Most "Unexpected"

So I’m reading “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy" for the first time now, and I’ve never seen the old TV show or the more recent movie, or even played the computer game. So I’m reading along, being amused, as I should be, and I had a thought. Really, it was less of a thought, and more of a mental occurrence leading up to a thought. Sometimes when I’m reading I try to imagine what actor would best play certain roles. I Just finished reading Peter Straub’s “Shadowland" and really thought one of the characters would be played quite well by Morgan Freeman. (Granted, I could say that about many characters in books I’ve read, because he’s just that good, but there you have it. At least I wasn’t mentally reading the book in his voice. You know it’s happened to you. Or maybe it’s just me. Anyway!)

So this doesn’t happen to me with all characters in a book. Just certain ones. The ones that stand out for me. It’s not always the main character (in fact, it frequently isn’t.) But sometimes I’ll read along and suddenly it’ll hit me like, “Hey! This character needs to be so-&-so!" And just like that, the rest of the story puts that person in that role for me. (I have a point, I really do.)

So here I am today, reading myself silly (literally, at times) when it hits me. “Hey! Arthur Dent really needs to be…" and then I blanked on the name. I knew exactly who I was thinking about. I could picture the face. The accent. The mannerisms. The name just kept escaping me, as names frequently do. Then it hit me! Again! I knew who it was, and he was perfect! Now let’s go back to where I said I had never seen the TV shows, movie, etc. I remembered they had made a flick back in 2005 or so, and I suddenly wondered who actually had played the role of Arthur Dent. I love you, YouTube. You’re full of crap, but you’ve got some true gems at times. Just like some fast food joints. But I digress.

I checked out a trailer for the movie. You can only imagine my complete and utter shock to find that the man cast as Arthur Dent was none other than Martin Freeman, the actor who plays Bilbo Baggins in the Hobbit movies. The same who was in “Sherlock" as Dr. Watson. The very same— well you get my point. Or maybe you don’t, but here it is. As I was reading the book it occurred to me that Martin-flippin’-Freeman would have been perfect for that role! I just about spat out my tea when I saw that trailer, and Martin-flippin’-Freeman as Arthur-flippin’-Dent! In my head, within the first few chapters of this story I had basically cast the starring role for the movie without realizing it.

Now I know I could’ve just summed up this whole story by just saying, “Imagine my surprise when I realized that, while reading ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,’ I accidentally cast Martin Freeman (who actually played Arthur Dent in the movie) as Arthur Dent in my mind, without having ever seen the movie." But then what fun would that have been? ;)

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

via Tumblr http://meshboats.tumblr.com/post/54558956904