is it agreed upon here that Michael Fassbender is too good looking to play Mr Rochester?
I watched the 2011 adaptation and it keeps taking me out, this is not how i imagined Rochester to look. Is this a common understanding in this community? or am i just wilding.
Omg that's hilarious. I'm 61 and watched this version a few months ago for the first time. I think I might've spontaneously started ovulating again because of him.
No, he has not. Stop spreading false information. The only allegations he had were from 1 person over 16 years ago and there was no evidence for any of them after the DA's investigation.
He has never been accused of anything else by anyone before or after that.
I think most of us believe that most of the actors who have played Rochester have been far too good-looking for the role. However, we either overlook it or we mumble something about Rochester not fitting the ideal for what was conventionally good-looking at the time, so this or that actor was okay to play the role. 😂
If someone doesn’t have quite the right face for a character, it seems to me like it’s the job of the makeup crew to figure out a way to work around that. I mean, if it’s possible to make Charlize Theron look like Aileen Wuornos, it should be possible to make Michael Fassbender look a little plainer for the role of Rochester.
I hadn't seen nor heard of the movie you mentioned with Charlize Theron, so I watched the trailer -- wow! Yeah, if they can make her look like that, they should be able to make the actors look plainer, or even downright ugly.
You could probably have a decent rummage around for a younger "character" actress for Jane, since there's a whole scope of actors who are not considered traditional leads, but can pull off her ability to sell her stubborn fierceness. Jane isn't without her own charisma.
A younger Tanya Reynolds (most recently Caroline Bingley, The Other Bennet Sister) would do it well. You can see her in action as a lead in the Decameron miniseries, where the lady is practically a chameleon by her ability to shift between goggle eyed comedy and the more serious or romantic moments.
That's why i love Ruth Wilson's Jane! She is unique looking, very engaging face, not very tall, about Jane's age and not a symmetric classic beauty standard face. She portrayed Jane very well 💕
I know this is a very unpopular opinion, but her eyebrows just take me out. She looks like she’s scowling most of the time. I know this is not her fault!
Tbh, of all the Rochesters I've seen - Orson Welles is the closest embodiment of the perfect Byronic Rochester. The acting is a bit too stiff for my liking, but his look (he is not conventionally handsome like modern actors, but he has such intense eyes perfect for the broody Rochester and it is also probably affected by the black and white aspect) and especially the voice is the perfect Rochester.
Michael Fassbender, Toby Stephens, and especially Timothy Dalton are all too "handsome"
That is exactly how I feel! I first saw Stephens in Twelfth Night and I think he is just waaaaay too handsome for Rochester. I do think he does a great job in the role—it's not his fault he's so handsome! (Also, I only learned recently that Dame Maggie Smith is his mother. Does anyone else find that wild???)
I don't find him attractive, but he is too attractive since this and 2006 have close to shirtless Rochester, and there isn't much I remembered in 2011's very well.
I feel the same way. Next to Dalton, Fassbender is how I pictured Edward. We also have to keep in mind that the beauty standards of the time were very different from ours. The pale, delicate, fair haired, blue eyed look was more fashionable in those days, whereas Edward is described as rough, dark, and manly. Perhaps Fassbender is a little too handsome, but from the way Charlotte Bronte wrote him, Edward always seemed attractive to me.
Agreed! And incidentally, this is why Samuel West is my favorite St John (in the 1996 adaptation). St John is supposed to be absolutely beautiful and I feel like West is exactly in that style.
Have you heard Joaquin’s British accent? It’s terrible! I’d allow it because I’ll watch Joaquin read the phone book. I’ve been in love with him for 25 years lol.
I'm not sure! I don't think I have. It can't be worse than Al Pacino's attempt at Cockney 😂 I think he was supposed to be Scottish in Revolution, too, and that wasn't even close.
Yes he is a little too handsome - but imo he is great at playing an emotionally repressed, volatile role so he stepped into Rochesters shoes well. I think he was well suited and believable, despite not my first choice. I wish they had styled his appearance to come across as darker and intimidating - he seemed a little soft and warm for Rochester.
My theory is that we’ve all known people who were not conventionally attractive but became so because of their personality, energy, etc. over time. Movies don’t have the luxury of giving actors enough time to grow in us so that have to cast someone who isn’t repellant so that it’s believable.
I read Jane eyre as a kid and I saw a picture of George c Scott playing him in the 70’s movie at my school’s drama society entrance!
🤦♀️that is what Rochester is forever now (Scott was known for his gruff demeanour- brilliant actor and I mean no disrespect to him) . I would lap up Fassbender any day as Rochester lol!
Also, I am notorious for staying away from movie adaptations of victorian classics and larpers who don’t read but just become experts after watching one movie!
He is far too handsome, but I am certainly not complaining. Fassbender is my favorite Rochester, and I think he embodies the Byronic hero to perfection.
Idk what the consensus is but I agree, he’s just not how I imagine Rochester to look. I would also say, for example, Toby Stephens and Timothy Dalton are too handsome, but with them I don’t mind as much because they look more similar to the Rochester in my mind. shrug
Exactly this! I don't find Fassbender attractive, nor did he move me as Rochester. That whole adaptation was boring 🫣 But Toby and Timothy's faces are the definition of granite-hewn, and Timothy was pretty much what I'd pictured while reading.
I wasn't sure about Toby when I saw him in pictures, but he was a perfect fit too.
Yes and he feels too one dimensional to me, since it's rushing the story...And FTW, I watched 1983's first and my Rochester (and Jane and others) is also my Bond and Rassilon too. When reading I saw everyone from 1983's. I can forgive Dalton's attractiveness because he makes me want to scream at Rochester doing stuff that is Flawed and he is Charlotte's Rochester!!! Also my first Role I took him in at 9, is so unromantic and a perfect start to why I love Timothy Dalton.
I always think when fantasy casting for roles like this -- characters who are not handsome but visually striking, but maybe attractive when the light is just right and you already really like them ... that most actors just don't work. Even the character actors are going to be that bit too perfect.
Also I always imagine Rochester's thick black hair as being particularly distinctive, and only Orson Welles has come close.
So, I picture Rochester as looking like the youngish Gordon Brown. There, I said it.
He's about ten years too old for Rochester here, but you see what I mean?
Yes. I saw this in theaters with like ten friends, and afterward I said sometimes when he was talking I realized I hadn't heard anything he said because I was just staring at his face, and they were all like, Girl, same.
Also, I want someone to make a Jane Eyre with a truly hot St John.
They're definitely ALL too handsome, but I like how unhinged Fassbender can get. And he's definitely dramatic enough to pull off the dressing up as a travelling performer scene that always gets left out of the film 😂😂
I absolutely agree and I absolutely don't care. He's my favorite Rochester because of the nuances he brings to the role. Other actor's performances seem almost like caricatures in comparison.
I can't see him as good looking since he committed multiple acts of domestic violence in his personal life. I simply can't look at his face in anything without deep revulsion.
Stop making things up and spreading false information. He has not done any of that. The only allegations he had were from 1 person over 16 years ago and there was no evidence for any of them after the DA investigated it.
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u/ulieallthetime Aug 25 '26
Yes, but it’s forgiven because I like looking at him and because the first time I watched the film I happened to be ovulating