#anyone who says i struggle with separating characters from their actors is Wrong and Unbased

[thegroundsofbrooklyn]

the combination of liking west side story and doing a benvolio monologue for an audition is brutal. i have so many opinions on the fact that a lot of people seem to say that riff is a combination of mercutio and benvolio

and since this is the internet i will be sharing these opinions

okay so.

i guess people think this because in romeo and juliet, romeo has two best friends - mercutio and benvolio - whereas in west side story tony only has riff. but while riff and mercutio's characters line up almost perfectly, riff and benvolio are POLAR OPPOSITES. benvolio is kind, cautious, good-natured, avoids conflict, etc. and i love riff but he is basically NONE of those things. while on the other hand mercutio is rash, chaotic, and fully prepared to fistfight someone he doesn't agree with. not to mention in general riff's actual actions align with mercutio's a lot more (like stepping in for tony / romeo during the fight)

i actually think that the character closest to that of benvolio is baby john. granted, there are still a lot of major differences, and it's pretty clear that the character of benvolio was intended to be more or less just omitted from west side story entirely - possibly because it would be difficult to create and justify a character who is involved with riff and the jets but still remains an objectively good person from the perspective of the audience - but if i had to pick out the west side story character closest to him, it would be baby john.

he's the jet who's the most cautious / reluctant to just jump into fights (for example in the original movie all the jets are planning what to do to the sharks and he suggests that they just forget the whole thing) - which tbf isn't really saying much but yknow. he's presented as the most classically 'young and innocent' of the jets, and he's the one who always seems the most hesitant to actually do anything with the gang despite seeing them as his friends, which actually fits benvolio's character a lot.

anyways that's just my Thoughts that have been swimming around in my brain for several months hope yall enjoyed