My Little Friends: Donna Tartt and fantasy casting

Pick up anything from my bookshelf, and I'll create an IMDB page for you, whether there's been an actual film made of the book or not.

Not strictly theatre or film, really - but perhaps something in between. Last week, I focussed on how easily a stage production can be transferred to the screen. Today, I'd like to do the same, but with literature.

I don't know about you, but I physically can't read a book without knowing exactly what each character looks and sounds like - even if they're a till operator or bus driver who appears for a matter of sentences. I actually have to put the book down and search the library of faces that we all have in our heads; even if I just pick a nameless neighbour or an obscure colleague. Otherwise, the scene just isn't complete.

In every single book I read, I have to create the equivalent of a fantasy football team - but with actors. Pick up anything from my bookshelf, and I'll create an IMDB page for you, whether there's been an actual film made of the book or not. You can imagine my intrigue when I finally saw the film version of Iain Banks's Complicity, having already mentally cast each and every character to my own design. I suppose this is why we should always read the book first - we see the individuals depicted only as they are described and how the writer intended them to look (to the best of our ability); not just who was successful at audition.

Let me take the book I've just finished as an example; The Little Friend by Donna Tartt. Tartt's second novel tells the story of Harriet, a young girl whose brother, Robin, was murdered when she was a baby. Harriet takes it upon herself to find Robin's killer and ensure justice is done - her prime suspect being a local boy who knew her brother as a child. What unfolds is a detailed picture of life in southern America; racism; poverty; religion, and family.

Some of the most interesting characters in this book are the Ratcliffs; a group of brothers (Farish, Eugene, Danny, and Curtis) known for their criminal records and disruptive behaviour. The narrative comes to focus on Danny; perhaps the most misguided and tragic of the four. He is described as  "...underfed, tough, with bitten fingernails. He was little more than a teenager, not too tall or too clean, with sharp cheekbones and lank hippy hair parted in the middle, but there was a scruffy, mean-edged coolness about him like a rock star". Originally, I had Lukas Haas in mind to 'play' Danny. Namely because of the long hair, and he was the first person who sprung to mind because of his hick-ish role in Mars Attacks. But as his character developed and his vulnerability and waywardness became more apparent, I finally settled on Josh Zuckerman. I know him best for his role as Eddie in Desperate Housewives; he also made a childhood cameo in The West Wing in Isaac and Ishmael; the one-off episode at the beginning of Season 3.

Josh Zuckerman as Eddie in Desperate Housewives

To me, he is the perfect cute-but-troubled-young-man-who-lost-his-way. As Eddie in particular, he has a slightly unkempt and uneasy feel about him, yet is easy to sympathise with. He can also switch between sweet and threatening in an instant, which is ideal for Danny. Are you beginning to see the method to my madness?

Then there's Danny's older brother, Farish - very much the ringleader of the brothers, with very few redeeming qualities. For him, the choice was easy; Jason Lee. Again, a regular TV actor, most of us know him as Earl from My Name is Earl. Due to his often deep southern drawl, ability to pull off a handlebar moustache, and convincingly evil performance in Dogma, he was always going to be my Farish. Although physically very different - Farish is described by Tartt as "a gigantic, bearded guy, a bear of a guy...Long dark hair, streaked with gray, straggled down past his shoulders". - I don't believe one has to be big (or hairy) to be threatening. Lee emits a sort of cat-like cunning when playing a baddie, and I think this could work very well with Farish. His voice also fits perfectly with the dialogue; harsh, yet melodic, and unmistakably bluegrass when he wants to be.

Jason Lee as Azrael in Dogma (1999)

The third of the brothers I'd like to mention is Eugene - 'the preacher'. A born-again Christian, Eugene practices bizarre methods of worship, including attempted snake-taming. He is often depicted by Tartt as 'the creepy one', especially - no spoilers! - towards the latter part of the novel. For him, I picked someone slightly unusual and lesser known; Ryan Cartwright - a British actor whom I know best for a minor role in Mad Men. Again, this was just a gut instinct based on appearance - "He was running a nervous hand through his hair (which he wore greased back, in the vanished hoodlum style of his teen years)" - but this one stuck, and the more I read, the more perfect he seemed to be.  His character in Mad Men is sleazy, distant, and unsociable, and his mannerisms awkward and unnatural - "Though Eugene was rich in faith the Lord had not seen fit to bless him with charisma or oratorical skill; and sometimes the obstacles he struggled against...seemed insurmountable". OK - he's not American, but who gets through drama school these days without at least attempting an accent?

Ryan Cartwright in Mad Men

The final character I'd like to focus on is Edie; Harriet's no-nonsense grandmother. This one was very easy; Angela Lansbury. perhaps more in her Murder She Wrote days, I don't think Tartt could disagree that she'd make a perfect Edie. Throughout her astoundingly extensive career, Lansbury has honed her if-looks-could-kill poker face and sharp, to-the-point tones to disapproving grandma idealism. Even the way Edie dresses - "Her suit - nipped at the waist, with three-quarter-length sleeves - was very severe, stylish too in its old-fashioned way" - just screams timeless class to me. And isn't that our Angela all over? Matthew Bourne recently gave an interview in which he praised her very highly indeed, and I completely agree; she is everything that is right with British and American cinema past and present, and has moved with the times elegantly and admirably. Therefore, it could only be her to complete my semi-star-studded cast.

Angela Lansbury in full Jessica Fletcher mode

I could go on and on about how I'd cast Ruth Wilson as Charlotte - Harriet's jaded, forlorn mother who has lost her son and whose daughters must now look after her - and Jill Clayburgh as Gum (The Ratcliffs' weathered, doting grandmother who long took over as their mother), but I think you get the idea. Unfortunately, my two top contenders for Harriet - Dakota Fanning and Mara Wilson - are now both too old to play such a part. I also had a young River Phoenix in mind for her school friend Hely, but that presents a completely different obstacle.

So, if you don't already partake - maybe try creating your own 'fantasy cast' next time you start a new book. You might just surprise yourself. And when the film of The Little Friend comes out - and we all know it will - and some clever clogs has nicked all of my ideas...you heard it here first, folks.