Sometimes I get asked about dreamcasting my books and who would play my characters. I often don’t have good answers for this, because my characters are people in my head, vivid and alive, not actors. However, in my Twelve Kingdoms trilogy, I do have a pretty good idea of who would play each heroine and hero. With one exception.

In THE MARK OF THE TALA, Andromeda (“everyone calls me Andi”) is the middle princess and sees herself as invisible – the space between her unbelievably beautiful younger sister, Amelia, and her powerfully charismatic older sister, Ursula. But the important thing to remember about Andi is that she IS beautiful – in a quiet, dark and magical way. So I like Mila Kunis for Andi. She can be both unobtrusive and dramatic. For Rayfe, I admit the man in my head is very much like Loki as played by Tom Hiddleston in the Avengers movies. He’s got that brooding, sorcerous air, the aggressive determination and those hints of sweetness. You know when Loki has all that long black hair blowing around him? Yeah. That.

With Amelia in THE TEARS OF THE ROSE, it’s a bit more difficult to envision her. She’s the most beautiful woman in the Twelve Kingdoms and this is partly a divine and magical gift. Not quite human. So picking a human woman to represent her is difficult, but I see her as much like Isla Fisher. That color of red-gold hair for sure, along with that deceptively soft and pretty face. Ami has learned to be vain and frivolous – and later learns to use those ploys to her advantage – but she’s no empty-headed doll. For Ash, the White Monk, with his scars and healing abilities, I envision kind of a Kevin Spacey look – especially as he was in Pay It Forward. Maybe it’s the burn scars. It’s also that combination of lethal patience and innate gentleness.

In THE TALON OF THE HAWK, I see Harlan as much like Dwayne Johnson. Watching him in Hercules did it. Yes, yes – I know Harlan is very fair and Nordic, but if Dwayne did the movie, I’d totally vote for that change. Because he has everything else – the size, the muscles, the hardened warrior’s mien and the incisive intelligence no one expects from a guy who looks like that. It helps that Johnson is such a positive, supportive person in real life – exactly as Harlan is.

And now you know who I can’t quite give a known counterpart to: Ursula. Of course! Because Ursula is so much her own person. She’s tall, athletically slender, even to the point of being gaunt when she drives herself into the ground. Her nose is too hawkish and her jaw too strong for classic beauty, but her steely gray eyes are mesmerizing and the force of her personality shines through. She’s almost so much larger than life that a regular woman couldn’t play her. I dunno – any suggestions out there??

*previously published on Book-A-Holic Anon in 2015*