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Which are your favourite actors in the main roles of the various Emma productions ?

posted 4 years ago by Quasimodo (16388)
5 replies | jump to latest

I have seen these versions:

1996a film - Kate Beckinsale
1996b film - Gwyneth Paltrow
2009 TV mini-series - Romola Garai
2020 film - Anya Taylor-Joy

Emma - Kate Beckinsale 1996a
Mr Knightley - Johnny Lee Miller 2009
Harriet Smith - Mia Goth 2020
Mr Woodhouse - Bernard Hepton 1996a
Mr Elton - Alan Cumming 1996b
Miss Bates - Sophie Thompson 1996b
Mr Weston - Robert Bathurst 2009
Mrs Weston - Jodhi May 2009
Jane Fairfax - Olivia Williams 1996a
Frank Churchill - Rupert Evans 2009

[–] Who (5146) 4 years ago

I thought everyone in the 1996b film was pitch perfect (and I am not a big fan of Paltrow but this was an exceptional performance), with the exception of:

Harriet Smith: Mia Goth 2020. Toni Collette is a brilliant actress and pulled it off. Mia looked closer to Miss Smith the younger, socially clumsy, naive country girl.

[–] Quasimodo (16388) 4 years ago

Gwyneth Paltrow was very good as Emma.

My main reason for preferring Kate Beckinsale's Emma was that she seemed more of the bigger fish in a little pond. A girl whose circumstances led her to unconsciously believe she was much cleverer than she was. She was complacent and naive but innocent at the same time and so was quite a sympathetic and endearing character.

Gwyneth's Emma by contrast seemed to me to be too knowing and worldly. There was also I thought a smugness and conceit to her Emma that was absent in Kate's.

And yes Toni Collette is a very good actress but she was just physically all wrong for Harriet. Too large a girl in every way. Mia Goth was more petite and vulnerable. Such a delightfully giddy performance too. She was the highlight of the 2020 film for me.

[–] Who (5146) 4 years ago

Agree. Just checked back at the Beckinsale oneand have to say Samantha Morton was also very good as Harriet.

[–] Who (5146) 4 years ago

Isn’t there another Emma production not listed above? I keep reading about one with Doran Godwin from the early 1970s. Also, Clueless (1995)

[–] whoanelly (1586) 4 years ago

I love the 1972 production with Doran Godwin!

My faves:

Emma - Doran Godwin, BBC 1972
George Knightley - Johnny Lee Miller, BBC 2009
Harriet - Samantha Morton, 1996 Meridian Television
Mrs. Weston - Samantha Bond, 1996 Meridian Television
Mr. Weston - Robert Bathurst, BBC 2009
Mr. Woodhouse - Donald Eccles, 1972 BBC
John Knightley - Guy Henry, 1996 Meridian Television
Isabella Knightley- Poppy Miller, BBC 2009
Mr. Elton - Dominic Rowan, 1996 Meridian Television
Mrs. Elton - Juliet Stevenson, 1996 Miramax
Miss Bates - Tamzin Grieg, BBC 2009
Frank Churchill - Raymond Coulthard, 1996 Meridian Television
Jane Fairfax - Olivia Williams, 1996 Meridian Television