I think this has to do with seeing a character and thinking of an actor that reminds me of them versus having no real image of a character and then assigning them an actor. It also takes me a lot longer to get through a book than a comic (even a whole series), so book characters live in my head a lot longer.
So what ends up happening is this actor lives in my head as this character, and no matter what I do, that's always how I see them. And the more extreme the character, the worse the effect.
I bring this up now because I've been reading a book with a very extreme character and I cast her as Lizzy Caplan in my head, and it's ruining so many things for me. The book is "Like Being Killed" by Ellen Miller, and I guess it was a big deal in the late 90's. But it's about Illyana, this very smart, semi-antisocial, slightly damaged, Jewish 20-something, who gets a new roommate, Susannah (whom I saw as Alison Pill for some reason) and she's light and fun and crafty and delightful and kinda rocks Illyana's world.
Anywho, things go bad with Susie which causes Illyana to basically goes off on this drug-fueled, S&M spattered, willed self-destruction. It's all very smartly and beautifully written, which makes it all the more powerful and haunting. I had brought the book with me on a trip to Texas a couple of weeks ago, and because of massive flight delays, I ended up reading half of it in a day. So by the time I got home, Lizzy Caplan WAS Illyana to me, and I was right in the middle of Party Down and True Blood Season 1, both of which she was on. And it's crazy because, I swear, Lizzy Caplan's speech patterns (especially on Party Down), match this character's exactly. EXACTLY. So the whole time I'm watching her and in the back of my head I'm remembering all the terrible things I've read her go through.
Alison Pill as Susannah has so far been less terrifying, but I'm getting to a point in the book where things have changed, so I'm hoping she will be okay, or else Scott Pilgrim might be a little dampened.
There are times where I actively try to avoid this from happening, like with "Hater," which I'm very happy I didn't cast anyone in that book, both because I know the movie is coming, and also it was more disturbing than I had originally thought. I've got the sequel on order and am about to re-read it, so I really have to fight the urge now.
It's such a weird thing that goes on in my head.
