I’m starting with my take on the characters, as for P&P. All the characters of Mansfield Park itself should be able to swing between a somewhat more stylized, off-kilter performance for reasons that will become obvious in the next post, and a more naturalistic performance for the actual events of the story.

The various houses: Mansfield Park itself needs to be very staid and traditional, although we see more frumpy backrooms (like the one Fanny claims as her sitting room) than we do at say, Pemberley or Rosings. It has to have absolutely gorgeous, but very natural, informal grounds for Fanny to wander in. The Grants’ parsonage is comfy and cozy, with room for a harp by one of the parlour windows and fruit trees outside. Sotherton, the Rushworth residence, is IIRC a grander and more old-fashioned house with a walled-in, gated mini-forest, and a family chapel that might go back to medieval times. The Prices’ home in Portsmouth is scruffy and crowded. This version should have somewhat more stylized visuals than the normal Austen adaptation; imagine Emma 2020 cranked up to eleven.

-Fanny Price: The book describes her as petite, fragile, and fair (in this context, probably light skinned and light-haired) with dark, gentle eyes, and the shape of face that can make a Regency pixy cut (see this webpage, under ala Titus) look good. She’s a very shy, earnest person who likes books, astronomy, trees, animals and the natural world. Unlike Elinor Dashwood and Anne Elliot who are quietly snarky, judgmental, and superior about other people’s sins and stupidities, or Elizabeth Bennet, who is rather loudly all of those things at times, other people’s failings make Fanny feel bewildered and uneasy. I think we’re supposed to see her as a more downtrodden but also more intellectual version of Catherine Morland: a cute little sponge soaking up the surrounding events in a perpetual state of shock and awe, sometimes overreacting to events in amusing ways but with very sound instincts about what’s actually going on. The role requires a cute, sincere next door type with a highly expressive face (preferably titus haircut friendly, see above), and a quiet, pleasant voice with extremely clear enunciation.

-Sir Thomas: as you may have gathered, I don’t have a lot of patience with the simplistically evil portrayal of him in the 1999 film version, and even if I did, I don’t think I could do it more effectively than that film. The book portrays him as Mr. Darcy+the wrong marriage+20ish years: an imposing, unapproachable man who seems to love his wife, and was given good principles but left to follow them in arrogance and conceit. His estate’s name and his dynamic with his niece appear to echo the abolitionist-leaning judge Lord Mansfield, and for this reason (and because of the somewhat flippant approach to adapting this novel’s events which will be outlined in the next post) I feel comfortable in making passing references to him freeing the slaves on the Antigua property while he’s over there, and otherwise letting that aspect of the story drop.

–The perfect actor for the role would have been Sir Christopher Lee at around the time the 1983 miniseries was made; he was roughly age appropriate (60 or a hair under); and some of his good guy roles (Hound of the Baskervilles, Horror Express, Nothing But the Night) had that blend of outer dourness and pomposity and inner good intentions, combined with the natural intimidation factor of his great height and deep voice. Sir Thomas doesn’t mean to frighten Fanny and intimidate his children, but he can’t help doing so, and Sir Christopher’s physical presence would have been perfect for that. I’ve also suggested Lloyd Owen (Elendil, Rings of Power) for the role elsewhere, and I stand by that.

-The three Ward sisters (Lady Bertram, Mrs. Norris, and Mrs. Price): this is a triple role for a single actress, riffing on 1999’s idea of Lady Bertram and Mrs. Price as a dual role. The first two are in the vein of the 2007 version: a Lady Bertram who’s not unperceptive, just both laissez-faire and lazy; a Mrs. Norris who’s sly, genteel and insinuating rather than a screecher. The third is just a more slatternly and harassed version of Lady Bertram. Right now, I’m favoring Rosamund Pike, who’s proven her ability to be the Supporting Big Name To Secure Financing in Amazon’s Wheel of Time.

-The Bertram children: as grownups, they are all described as tall and fair, with Edmund so drop-dead good-looking that even Mary Crawford’s jaded London friends apparently notice.

