***Possible Spoiler Alert! Do not read any further if you do not want the book or the actor playing Pet spoiled for you. You have been warned.***
So, you know those people who just can’t wait til Christmas to find out what they’re getting? They hound and harass the gift-givers for hints and then, when it’s wrapped and under the tree, they shake it, smell it, feel it, and even pick the corner of the paper off to get a glimpse of what’s inside? Or better yet, did you ever have that annoying sibling who would find out what you were getting for Christmas and then tell you, rather than allow you to be surprised Christmas morning? Well, one such person has possibly blown the biggest secret of all for us ‘Hosters’ by not only learning said secret, but insisting on sharing it with those of us on the world wide web, as well. 🙁
Late last night Linda Ge with Up & Comers announced that a credible (yet anonymous) source put her on the trail of Emily Browning for the part of Pet in ‘The Host’. Brendon Connelly with Bleeding Cool posted early this morning that Linda had called him with her information and that, after discussing it with her, agreed that the news is most likely true.
Disappointment aside for the secret being spoiled (*sigh*), what are your thoughts on this casting choice? Pulling from our ‘Cast This: Pet’ post, this is what we know about the character and what hints we were given as to the actress in the role:
“…we know from the book that her voice is described as “high and trilling”. “It was a child’s hand, except for the long pink-and-white nails, filed into perfect, smooth curves. The skin was fair, with a strange silvery cast to it and, entirely incongruous, a scattering of golden freckles…The face in the mirror was roundish, too, not quite oval. Small. The skin on the face had the same silver undertone – silver like moonlight – as the hand did, with another handful of the golden freckles across the bridge of the nose. Wide gray eyes, the silver of the soul shimmering faintly behind the soft color, framed by tangled gold lashes. Pale pink lips, full and almost round, like a baby’s. Small, even white teeth behind them. A dimple in the chin. And everywhere, everywhere, waving hair that stood away from my face in a bright halo and fell below where the mirror showed…Like an exact translation from Flower to human [describing her face]…This body looked much younger than her true age, hovering on the verge of seventeen.” We know that Pet is small in stature, a face and body that causes those around her to want to help and protect her, and that her heart is described as fluttery more than once.
There have been some recent tweets with Raeden Greer (Lily) that have hinted towards the casting of Pet. Currently, this knowledge is being kept secret, so we are left to guess.
June 25th:
@RaedenGreer: “
@AmoTheHost:@RaedenGreer Raiden! you know who is the actress who plays the role of Pet?” Quite the burning question. I do have the answer”@AmoTheHost: “
@RaedenGreer for real? and can you tell us!?”@RaedenGreer: “
@AmoTheHost I’m not going to tell…but you’re gonna be blown away and more than pleased, I think.”@TheHostMovie: “I like that we don’t know who Pet is in
#TheHost film. Will be a nice surprise for fans if unknown until the film hits. -S@RaedenGreer”@RaedenGreer: “
@TheHostMovie True. I hope it stays secret until then, but who knows!”
There was also a hint that was removed from twitter about her being well known in recent years.
What really intrigues me is that Emily Browning has never come up in any of the fan castings for this part that I know of, on other sites as well as ours. Honestly, she never even crossed my mind as a possibility. As for her acting ability (since those of us who have read the book know how vital to the rest of the series this character/actress will HOPEFULLY be), I have always been a fan of hers and been impressed by her talent. I first saw her in ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ back in 2004 and then in ‘The Uninvited’ in 2009 (5 years later!). I started to watch her in ‘Sucker Punch’ which came out last year, but was unfortunately was interrupted and haven’t had another opportunity to finish it. I will say that she’s always given off this kind of older-than-her-years, ethereal quality that I gravitated towards and maybe that would be a perfect fit for Pet (well, not Pet exactly, but we all know who Pet really is…).
Emily turns 24 in a few weeks. I think that’s the kicker, at least for me. I’m wondering if they’ve decided to have her be the same age as the rest of the actors since the rest of the characters’ ages were lowered in order to accommodate Saoirse Ronan in the lead role of this film. This would make her a year younger than Jake (Ian), 3 years younger than Max (Jared), and a whopping 6 years older than Soairse. Now, you’ll be the first to see me argue that acting ability trumps the images we create in our heads about what a character should look like appearance and age-wise, but this is a BIG separation from the book where there’s a slight concern about her being too young which causes her to lie and say she’s almost 18, instead of the truth that she’s almost 17. Now granted, that’s not a serious element to the story, at least not in the first book, so I’m not overly concerned. Honestly, I think she’s an amazing actress and might actually fit the personality of ‘Pet’ (I keep referring to her as that because I don’t want to be the one to blow the secret of who Pet is for those who have not read the book yet). In my opinion, I would say Pet is even more vital to cast correctly than Melanie/Wanderer (Saoirse), but maybe that’s just because she’s my favorite character in the book. I know not everyone will share my adoration of that character, and I understand and respect that. 🙂
So, thoughts? As for the hint about her being well-known in recent years, do you think ‘Sucker Punch’ and these four indie films she did this year count enough as that? I’d love to hear how you guys feel about this seemingly likely choice for our beloved…’Pet’.
Note from Sarah: I saw the alert for this pop up very early this morning and decided not to write it up based on what I saw on the reporting site. Johanna wrote up this great post while I was asleep, and it is a brilliant post and it should be here. As we are a site based on news about The Host, we will report about rumors if there is any sense of creditably about them. God knows I did that very early on even with no credibility on sources. I will contact the studio about this rumor, so this post may disappear.
I would also like to point out that a loyal follower of ours, KineHaug (aka Charlotte), pointed out on Twitter to us that Emily Browning may be Pet several weeks ago. This was during the time that the Emily Browning Twitter account was considered legit. Raeden Greer tweeted her like they knew each other, and Frances Fisher was as well. That was our first hint that Emily may be Pet.
I understand that everyone wants to keep this under wraps. That is why I took the picture out of the post and put that heavy spoiler warning at the top. It is up to you if you want to believe it or even want to know. We are a bit conflicted on it ourselves.
