Casting Call

I’ve often wondered who would play me in my own life movie.  Granted, the answer should be, “Me!” but if I was to have some event happen in my life that was to be written into a screenplay and then made into a major motion picture, I would certainly need to be cast.

Ideally, I would choose someone like Monica Bellucci, Sophie Marceau, or Rosamund Pike. Just like anyone else would do, I would want a physically ‘beautiful person’ to represent me (and let’s face it, they look nothing like me, and all the really beautiful ones are dead…). The studio, however, would probably cast a Nikki Blonksy, Rebel Wilson, or Melissa McCarthy. Perhaps they’d even consider Kathy Bates (a great actress, but you get the idea). (p.s. Dear Family, don’t even suggest Ms. Bullock…!)

So maybe a movie about me isn’t the best idea.  

How about a movie already made that best represents my life? Have you ever given that a thought?  Or how about a movie that you wished best represented your life?  There again, a tough call.  It would be easy to choose a fantasy or science-fiction film where you could be Princess Leia, Queen Amidala, Arwen, or Lyssa, (speaking to the female readers – guys, you’ll have your own set), but even then there are hardships that perhaps you would choose to not endure.   Any fairytale would strictly be out of the question, as I really don’t feel like having a dragon breathe fire towards me or have any witch attempt to feed me a poison apple!

Every movie has conflict, otherwise we wouldn’t watch.  Even the most gentle of Walt Disney live-action films has some sort of conflict.  It needs to exist in order for us to see the resolution of that conflict, see a better self, a changed person, or come to the conclusion that a particular solution is not always a good or better one.  With that said, taking the good with the bad and visa-versa, what movie says, “me,” or “you”?

Is it your favorite movie?  Is it a movie that you idealize in your own mind?  As I reveal my favorite films in a few of the last weeks of this year, my favorite films might not always find me in them.  As I child, I thought I would have loved to live during the “old west” / westward movement days. But as time went on and I learned of the hardships these amazing people faced, I realized I would have high-tailed it back to Boston within the first hour of travel! 

Is my life movie a comedy or drama?  Does it deal with the deepest heart-felt emotions, or does it just make me laugh and realize that life is a ‘joy ride’ at best?  Is my life movie a black and white classic or is it a contemporary box-office hit? Or maybe it is even an independent film that never graced a nation-wide screening and went straight to home dvd?  Why do these movies that I love elicit my devotion?  

And why do they make me cry, laugh, search myself, and watch again and again?  I know these are rhetorical questions, but they roll around in that space between my ears every now and then.

I don’t have the answer yet.  I have never watched a movie and said, “That is my life!”  I hope that no single film does that to me - ever, as then it really should be me on the screen.  But to find similarities and nuances of my life makes me connect.  It provides a bond to me and me to it. And, should there ever come a day when I can get that story from my life on paper, perhaps I will say, “Now that is my life!”