We all understand William Shakespeare‘s version (or vision) of Richard III — a bent-over hunchback with a large nose, unequal legs, a shrivelled arm…”deformed, unfinished.”
And yet the King Richard who appears in the poster for Stephen Frears‘ The Lost King (portrayed by Harry Lloyd) stands straight and tall without a hump on his back or any other noticable deformity, and smiling peacefully to boot. Which leaves the viewer no choice but to ask “why?”
Shakespeare aside, there’s no question that the actual, original Richard III had a deformed spine, and we’ve all seen how Laurence Olivier, Ian McKellan, Ralph Fiennes and Al Pacino have shuffled around, almost like Charles Laughton‘s Quasimodo. So right away you’re saying “what the fuck?”
