"Colton Ryan is a surprising choice for Connor for me. I know he understudied the role, but his look and persona are much closer to the homecoming king than the angry outcast."
Agreed. On the one hand, I don't imagine it will be that difficult to sort of goth him up and make him look more like an outcast than a really clean-cut, good looking guy, but it does strike me as a surprising choice. When I saw Colton on stage in ALICE BY HEART, it occurred to me that he might end up a movie or TV star, but I didn't think it would be in a role like Connor in DEH.
P.S. I wonder if they considered casting Mike Faist to repeat his stage role of Connor? He, of course, is playing Riff in the new WEST SIDE STORY movie, so DEH would have been a nice follow up. And also, as per someone else's post, most people would probably say that Mike (who is 28) looks closer to Ben Platt's age (26) than Colton does, yet he might still be believable as a teenager on screen. Clearly, Steven Spielberg thought so :-) |
