Characters and Actors

With all my books, I like to cast them as if they were movies.  Talk a little bit about the characters and who would be best to play them.  This book is a little special in this aspect because, with the exception of Charlie in A Novella About Pie That Should Have Starred Jason Sudeikis, I wrote a character for a specific actor.

Brian is hard to cast because I have him run the gamut from his teens to his forties in the book.  I guess it makes the most sense to cast a younger actor that can be made up to look old, but I really want to say Joseph Gordon Levitt here.  It’s less about what he has done and more about my belief that he can anything.  I need someone who can be very self-reflective.  Someone who can really show the battle within their psyche for whether they will be good or evil.  And I think someone who played a elderly alien when he was a teenager can probably handle it.

Iscariot Culberson was written for Crispin Glover.  I had no one else in mind and I saw him as the character the entire time I was writing it.  Once I was done, I realized that David Arquette would also be a good choice, but the character was specifically written for Crispin.

Carlos is a character that wants to be more complex than he is.  A thug leader who really wants to be a follower.  Someone who strives to be better, but needs someone to put him in the right place.  My mind goes all over the place from Post Malone to a young Cheech Marin.  But I think I would hope to John Leguizamo.  He has shown some serious depth through the years and his character in Violent Night would work pretty well.

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Destiny is a driven go getter.  Someone who has her priorities well defined and won’t let anything get in her way.  Of course, she is also the typical beautiful starlet.  I would think of more of a Taylor Swift for this role or at least the inspiration for the role.   Ashley Aufderheide did a great job on That 90’s Show and really has that feel of unstoppable drive.