It’s been 7 weeks since Gradle Bird‘s publication, and many people out on the road ask who I would envision playing the characters on the big screen. Part of my writing process involves finding photographs, cinematic stills of the characters I envision playing each role. I print them out and tape them over my writing desk, and I look to them for direction, guidance, and emotion.
For the creation of Gradle Bird, my writing desk looked like this:
Sally Mann, one of my favorite photographers said, “Every image is in some way a “portrait,” not in the way that it would reproduce the traits of a person, but in that it pulls and draws, in that it extracts something, an intimacy, a force.”
Below, the cast of characters and the cinematic stills that pulled and drew on me, that extracted the force behind Gradle Bird.
Gradle Bird = Natalie Portman (V for Vendetta)
Leonard Lee Spivey – Sam Elliott (Thank You for Smoking)
Annalee Spivey – The Beauty of Xiaohe (I don’t think she’s been in any movies)
D-5 Delvis Miles The Lone Singer – the one and only, E-5 Evans Miles The Lone Singer, if there were an actor for Delvis, it would be John C. Reilly.
Sonny Joe Stitch – Ryan Gosling (The Place Beyond the Pines)
Ceif ‘Tadpole’ Walker – Daniel Radcliffe (The Cripple of Inishmann)
DID YOU ENVISION ANY PARTICULAR ACTORS WHILE READING THE NOVEL? IF SO, PRAY TELL.
All of your casting choices are right on! Especially Sam Elliot! He happens to live near me, and I plan on telling him the next time we cross paths! I’m halfway through this book and am loving it! So engaging, so creative, so riveting! Congratulations to JC Sasser.
Claire,
I’ll send you a copy of Gradle Bird for Sam if you like. I can’t wait to see his new film, The Hero.
J.C.
Billy Bob Thornton for Evans Miles; Freddie Highmore for Ceif (another Brit, ha!); Dakota Fanning for Gradle though probably too old now
I think this is spot on! All are uncannily very very close to how I imagined them! You did an extremely great job of painting their portraits with words.
Kelly,
Now we just have to get the cast and crew lined up for a production in Metter, GA.
I simply wanted to mention how much I enjoy the photo of the work desk. To see the location where a human routinely becomes fully engaged in one’s own ideas is incredibly refreshing.