Author Topic: If You Were Casting a Romanov Movie - Which Actor Would You Choose?  (Read 174881 times)

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Alix of Wales had Panache

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Re: If You Were Casting a Romanov Movie - Which Actor Would You Choose?
« Reply #345 on: November 06, 2007, 06:50:45 PM »
Janet Suzman.  Don't remember Gayle Hunnicutt.  Saw Fall of Eagles so long ago I don't remember any of it beyond one Empress Elisabeth segment and at the time I didn't know about the background of the Empress.  I saw an old movie, "Rasputin and the Empress"  with Ethel Barrymore as Empress Alexandra.  She was fairly decent as far as acting the part but not as spot on as Suzman in terms of intensity. 

I would love to see the "Rasputin" movie Staring Rickman to compare the Empress Alexandra actress in that. 

Alix of Wales had Panache

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Re: If You Were Casting a Romanov Movie - Which Actor Would You Choose?
« Reply #346 on: November 06, 2007, 07:08:03 PM »
In terms of NA films in English:  Freddie Finlay--and I haven't even seen 1996 "Rasputin" yet!  Noble did not look the right age in his early scenes.  And Tad Alexander who played Alexei in 1932's "Rasputin and the Empress" curly hair at eight years old and acting was just off. 


I guess you could put a beard on any male and have him play Nicholas. It wouldn't mean he looked anything like the real Nicholas though. Alexis never looked like Nicholas so even with a beard there would be little resemblance. As for Christian Bale with a beard he would look nothing like Nicholas. The worst piece of casting I ever saw for Nicholas was Omar Sharif. It was so very wrong. 

Sharif was also a very, very bad Crown Prince Rudolf in the 1960's film:  "Mayerling"

Alix of Wales had Panache

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Re: If You Were Casting a Romanov Movie - Which Actor Would You Choose?
« Reply #347 on: November 06, 2007, 07:44:19 PM »
Jayston rocked.  His portrayal of NII's conflicts with accepting the changes to a constitual monarchy and maintaining autocray was portrayed with the right balance of stubborness and frustration.  Top-notch too, was his mirroring NII's capitulation to the events following the abdication.

Silja

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Re: If You Were Casting a Romanov Movie - Which Actor Would You Choose?
« Reply #348 on: November 08, 2007, 02:06:44 PM »
"Tell The King The Sky Is Falling", I found Gayle captured Alexandra perfectly. She had all the right combinations of paranoia, insecurity, and demanding authority. This explodes in the scene in which Alexandra visits Stavka to encourage Nicholas to make the right choices on the government.

Yes, I thought so too.

robors

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Re: If You Were Casting a Romanov Movie - Which Actor Would You Choose?
« Reply #349 on: November 22, 2007, 12:20:56 PM »
Michael Jayston is my favorite.(From Nicholas and Alexandra) :) I also liked Aleksandr Galibin in Romanovs- The Imperial Family.It's amazing how an actor can be made up to look almost exactly like a real person 8)   

anna11

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Re: If You Were Casting a Romanov Movie - Which Actor Would You Choose?
« Reply #350 on: November 23, 2007, 01:07:00 PM »
I personally don't think Jayston was that good. He had good chemistry with Janet Suzman, but other than that I thought he was pretty average. I hated it how when hee was angry his eyes went all wide like fish, like the scene where Stolypin is shot. It was him that was that worst written part of the movie, he was totally unsympathetic and not at all like how I think Nicholas was. (IT WAS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!) He didn't have Nicholas's kindness that is so often written about.

My favorite Nicky is Ian Mckellen. IM's a brilliant actor, and what I liked about him is everything I didn't like about MJ. (Yes I al too lazy to type out the actual names. lol) The charm and personality.

s.v.markov

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Re: If You Were Casting a Romanov Movie - Which Actor Would You Choose?
« Reply #351 on: January 27, 2008, 04:02:07 AM »
Here in the UK we have a daily TV soap-opera called 'Emmerdale', which is about life in a village community in the Yorkshire Dales. Guess who's now playing the part of a rich business man recovering from illness and dealing with a grasping young wife who only married him for his money? Yes, it's Michael Jayston, who played Tsar Nicholas II in the lavish 1971 film 'Nicholas and Alexandra' !  Nearly 40 years on, he still sounds the same, and I keep expecting him to stand up and tell everyone who he really is!

anna

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Re: If You Were Casting a Romanov Movie - Which Actor Would You Choose?
« Reply #352 on: January 27, 2008, 08:58:11 AM »
Nice to know he is still around and working. I thought he was more and more working as voice-over because of his special and beautiful voice. He was once considered to play James Bond in the movie "You only live twice" because he played that part as Bond on BBC Radio.

Anna

dmitri

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Re: If You Were Casting a Romanov Movie - Which Actor Would You Choose?
« Reply #353 on: January 28, 2008, 12:16:37 AM »
Jayston was one of many well trained British actors from his generation.

Offline Helen

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Re: If You Were Casting a Romanov Movie - Which Actor Would You Choose?
« Reply #354 on: January 28, 2008, 12:02:57 PM »
Nice to know he is still around and working.
Michael Jayston in June 2007: http://www.viewimages.com/Search.aspx?mid=74931594
"The Correspondence of the Empress Alexandra of Russia with Ernst Ludwig and Eleonore, Grand Duke and Duchess of Hesse. 1878-1916"
"Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig and Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine in Italy - 1893"
"Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine - Gebhard Zernin's Festschrift"

NAAOTMA

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Re: If You Were Casting a Romanov Movie - Which Actor Would You Choose?
« Reply #355 on: January 28, 2008, 03:23:40 PM »
I recently bought my husband the BBC 1972 version of WAR AND PEACE starring Anthony Hopkins and Alan Dobie. In the production notes, it said that Alan Dobie had beaten out Michael Jayston for the role of Prince Andrei in that production.

Harvey

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Re: If You Were Casting a Romanov Movie - Which Actor Would You Choose?
« Reply #356 on: June 10, 2008, 08:32:57 AM »
Does anyone have any idea of how he came to be cast as Alexei, and what ahppened him after the movie?

Offline Louis_Charles

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Re: If You Were Casting a Romanov Movie - Which Actor Would You Choose?
« Reply #357 on: June 10, 2008, 09:03:59 AM »
He really is one of the big mysteries. Several people on this forum (myself included) have scoured the internet for some record of his work after Nicholas and Alexandra, but I have never uncovered anything, nor have I read that anyone else has, either. I think his performance was Alexei was remarkable (of course he had more to do than the four actors playing the girls), but after that movie he disappears.

Sorry not to be more helpful,

Simon
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Harvey

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Re: If You Were Casting a Romanov Movie - Which Actor Would You Choose?
« Reply #358 on: June 10, 2008, 09:27:07 AM »
OK, thanks. Yes, I too thought he was remarkable, although I know some people thought he wasn't a good actor. Personally I was very surprised to discover it was his only movie role.

I did read a post from about three years ago which suggested "Roderic Noble" may have been a made-up name. I suppose that might explain why there is no information on him.

Lalee

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Re: If You Were Casting a Romanov Movie - Which Actor Would You Choose?
« Reply #359 on: June 11, 2008, 03:30:20 AM »
I think Nicholas and Alexandra was his only film role, although in 1972 (the year after Nicholas and Alexandra was made), he was in an episode of some show called "The Main Chance".