Kaira Rouda and her son Dylan shares their ideas on Casting In The Mirror!

Thank you so much for having me on your blog today! Here’s how I went about figuring out the movie star cast for IN THE MIRROR – I found my teenage son, Dylan, who knows just about everything about movies and entertainment and asked him!

Our process was like this:

Me: I need to cast my book as a movie and you know how bad I am at movie stars names.

Dylan: Yes, you are. (Looks back down at movie he is watching on his laptop.)

Me: Please.

Dylan: Ok, tell me about the book.

Me: Jennifer is the protagonist, ah, I mean the lead actor. She’s a mom of two young kids and she’s dying of cancer. But she keeps her humor about her, and she is full of hope. She’s very pretty, too.

Dylan: Amy Adams. She’s perfect.

Me: Yes! Ok, her husband, Henry, is a bit aloof, he loves her but he’s overwhelmed keeping the household together and doesn’t know how to handle this Jennifer, with a disease.

Dylan: Hugh Jackman.

Me: Who?

Dylan: Hugh. He’s famous, mom. Classy and they would look good together.

Me: Who would?

Dylan: Amy and Hugh.

Me: Whatever. Next we have Amy, I mean, Jennifer’s first love who walks back into the picture. He’s sexy, and he is convinced he and Jennifer still belong together.

Dylan: Christian Bale. You know, Batman?

Me: Oh, that’s perfect.

Dylan: Who else – I need to finish my movie.

Me: Right, well there is Jacob, Jennifer’s snarky partner at her clothing store Clothes the Loop. Jacob always pops in to make Jennifer’s day brighter, with gossip and chardonnay.

Dylan: Justin Timberlake.

Me: Wow, he could sing to her, too.

Dylan: Is that in the book?

Me: No, but when they make the movie they take liberties.

Dylan: True.

Me: Who would you cast to be Ralph, Jennifer’s best friend at the treatment facility? Ralph has cancer, too, and is much sicker during most of the movie. He’s married with two kids, too, but they are older. He’s a funny, and very endearing character. One of the favorites of early readers.

Dylan: Matt Damon. You do know who that is, right?

Me: What about Brad Pitt?

Dylan: Got any other characters?

Me: Not really.

Dylan: Well then, no Brad Pitt for you. Bye!

Even though I was abruptly dismissed, I walked away smiling, because as many of you know, if you can get your teenage son to talk to you for that long about anything, it’s a small victory! Oh, and in this case, a victory and a blog post, too!

Too purchase your copy of In the Mirror use these links:  Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and iTunes.