Live Action Casting: Cowboy Bebop (Part 1)

If you ask any true anime fan what their top ten series are, Cowboy Bebop is certain to be mentioned. Hell, I would be surprised if it wasn’t in the top three! The reasons for the love of this show are numerous; the animation is great, the characters are complex and intriguing, the stories are top notch, it seamlessly blends great action with humor… I could go on and on. Jonny Prophet and I are both fans of Cowboy Bebop and as such have discussed at length who should be cast in what roles should a live action movie ever be made. We didn’t agree on much. So to avoid the inevitable sissy slap-fight over the matter, I am posting Jonny’s picks as well as my own.

 First up is our protagonist Spike Spiegel, a former member of the Red Dragon Crime Syndicate and current bounty hunter. We need someone who is fit and can do action scenes, especially hand to hand combat and possibly martial arts. He also needs to be attractive and charismatic. In addition to that, he needs to be able to have some acting range with balancing a carefree attitude with trying to hide nightmarish memories of his mob days. This was a very tricky part to cast and in all honesty it would really come down to who has the best audition to us.

 My choice is Taylor Kitsch. He has shown a great deal of range from the brooding Tim Riggins on Friday Night Lights to the mysterious and reckless Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine to the intense Chon in Savages. We have seen his ability to pull off action and comedy in John Carter, despite its box office failings (it was a good movie, dammit!). Taylor Kitsch is my pick for Spike and I think he would be great for the part.

But that dastardly Jonny Prophet has a “difference of opinion.” He thinks that Aaron Johnson, who you may know as the title character from Kick-Ass, would be a better Spike Spiegel.

Johnson was also in Savages playing opposite Kitsch’s Chon as Ben. I will concede that Johnson could play Spike. He is a good actor, a decent looking guy, he can obviously balance comedy and action as we saw in Kick-Ass. In addition to that, I think Johnson could be made to look like Spike easier than Kitsch, partly because he has a more slender frame. Jonny also points out that Aaron Johnson has a background in dance, which would really help as Spike practices a form of martial arts (created by Bruce Lee) called Jeet Kune Do which focuses of fluidity in movement. 

I do, however, have one big problem with Aaron Johnson taking the part of Spike Spiegel… and it’s all Steven Jay Blum’s fault. You see, Blum did the English language version of Spike and gave him a deep voice. I don’t know what he sounded like in Japanese, but I completely associate Spike with that deep voice. Aaron Johnson has a somewhat nasally higher voice and as such I can’t see him as Spike, despite looking more the part than the deeper voiced Taylor Kitsch.  But like I said, this could only be settled by auditions.

(added on 3/11/13)

I am also going to throw Jack Huston into the Spike Spiegel casting pool. Those of you who watch Boardwalk Empire may know Jack Huston as Mr. Harrow, the ex-soldier who wears a face prosthesis. He is a fantastic actor and I think he could quite possibly capture what both Jonny and I are looking for in casting the lead for Cowboy Bebop. Again, it would come down to casting auditions.

Moving on...

Next up is Jet Black, an ex-cop with a cybernetic arm and Spike’s partner in bounty hunting. Jonny Prophet and I are in total agreement on our pick to play Jet… Ron Perlman.

We both love Ron Perlman and he was cool as hell when I met him a few years ago at a comic book convention. Perlman has made a career of playing tough characters, notably Hellboy and Clay Marrow on Sons of Anarchy. He seems to like taking roles in science fiction movies and we think he would be a natural fit for Jet Black.

And now for Faye Valentine, a beautiful young woman who after being severely injured in a space shuttle accident was cryogenically frozen. She is awakened in 2071 with amnesia and owing a large debt for her life-saving procedure. As a result she has turned to bounty hunting as part of the Bebop crew. We need an actress that can be tough, yet emotionally vulnerable. She has to be able to convey a level of pride, but an undercurrent of feeling out of place.

Jonny and I had a long discussion about the biggest problem with casting Faye… or shall I say two biggest? Ms. Valentine has quite a set, which is common with female characters in anime. The issue, though, is that in real life you can either hire an actress for the size of her breasts or for her acting skills… very rarely is both a packaged deal. (And before anyone says Angelina Jolie, I must bring up that Faye is supposed to be in her early twenties.) So for the part of Faye Valentine, Jonny and I went with acting. 

I chose Emmy Rossum as Faye Valentine. I absolutely love her on Shameless. She is an amazing actress, she is beautiful, a brunette and in her early twenties. Plus, she shares with Faye very soulful and expressive eyes. No, Ms. Rossum is not as stacked as Faye, but perhaps a push-up bra? Honestly, I wouldn’t care if they tried to make her look more ‘endowed’ or not. I think she would be perfect for the part. (Plus, she is not stranger to playing a live action anime character! Now let’s put that awful movie behind us.)

 

Jonny chose Ashley Greene whose biggest claim is her role in the Twilight franchise, which I have not seen any of. In fact, I have never seen Ashley Greene in anything. Jonny thinks she facially looks the part, which I can agree with. She’s pretty and a brunette, both pluses. I can only assume she can act. Again, the chest department is not nearly what Faye packs, but Hollywood can either work some magic or just ignore the matter altogether. I assume, as with the role of Spike, this would best be decided through auditions. 

That does it for now. Stay tuned for the second part of the Cowboy Bebop Live Action Casting...