Saturday, May 12, 2018

Stephen McCauley's "My Ex-Life"

Stephen McCauley is the author of The Object of My Affection, True Enough, and Alternatives to Sex. Many of his books have been national bestsellers, and three have been made into feature films. The New York Times Book Review dubbed McCauley “the secret love child of Edith Wharton and Woody Allen”, and he was named a Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture. His fiction, reviews, and articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Harper’s, Vogue, and many other publications. He currently serves as Co-Director of Creative Writing at Brandeis University.

Here McCauley shares some insight into casting the leads for an adaptation of his new novel, My Ex-Life:
I’ve had the very good fortune to have three of my seven novels made into movies. One here in the US—The Object of My Affection with Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd—and two others in France. In every case, the actors bore so little resemblance to the characters as I described them, it was hard for me to connect what was going on on screen with what I’d written. Not that I objected, just to say it confused me. Perhaps as a result of those experiences, I’m a little resistant to thinking of my characters in terms of actors. In the case of The Object of My Affection, the option was bought as soon as the book came out, and then it took eleven years to get it made. In that time, the producers kept changing who they wanted for the leads, depending on who had a hit movie or had won an award, not who resembled the characters I’d written. So using that logic, I’d say Frances McDormand for the female protagonist--she just won an Oscar and actually would be perfect--and Gary Oldman for the male lead. He just won an Oscar, too, and, come to think of it, also would be perfect. So maybe the producers knew what they were doing!
Visit Stephen McCauley's website.

Writers Read: Stephen McCauley.

The Page 69 Test: My Ex-Life.

--Marshal Zeringue