Post by rachael89 on Oct 23, 2011 18:01:59 GMT
Just for clarification, I mean villain in the good sense (i.e. mysterious and compelling) in the title! I just thought I'd post a piece on the formation of the character Jareth written for the Labyrinth Wiki. I hope you find it interesting, please feel free to come back to me with any questions/feedback!
The character was significantly different in the early script produced by Terry Jones and Laura Phillips. In the early script, Jareth first arrives at Sarah's house in the guise of Robin Zakar, the playwright who wrote the play Meander's Queen which Sarah is shown reading from at the start of the script. He spirits Toby (known in the early script as Freddie) away to his castle, and does not present Sarah with any sort of ultimatum until she has already made some headway through the Labyrinth with Hoggle. Jareth is shown spying on Sarah through the cut-out eyes of his own portrait in a gallery and is generally far more sinister than he is in the finished film, telling Hoggle that what he does to Sarah is inevitable and only for him to know. In the ballroom scene Jareth refers to Sarah as 'my Queen' and attempts to kiss her, a detail that is retained in the film's novelization. The end scene of the script has Sarah land in a 'magnificent huge' bed and Jareth directly proposition her to be his Queen. Sarah defeats Jareth by refusing his advances, and watches as he shrinks, transforming into a powerless, snivelling Goblin.
According to director Jim Henson, Jareth was originally envisioned as another creature in the same vein as his Goblin subjects. Henson said, "The Goblin King was originally planned to be another creature, until it occurred to us to make it an actor. While we were considering various and sundry actors, we thought to make Jareth a music person, someone who could change the film's whole musical style."
Michael Jackson and Sting were both considered for the part, however David Bowie was eventually cast in the role after a series of meetings with Henson in the early 1980s convinced him to sign on to the project. According to Bowie himself, "Jim gave me the script, which I found very amusing. It's by Terry Jones, of Monty Python, and it has that kind of slightly inane insanity running through it. When I read the script and saw that Jim wanted to put music to it, it just felt as though it could be a really nice, funny thing to do."
In an interview with French magazine Ecran Fantastique, Henson explained the logic behind choosing Bowie for the role. "I wanted to put two characters of flesh and bone in the middle of all these artificial creatures," Henson told the magazine "And David Bowie embodies a certain maturity, with his sexuality, his disturbing aspect, all sorts of things that characterize the adult world."
Conceptual designer Brian Froud felt that Bowie was perfect for the role, describing how his "protean persona" made him well-fitted to the role of Jareth. Froud described how Jareth is "Sarah's inner fantasy, a character made up of her dreams and nightmares... He is seen, through her eyes, as part dangerous goblin, part glamorous rock star." Summing up his view of the character, Froud states that "Jareth needed to be a mecurial figure who would continually throw Sarah off balance emotionally."
Although he enjoyed the shoot for the most part Bowie found certain aspects of the role challenging, in particular interacting with the puppet characters proved difficult. According to Henson, "His first couple of scenes were with Hoggle, and David kept wanting to look off the stage to where the voice was coming from." Additionally it was sometimes difficult to perform scenes that featured Jareth contact juggling, as the actual juggling was performed by professional juggler Michael Moschen who would kneel behind Bowie and perform blind.
Bowie enjoyed working with co-star Jennifer Connelly, saying that "Apart from being quite beautiful, she's a really good actress. And she's a pleasure to work with. One forgets that she's just fourteen years old." He also admired Henson's work ethic, remarking that "Jim is undoubtedly the most unflappable guy I’ve ever encountered in any profession! I just can’t believe his capacity for work."
In a 1987 interview with Kay Rush, Bowie stated that the film was "fun to do" although it wasn't his favourite experience of acting. He also remarked that "Jim had a lot of ideas going in that movie, I think maybe one too many."
The character was significantly different in the early script produced by Terry Jones and Laura Phillips. In the early script, Jareth first arrives at Sarah's house in the guise of Robin Zakar, the playwright who wrote the play Meander's Queen which Sarah is shown reading from at the start of the script. He spirits Toby (known in the early script as Freddie) away to his castle, and does not present Sarah with any sort of ultimatum until she has already made some headway through the Labyrinth with Hoggle. Jareth is shown spying on Sarah through the cut-out eyes of his own portrait in a gallery and is generally far more sinister than he is in the finished film, telling Hoggle that what he does to Sarah is inevitable and only for him to know. In the ballroom scene Jareth refers to Sarah as 'my Queen' and attempts to kiss her, a detail that is retained in the film's novelization. The end scene of the script has Sarah land in a 'magnificent huge' bed and Jareth directly proposition her to be his Queen. Sarah defeats Jareth by refusing his advances, and watches as he shrinks, transforming into a powerless, snivelling Goblin.
According to director Jim Henson, Jareth was originally envisioned as another creature in the same vein as his Goblin subjects. Henson said, "The Goblin King was originally planned to be another creature, until it occurred to us to make it an actor. While we were considering various and sundry actors, we thought to make Jareth a music person, someone who could change the film's whole musical style."
Michael Jackson and Sting were both considered for the part, however David Bowie was eventually cast in the role after a series of meetings with Henson in the early 1980s convinced him to sign on to the project. According to Bowie himself, "Jim gave me the script, which I found very amusing. It's by Terry Jones, of Monty Python, and it has that kind of slightly inane insanity running through it. When I read the script and saw that Jim wanted to put music to it, it just felt as though it could be a really nice, funny thing to do."
In an interview with French magazine Ecran Fantastique, Henson explained the logic behind choosing Bowie for the role. "I wanted to put two characters of flesh and bone in the middle of all these artificial creatures," Henson told the magazine "And David Bowie embodies a certain maturity, with his sexuality, his disturbing aspect, all sorts of things that characterize the adult world."
Conceptual designer Brian Froud felt that Bowie was perfect for the role, describing how his "protean persona" made him well-fitted to the role of Jareth. Froud described how Jareth is "Sarah's inner fantasy, a character made up of her dreams and nightmares... He is seen, through her eyes, as part dangerous goblin, part glamorous rock star." Summing up his view of the character, Froud states that "Jareth needed to be a mecurial figure who would continually throw Sarah off balance emotionally."
Although he enjoyed the shoot for the most part Bowie found certain aspects of the role challenging, in particular interacting with the puppet characters proved difficult. According to Henson, "His first couple of scenes were with Hoggle, and David kept wanting to look off the stage to where the voice was coming from." Additionally it was sometimes difficult to perform scenes that featured Jareth contact juggling, as the actual juggling was performed by professional juggler Michael Moschen who would kneel behind Bowie and perform blind.
Bowie enjoyed working with co-star Jennifer Connelly, saying that "Apart from being quite beautiful, she's a really good actress. And she's a pleasure to work with. One forgets that she's just fourteen years old." He also admired Henson's work ethic, remarking that "Jim is undoubtedly the most unflappable guy I’ve ever encountered in any profession! I just can’t believe his capacity for work."
In a 1987 interview with Kay Rush, Bowie stated that the film was "fun to do" although it wasn't his favourite experience of acting. He also remarked that "Jim had a lot of ideas going in that movie, I think maybe one too many."
. But he really has some very nice acting moments: in the garden with Hoggle, his delivery of the line "Bosom companions? Friends?" is fantastic. Saying "Friends?" he pitches his voice lower and turns away, and you can hear the bitterness or envy he feels...he's clearly wishing he could be her friend too, that she'd treat him as she treats Hoggle. Same thing in the Escher room scene, after he sings and there's a closeup on his face looking away from the camera: sadness and bleakness, wishing things could have gone otherwise. Well, at least that is what I see there. YMMV.
