Purists may cringe, but it happens: When a book is turned into a movie, some scenes and characters are shrunk or eliminated entirely, while others are expanded are introduced wholesale.
Bookish has a nifty roundup of minor characters in books whose roles got bigger in movie/TV adaptations, including Lestat in Interview with the Vampire and Irene Adler in the Sherlock Holmes series.
Interestingly, several of them are female characters in movies which would otherwise have pretty much all-male casts.
Which of your favorite movie characters started out in small roles in books?
2 responses
The detective Parkis, in The End of the Affair. His role didn’t exactly get bigger in the movie, but Ian Hart made him human.
Apparently the white neighbor in “Twelve Years a Slave” has been turned into a Christian Abolitionist in the film (to be released Oct. 18th). The man was honest and helpful, and sent the letter which resulted in Northup’s freedom, but maybe that wasn’t dramatic enough. That’s why Hollywood always says “based on a true story.”
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