In the last post, I asked about your heroes and, via the Comments, Teresa asked me about the origins of some of the heroes in my novels.
Jared Leto
Martyn Mayfair, from Love & Freedom, is easy. I stole him from a single shot of actor and musician Jared Leto. Jared doesn’t always look like this, but this is the image I had in my head.
Starting Over’s Ratty is less easy because he came from watching Kevin Kline in the 1983 production of the Pirates of Penzance. I’m no opera (or operatta) buff but I love the Pirates and watching KK as the pirate king, leader of his gang, doing things exactly his own way, I mentally stripped off the Errol Flynn moustache and gave him blue eyes. And Ratty was born. For a flavour, see this clip.
Bryan Brown
Justin, from All That Mullarkey, is definitely a pastiche of a young Bryan Brown and motor cycle legend Carl Fogarty. You have to scale both of them back age-wise, but I can do that …
So, any of these images resonate with you?
Carl Fogarty
Sue Moorcroft blog 
Oh, yes, Sue. Loving Jared Leto there, very Martyn Mayfair, though I pictured him possibly older/maturer looking.
I’m not so sure how I had Justin pictured. But not quite like the images you’ve shown lol!
I have to use images of people to work with in my head. Although, I must say, Adam in The Wedding Favour is even hard for me to picture at times. I wanted him blond and blue eyed, but he sometimes appears darker in my head. lol! (What is that all about?) With my next novel idea I have a clear image of Bradley Cooper… so you can see why I’m keen to get back to writing that one!
Thanks for sharing!
LikeLike
A younger Bryan Brown is definitely my ‘type’ – in fact that’s how I imagine the hero of my current WIP! My two favourites are Colin Firth and Hugh Jackman, but, for some reason, my heroes are often fair-haired (with gorgeous blue eyes, of course) – no idea why, it’s just how I picture them in my mind!
LikeLike
Funny, I never have an exact image of characters when I’m reading, I just come up with a vague appearance which, if you like, is in soft focus, it’s almost as if their character and personality puts a soft veil around them. (That sounds very arty!) I think I get more attached to how they act rather than what they look like.
Leto is lovely to look at mind, if a little on the pretty side. I think I’d probably go for Foggy, less refined, plus he’s got the bike factor!
LikeLike
Phwoar, really appreciating the Jared Leto shot on a cold morning! As to heroes… I tend to have an image in my head when I write mine, but it’s not usually anyone I’ve seen, more an amalgamation of features from various men – a hint of Johnny Depp, a smidgeon of Matt Smith and a touch of David Tennant… Nice to know that you do the same.
LikeLike
I’m afraid Mr Leto makes an appearance in my novels too as you know – love that photo! Like Teresa, I had a slightly different image of Martyn Mayfair, but not older (I think Jared is actually in his late thirties so just lucky he doesn’t look it!) I think it was your reference to Manga charactes that defined Martyn for me – sharp cheekbones etc. Either way, he’s gorgeous 🙂
LikeLike
Gosh, is he in his late thirties… he looks like he’s in his twenties there, that’s why I imagined Martyn older. lol!
LikeLike