I ran a “Mug for a Mug” contest recently, asking who everyone thought would make the perfect doppelganger for the series’ characters. I had too many responses to do all of them at once, so I’m posting one grouping a day all this week. For post #5, it’s everyone’s favorite super spy, Kit Marlowe.
For the newbies, yes, we’re talking about THE Kit Marlowe, the Elizabethan author who was suspected of also being a spy for her majesty. He died young, supposedly in a bar fight, more likely in some shady spy-related affair that was quickly hushed up. But in Cassie’s universe, death is a malleable concept, and soon he was back, doing his old job for a new mistress, the feared leader of the vampire senate.
But while Kit might be a dangerous predator with secrets on almost everyone, he benefits by not looking like it. Cassie described him as attractive, with a mop of curly dark hair, a goatee and an earring. He also charmed her pretty effectively, because while she knew his job and something of his reputation, she found it hard to equate the stories with the laughing, joking man she met.
If Marlowe was to write a personal ad, it might read something like this:
SWV seeks discreet lady or gentleman for casual relationship. Me: 5’11, brown hair and eyes, fit and adventurous. Likes: good wine, good theatre, and good friends. Dislikes: bar brawls. You: dynamic, open-minded, and something of a night owl. Also lacking any and all curiosity about your significant other’s life and employment. In interested, call 555-mystery.
Here are the pics that received the most entries for “Best Marlowe”:
Nir Lavi is an Israeli model who pretty much has Marlowe down cold. He has the hair, the goatee, and the suspicious sideways glances the job practically requires. He’s also smiling/and or laughing in a lot of his pics online, which is good for his cover as a nice guy. He does have blue eyes instead of brown, but I guess we can forgive him that. :-)
Johnny Depp was another popular choice, possibly because he’s been rocking a sort of modernized Elizabethan look for years now. Maybe too many years, since Marlowe was only 29 when he took that shiv in the bar. But Depp undoubtedly has the ability to go from deadly serious to slapstick comedy and back again in the blink of an eye, which would come in handy when playing a mercurial figure like Marlowe.
I have to admit, I kind of anticipated the previous two. Johnny Depp because he’s the go-to guy for period pieces and Nir Lavi because a reader had used one of his pics for a previous contest, and everybody thought it was a good fit. I did not expect Jonathon Rhys-Myers, however, which was silly on my part because, hello, Tudors. And yes, he certainly has the wardrobe in these shots, and I’m sure he could do Angry-Marlowe pretty well. But, for me, the look doesn’t really match the books. I also get a more intense vibe from him than charming, but I admit to not seeing everything he’s ever done. For those of you with more info, is he the whole package?
Kit Harington from Game of Thrones was also suggested as a possible Marlowe-clone. And yes, I know, he’s young. But Marlowe was, too, when he died. Okay, not THAT young, but consider the following match-up between the only know portrait (maybe) of Marlowe, done when he was 20 or 21 at college, and this pic of Harington. Not so off, huh? Or maybe it is, and I’m crazy. But in another eight or nine years, Harington might look a lot more like Kit in the books, just as the real Kit would have changed over those years. Besides, there’s the name, people! The name!
And last but not least, Orlando Bloom! Now, personally, he is forever typecast in my Tolkien-loving brain as Legolas, but that’s not his fault. And let’s face it, the hair is right, the eye color is right, he has done a lot of historicals, and he’s British, so he’d get the accent right. Or closer than most, anyway. And he’s changed a little in looks, too, since his Legolas days, getting more character in his face…you know, I think he could work.
So that’s it, your fellow readers (and my) takes on the perfect Marlowe. Who’s yours?
