Dreaming of casting my characters...by Cathy Ace

Which of your protagonists would make good movie characters, and who would you choose to play them?

Well, all of them would be just fabulous mega-hits on any size of screen, of course, dahlings! And when each of them is cast I will bank the money and not quibble (too much) about who is selected to play whom. In this alternative universe I’m envisaging - where I’m running around the place with bags of cash - I might even be given carte blanche to provide casting notes, so I’m going to pretend that’s what's happened, and go for it!

Cait Morgan: she’s 5’3” (5’4” on a tall day), 180lbs, and in her late forties…so a Hollywood actress the right shape and age doesn’t exist. She’s also Welsh-Canadian….so, if she were prepared to put on quite a few pounds and let her Swansea accent come out, Catherine Zeta Jones could go for her second Oscar by playing a “real-sized woman”. 

Bud Anderson: Bud’s Canadian, of Swedish heritage and birth, in his mid-fifties with snowy hair, rugged features and piercing blue eyes. I’m nominating Canadian actor Paul Gross to play Bud; almost as painfully handsome as he was painfully polite in Due South, to say that he’s “aged well” would be an understatement!

For the WISE Women:

Dowager Duchess of Chellingworth, Althea Twyst: just about to turn 80, Althea is still blessed with a wicked sense of humor – fueled by her love of all things Monty Python – and cannot help but get herself into trouble! For her, I think the naughty dimples of Pauline Collins would do the trick…though the actress would have to have fuss-free short hair and be happy to work with a rambunctious Jack Russell!

Mavis MacDonald: in her sixties, and a no-nonsense retired army matron, I see Mavis being played by the wonderful Annette Crosbie (though she’s 82 now, so would have to play a bit younger) or Stella Gonet (playing older). Mind you, if Lulu fancied doing a turn as a non-glamorous grannie, she’d have just the right Scottish accent!

                                  

Annie Parker: she's tall, thin (with an annoyingly big bum) and sweating her way through her fifties. She's got a broad Cockney accent, and a bit of a chip on her shoulder...not due to the dark skin she inherited from her St. Lucian immigrant parents, but because she misses London so terribly now that she lives in the Welsh countryside. I’d like to see either Noma Dumezweni (currently in The Cursed Child) or Freema Agyeman (of Doctor Who & Torchwood) play the role….though Freema would have to play a good deal older than her tender age of less-than-forty.

Christine Wilson-Smythe: the daughter of an impoverished Irish viscount, Christine is beautiful, in her late twenties, headstrong, and apt to fall for the wrong man! Eve Hewson, the stunning daughter of U2’s Bono, would look the part, and certainly has the acting chops! 

And then, of course, there's lovely Carol Hill: bubbly, gentle, kind, happily married, happily pregnant, Welsh to the core, and a whizz with a computer. For her? Joanna Page, who's also Welsh through and through, and made me laugh so much in Gavin and Stacey...just the right smile for warm-hearted Carol.

There you go - any movie or TV company executives/showrunners or production companies reading this...the hard part is done for you :-)

Cathy Ace writes the WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries (book #2 THE CASE OF THE MISSING MORRIS DANCER was published in trade paperback on August 31st in the UK, and will be available in November in the US/Canada), and the Cait Morgan Mysteries (book #8 THE CORPSE WITH THE RUBY LIPS will be published in paperback in October in Canada, November in the USA). Find out more about Cathy and her work, and sign up for her newsletter at http://cathyace.com/