Harry Potter Fans Still Asking 'How Did This Actor Get Cast?!'
For the most part, the casting throughout all the Harry Potter films was spot on. And with so many characters appearing in the series, it was inevitable that there would be one or two that weren't so perfectly cast as Alan Rickman as Professor Snape or Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid.
But the casting of both Harry's parents pose questions – in particular, his mother played by Geraldine Somerville.
Somerville played Lily Potter at the time of her death, not as a child. And, while there can be no criticism of her acting, the casting feels a bit odd for two key reasons.
Firstly, her age. Somerville was born in 1967. So, by the time The Philosopher's Stone came out, she was already pushing on her mid-thirties. Adrian Rawlins, who played Harry's dad James, was nearly ten years older. Both looked very well for their age. But they did look their age, at least.
Much of the tragedy of Harry's younger life was that his parents died so young. Lily was 21 at the time of her death. And this just didn't come across in the actors they chose to play those characters.
Now, there is a suggestion that the reason for this was that having cast Alan Rickman as Snape, the Potters had to look a similar age. And if that's true, we can forgive this slight detour from the story for the simple reason that nobody on the planet could have played Snape better than the late great Alan Rickman.
But there's an even bigger problem with this casting choice. And this one is really quite difficult to get away from.
Throughout the movies, there are frequent mentions of the fact that Harry has his mother's eyes. But when we see them in the same scene, he clearly doesn't. He has very similar glasses to his dad. But that's neither here nor there.
With the whole 'mother's eyes' thing being such a focal point of the story, it was essential that whoever portrayed Lily Potter should have eyes that look at least a bit like Daniel Radcliffe's. Failing that, the makeup and props budget would surely have stretched to something that would allow us to believe that these oft-referenced eyes were indeed so similar.
"All they needed to do was find an actress who had similar eyes to Daniel Radcliffe and dye her hair red. 7 books and 7 and a half movies of hearing how he has his mother's eyes and their eyes weren't similar," as one of the Harry Potter fans mentioned on Reddit.
Not that this should take anything away from what a great series of films it was. But those little details do tend to grate a little.