The Witcher casting director Sophie Holland recently opened a can of worms by discussing the team’s process and how they wanted to change people’s bias over the “standard of beauty,” but the role she chose as an example of that is infuriating a lot of fans.
Holland used Anya Chalotra as an example of this, saying that Yennefer being described as “the most beautiful woman in the world” isn’t something that would fly these days. That’s why the team set out to find something different to “challenge what people think of as the standard of beauty.” And who did they cast to embody that? Why, a person whose beauty already manifests that character to a large degree.
Fans are obviously furious over this comment, thinking that the casting director may have unintentionally or otherwise insulted Chalotra’s looks.
Netflix is doing an awful job of keeping its cast tight-knit. First they scared away Cavill, and now they’re talking about Chalotra in those terms.
Some think that she actually looks more beautiful and in her element each season.
If that’s what they were intending to accomplish, and they cast Anya to do it, then perhaps they really are clueless as to what they’ve been doing all these years.
No matter how you look at this comment, it comes off as absurd and misplaced.
Perhaps the team is misunderstanding all those fan criticisms. It’s not that Anya isn’t beautiful enough. She’s simply different from how Yennefer is described in the books.
And the saga of Netflix utterly mishandling The Witcher continues…