After releasing both Fender and The Fifteenth of June, I had some fun by creating meet-the-cast blog posts. They were both done in good fun, of course, choosing celebrities who I thought would do a great job portraying the characters I’d created, in an imaginary film or television series…
When I set out to write The Afton Morrison Series—more specifically, the first book, Go Home, Afton—I went about things a bit differently. Instead of choosing famous people who I thought resembled my characters after the fact, I started by picking a stock photo to base each character on, in terms of their appearance.
Here are the stock photo models I selected:
Now, of course, there are some characters without visual representation here, such as Becca, Neil, Pete Albright, Al, Eric Conway, and The Man in Shadows. But these images are what I started with, and what I used as loose guidelines for descriptions of each character.
With Go Home, Afton having been released last week, I thought it might be fun to choose an actress who would do a compelling job of portraying Afton. The tricky part here is not just choosing a good fit to play Afton, but choosing someone who could double as “Animus” Afton, the morbid personification of her inner unrest.
Here are a few ideas:
Ritter is the obvious choice, I think. She’s no stranger to playing a loner and a badass vigilante. She has experience in action roles, and her aesthetic in Jessica Jones closely matches the description of Afton Morrison in the books. She is, however, a bit older than Afton (36), and certainly a lot taller (5’9″).
Ghost World came out about 17 years ago. In terms of a match to Afton, Birch’s portrayal of Enid was close where aesthetics and quirkiness are concerned. And somewhere between 5’3″ and 5’4″, Birch is close to Afton in height. It’s worth noting, however, that she, much like Ritter, is now 36.
Alexander is 34 and 5’9″ or so, and has experience kicking ass as Jane Doe on Blindspot. There are undeniable similarities in appearance between she and Afton, too.
Britch is 5’2″ (apparently) and 27. She has experience in action roles, plus she’s a dancer, and hence rather nimble. Did you see her portrayal of Juliet in S11E09 of X-Files? Britch certainly isn’t afraid of blood.
What do you think?
If you were to cast one of these four to play Afton, who would you pick?
[PLEASE VOTE!] Who would you cast to play Afton Morrison in a film or TV series based on GO HOME, AFTON? @Krystenritter @1107miss @JaimieAlexander or @CarlenaBritch? DETAILS HERE: https://t.co/uCf0R73FXT via @AuthorBrentJ
— Brent Jones (@AuthorBrentJ) July 3, 2018
This poll will remain open only for one week, so please invite your friends to vote, too.
UPDATE (July 10, 2018): The poll is now closed. Receiving more than half the votes, it seems most of you would like to see Krysten Ritter play Afton Morrison in a film or TV adaptation of Go Home, Afton. Thanks for voting!
Who would you cast to play Afton Morrison?Click To TweetPlease leave your pick, whether it would be one of these four talented ladies or otherwise, in the comments below.
I actually don’t know any of these ladies. When I read the book I think in my head I imagined the dark haired girl who played the ‘bad witch’ in the movie ‘ The Craft’, one of my fav movies… just Googled her, her name is Fairuza Balk but she now 44 years old, too old. However, I could imagine her dressed down as Afton. From these ladies here, for me Thora Birtch visually is a good fit.
Hi Kim,
Thanks for your input! I appreciate it.
When you mentioned The Craft, I immediately thought of Neve Campbell, who also happens to be 44 now.
Birch’s character in Ghost World, Enid, would be a good fit, huh? I haven’t seen that movie in years, but I remember Enid being kind of awkward and standoffish. That sounds a bit like Afton, doesn’t it?
Thanks for commenting.
—Brent
Neve Campbell, she’d be a good fit yes. Ya know, Afton to me came across as kind of confident(ish) in a hard to describe way. Her language and thoughts to me seemed like really she’s not a wall flower. Standoff-ish I would 100% agree, mysterious even but I never had Afton down as awkward in a timid way. She held a broken bottle to a grown man’s throat… when provoked, that chick is nuts. I like her.
I would love Krysten Ritter, but as you pointed out Brent, there is the height difference. So, I’m going with Carlena Britch. I loved her in Supernatural and as Juliet in The X-Files!
When I was reading Go Home, Afton I was actually envisioning Eliza Dushku from Buffy, Tru Calling, and The Dollhouse. I know at 38 she’s a little old for the part, but I think she looks younger than her age.
Funny enough, when I think of Eliza Dushku, I think of Bring It On.
As soon as I saw the opening scene of that episode of X-Files, I thought Britch would make an awesome Afton. Of course, that episode was one of the grossest of all time, with such copious levels of blood throughout. But that just speaks to another reason why Britch would be perfect to play Afton, right?
Twitter won’t let me vote in my own poll, but Britch would be my first choice, too.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Kim! I appreciate it.
—Brent