As I wrote in the article about Anne Hathaway being confirmed as Fantine - click here for a refresher - I love Les Miserables in a very serious, very personal way. In the most corny way. Like, errrm, going to Paris and wanting to walk where Victor Hugo walked.
So Page Six had a report today on the four shortlisted actresses up for the part of Eponine in Tom Hooper’s adaptation with Hugh Jackman in the lead as Jean Valjean. They are:
Taylor Swift, Lea Michele, Scarlett Johansson, Evan Rachel Wood
What? No. Please. Any one of them but Taylor Swift.
Here’s my ranking of preference:
Lea Michele
And...
That’s it.
Maybe ERW a very, very distant second. But, and maybe we’re fighting here, but Lea Michele, she actually might be perfect. Her voice, yes, but also because, well, she’s annoying. Inoffensively annoying. Lea Michele isn’t, say, Gwyneth Paltrow for a lot of you. She grates, but she doesn’t inspire the kind of mouth-foaming hate I prefer to reserve for someone, say, like Paris Hilton.
Can’t you picture Lea Michele like a jealous stepsister? Like...it’s fun to hate her. And in the same way, it’s fun to hate Eponine because you know she’s not evil to the core. Lea Michele is harmless like that. And there can be a sweetness to her too which, hilariously, might work well with her redemption. Imagine Lea Michele? If they keep her ending the way it is in the musical too, imagine the dramatic kiss and tumble. Right?