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Actors that inspired Legion's Aspects


skaa

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A few weeks ago in San Francisco, Brandon said something rather interesting about Stephen Leeds' aspects:

Normally I don’t cast actors in the roles in my books, they’re just who they are, but each of the aspects is an actor to me. If you look really closely, you might be able to guess who they are, because they’re all famous actors.

Then last Saturday in Atlanta, he revealed that J.C. was inspired by Adam Baldwin. I only know of Mr. Baldwin from the T.V. series Chuck, where he plays a government agent named John Casey, which coincidentally(?) fits the aspect's initials.

Apparently Kalyani and her husband are exceptions to the rule, as the real Kalyani and Rahul are Sanderson fans of Indian descent who aren't actors.

So now I'm wondering which actors he used for the other aspects. I'm really no good with remembering actors' names, much less the speech patterns of the popular characters they've played. Maybe you guys could take a stab at this challenge. Which aspects remind you of which actors?

Just in case it would help, here are descriptions of Tobias and Ivy, who with J.C. are the three most visible of the aspects in the two Legion stories so far:

Tobias:

Lanky and ebony-skinned, he had dark freckles on his age-wrinkled cheeks. He kept his greying hair very short, and wore a loose, informal business suit with no necktie.

Tobias seems to always speak in a scholarly but gentle manner. Could he be Morgan Freeman? He's far from the Tobias I imagine while reading, but I don't really know any other African American male actors who are old.

Ivy:

She wore a dark business suit, with slacks and a jacket. Her blonde hair was up in a bun. She was in her early forties, and was one of the aspects I'd had the longest.

My mind persistently imagines Ivy as someone much younger than 40, so the Ivy in my head is obviously way off. There's so many blonde actresses who were in their early forties back when Legion was released. Does Ivy remind you guys of anyone in particular?

Edit: Added Rahul as another exception to the rule.

Edit: So, here are the confirmed aspect actors:

  • Adam Baldwin as J.C.
  • Morgan Freeman as Tobias
  • Gwyneth Paltrow as Ivy

(J.C., you lucky cremling! :P)

Edited by skaa
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Kalyani and her husband both are exceptions.

 

Yes. I'll edit the original post to make that perfectly clear. :)

 

Ivy might be Amanda Tapping, who played Samantha Carter in Stargate SG1.

Maybe. I've been doing a bit of Googling and I now think Ivy is Uma Thurman. She was 42 back in 2012, and she portrayed Poison Ivy in the Batman & Robin movie.

 

 

How about Armando?

 

He was a thin man with black hair he kept slicked back. "Armando benevolently agrees to consider your supplication." He held it up.

 

 

I think the actor must be a comedian. And he's also of Mexican descent, or have played someone of Mexican descent. I feel that avid movie-goers should have plenty of ideas as to who he could be, but I myself can't think of anybody.

Edited by skaa
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Oh! Well, as I said in the original post, it's Adam Baldwin. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

So, we now have two confirmed: Adam Baldwin as J.C. and Morgan Freeman as Tobias (thanks, Argent!). Let's see if we can get Peter or Brandon to reveal more. :)

By the way, any other guesses?

Edited by skaa
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Yeah, Tobias was very clearly inspired by Morgan Freeman.  After all, Stephen goes out of his way several times to point out that Tobias could be droning on about any old thing, but Stephen loved to hear him talk because, essentially, he just loved hearing the sound of Tobias' voice.  :)

 

There is a WoB that says Gwyneth Paltrow was the inspiration for Ivy.  (#39 at this link)

 

And Arthur, Adam Baldwin (the guy for J.C.) is most famous for playing Jayne Cobb (J.C...) in Firefly.  (If you've never seen Firefly, go watch it on Netflix.  Right. Now.)  J.C. basically is Jayne Cobb.

jayne-hat-1.jpg

 

Finally, in my mind, Audrey and Firefight/Meghan are the same person.   :P

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There is a WoB that says Gwyneth Paltrow was the inspiration for Ivy.  (#39 at this link)

 

For future reference you can just append "#39" to the end of the link and it will go directly to that entry as seen here:

http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1051#39
Edit: Also thanks for sharing that, I don't think I'd ever seen it. Edited by WeiryWriter
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For future reference you can just append "#39" to the end of the link and it will go directly to that entry as seen here:

http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1051#39
Edit: Also thanks for sharing that, I don't think I'd ever seen it.

 

 

Cool, thanks!  I was wondering how people did that.  :)

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I can't believe we actually had this info as far back as 2013! A million upvotes to you, dawg!

Oh, and I've edited the OP to list the confirmed actors we have so far.

Edited by skaa
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Mr. Baldwin has played a few characters with initials J.C., actually. As has been noted there's Jayne Cobb from Firefly, John Casey from Chuck (my favorite), Jesse Carter from Sands of Oblivion (a TV movie), and then there's Jamie Kenton from Bones (which is spelled with a K, but could be spelled with a C).

 

He's actually played a large number of roles where his first name begins with a J.

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