One of the things that needs to be taken in consideration about who could play Norman Bates, you have to actually read the novel. In the novel, Norman wasn't a young man, he was in his 40s and a couple of times when Mother took over, especially when Marion was killed, he was drunk. And if you all know your history about the novel itself, Robert Bloch drew inspiration from Ed Gein, so it makes sense that he made Norman in his 40s. Now, I know a lot of people would disagree with it because people love the young, shy and "innocent" man that Hitchcock presented in his adaptation. But I think there should be a middle ground somewhere.
If I had to choose someone to play Norman, I would say Jim Carey would make a good Norman Bates. If you've seen "The Number 23", he portrays a dual role, one where he is a shy and nice guy, the other a dark and somewhat disturbed man. He could portray Norman in the middle ground between the original adaptation and the Norman Bates we are introduced to in the Bloch novel. He would have pulled off the "Norman", the personality who runs the motel, "Normal" the young innocent child personality and our favorite, "Norma" (aka "Mother").
TBH, if Gus Van Sant had actually did a different adaptation of the novel instead of a shot-for-shot remake of the original, I would have liked to see Olivia Hussey (who played Norma in "Psycho IV: The Beginning") play Norma again (for those who haven't read the novel, Norma is portrayed as a living and seperate person throughout most of the novel, much like Tyler Durden from "Fight Club". The first scene in the book actually has Mother walking into a room while Norman/Normal is reading a book. Another scene actually has Norman witnessing Mother attacking Arbogast with Norman's straight razor).
But this one's eating my popcorn!
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truetexian
11 years ago
Taking the concept of "Norman" from the novel, what do you think of Kevin Spacey in that role?
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