Ellen Goodlett's "Rule"

Ellen Goodlett writes science fiction because otherwise she would spend her days plotting to take over the world. She figures that the former would benefit humanity ever so slightly more than the latter (which would be disastrous and involve a lot of cats in government positions). She lives in New York City with two demons masquerading as felines. She is a proud graduate of Bryn Mawr College and a Pittsburgh expat.

Here Goodlett dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Rule:

I am terrible at mentally casting movies, so I’ll just preface this whole post with that. But one of my first friends who read and fangirled over Rule told me in her head she’d cast the three narrators’ father, King Andros, as Idris Elba the whole time, and after that, I couldn’t resist trying to cast my three protagonists, at least for my own sake.

I don’t watch a lot of TV, so to start with I tried googling actors. That never really works out, though. But I caught a lucky break when I went to watch Solo in theaters. At the very end, a girl came on-screen (no spoilers about her role in the movie, I promise), and I actually gasped aloud in the theater, because I was like, that’s Akeylah.

Akeylah is my quiet sister, the one who’s usually in the background. But don’t mistake her quiet for ignorance or acquiescence. In reality, she’s the one who often has the best suggestions. She doesn’t speak often, but when she does, you’d better listen, because she’s figured out what’s actually going on. If I had a say in it, Erin Kellyman would play her in the movie adaptation of Rule (or, you know, more realistically these days, in the Netflix original series…).

As for Ren, she’s always been Zendaya in my mind. She’s tall, graceful, put-together, and the most articulate and made-for-court of any of the sisters. She knows how to dress to impress, how to say just the right thing at the right time to get what she wants, and most of all, she always keeps her eyes on the prize.

Zofi was the most difficult to cast. She’s the outspoken sister, the blunt one who doesn’t abide by court rules (or anyone’s rules, really). But she has a big heart under that tough coating—especially when it comes to anyone she decides to call family. She’ll do anything for them. The closest actor I’ve found who strokes me as Zofi-esque is Ashleigh Murray from Riverdale, but it’s still not exactly the right fit.

And finally, because I can’t resist, for Rozalind, my favorite secondary character, I’d cast Aeriél Miranda (yes, from Pretty Little Liars, which is the show we used as a comp title for Rule. But, confession time: I’ve never actually seen the show. Just a lot of clips of Aeriél since one of my friends mentioned she was picturing her as Roz).

Visit Ellen Goodlett's website.

--Marshal Zeringue