Sami Ellis's "Dead Girls Walking"

Sami Ellis is a queer horror writer who’s inspired by the horrific nature of Black fears and the culture’s relation to the supernatural. When she’s not acting as the single auntie with a good job, she spends her time not writing.

Check out her words in the Black horror anthology, All These Sunken Souls.

Here Ellis shares some insight for her idea of the actor for a screen portrayal of the protagonist of Dead Girls Walking, her debut novel:

It's not easy to cast a YA book because actors can often be - frankly, old. It's so common that it's a meme at this point, thirty-somethings playing high schoolers. So, unfortunately, I don't have a real actor in mind.

However, while I was revising Dead Girls Walking, I did hold one particular performance close to my heart. Gabrielle Union's performance in Deliver Us from Eva is funny, vulnerable, and scathing all at once. She's the angry girl with a soft core, gorgeous smile, and unshakable principles that is somehow both effortlessly likeable and mean as a snake. Watching the film, you can see exactly why everybody hates her - but I didn't.

Temple's spirit came from that very performance. I wanted to get that voice right, someone who's vengeful and quippy all at once, full of one-liners and mirth...but will cut you if you piss her off.

If you read Dead Girls Walking, you will absolutely see the similarities between the two women. They're both fiercely family-driven, but act out because of the things they've been through. And once they realize that there are people out there that care for them, they realize who they were before had hurt others. And then, after learning, they correct themselves.

Gabrielle Union played those turns in Eva's personality perfectly and winningly. That's why - if this was 30 years ago - I would want nothing more than for her to play Temple Baker. As it stands, though, I'm satisfied with it just being in my imagination.

Visit Sami Ellis's website.

--Marshal Zeringue