Selective Collective: Casting Call of Love and Other Perishable Items

Welcome to the third installment of the Selective Collective, a collaboration with our Casting Call sisterhood: Brittany from The Book Addict’s Guide, Daphne and Kristina from Gone Pecan, Candice from The Grown-Up YA, and Tee from YA Crush. For December, we read “Love and Other Perishable Items” by debut author Laura Buzo. This round we were tasked with casting the novel were it ever to hit the big screen. I’ve decided only to cast the two main characters: Amelia, the 15-year-old supermarket checkout girl who falls fast and furious for her coworker, and philosophizing university student Chris, the 21-year-old object of her affection. Since the author is Australian and the book is set Down Under, I tried to find two Aussie actors, since American actors usually stink at perfecting foreign accents!

Love is awkward, Amelia should know.

From the moment she sets eyes on Chris, she is a goner. Lost. Sunk. Head over heels infatuated with him. It’s problematic, since Chris, 21, is a sophisticated university student, while Amelia, 15, is 15.

Amelia isn’t stupid. She knows it’s not gonna happen. So she plays it cool around Chris—at least, as cool as she can. Working checkout together at the local supermarket, they strike up a friendship: swapping life stories, bantering about everything from classic books to B movies, and cataloging the many injustices of growing up. As time goes on, Amelia’s crush doesn’t seem so one-sided anymore. But if Chris likes her back, what then? Can two people in such different places in life really be together?

Through a year of befuddling firsts—first love, first job, first party, and first hangover—debut author Laura Buzo shows how the things that break your heart can still crack you up.

 

 

 

Adelaide Clemens as Amelia
It was hard to find an Australian actress — other than Emily Browning and Mia Wasikowska — who can pass for an insecure, inexperienced teenager. Adelaide is not 15, but I love her Michelle Williams-esque look, and how emotive she is; I think she’d do a good job playing Amelia, who is trying to figure out what her newfound feelings for Chris mean. All of us have been there at one time or another, and it takes a slightly older actress to convey the depth of that first love, no matter how unrequited or age-inappropriate it might be  in the end. I couldn’t relate to Chris, but I sure could relate to Amelia and her all-consuming infatuation. 

James Frecheville as Chris
I don’t know how many of you have seen the brilliant 2010 Australian film “Animal Kingdom,” but James manages to hold his own as the young, naive protagonist opposite a cast of world-class Aussie actors like  Guy Pearce, Joel Edgerton and Jacki Weaver. He’s probably way too handsome to play Chris, and I have no idea how old he is (his character in AK was 17), but he is definitely up to the task of playing a scruffy uni student who’s so hung up over his ex-girlfriend he can’t properly gauge how to deal with his much younger coworker Amelia, who he finds appreciates but knows is way too young for him (well, most of the time).

Don’t forget to hop over to the rest of the Selective Collective:

• Roundtable discussion guide by Daphne and Kristina @ Gone Pecan
• Full review of the book by Candice @ The Grown-Up YA
• Author’s profile & giveaway by Brittany @ The Book Addict’s Guide
• Books with workplace relationships by Tammy @ YA Crush

 

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