so if you were hired as the casting director for a live action family guy picture, how would you go about it? would you pick the best actors you could find to fill the roles? Or would you hunt and peck for lower profile actors to best fit the role? And, most difficult, how would you make stewie and brian live-action characters? (CGI i guess would be my strategy)
Peter Griffin/Kevin James-This was hard at first but then i realized Kevin James would be as good a fit to play Peter as you can possibly get. James is around the exact age as Griffin right now and he's also played a blue collar overweight man of the house before (King of Queens-great great show btw). He fits the role as good as anybody else, if not better.
Lois Griffin/Marisa Tomei-IMHO casting Lois should've been easier because it's a more flexible, lower-profile role than Peter but it turned out not to be. The 40-something redheaded actresses i considered i just didn't think had the skill set to be Lois. The closest thing i could come to within that subspecies was Debra Messing and I wasn't that satisfied with settling there. But the good news is you can dye hair, and Tomei can definitely pull off the accent in Lois's voice, she has undeniable sex appeal for a woman her age, and she's a terrific, smart actress. She's perfect for the role.
Meg Griffin/Miley Cyrus-Don't bother hating on this, I'm not in love with this selection very much either. The main problem is, where the hell do you find a 15-20 yr old actress whom you can disguise as a frumpy social outcast? Cyrus has cartoonish features and the good news is Meg is minor enough a role which Cyrus can handle. Besides, no matter how bad we want to, Mila Kunis cannot convincingly play a live action Meg, she's just too hot.
Chris Griffin/Jonah Hill-Hill is in his mid 20s but I think he could pull of the role of Chris. It’s not one with a whole lot of depth anyway so it won’t be a challenge.
Stewie Griffin/E-Trade Baby+Seth MacFarlane’s voice- When you get to Stewie and Brian, it comes to a point where the live action thing kind of starts looking pathetic and you need to try to pick the best possible pieces to fill these roles, after all Stewie and Brian are two of the show’s biggest anchors. Still, it’s not impossible to make it work. Stewie’s character allows for me to just think “fug it” and let Seth do his thing, because Stewie’s a special case here. Brian’s voice is almost easily imitable since it’s so plain so you can get an actor to do it, and as for the rest of the characters, they’re all pretty much human so their actors can use their own voices. Besides, the key to Stewie’s character is his voice, you could have all his other traits and do everything else about him perfect and get someone to play voice over that can’t provide Stewie’s charm. Only Seth has proven capable of that, so he gets to play it.
Brian Griffin/Adrian Brody+CGI- I don’t know how I would incorporate some of Brody’s facial features into a CGI dog’s face but Brian needs to be personalized. I didn’t want to just say “well, Seth MacFarlane should be the voice for Brian” because I’ve got Stewie playing it already and to have MacFarlane voicing 2 characters would suck, he’d practically be talking to himself for 1/3rd of the movie. Brody can capture that dry humor role that Brian provides and he’s articulate in his delivery as an actor.
Glenn Quagmire/Jason Mewes- Let Mewes play to his full on obscene potential and that would kick this movie into R-Rated territory, but it could also make it more memorable. I picked Mewes because he would be able to pull off a believable adaptation of Quagmire. It’s definitely going to be a little different, but as opposed to doing what? Creating a live action forgery of the cartoon would not be a good strategy in my opinion.
Cleveland Brown/Craig Robinson- I just got a feeling Robinson is a perfect fit for the role. Choosing a prominent black comedian such as Martin Lawrence would be a little too straightforward for Cleveland. Robinson has the versatility to play the soft-spoken easy-to-get-along-with role Cleveland represents.
Joe Swanson/Terry Schappert- I don’t know why, but if I had to picture Joe in real life it would be this guy. He’s not really an experienced actor, but Schappert wouldn’t need to act, he is the kind of kick ass warrior (he’s a green beret) Joe Swanson would be, and in an intense fight scene, he wouldn’t need a stunt double.
Other Characters:
Francis Griffin/Edmund Lyndeck
Tom Tucker/Steve Carrell
Diane Simmons/Jennifer Aniston
Tricia Takanawa/Bai Ling
Ollie Williams/Patrice O’Neal
Bonnie Swanson/Jennifer Tilly
Adam West/Adam West
Carter Pewterschmidt/Sam Elliott
Barbara Pewterschmidt/Alex Borstein
Jillian Russell/Anna Faris
Connie D’Amico/Amanda Seyfried
Carl/Zach Galifanakis
Angela/Tina Fey
Bruce/Justin Long
Giant Chicken/Jack Black
Fouad/John Turturro
Special Appearance by James Woods
Edited by Raging Bull, 02 August 2010 - 12:49 PM.
