover her health. Seems I remember reading somewhere that she was still feeling the effects even a year after leaving.

I can certainly see the reasoning against doing something like recasting. It's very, very hard to bring an actor back as a different character on the same show and get away with it. When I see the episode with Nilaam, now, I continually think "Noranti!" when I hear her voice, because Melissa Jaffer's voice is very distinctive. Totally different genre, but one of the things that irked me about watching Little House On The Prairie and The Andy Griffith Show was the fact that "guest stars" or "bit players" were reused and reused and reused and recycled ad nauseum. One actor might play five to ten different characters throughout the run of the show. Which tended to distract me. One guy on Little House must have played about six different crotchety old men, all distinct characters, by the time the show ended. I think reusing Virginia Hey might have distracted the viewer a bit too much. She is a very distinctive look. And sentencing her to another heavily made up character would be kind of piling insult on injury.

The more preferable solution, to me, if you were going for keeping Virginia as a permanent part of the cast, would have been to bring Zhaan back in some other physical form, if they ever decided to do so. The writers probably could have come up with a reasonable enough explanation. No one ever said all Delvians were blue. Or that they stay blue their whole lives. Heck, she bloomed once, she could grow hair. Some of the others in Rhapsody in Blue had hair. Could be explained as a life cycle thing, just like the blooming.

But, that said, I have to say that I respect TPTB for not going for the warm and fuzzy solutions of either casting Virginia as a new character or bringing Zhaan back with a different look. One of the things I love about the show is the fact that they will do things no other show will. Most shows would miraculouosly find a cure at the last moment, and the whole crew flies off happy, into the starset... Zhaan's sacrifice really meant something because of the character's death. It would have cheapened it to have Zhaan save Aeryn, but not have it cost anything. Instead, the writers had it cost a member of the crew. A vital member of the crew. Not many shows would be willing to do that. Also, I think it was interesting to watch the shows after that, and see how the Moyans functioned without her. They rather lost a mother figure, a moral compass of sorts, when Zhaan died. Watching the ripples from that loss is great character study.

When the character first left, I thought at first, "It will never be the same. Never as good." But, I can say I was wrong. Not that I don't love Virginia's work as Zhaan, but I don't think the show as a whole suffered because of the character's loss. I was happy to see her pop back up as even a game avatar, but I don't think I would change the route the show has taken, either.

[waltersgirl]

there's no way that anyone wouldn't have recognized Virgina. the only way to then be fair to both Virginia and the fans would be a latex solution...which would defeat the purpose.