Hello all! I hope your writing is going well, story or your reading, more about if you’re not a NaNoWriMo participant!
Today’s post is a little fun. See, here’s the thing: when you’re writing, and you’re putting your character together, of course you have an idea of what your character looks like in your head.
But for me, its sort of blurry. I know generally what they look like, but its hard to truly picture them. I feel their characteristics and their personalities stronger, and that’s how I see them.
So sometimes, I do use famous people as guiding tools for my characters.
Plus its just fun! I think every writer secretly wants their book to become a movie and secretly hopes to see famous people playing their characters one day. So here is my guilty pleasure fan casting for my novel, The Reawakened:
Zoey Deutch as Katy Valentine
Katy has long brown hair, large brown eyes, and is about average height. She is strong, trained in various self defenses and fighting techniques, due to her dad’s worries about her safety. She’s definitely beautiful, but she’s strong, fierce and she has quick wit and even quicker sense of sarcasm and temper.
I had never even heard of Zoey Deutch until she was cast as Rose Hathaway in Vampire Academy, but I’m already head over heels for her. She’s beautiful and she’s showing that she can play a fighter. Katy would probably get along with Rose, so Zoey is a great fit. She also fits the description of Katy in my mind :)
Robbie Amell as Ash Matthews
Ash is tall, built, with dark brown hair and blue eyes. He’s the captain of both the varsity football and baseball teams at St. Joseph’s Prep. He’s stocky, built, with strong muscles and a flat stomach, and is incredibly athletic. He has a fun personality, preferring to put humor in every situation. When he’s serious though, he is a very determined and ambitious person.
I have to admit, Robbie Amell made an impression on me before I even created Ash Matthews. I’ve really only been writing The Reawakened for a little over a month now. When I was trying to come up with my main male counterpart to Katy, I was watching The Tomorrow People, and I was just smitten by Robbie, and his good looks, his incredible body and his charm. After watching a couple YouTube videos, where he answers fan questions, I just was sold. He is Ash Matthews, and Ash Matthews is him.
Jamie Chung as Madison Wu
Madison Wu is Katy’s best friend, a tiny little Asian girl who makes up for her small stature in her large personality. She’s beautiful, with long black hair, and perfect skin. She’s on the Honor Society, does as much charity work as possible and is the head of the dance committee.
It was hard to pick Madison. I immediately thought of Brenda Song but she just didn’t fit right to me. The more I looked, the more Jamie popped out to me. She has shown, in her different roles, that she can play a variety of roles, and I think she would be a brilliant Madison. I think she’s a bit too tall to be Madison, but she’s very fitting in my head.
Jon Bernthal as Frank Valentine
Frank Valentine is Katy’s father, who is a New York City cop. He’s Italian in background, and has dark brown hair, and dark brown eyes. He’s young, only 38, having only been twenty when Katy was born. He’s fit, and healthy, always ready to work hard at his job.
Jon is the first person that came to mind when it came to Frank. I like someone young, but who can also portray that protective side too. I’m think early Shane in The Walking Dead, not later, crazy, obsessive Shane. I’ve seen Jon in other roles as well, and he’s always portrayed strong characters, protective characters and he’s just a perfect fit for Frank.
Kellie Pickler as Jennifer Flynn
Jennifer Flynn is Katy’s mother, who is young and strong in her Irish looks. She has blonde hair, blue eyes, and freckles all over her face. She is only 36 years old, having only been 18 when she married Frank and had Katy. She’s an elementary school teacher, who has incredible fashion sense.
I honestly had NO idea who I could even picture for Jennifer. I literally couldn’t picture anyone. I was googling for blonde actresses to find someone to fit the person I had in my head. Now I know Kellie Pickler is not an actress, but a singer, but she jumped out at me. I was watching Ellen, and she was the guest on the show, and I thought she was amazing. She’s ten years younger than Jennifer is supposed to be but I think she would be great, and she could carry that maturity well. And she looks like I picture Jennifer, exactly.
Bill Cobbs as Bert Washington
I can’t say much about Bert. Bert will be in The Reawakened toward the end, and he is very pivotal to Katy and her future. He’s an older, African-American man, who is quiet, but incredibly intelligent and incredibly brave. Bill Cobbs was actually the first person I thought of, and if anyone else ever played in Bert in the never-going-to-happen-movie of my book, it would take adjustments.
Alex Pettyfer as Liam
Liam is a character that surprised me. He is making a small appearance in The Reawakened, and I realized that as I wrote him, he was becoming more and more important. Again, I can’t say more than that but he is important. He’s kind of the All-American boy, blonde hair, green eyes, from the deep South. He’s going to be an interesting character as the story moves along, and he’s going to create some tension. I know a lot of people don’t like Alex Pettyfer, but he’s so hot and I will forever have a crush on this boy, and he’s Liam. You’ll see when you read about Liam. He embodies the confidence and easiness of Liam.
Sarayu Rao as Razi
I can’t say literally anything about Razi. I just can’t. It would ruin the entire book and that’s awful. But this is exactly how I picture her, except older, probably more like 50s or 60s. I think Sarayu is her thirties. She has such a perfect look and I hope you’ll see that when the book eventually releases, one day, because I am optimistic with this book!
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Happy Writing Everyone!