Voldemort vs Tywin Lannister: Iconic Villain Actors Who Didn't Read the Books

Summary:

• Ralph Fiennes never read the Harry Potter books, and his portrayal of Voldemort in the movies was nowhere near the original character.
• Charles Dance, too, never read A Song of Ice and Fire, but book fans claim that his portrayal of Tywin Lannister was perfectly on-point.
• Ultimately, it’s the screenwriter’s job to provide an actor with a script that helps them understand their character even if they’ve never read source material.

Book adaptations are a tough craft. On the one hand, you’re constrained by time and budget limitations; on the other hand, you have an angry mob of fans who demand everything looks exactly like in the book. But that’s directors’ pain — actors are free to explore the source material to better understand and portray their characters.

When they don’t, it often shows. But is book-diving really necessary for actors?

Some Actors Don’t Care for Source Material

Generally speaking, there are two types of actors who star in book adaptations.

Some, like Henry Cavill, care deeply for their franchises’ source material and would go to any lengths to portray their characters as accurately as possible. For them, the original books are sacred to the point where it might annoy their colleagues — a situation you’re familiar with if you followed the drama with Netflix ’s The Witcher.

Others, like Harrison Ford, take pride in their craft: they are actors, not fans, and they follow the script instead of the source material. On many occasions, Ford, the star of several world-famous franchises, pointed out that he neither knew nor cared for the intricacies of his on-screen worlds when faced with lore questions from his fans.

Does the acting always suffer from a lack of source material knowledge? To answer this question, we’ll address two iconic villains from iconic franchises.

Ralph Fiennes Butchered Lord Voldemort’s Character

The star of the Harry Potter franchise, Ralph Fiennes portrayed the main antagonist in the movies — Lord Voldemort. Fiennes famously never read the Harry Potter books, and this fact left an obvious impression on his portrayal of the character: despite his being a talented actor, the movie Voldemort missed the point by a mile.

In the books, Lord Voldemort was a cunning, calculating, and stone-cold sociopath who instilled terror in the hearts and minds of all he encountered. The movie version turned out very differently: Voldemort as played by Ralph Fiennes was more of a grinning psychopathic moron who clowned around and wasn’t even half as scary.

In this case, the lack of source material knowledge played against the actor.

Charles Dance Perfectly Portrayed Tywin Lannister

While not the primary protagonist of the show, Tywin Lannister was a formidable power in Game of Thrones, and the showrunners made the right call inviting Charles Dance to play the part. Just like Fiennes, Dance never read A Song of Ice and Fire before joining the project, but surprisingly, this didn’t prevent him from nailing his bit.

Charles Dance’s portrayal of Tywin Lannister was absolutely on-point, and that’s not a personal opinion. The on-screen Warden of the West is praised and adored by the book and TV show fans alike, and many claim no one else could have played the tyrant as perfectly as Dance. He didn’t even play him; Dance became Lord Tywin.

Now, this becomes interesting: who’s to blame for butchering characters, then?

Ruined Characters Are Not Actors’ Fault

As shown by these two examples, an actor doesn’t necessarily need to read the source material to deliver a top-notch performance. While book knowledge allows for a deeper understanding and even the addition of hidden undertones, it’s entirely possible to portray the character perfectly based solely on the script.

And this is where the problem lies: the script.

Ultimately, if a talented actor’s portrayal of their character comes out wrong, it’s more likely than not the screenwriter’s fault. A well-crafted script gives an actor everything they need — otherwise, Henry Cavill and the MCU crew would be the only actors who can properly play their parts without being bashed by the fan community.