I think Lionel is supposed to be a relatively young guy. This is a role for Dave Bautista, although he’s probably too old. At a restaurant they were both at, Dafoe goes to take a leek and the reporter follows him to the urinals. The story goes that a Hollywood reporter had heard from several sources that Will was hung like nobodys business. The book is about him learning to be his own man and use his brain for something other than following orders. Willem Dafoe is one of the biggest at some 12 inches. Lionel Essrog is supposed to look like a jock or meat-head. Not to be rude, but Edward Norton looks exactly like the actor you would cast to play an OCD guy with tics. The fact that he has Tourette’s syndrome should sort of play against the way he looks. I imagine him looking something like Christian Nairn (the Hodor actor). He starts out as a thug who works for crime boss as muscle. In the book, the guy is supposed to be huge. I just don’t see why anybody who loves the book enough to adapt it would want to change something that is such a core element. And I’m not really one of those people who gets all up in arms about movies being different from the book… But in this case, the character kind of is the whole essence of the book. But I really don’t think that Norton is a good choice to play Lionel Essrog, the main character. And I think Edward Norton is a great actor.
