Hello My Imaginary Friends,
My publisher and cover designer asked me to send an ideal cast for my characters from Parasomnia.
I figured if I was going to do the work I could cheat and make it into a post.
Disclaimer: Authors do not cast movies. If this were to become a movie, I’d have no say on who plays these roles. Also, most of these actors are now much to old for the characters.
Parasomnia is the story of a group of people in an Institute dedicated to sleep disorders and the fantasy world they go to in their dreams. It’s their journey to accepting themselves and realizing that sometimes, it’s OK to be broken.
Adelaide
Parasomnia: Imaginary Friend
Actor: A young Christina Hendricks
She’s dedicated her life to discovering why she has an imaginary friend and why that imaginary friend can see and experience things independently.
She’s actually a group counsellor and not a patient at the Institute.
Kitty
Parasomnia: None
Actor: A young Christina Hendricks as a catgirl
Kitty is Adelaide’s imaginary friend. She looks exactly like Adelaide but more cat like. She’s curious and playful. (Also the reason fans of this blog are named Imaginary Friends.)
Ashley
Parasomnia: Night Terrors
Actor: A young Vanessa Hudgens
She’s the queen of geeks and uses her fandoms as a way of both filtering the world and making it easier to deal with.
Kiri
Parasomnia: Nocturnal sleep-related eating disorder
Actor: Auli’i Cravalho with a shaved head
Kiri suffers from two eating disorders. In her sleep she’ll eat anything, but awake she suffers from the reverse. She’s slowly trying to become her own person despite her mother.
I had pictured someone else while writing the book, but the moment I saw the actress I knew she was perfect.
Terrance / Tara
Parasomnia: Sleep Walking
Actors: Spencer and Abigail Breslin
Terrance has been verbally and physically abused by their hyper conservative family. They are terrified of who they are and it comes out as awkward machoism. In the dream world they are Tara, a strong and cable knight of the realm.
If I was really casting, I’d want this role to go to a Trans actor, but for visual reference I thought these two worked well.
Paul
Parasomnia: Pyrosomnia
Actor: Lucas Till
Paul is from a military family and wanted to serve, but due to his epilepsy, he couldn’t join the police. Instead, he trained and became a security officer. When his partner was killed in the line of action, he couldn’t forgive himself.
Bonus 1: Nurse Michael
Actor: Percy Daggs III
An extremely compassionate and hard working nurse, Michael takes care of the patients as if they were his own family.
Bonus 2: Prince Icelus
Actor: Nicholas Hoult
The mysterious and flirtatious prince in the dream world. He doesn’t seem to have an equivalent in the Institute.