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15 Iconic Characters Who Look Nothing Like the Source Material

Sometimes, what you know is very different from what the author imagined.

15 Iconic Characters Who Look Nothing Like the Source Material

April 10, 2021

Yeah, we get it. We know the spiel. Books and films are different media, something is always lost in translation, gouging a performer’s eye out will get you sued, yada yada. Oh well, since the people who pour countless hours of hard work and dedication into making TV and movies obviously don't care, here we are to show you what characters should look like, dammit.

15

Forrest Gump

FORREST GUMP is a pothead John Goodman lookalike. Winston Groom envisioned Gump as a 6-foot-6, 240 pound dude played by John Goodman. Book Forrest also smokes lots of weed, and is more than a bit of a jerk. — More: 6 Famous Characters Who Were Way Different In The Book

14

DRACULA is quite hairy (and has Pointy ears). Bram Stoker describes the count as having massive eyebrows, bushy hair, and a heavy mustache. Also, his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed. — Source: Dracula, by Bram Stoker (via BBC)

13

IAN MALCOLM is a balding guy. A full head of hair was Jeff Goldblum's contribution. Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park describes Malcolm asa tall, thin, balding man. — Source: Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton (via Google Books)

12

JAMES BOND has a scar on his face. lan Fleming's novels describe 007 as rocking a faintly piratical vertical scar on his right cheek. He's also mentioned several times to look like singer and actor Hoagy Carmichael. — Source: Fleming’s Bond

11

FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER has flowing locks. In Mary Shelley's novel, the monster has black, flowing hair, with a yellow complexion. — Source: University of Michigan

10

JACK REACHER is a humongous dude. Reacher stands 6-foot-5-inch tall, weighs about 250 pounds, and sports a barrel chest and huge hands in Lee Child's book series - truly a shoe-in for 5-foot-7 Tom Cruise. — Source: London Evening Standard

9

SEVERUS SNAPE is in his 30s. Snape is two years shy of 40 when he kicks it in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - almost 20 years younger than Alan Rickman was in the first Harry Potter movie. — Source: Radio Times

8

WENDY TORRANCE is a blonde cheerleader type. As written by Stephen King, Wendy begins The Shining as a bubbly blonde. Her cheerful personality is then progressively crushed by the horrifying events in the Overlook Hotel. — Source: Screen Rant

7

WILLY WONKA rocks a goatee. The literary Wonka is a small man with a black goatee. Gene Wilder's bright eyes are pretty much the only thing he has in common with Roald Dahl's character. — Source: The Atlantic

6

Moana

MAUI is a slim beach boy. The Polynesian demigod is always depicted as very strong, but never nearly as bulky as in Moana. In art, Maui tends to be a lean teen. — Source: The New York Times

5

Vizzini

VIZZINI looks like Quasimodo. In William Goldman's The Princess Bride, the wily Sicilian is a hunchback with legs of different length. He has taken to cultivating his mind to make up for his misshapen body. — Source: LitCharts

4

WOLVERINE is way shorter than Hugh Jackman. At 6-foot-2, Jackman is nearly a foot taller than the 5-foot-3, stocky killing machine that Logan is in Marvel's comics. — Source: Screen Rant

3

NORMAN BATES is fat, bespectacled dude. In Robert Bloch's Psycho, Bates is an overweight middle-aged man with thick glasses. The movie made him younger and better looking because, according to scriptwriter Joseph Stefano, that'd make him more sympathetic. — Source: The Making of Psycho

2

CTHULHU has more eyes than you think. Everyone assumes that H. P. Lovecraft's octopus-dragon abomination is at least normal enough to have two eyes, but a sketch by the man himself tells a different story. — Source: Open Culture

1

TYRION LANNISTER does kinda look like an imp. In George R. R. Martin's books, Tyrion isn't just short, but also grotesquely ugly, with stunted legs, mismatched eyes, and a huge head with nearly white hair (and then he loses his nose in a battle, to cap it all). — Source: Business Insider

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