Orlando Jones cast as Mr. Nancy.
A.K.A. Anansi the West African trickster spider god. So perfect!
shareThe casting of this just keeps getting better and better!
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MovieChat Forums > American Gods (2017) Discussion > Orlando Jones cast as Mr. Nancy.
He will be perfect.
Geek Girlπ
Great actor,but kind young to play Anansi...He would be perfect instead as his son Spider.Morgan Freeman should be Anansi,but i think that the channel would not have to much money to spend on him and the cg that will be in the show.
shareAlong with Czernobog this is my least favorite casting choice so far. Orlando Jones is a capable actor but absolutely not the way I imagined Mr. Nancy.
Scatman Crothers will forever be Mr. Nancy in my mind.
He would be good, except for the small hurdle of him being dead.
Geek Girlπ
I agree about Nancy, he's much older looking in my mind's eye and like you I 'saw' Scatman Crothers in the character. However, as Ranguvar mentioned, he's a bit too dead. Maybe Jones'll act and be made up to look a few years older than he really is (there's also an Anansi Boys project in the works so if Jones is to reprise the role there he'll definitely need to 'be' older; he has two fully-adult sons in that).
Absolutely disagree about Czernobog: I think Peter Stormare is not just a perfect choice for the character, he's the perfect choice.
How young do you guys think Orlando Jones is? He's nearly 50 you know. He could easily have adult sons.
shareTechnically, ok. But Mr Nancy is way, way older than 48.
shareWho should play him? A vampire?
share...He's a GOD. They can look any age they please.
Geek Girlπ
What can I tell you? Mr Nancy is a whimsical, unreliable trickster with a propensity to want to look way older than 48. ξ
It's an opinion, but on looks alone I would say Orlando Jones would be better suited playing one or both of Nancy's sons, Spider and Fat Charlie.
For Czernobog I imagined someone who is ancient, grandfatherly, and incredibly frail(after all he can barely hold his hammer)and I just don't associate Peter Stormare with any of those things. Christopher Plummer is closest to how I imagine Czernobog.
shareI imagined Czernobog as pudgy and middle-aged looking, out of shape but never frail or grandfatherly. Must have missed part of the description but I've read the books a couple times and listened to the audio. I thought the actor was not quite what I imagined but not far off, either.
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"No! He is imprinted on you like a gay duckling. If you don't wean him off you slowly, he'll die."
"The man in the dusty bathrobe was short, with iron-gray hair and craggy features. He wore gray pinstripe pants, shiny from age, and slippers. He held an unfiltered cigarette with square tipped fingers, sucking the tip while keeping it cupped in his fist - like a convict, thought Shadow, or a soldier."
So yeah Stormare doesn't really fit that description, especially not the short part. I still think he's got the right creepy feel to nail the character and can also pull off Czernobog in other aspects:
"Shadow saw a gray-haired old East-European immigrant, with a shabby raincoat and one iron-colored tooth, true. But he also saw a squat black thing, darker than the darkness that surrounded them, its eyes two burning coals; and he also saw a prince with long flowing black hair, and long black moustaches, blood on his hands and his face, riding, naked but for a bear-skin over his shoulder, on a creature half-man, half-beast, his face and torso blue-tattooed with swirls and spirals."
I always imagined Michael Constantine as Czernobog whenever I read it. He plays the dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I imagine an old black due of the same style for Mr. Nancy
shareI feel like when the only better choices people can come up with are either dead (Crothers) or way too big for TV (Freeman), they're doing alright.
shareI always saw Genecarlo Esposito in the role. I still like the casting so far on this show (it's not perfect of course), the one one I am not feeling at all is McShane as Wednesday to be honest.
As for Czernablog I always pictured the guy who played Boris the Blade.
Esposito is a fantastic actor, but much too light-skinned/mixed to portray an African,specifically Ghanaian god.
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Why are Low-key and Mr. World played by two different actors?
Oderint Dum Metuant
Two reasons: To keep the surprise about them both being Loki(who in myth *is* a shapeshifter, so it makes sense) from people unfamiliar with the book, and two, because when you get the chance to cast Crispin Glover, you jump at it.
Geek Girlπ
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Excuse me? What a stupid thing to say. African people (just like African-Americans) come in all different colors,shapes,and sizes. I've liked Esposito for years, and he's always been a great actor, so he would have been equally perfect for that role---he would have brought the right amount of edgy presence, intelligence and menace, for starters. Plus, he's black, so who cares whether he's light-skinned or not? Hell,there are white, Asian, and Indian folks in Africa too,you know. All Africans aren't extremely dark-skinned,you know (and neither are African Americans,for that matter---I know that for a fact, being black myself and having grown up in different black communities. ) This is the 21st century---it's sickening that some people are still hung up on this stupid "light-skin--dark skin" thing. Especially some black folks (even though it was white people that started that bull**** during slavery.)
shareI was hoping for Sidney Poitier, but the show is obviously going for a different tone altogether than the book (hence the Johnny Cash-esque look of Wednesday instead of a grizzled whitebeard), so I'm willing to go with it. This guy's a really good actor, and that's the most important thing.
*Formerly Nothin_but_the_Rain*
Reg E. Cathey is exactly how I pictured Anansi while reading the novel. I really wished they would cast him but it seems like young faces are a trend among the cast and probably for a good reason. I would have never pictured Mr Ibis and Mr Jacquel to be this young.
shareI had to look him up, I'm not familiar with the name. Yes, I could see that working very well.
http://digitalspyuk.cdnds.net/14/19/768x943/gallery_ustv-reg-e-cathey.jpg
He also has a deep and strong voice and imho, is a great actor. He could be the perfect fit.
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