Not Disney This Time

That's right, this post will have no Disney reference in it. Although it IS about The Scarlet Pimpernel, so you're not totally off the hook. I'm sorry, but I must take this time to talk about the most underrated British actor of all times. Anthony Andrews. I was thinking about this as I watched The Scarlet Pimpernel for the first time in a long time a couple days ago (as well as reread the book yesterday). He is absolutely brilliant! Brilliant, I tell you! I am only going to focus on his work in the Scarlet Pimpernel since that is the only movie he's in that I've seen in full.

So! Here we go. First off, he was absolutely MADE for the role of Sir Percival Blakeney Bart. of Richmond, England. The book describes Sir Percy as being "a year or two on the right side of thirty. Tall, above the average, even for an Englishman, broad-shouldered and massively built, he would have been called unusually good-looking, but for a certain lazy expression in his deep-set blue eyes, and that perpetual inane laugh which seemed to disfigure his strong, clearly-cut mouth." Mr. Andrews is almost a perfect replica of this description. Although, he has brown eyes and is almost unnaturally lean, but that hardly matters because of a number of other reasons that I am about to give. When he plays Sir Percy, he performs the foppish drawl in exactly the way as I imagined it while reading the book. He has it nailed! The stupid expression he always wears matches the "lazy eyes" description and "[disfigured] clean-cut mouth". Also, (I'm not sure if I'll be teased for this, but) I personally think that he is actually sort of "unusually good-looking" when he drops his facade of foppish Sir Percy and becomes the Scarlet Pimpernel.

You have to give Andrews credit for taking on the role of the elusive Scarlet Pimpernel because he has to play a couple different characters with completely different appearances, voices, accents, and personalities. In the book, Sir Percy is a fantastic actor. He fools everyone into thinking he is a complete idiot who only thinks about trivial things such as fashion and snuff. However, this is not so. He is actually very intelligent. It's because of his acting skills that no one, not even his wife, suspect him of being the Scarlet Pimpernel. So idiot Sir Percy is one role Anthony Andrews plays. In the movie, he also dawns three other identities whilst smuggling aristocrats out of Paris; a coffin carrier, an old hag, and a hunchback (I think that's what he's supposed to be. He hunches over... ??).

So back to the focus of Anthony Andrews, he gives each of his roles such different voices and behaviors that even though you KNOW it's him, it's still hard to tell. I actually remember I was watching it in the car once while my mom was driving. She couldn't see it, but she could hear it. She was listening to Sir Percy disguised as the coffin carrier talking and (even though she had seen it) asked who was talking. When I told her it was Percy, she laughed, amazed at how different he sounded.

The mannerisms for all his characters are quite good. The coffin carrier always has this sort of "my top lip is out of place and I have too much neck-fat" look, (if that makes any sense) and constantly smacks his lips. The old hag plays with her tongue a lot and squints one eye as if she were disfigured. The hunchback always has a monkey-like face as if all that goes through his brain is "duuuuuhhhhhhh". Each voice is also distinctly different.

SIR PERCY



THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL
(The Scarlet Pimpernel and Sir Percy are the same, but he just sort of looks different when he acts serious)



COFFIN CARRIER



OLD HAG



HUNCHBACK


A couple more praises and that will be the end of this post. I love watching him while he's on the sidelines because he is such a good reactor. Just the faces and movements he gives while other characters are in the spotlight are perfect.

The last thing I have to say about Anthony Andrews's acting skills is his ability to stay in character no matter what happens. I imagine he had the least amount of bloopers out of all the actors. There are two instances I notice in the movie where he could have laughed or something, but he ignored whatever was happening/had happened and continued with his lines. Once, when Percy tells his league (after they find out King Louis XVI has been executed) that they are going to Paris, he gets up off the banister he was sitting on, but his coat tail gets caught and he struggles with it for a moment. However, he does a good job of covering it up and making it look natural, he doesn't even look at it. The second time is when Percy and Armand are talking about Marguerite in the garden. Right before Percy says "I shall love her until the day I die" a bug flies into his eye. He merely blinks it away without even coming close to breaking character and proceeds with his lines. Also, just in general, his characters are just ridiculous, especially Sir Percy, and he never even looks like he wants to laugh (while some of the others do at some points).

To sum it up, Anthony Andrews is amazing and I love the Scarlet Pimpernel! :D