–The best approximation of the personality Austen wants us to see Edmund as having is possibly Will Fletcher in Rings of Power as Findarato, alias Finrod, alias Felagund, alias Nom: a kind and friendly person but not necessarily a giver of helpful advice. Unfortunately, the actor is a trifle on the short side. People give Edmund flak because he’s always trying to talk his love interests around to his point of view, but to be honest he does that to his brother and his sisters and occasionally his aunt and parents as well(1); it’s not sexist and I don’t think it’s meant to seem preachy; he just believes that people, including him, are ruled by their reason, when in fact he’s in a novel that’s largely about people’s ability to rationalize their own desires. This is the comedy of Edmund: he thinks he and the people around him are rational beings when actually they largely aren’t; and there’s a lot of scenes where you can either play him as pompously serious or comically dorky. I vote for the latter.

–Like Finrod, what’s important about him is that he sees people as people first and foremost; I think Tom, for instance, primarily thinks of Mary as a hot bimbo from London, and while Edmund has certainly noticed that she’s a hot woman from London, he also sees her as someone he can have intelligent debates about his vocation with. Rushworth thinks of Maria as a trophy wife; Edmund thinks of Maria as someone he needs to have honest debates about whether it’s okay for her, as Rushworth’s fiancee, to play an unwed mother hugging on men she is not engaged to. Tom thinks of Fanny primarily as that dorky little girl who it’s fun to tease; Edmund thinks of her as a friend and confidante first, and doesn’t particularly treat her the same way he treats his sisters.

-I see Tom as a party animal and casual flirt who *doesn’t* want to actually make a hole in any women’s hearts just yet, he just wants them to be nice to him. Relative to Fanny, he has kind of a teasing but not unkind big-brother vibe; I don’t think he really treats her differently from his sisters.

-Of the sisters, there seems to be some implication that Maria is either better-looking or more charismatic than Julia. Maria is basically a more posh and sophisticated – and money minded – Lydia Bennet, and Julia is her more rebellious and slightly wiser Kitty Bennet.

-I don’t think you can actually improve on Hayley Atwell and Joseph Beattie’s take on the two main Crawford siblings in the 2007 version, but we’re going to do our darnedest. The book is pretty specific about their appearances: short, tan, dark-haired/eyed, vivacious. Mary is a very good looking woman, while Henry is more charismatic than handsome. I’ve proposed Robert Aramayo elsewhere as a Henry candidate, and I stand by that.

-the Grants: Mrs. Grant is a somewhat older, mellower, less cynical Crawford sibling; she should be cast to resemble the other two, although apparently she is less attractive than Mary. Mr. Grant is pompous, food-obsessed, and maybe a shade overbearing to his wife, although our main source on him not being nice to his wife is Mary, whose only real virtue is her loyalty to her siblings at the expense of everything else, and who would be bound to take Mrs. Grant’s side whether her sister needed it or not. Grant also comes out with an umbrella to help out Fanny when she’s stuck in a rain shower near his house, so it’s not like he’s all bad.

-James Rushworth should be a tall, rich, comically dumb mama’s boy, with a mother who represents a sort of mid-point between Mrs. Bennet and Lady Catherine. He should probably be at least mildly pitiable, to add some sting to the idea of Maria cuckolding him, but his mother can be as repugnant as one likes. I imagine Julia’s beau Mr. Yates as a precursor to all those ditzy men of fashion in Georgette Heyer novels who say “m’self” and “m’father”. He’s kind of self-centered and kind of a lot obsessed with theater, but he seems to find the mental energy to be gallant to Julia, so, not all bad? I think she takes the lead in the elopement.

-Lt. Price and his offspring: 2007 offers a great take on Fanny’s favorite brother William Price, and should be the role model here. Her other siblings might best be described as a whole family of Kevin MacAllisters, where two of them are female. Susan Price should be particularly Kevin-ish; a female Kevin who on meeting her older, posher sister Fanny decides that’s who she wants to be when she grows up, and changes direction accordingly. Papa Price was a lieutenant of marines and his harsh language and lack of education reflects the marines’ “go in and break things” ethos and their lower social standing relative to the Naval officer class. He must have been drop-dead good-looking to draw one of the fabulous Miss Wards, and he probably still is, in a seedy way. In 1983, Sir Sean Connery would have been a good fit for the part but even farther beyond the reach of the BBC miniseries’s budget than Sir Christopher Lee was at the time. He should seem crass, and lazy, but not a creep. Fanny’s reaction to her birth family’s loudness and bounciness should be played as kind of tragicomic, not an accurate judgment on how awful they are.

(1) It is true that he does it more frequently to Mary and Fanny, but he also interacts more with them than he does pretty much anyone else in the book, so…