Casting Cobain

Just a quick warning that the next few posts are going to be very Nirvana and 90s rock heavy. I am reading “Heavier Than Heaven” right now, by Charles R. Cross, and I cannot put it down. At the same time I don’t want to finish it because I know how it ends and its depressing. For those of you who don’t know, “Heavier Than Heaven” is THEE biography on Kurt Cobain. It is being turned into a biopic (though this project has been in the works for while). It’s amazing because even though we have his lyrics, Kurt Cobain’s brain was a complex and unexplained area. He kept extensive journals that Cross had access to. I find is fascinating to see how his mind worked. Today’s post is dedicated to finding the actor to play Cobain in for the silver screen. I have been thinking about this for a bit and it’s actually a bit more difficult to than I would have thought…

Here are some things to keep in mind when mentally casting. Kurt Cobain was a tiny man. He was 5’9” and because of drug use and a stomach condition that caused him pain when he ate and vomiting afterwards, he was rail thin. He was also pretty self conscious about this ordering weight gaining supplements off of late night tv. He also was extremely attractive even though he tried to hide it. He also had this big goofy grin, which may not be vital to the role, but I don’t think it would be complete without it. Finally, for obvious reasons the actor has to be young or at least look young. I think Leonardo DiCaprio 10 years ago, around Titanic – mania would have been a pretty good choice, but now he’s too old.

The other thing to keep in mind is the mental state of the actor. I’m a pretty happy person and this book puts me in a dark place. I can’t imagine what actually playing the man would entail. In some ways Jamie Foxx was perfect to play the heatbreak in “Ray” cause you know he would pull out of it in the end. It would be pretty tragic if the actor playing Kurt fell so deep into Kurt like depression that something awful happened.

So here are my suggestions, and I actually don’t think they are very good, but like I said this has proven to be much more difficult than I expected. The first is James Ransone. Ransone played Ziggy in the second season of “The Wire” and he also was the driver in “Generation Kill”. If he can get scruffy die his hair blond and put in blue contacts he might work. He’s little and goofy, but can play sullen and moody pretty well too. He just needs to bring his voice down and octave or two.

Also from “Generation Kill” and “True Blood” is Alexander Skarsgard. The main problem here is that he is WAY too tall, but they have camera tricks for that. He does however resemble Cobain, and he can play dark and troubled very well too.

My last suggestion would be someone who I think I’ve actually heard as a possibility, and that is Emile Hirsch. He does have the bone structure similar to Cobain’s. He also has to be a decent actor to get the stamp of approval from Sean Penn in “Into the Wild”. Penn doesn’t mess around. And if you saw taking Woodstock, just imagine that hair blond and then died red with Kool-Aid, and some piercing blue eyes and you might actually think you’re looking at Cobain himself.