Sayle

[Beazle]

Right for starters it's HEROD not DARIUS and in the book he was so small he had to have a stool to play snooker whereas he was tall in the film. Also he was never from America so shouldn't have an American accent.

[masterwolfie]

Before the film came out, Mr. Horowitz confirmed that Herod Sayle's name would be changed to Darrius...although I'm not sure of the reason. Maybe someone else here does?

As for his height , they can't reject a bunch of actors because they're too tall for the film. Also, height is irrelevant as long as the actor for Herod Sayle stays in character.

[Albino_Badger]

And also, they changed his background (and I believe he mentions this in the film) so that he grew up in the San Fransisco(sp?) projects, his mom won the lottery and then decided to send him to a good school. And AH said the name change was because he simply didn't look like a Herold, and Darrius would be better for the film 

[Tamara_Knight]

He says in the making-of book that several of the characters are not as he pictuered them, but they said yes and because of that, physical appearance was not number one priority. Something along those lines, as I don't have the book right with me.
(I was suprised with the changes, but I think the actor made a great Sayle.)

As an extra note, the director wanted it to be filmed as an adult movie, so he had to keep Mr. Grin, Nadia Vole, etc. from acting to extreme. They enjoyed it so much that they could have been crazier, but he didn't let them go to far.

[crystal]

yeh darrius did make a good sayle...although it looks wierd that he didnt notice alex was a spy and his assistant did !!!

[Albino_Badger]

Yes... Although I think they should have gone lighter on the make-up xD And his and Vole's costumes were so chesey...

[crystal]

yeh when my dad saw the movie...he said "errrrrrrr hes wearing eye shadow"! omg him and vole really tried hard to look rich