Thank You Samantha Barks

 This week I have watched the "teaser" video for the newest Les Miserables movie way too many times.  I am unhealthily excited about it coming out in December and I'm praying they don't push the premier date back anymore!  Jonathan and I will have to leave for Dominica on December 29th and this movie is due out on Christmas Day.  Merry Christmas to me!

There are so many reasons why I love Les Mis.  I'm currently reading the book, which, let me tell you, is a MAJOR undertaking.  However, it is so inspiring.  So quotable!  It gives me chills, makes me laugh, makes me cry.  It also fills in some gaps in the musical as well.  Les Mis the musical is one of my all time favorites.  Even if you're not a musical fan, chances are you would recognize some of the music from Les Mis.  In watching this little teaser, I had chills, and tears, and everything in between.  I'm anticipating one of the most epic movies of this era!!  I'm sure my neighbors are getting tired of hearing me belt "On My Own" and "I Dreamed a Dream" or Jonathan wailing "Do You Hear the People Sing?".

So where does Samantha Barks come in??  Samantha Barks plays Eponine in the movie AND the latest on stage version.  I watched her for the first time this summer in the van with the Womacks on our way through Colorado on our family vacation.  I was mesmerized!  For many reasons, not the least of which, of course, is her amazing talent as a singer and an actress.  Though I have to confess something to you guys.  In my dream world, I am a broadway star and I play Eponine, or Fantine, or Rizzo, or Christine Daae.  So of course, when I'm watching those musicals, I imagine that the women who are playing those parts are really me.  I live vicariously, if you will.

Samantha Barks has made this much easier for me.  Why??  Because it is kind of eerie how similar we look.  When she sings, when they shoot her profile, I swear she is me!  It's CRAZY!  When we saw her for the first time, Jonathan leaned over and said "Are you sure that's not you?".  Samantha is my dream self!

So to conclude, let me juxtapose a picture of myself next to the lovely Samantha Barks and you can see for yourself.  She is the skinnier, glamorized, Hollywood version of me!  Feel free to comment on the eeriness of it.  On the top is me and my Johnny boy.  The photo on the bottom is the beautiful and talented Samantha Barks:

Also, let me share a few little YouTube videos with you.  Watch them, but be prepared to get chills and maybe even to cry and hopefully to be as touched as I am by the music and the lyrics.  Enjoy!

Samantha is so captivating in this performance.  Not to mention the classic "Jean Valjean" quartet at the end.  O. M. G. 

And of course the classic "On My Own".  So gorgeous...

Finally, the first look at what's to come in December.  I'm in love with this idea of live singing in a movie.  That's what has disappointed about musicals in the recent past.  This way of doing things really gives you no other choice but to connect with the singer.  With their emotions.  And the actors get to connect what they're doing to the words and music coming from inside of them.  Anne Hathaway...wow.  Oh my, I could go on for hours.  Just fall in love with this like I have!

P.S.- If by some stroke of God Samantha Barks stumbles upon my humble little blog, I can't tell you how excited I would be!  Response or no response, Samantha, what a talented actress and singer you are!  You embody the part of Eponine so flawlessly and with so much depth.  I cannot wait to see you in this movie!