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Oooh, I love this question! I’m a huge movie fan.Visit Mirta Ojito's website.
I didn’t think about actors when I was writing the book, but I did have images that inspired me. For example, for the two protagonists — Mara Denis and Catalina Quintana — I had pictures of what I wanted them to look like. With the picture of Mara, I cheated a bit. I used a photo of me circa 1992 that a friend took during a trip to Mexico. I was much younger then than the character I was writing about -a slightly cynical, deeply wounded journalist, who lost the love of her life at young age and was left alone caring for their child, a boy named Dylan. What I liked about the picture was that, in it, I look pensive and troubled, just like I imagined Mara to be.
The perfect actress for this role would be Juliette Binoche. Few actresses can convey as much inner turmoil as she does with the muscles of her face. It is a face that telegraphs pain and acceptance equally. And that is the Mara I created, a woman intent on unearthing a family secret so that she can understand her own life and conquer her fears.
The other protagonist is more complicated because she ages in the book. She is Catalina Quintana, the great grandmother Mara is looking for, and the keeper of a secret that haunted her family for generations. For inspiration I found a picture of a young woman with flowing red curly hair, which fit the description of the character, and kept it on my desk during the long years of writing. Two actresses would have to play her.
For the young, easily impressed, impulsive and stubborn Catalina, I’d say someone like Emma Stone, who looks far younger than her 36 years. For the older, resilient, strong but profoundly damaged Catalina...[read on]
My Book, The Movie: Deeper than the Ocean.
--Marshal Zeringue
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