Francia Raisa
Three years ago I did a post comparing HBO’s Game of Thrones and Hunchback , in which I said Arianne Martel resembled Esmeralda in the looks department and I quote myself here “I would say whoever they get to cast her for the show could make a lovely Esmeralda…” However stupid poo show runners cut Arianne from the show and made that whole storyline stupid. However since other people like to do speculative casting I thought heck let’s just find a hypothetical casting for Arianne Martel and apply that actress to Esmeralda. One actress that came up was Francia Raisa.
Francia Raisa
Francia Raisa is an American Actress of Mexican and Honduran decent. This gives her a very good look for Esmeralda. As is the case for most movie Esmeraldas is that she looks exotic to the “standard French type.” So her look is one point for most movie versions of the character. She also has soft features which makes her look cute, so she has the whole cute yet sensual aspect that is very applicable to Esmeralda.
Francia Raisa as Shahrzad in Beyond Paradise
As far as acting goes, I can’t super speak to her ability. She is most known her role on the TV show The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Bring it On: All or nothing, two things I have avoided watching. I did try and watch some clips from her 2015 movie Beyond Paradise and wasn’t that impress with any or it. That being said she seems like she gets the mostly sexualized roles, which for Arianne Martel is fine but for Esmeralda it’s a mixed bag. Esmeralda isn’t supposed to sexual aware of herself but movies ignore that so it’s probably not a big deal. I would give the movie a great director and she’ll be fine.
Francia Raisa
But what do you think would Francia Raisa be a good Esmeralda? I don’t think she would be my top point or even top five but there are far worse casting options out there. Gotta say her name is like near spot on for the role.
I recently re-watched Secret Life and was going to suggest the actress, but didn’t know her name.
While I do think she has the look to play Esmeralda, I’ve only seen her in tween/teen oriented roles. And the major part of her role on Secret life was her character’s sexuality-think school slut, who knows she’s a slut, but is okay with that-and I’m not sure she’d be good in a role that wasn’t overtly sexual.
So it really would depend on the characterization and what direction the writers went in. If they characterize Esmeralda as overtly sexual and flirtatious, then she’d be great in the role! But if the writers wanted to stick close to the book, I’m not sure she’d work out.