Looking back through my journal, I was reminded of a prompt that asked us to cast the characters that appeared in one of the readings from Uncle Tom’s Cabin as actual celebrities. I didn’t choose that prompt at the time, because for whatever reason, I had a hard time creating visual images of UTC’s characters in my head and therefore struggled to envision them as real-life actors/actresses. My experience while reading Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo was the opposite, however. The characters seemed so vibrant and real that by the end of the book I had a pretty clear idea of how I thought they would look, move and sound. I would love to see these characters come to life and actually think Shange’s novel would make a great movie, so I decided to make it a fake IMDb page and assemble a cast that I think could do a great job of embodying and portraying such fascinating characters.
Indigo — Blue Ivy Carter. Her mom is Beyonce, so she definitely has the South in her. And at nine she’s already won a Grammy, which is pretty magical.
Cypress — Zoë Kravitz. She seems like the cool girl who does whatever she wants, and her dad is Lenny Kravitz so she probably has good rhythm for dancing.
Sassafrass — Jodie Turner-Smith. I haven’t actually seen any of her movies, but know she plays a loyal girlfriend in Queen and Slim.
Hilda Effania — Viola Davis. Based on her role in The Help, she would make an amazing loving mom that makes really good food (served with a side of advice).
Mitch — Michael B. Jordan. He proved he can play the villain in Black Panther and I think he would make such a good Mitch.
Leroy — Daniel Kaluuya. He has the type of kind face I imagine Leroy to have and has played characters with a lot of trauma, like Leroy.
Idrina — Lupita Nyong’o. She is captivating and graceful but could probably break someone’s heart, like Idrina broke Cypress’s.
Uncle John — Idris Elba. This one just seems right.
Questions:
- What sensory techniques does Shange employ to bring her characters to life and help us imagine them?
- Do you agree with this cast? Would you make any edits/suggestions?
Overall, I would 100% agree with this cast. Hannah does a great job at including every detail in each and every character, just as I saw them in the book. If this movie was created, it would be a wonderful piece of art.