Hi Cecily! I recently got into Ateez and may have binged your blog. You've talked about how you're also a really big Shakespeare girly (I haven't read far enough back to find out what your Correct Opinion TM on Romeo and Juliet is but I believe you when you say you have it~) My question is, assuming no language barrier and that they all had equal capacity for Acting TM, which Shakespeare Character would you cast each of the Ateez boys as?
HI HI WELCOME! good to have you! it's 3 AM here in cecily land and my brain immediately decided that now was the time. i have been sitting on this ask since it graced my desk and rotating it around in my noggin and suddenly it was time.
so yes. i am a shakespeare girlie. in fact, shakespeare is arguably the thing i love the most in this world. i would throw ateez under a bus for shakespeare but he's dead so lucky for them. i literally have, in the past month alone, considered writing FOR FUN three separate shakespeare essays-- like, actual essays, not tumblr meta posts. i haven't been in school for over a decade, but guess what i studied in school. go on, guess! hahaha yeah it was shakespeare ANYWAY
this is. a tough question. but like the tarot question, i am going to do my level best and damnedest to do it justice. BUT! know that i am saying these as like, roles i'd like to see them play, not as 'characters i think they are'. there's minor overlap i suppose, but i have trouble equating them with characters, so.
yeosang is prince hal from henry iv, pt i. [THE WHOLE CROWD BOOS] girl shut up i know! i know. "cecily that's your favourite shakespeare you're assigning your favourite boy" AND WHAT ABOUT IT! I CAN DO WHAT I WANT! SHUT UP! listen. listen.
hal is very dear to my heart because at the end of the day the audience knows, he knows, and his entire world knows that he will never be a child. he's not a child in the play-- he's a full grown adult-- but the lack of a childhood sits within the entire play. and by 'childhood', i mean the freedom of expression, the unconditional love, and the lack of worry that children are supposed to experience. hal has never had and will never have that, but everything he does aches for it. and though he knows it is a futile attempt, he is going to continue to attempt.
i just think-- put the tomatoes down-- that yeosang, who once was kicked out by a father who he dared express a dream to, would understand the line "your unthought of harry" far more than any of the rest of them will. he would feel the weight of "i do, i will" when falstaff tells him that their time together will end with his eventual dismissal and exile. he would hold the weight of someone who wants to play pretend just a little bit longer. SHUT UP! (said to cover up my own tears)
yunho could be several things. initially i thought "god he'd love to play iago wouldn't he" but THEN i was like "okay but cassio is an arguably harder and more pathetic role" because it has less lines but when done right can be very impactful, and i also wanna see snivelling "reptutation!!!!" from yunho. but. BUT. i have settled on yunho as edmund in lear. you wanna be a villain so damn bad? be one who is just. GROTESQUE. in a play that is bleak as hell. i wanna see yunho in a world where a man's eyes are gouged out on stage and he's told to smell his way to dover. ... in fact, fuck it, let yunho be regan! (we're not giving him cromwell he deserves lines)
the other funny alternative is that i would love to see yunho and mingi as antonio and bassanio in merchant of venice because if you aren't depicted as kissing in a lot of your most iconic stagings despite it not being in the directions then are you even two bros in love
speaking of mingi, i want to see him as bottom in midsummer because it'd be fucking funny. he'd also be an amazing touchstone in as you like it or really any kempe character-- mingi could do a great falstaff if need be, honestly.
if he was to do a 'serious' role, i'd honestly love to see mingi as richard ii because i believe he could deliver the "let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings" speech really well. in my little fucked up mind where this shit happens. why the fuck not
hongjoong is iago in othello. sorry yunho it sucks to suck. i just think hongjoong's wordplay would fit really well with iago's; i think he'd understand the way to use language to manipulate and sound like he means one thing when he really means another. it's the performer in him. i also just have Many Thoughts on iago in general and i believe i could tell them to hongjoong and he'd get it. in this made up scenario
seonghwa is so many characters to me. i NEED to see him doing constance from king john. i NEED to see him as margaret from any of the roses cycle. i NEED to see him as hermione from winter's tale. but if i have to CHOOSE ONE.... fuck dude. viola from twelfth night. or rosalind from as you like it. or portia from merchant.
i also love the idea of matz as benedick and beatrice from much ado. do with that what you will. (or i will so help me god)
ohhdhfhhafhsfhdsf but jongho as benedick would be SO GOOD. i also think he could be an incredible puck. i know that seems like a wooyoung or seonghwa or even mingi choice, but i think he has the playfulness and mischief down that his puck would be delightful. i also think i would love to see jongho as marc anthony-- or, fuck, brutus would be amazing, too
wooyoung could very well kill ariel from the tempest. i also could see puck, as i just said-- i could also very well see him as orlando, or kate from shrew-- wait, no, that's so good. i take it all back. wooyoung is kate from shrew
san my sweet baby.......... is it fucked up i wanna put san in titus andronicus what does that say about me. no. san will be hamlet. i'm unfortunately so serious. i think if any of these bitches could do hamlet it'd be san. i don't want him to. let me be clear-- i do not want him to. but he could. i would rather see him do mercutio but i am gonna give him hamlet (affectionate [derogatory])
some of these had Meaning and others were just vibes. i did almost crash out about yeosang as hal and i might do it again because that meta almost sent me into a rabbit hole. i could talk about hal for years on end and yeosang just about as long so
THANK YOU FOR THIS! any excuse to be annoying about shakespeare, truly
(and no, i have never really posted in depth about my Irrefutably Correct romeo & juliet opinions but that's mostly bc i will start foaming at the mouth after a few paragraphs and be involuntarily committed so)