Some people have been criticizing the choice of Banderas to play Hadrian, saying that Banderas doesn't look Roman. Newsflash people, check your history first.... Emperor Hadrian was born and bred in Spain (just outside of Seville). So, Banderas, a Spaniard, seems a good choice to me!

Well, Michael, I'd told you he did. And he was quite cute and played well. Now he's going to play another gay brat...

"Though there was a late tradition that Hadrian was born in Spain, he himself stated in his autobiography, now lost, that he was born in Rome on 24 January 76 AD of a family originally Italian but Spanish for many generations." - Wikipedia There's definitely a tradition for Hadrian's Spanish roots. Therefore, casting a hot, established Spanish actor with a history of gay roles? Alongside the gorgeous lad from the British Queer as Folk? In an adaptation of a highly-acclaimed novel by an out lesbian writer (Yourcenar's longterm partner collaborated with her to write the English translation) which many consider a queer classic (imagine a highly literary novel in the tradition of Mary Renault's _The Persian Boy_). I'm ecstatic! Don't we deserve a REAL queer sword-and-sandal epic after the recent revisionist-history abominations of Alexander, Troy, and The 300?