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I can never see real people as my characters until I’m done creating them—I suppose I prefer to make the actors fit the characters rather than the other way around—so I didn’t start thinking about the casting for When She Woke until I was doing final revisions in early 2011.Learn more about the author and her work at Hillary Jordan's website and blog.
The book is set in an unspecified near future and centers on a young woman named Hannah Payne, who begins the story as a beautiful, innocent, sheltered evangelical Christian. But after she has an illicit affair with a married minister, she becomes pregnant and has an abortion, for which she is convicted of second-degree murder and “chromed,” her skin turned lurid red to mark her for her crime, and then released to survive as best she can in a hostile world. The novel chronicles Hannah’s ordeal as a stigmatized woman and her journey toward freedom and self-agency. The actress who plays her has to have enormous range; must be able to project innocence and carnality, fear and courage, vulnerability and strength, shame and pride. She also has to be beautiful enough to look attractive with fire-engine-red skin for most of the movie, which few women are! When I saw Natalie Portman in Black Swan I thought, bingo. I could also see Carey Mulligan, who was amazing in An Education, Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis or...[read on]
The Page 69 Test: Mudbound.
My Book, The Movie: Mudbound.
The Page 69 Test: When She Woke.
My Book, The Movie: When She Woke.
--Marshal Zeringue
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