Chris Columbus, who's directing the movie adaptation of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, has tried to brush aside the obvious comparisons to the Harry Potter series. The parallels to this tale of a modern-day boy who discovers that he's the son of the Greek god Poseidon are fairly obvious, though. Not all of the cast are staying on message, either. Erica Cerra, who plays the goddess Hera, tells Sci-Fi Wire that it was precisely the similarity between the projects that made her so enthusiastic about her role in the picture.
I'm a big Harry Potter fan. I have all the books. I've seen all the movies a billion and one times. When I heard what Percy Jackson was about I read it and pushed, pushed, pushed to be in the movie.
Other than the sheer experience of being in a Harry Potter-like movie, one of the things that most excited her about the project was the costumes.
We were wearing these absolutely stunning silk dresses, myself and the rest of the goddesses. The wardrobe is spectacular. The look of them, it's a similar idea to Roman togas. They're really elegant and lovely. A lot of our jewelry was made the way they made jewelry in the early Greek times. They'd take metal and hammer it out. It was spectacular. And it all cost a fortune. I was like, "Can I take this [dress] home?" And they weren't having it. They were like, "No." I think we all tried.
Well dressed — and definitely in good company with an all-star cast that includes Uma Thurman (Medusa), Rosario Dawson (Persephone), Pierce Brosnan (Chiron), Sean Bean (Zeus), Kevin McKidd (Poseidon), and Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson).