It’s a tried and tested route – you start off in TV, which helps land you a major role in a summer tentpole flick, and then to prove your acting credentials, you go indie and do something a bit more challenging, in the hope people will take you seriously as an actor. It’s definitely the way Blake Lively’s going, having found fame in Gossip Girl, taken the female lead in this summer’s Green Lantern and now, according to Variety, signing up for Hick.
She’s obviously hoping it’ll stop people thinking of her just as a Gossip Girl socialite, saying, “It’s completely different [from Gossip Girl]. I play a mother of a 13-year-old, a southern woman who’s also a meth addict. So it’s pretty different.” Yep, we’d agree, that is pretty different from the teen angst and soap opera drama of over-priviledged teens. The role was going to be played by Kirsten Dunst, however a production delay has meant the part has had to be recast (it was originally meant to shoot late last year)
It’s a supporting role in the flick, with Chloe Moretz playing a rural Nebraska girl, Luli, who gets more than she bargained for when she runs away when her hick family abandons her and she heads to Los Angeles, meeting numerous unsavoury characters along the way. Both funny and very dramatic – in Andrea Portes’ book, Luli’s life of the road involves her becoming an accessory to a robbery as well as getting raped and tied up in a motel.
Also signing up for the flick is Eddie Redmayne, who’ll play a loner who hooks up with the runaway and causes her no end of suffering, as well as having a past with Lively’s character.
To be honest, I can’t say the movie sounds like it’ll be a whole lot of fun, despite reports the film will try and transport the book humour to the big screen, but perhaps director Derick Martini (Lymelife) can inject enough spark that it won’t just be a giant drag.