What?

September 28, 2019 Longrider Fiction, General News, misanthropy, Political 9

Kenn Stott thinks Rebus (a fictional character, mind) would have voted for Scottish independence.

Earlier this week, Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, revealed that Rankin told her Rebus would have voted no in the independence referendum five years ago.

However, Ken Stott, the Scottish star of ITV’s Rebus adaption, begs to differ. In a letter to the Scotsman newspaper, he claimed Rebus’ ancestral roots instead made him a natural yes voter.

“Let’s look briefly at just one aspect: [Rankin’s] creation was the grandson of a Polish immigrant, therefore I suspect Rebus would be well aware of the humiliation and degradation suffered by so many immigrants at the hands of the Home Office then and now. This may, in turn, lead him to ‘think carefully’ before voting and to consider his grandfather might have fared in the ‘hostile environment’ of a pre/post Brexit UK,” his letter said.

The actor, who played the dwarf Balin in The Hobbit film trilogy, even accused Rankin of “projecting himself on to a much-loved character”.

What? Rankin created the character. I think I’ll take his view on the matter rather than that of the actor who portrayed him – even though it was an excellent portrayal. Should I be fortunate enough (okay, long shot, but I can dream, can’t I?) to see any of my characters on the screen, I wouldn’t expect the actors saying my words to tell me what is in the characters’ minds, for that is my job. You know, the person who actually created them.

Projecting himself onto a much-loved character!?! Bloody hell! It is his fucking character, Ken.

9 Comments

  1. It is his fucking character, Ken.

    Speaking as one not unacquainted with matters theatrical, I think Stott might well take issue with this: there is a common view that when an actor ‘builds’ the character as seen by the public (to use Stanislavski’s phrase), he or she henceforth assumes unassailable moral rights over that persona.

    Be warned, should Hollywood come calling, that the author is viewed merely as the humble supplier of raw materials to the superior artist; doubtless Stott would consider his interpretation and understanding of Balin far superior to that of Tolkien.

    (It’s even more preposterous when the characters are real people; a friend of a friend, depicted in a TV series based on a memoir, found himself in the surreal position of being firmly contradicted about his own opinions by the actor playing his younger self.)

  2. Never mind Rebus, Stott, or Stanislavsky, I would have voted for Scottish independence as would, I believe, the majority of people like me, living in England, if given the opportunity. If there is a second referendum, let everyone have a vote, and give Jimmy Krankie’s evil twin the result she deserves.

    • There is of course the continuation of that logic, in that if Scotland had voted for independence, then they would NOT have been part of the EU referendum that came later, and the “Leave” vote would have been somewhat larger than it otherwise was.

  3. Yes, the Scottish Nats missed a trick by not insisting that the English got to vote on their independence, they would have walked it.

    Personally I think it is a bit silly to speculate on what a fictional character would think about something.

  4. It always strikes me as amusing that those whose professional life is immersed in the unreality of make-believe seek to tell us that their take on reality is superior to our own. Unless, of course, that’s just more unreality.

  5. Rebus is actually a woman of color.
    Asbergers as well.
    You will see that I am right when next it appears on television.
    But the villains will be the same old same old.
    Oh, and she is tee-total and non smoker.

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