Ben Whishaw reveals his Cloud Atlas characters - was I right?

A great little interview with Mr W surfaced today in which he gave details of the three characters he'll be playing in the Cloud Atlas film adaptation and more besides.

Apparently the actors will be gender swapping as well as playing multiple roles.

Not long ago I wrote a post about which characters I thought he might play and I'm pleased to announced that I got, er, one correct but then the gender swapping wasn't something I'd factored in.

He is indeed playing Robert Frobisher but he's also playing a woman in the Luisa Rey story which is set in the 1970s. Now there are numerous characters that he could be. There is a youngish PR woman at the nuclear plant and I'm sure one of Luisa's fellow journalists is a woman. There is an older woman who is a protester at the nuclear plant too.

It will be really interesting to see him play a woman and the interview seems to imply that the gender swap is something he is relishing. I bet he'll get the physical performance down pat and he has a not wholly masculine face.

I'm really pleased he's getting to play Frobisher as that was the character I immediately could see him playing - he's witty, intelligent, talented and roguish. He's also bisexual and *spoiler alert* has quite a tragic ending to his story, so plenty for Mr W to get his acting teeth into.

Am a bit disappointing he's not going to be playing Adam Ewing (Jim Sturgess surely?) or Zachary, although the latter was a long shot.

Filming begins mid-September and hopefully news of the other actors characters will start to float out now. I'm just trying to imagine Tom Hanks as a woman...

 

Comments

[Jessica Allen]

Funny, I think he has a wholly masculine face. I don't know why. Maybe because he's thin and there are no soft contours to it. I thought about this during the scene in The Hour where Hector smuggled him out of the building in a scarf, and it seemed to me he didn't pass for a female at all. At the same time, because of his frame and his gracefulness and personality, I think he has a very lovely androgynous quality, and I suspect he will come across as female if he puts his mind and acting skills toward it. It will be fun!