Gay Poems for Red States, a bestselling collection of narrative poetry about his childhood growing up queer in Appalachia.
Here Carver dreamcasts an adaptation of Tore All to Pieces:
Tore All to Pieces is a fragmented novel set in the imaginary town of Mosely, Kentucky. It has no single main character. And I’ll be damned if the first name out of my mouth for the film adaptation isn’t a sophisticated French twink: Timothée Chalamet.Visit Willie Edward Taylor Carver, Jr.'s website.
My first casting thought goes to Patrick, and it’s obvious to me I’d choose that Call Me by Your Name pretty boy. Patrick is young, queer, opening up, full of vibrato and hope. He thinks he’s beautiful, despite being conditioned to believe otherwise, and finally realizes he is worth something. Chalamet shows us passion for life in Call Me by Your Name, and he most recently proved to us all in Marty Supreme that he can get into the head of a character and find human DNA in conversational dialogue. I imagine him under a railroad bridge, pulse flying as trains shake the world like thunder. I can see his swaggering, drunken 3:00 a.m. calls for affirmation, swimming nude in a lake surrounded by hills and trees.
There are a lot of older women in Tore All to Pieces because I want to center people whose stories don’t get told. One of my favorites is a lunchroom cook named Wanda. She is no-nonsense, hard-working, and longs to be needed on her terms. Hollywood rarely builds movies around women who look like Wanda—so I went in a different direction from the bespectacled owl of a woman I imagine. I choose Kathy Bates. She isn’t how I picture Wanda, but she has the strength and love for other women this role needs. She can remake Wanda in a new form—with the transformative energy she gave us in Fried Green Tomatoes and the stoic endurance of Dolores Claiborne. Bates will translate the unspoken dignity. She could show you her soul while stirring up gravy.
If we’re honest, I don’t know how many American actors could pull off an eastern Kentucky accent. Luckily, Helena Bonham Carter isn’t American. I’d love to see her play Joyce, the Sunday School teacher. It doesn’t seem obvious, because Joyce would need to be played as earnest, devout, even sanctimonious. But inside is the constant threat of unraveling, one she avoids. Helena Bonham Carter has a gift for portraying women who are composed on the surface and volcanic underneath. She brought such tension to Princess Margaret in The Crown, and such frothing madness to so many other roles. She could find the unarticulated, but ever-present tick inside Joyce—in small glances, in airy movements, in muscles tightening.
The last one would be the most fun. I’d have to get Walton Goggins to play Jamie, my hair-brushing, drug-dealing character who is a savior of sorts. Jamie is a country femme and rolls hard, and Goggins could do that with his eyes closed. I mean, Vice Principals? The Righteous Gemstones? This is his bread and butter. He knows these men and he plays them with a flamboyant dignity. On top of the fun, he’s deadly serious when he needs to be. He just has this way of making you love every character even at their worst. Jamie is, at times, at his worst. But he deserves love, too.
The only hiccup is that we’d need to see Jamie played as a teenager, too. Whether they use computers, makeup, or get a teenage actor is something I won’t sweat. I wrote the book—my work is done. I’ll leave the aging tricks to the director. I just want Goggins in the role—and whatever they decide, he’s going to make it sing. In the right accent.
Q&A with Willie Edward Taylor Carver, Jr.
--Marshal Zeringue
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