Who looks Amish to you?

Pat Davids here, wishing you a happy Oscar Day.

The Oscars are on tonight. Hollywood's grandest night. How fitting that our blog topic for this month is about turning our books into movies. In fact, we'd like you to pick the actors and actresses who will play your characters.

That's a problem for me. I don't have a sharp mental picture of who my characters are. They exist as dialogue in my mind more than as flesh and blood people. I don't see them. I hear them. The exception to that rule is Neal Bryant, my bull-riding hero from A Ranch for His Family. He appeared to me as a full-blown, drop-dead handsome cowboy with dark hair and a black eye patch. I can see him to this day with his slow, engaging grin that curls my toes. I see the way he tips his black cowboy hat and makes every woman feel like a lady. He's a young Tom Selleck or Sam Elliot.

However, my books these days are filled with Amish characters. When I say Amish hero, who pops into your mind? Amish heroine? I can't think of anyone famous who fits the bill.

What are your suggestions? Who would you pay to see in an Amish movie about loss, redeeming love, horses and buggies and sheep?

 

2 comments:

Rox Delaney said...

While it was about Quakers during the Civil War, not Amish, one of my favorite old movies is Friendly Persuasion with Gary Cooper. Yes, he's a tad too old in the movie to be a hero, so maybe it was his character that I liked so well. Then again, there's something about Gary Cooper--his quiet humor, maybe--that I've always been drawn to.

Harrison Ford comes to mind, too, thanks to his role in Witness, which is about the Amish, although he isn't Amish in it. ;)

Melissa Robbins said...

Levi Beachy is still my favorite of your Amish heroes and I think Robert Sheehan would make a marvelous Levi.