Since Sunday was “Quasimodo Sunday” or Low Sunday let’s do a Fan-Cast for Quasimodo this month.
There seems to be a few names that get use more frequently when hypothetical fancasts for Quasimodo are brought up and one those names than get tossed around as would-be-Maybe-Quasimodo is Welsh actor/musican Iwan Rheon.
On Acting
Rheon is most known for his role in Game Of Thrones as the repugnant Ramsey Bolton. Despite playing a horrible irredeemable vile human Rheon is not any of those things meaning he is a competent actor.
On the whole Quasimodo is a should be a very demanding role which is why actors tend to in the past have spearheaded new adaptations of the work even though so many of those project have been quietly canceled. The point is that role of Quasimodo is a challenge (script pending) and Rheon’s could hit the mark on the acting front.
On Looks
As far as looks go, Quasimodo is a role that relies heavily of prosthetics and make-up but good base wouldn’t hurt. Meaning an actor for Quasimodo should have a square, blunt look to his bone structure. Overly angular, delicate, or soft bone structures wouldn’t work as well as convey Quasimodo’s strength.
There also the subject of Quasimodo’s age canonically vs the actors who play/want to play him. Among the actors who have actually played Quasimodo in the notable films/Tv series the average age of Quasimodo actors is 41. This means as of right now Rheon is the about the average age to play Quasimodo. In the book he was 19 if he was right about when his birthday. But as so far only one actor in the notable film/tv versions was in their 20s.
On Singing
One of the prime reason that Iwan Rheon’s name comes as a possible Quasimodo is that most people cast Hunchback roles with the idea in mind that it will be the Disney Live Action version thus the actors need to be able to sing. Rheon is a musician in addition to being an actor. His style is moody acoustics but he can sing so it’s a plus in his favor.
However there are other consideration involving Disney’s Live-action casting for Quasimodo that would be a point against Rheon but as Disney has all but canceled the live-version I think it’s more of a perk that Rheon can sing and might be a good thing if someone ever did an original musical version as unlikely as that might be. I suppose he could alway be an opinion just to play Quasimodo on stage in a musical version like if there was another English language version production of Notre Dame de Paris or the Disney Theatrical version.
So is it aYes or a No on this Casting Choice?
So would Iwan Rheon make a compelling Quasimodo? Yes, I think he would be fine in the role. Were he cast I doubt it would cause a ton of internet drama, though one never knows given some people.
Oddly Rheon’s upcoming project about UFOs is called Out There, so maybe it’s a sign that he should play Quasimodo.
