Help Cast Blessings!

I was honored to be contacted by a wonderful blog called Campaign for the American Reader and asked to participate in some of their fun author exercises. One of them is a game called My Book, the Movie—where you cast the leading roles in your book however you see fit.

Wanna help?

Here are my ideas so far (thanks to Erin Flanagan and Sarah Twill, who brainstormed with me over a bottle of wine and way too many chips and guacamole...). Please let me know what you think and feel free to offer other suggestions, too, either by commenting here or on Facebook (if you came to this blog through the Facebook link):

Oh, please please don't let physical descriptions from the book limit your casting. For example, thinking "Julianna Moore can't play Cami because Cami has blond hair and Moore's is red" would be a terrible mistake! Hair color is not crucial to the character, plus it's really easy to change. So think more in terms of actual acting ability.

And because it's just a game, therefore with unlimited budget, we can put A-listers in every single role!

THE BLESSINGS OF THE ANIMALS

DIRECTOR—Jodie Foster

CAMI ANDERSON—Laura Linney, Julianna Moore, or Kate Winslet
BOBBY BINARDI—Dominic West, Hank Azaria, or Robert Downey Jr.

DAVY—Neil Patrick Harris
BIG DAVID—Philip Seymour Hoffman

CAROLINE ANDERSON—Meryl Streep
CLEVE ANDERSON—John Lithgow

AURORA—Jennifer Garner

OLIVE—Julianna Margulies

ZAYNA—Ellen Page

HELEN—Holly Hunter
HANK—Hugh Laurie

DUBEY—Michael C. Hall

VIJAY—Okay, this one stumped us, simply because there is an unfortunate dearth of Indian actors in Hollywood films for us to choose from. The beautiful and talented Kal Penn is too young. Now, my friends will laugh, but I'd like to point out that Robert Downey Jr. has played an African-American after all...he can do anything, so why not see how he plays an Indian? Or, since the Boston Globe review suggested that Vijay seemed to be based on Dr. Sanjay Gupta, maybe he would do a guest spot?

MIMI—suggestions?

GABBY—suggestions?

Let me know what you think! Remember, unlimited budget and every star will say yes!