Before Paapa Essiedu was rumored to be the new Severus Snape in the HBO+/Bronte Studios adaptation of the Harry Potter novels for television, a rumor that set off the ‘Black Severus’ controversy a la ‘Black Hermione,’ there was already a casting outreach in the news, namely, that the film makers had contacted Mark Rylance’s representatives to begin a conversation about his playing Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore.
I can think of three obvious and relatively indisputable reasons to be excited about this possibility:
(1) Mark Rylance is the Closest We’ll Ever Get to Richard Harris: Sir David Waters is, in brief, a legend in his own time, a thespian whose talent, skills, dedication to craft, and accomplishments, if brought to this teevee project, immediately elevates it to a much higher level than it would have otherwise. Essiedu has a host of qualifications but his involvement is usually described as a potentially “break out” role for him. Rylance is so well known and so well respected that landing him to play Dumbledore may be the breakout hiring choice for the series.
(2) Mark Rylance has the Necessary Bardish Quirks to Be Dumbledore: Just surveying his Wikipedia bio-page, I was delighted to find that he has serious Shakespeare chops — first artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company for ten years — and that he isn’t a toady to popular opinion about the Bard or even to the RSC. The man staged an all-male production of Twelfth Night, for instance, as Shakespeare’s company had to (and he took the part of Olivia!) as well as all-female productions of Taming of the Shrew and Richard III, he has been an up-front proponent of the ‘Declaration of Reasonable Doubt’ about the authorship of the Shakespeare plays (a declaration that causes academics’ hair to catch on fire, believe me), and broke with the RSC after they took money from British Petroleum. Climate change, don’chano. From his immersion in Elizabethan lore (can you say alchemy? ley lines and crop circles?) to his being comfortable with uncomfortable ideas, Rylance is a natural, I think, for the actor taking on the Dumbledore part.
(3) Mark Rylance is Sufficiently Liberal (and Humble) that He Mutes TRA Criticism: Any actor or actress agreeing to participate in what may be a ten year project with the notorious TERF and transphobe bigot J. K. Rowling as an executive producer is going to be called out as a traitor to what President Biden called the “civil rights issue of our time.” I think Rylance will duck that charge. He was a firm supporter of Jeremy Corbyn right through all the anti-Semite accusations, for example, dropped association with the RSC over a political issue, and played Cleopatra, for heaven’s sake, in a production of Antony and Cleopatra. More to the point, the man is so famous for being humble and hard-working, disdainful of pomp and ego even at awards ceremonies, that attacking him as being a traitor to progressivism is going to be a very bad look, a disaster in optics for a group reeling since November in a deluge of bad news and worse appearances.
Check out ‘The Weird World of Mark Rylance’ and ‘Mark Rylance: “Playing other ethnicities on stage helps develop empathy”.’ I think he’s va great choice.
True confessions: I’d never heard of him until watching The Outfit in 2022 which led to my looking up Bridge of Spies. In a world in which professional actors rarely impress positively with their character and opinions, Sir David is exceptional, though I doubt very much we’d agree about much. I’m hopeful, even excited about his taking the role of Albus Dumbledore, if suspicious that a ten year commitment to a man devoted to stage craft is not in the works.
