How to Get Cast in a Colleen Hoover Adaptation

“Regretting You” Courtesy Paramount Pictures

Each of Hoover’s adaptations was cast by different veteran CDs. Kristy Carlson (“Wonder Woman,” “Man of Steel”) cast “It Ends With Us,” while Nancy Nayor (“65,” “Barbarian”) cast “Regretting You.” Deborah Aquila (“Woman in Gold”), Jamie Ember (“Ginny & Georgia”), Ronna Kress (“Moulin Rouge!”), and Joseph Middleton (“Legally Blonde”) cast “Reminders of Him,” while Tiffany Little Canfield and Bernard Telsey of The Telsey Office (“Wicked,” “Only Murders in the Building”) were the CDs behind “Verity.”

With dynamic relationships at the heart of Hoover’s work, each role requires an emotional depth that can be hard to convey during the audition process. But Nayor knows what to look for in the room. “If an actor reaches a point where they really have tears in their eyes—for some actors it’s a technique and it’s a trick—but if you genuinely feel that intensity and that depth for the right scene, that tells me that person can get to that place,” she told us. 

As CD Carlson told us, casting the lead role of Lily Bloom in “It Ends With Us” was an important undertaking. Passionate fans were definitely going to have their opinions, so the team had to get it right. “There were expectations,” she said. “We asked ourselves if there were physical traits that people were really expecting—like age, gender, and ethnicity—for the main characters. Other traits were subject to interpretation and flexibility. For Lily, when she opens the flower shop, her life is really starting, and she’s putting herself on this path and getting into this relationship with Ryle. But she’s not so far along that she doesn’t have the ability to change.”  

Carlson continued: “We were focused on established actresses, and we liked Blake early on. She has this great combination of strength and independence and vulnerability. There’s this emotional arc to the movie, because Lily starts off as a pretty strong and independent person. She doesn’t become a victim, but her character is authentic. Blake could pull off all those characteristics.”  

Meanwhile, “Regretting You” producer Anna Todd advocated for Franco’s casting. “There’s something about casting. I don’t know. I feel like my gut—knock on wood—is usually on point,” Todd told TV Insider. “When I first brought up Dave, they were like, ‘I don’t know,’ because he doesn’t really sound like a romance guy. He really hasn’t done many. And I’m like, first of all, he should be. And if I were his agent, he would be.” 

She added: “I thought we should at least try to have him read the script. Again, he’s very selective with what he does because he makes very strategic choices. [Director] Josh [Boone] has a relationship with him, so it worked out perfectly. But I was wondering how people were going to take it online because he’s not who you would first expect. But once you think about it and see him and think about him being a teacher in a classroom, I knew he was perfect for it.”  

Director Vanessa Caswill told Deadline the “Reminders of Him” cast was a “beautiful ensemble” that she helped bring together. “It did feel like a found family when we were making it—super collaborative, creative,” she said. “I was on board for the casting process from the very beginning. Of course, the main person that we needed to find was our Kenna, and Maika Monroe is so perfect for the role. She’s so talented and alive in the moment, and she goes to very vulnerable depths within herself to draw out the stuff that Kenna needs to in certain scenes.”   

She continued, “What I love about her, and what I think is really unique about her and so right for this role, is she can be cool and aloof. Or, in Kenna’s case, she needs to be hard. She’s just come out of prison, and she’s got all these protective walls up and these masks. But as they start to peel away, as these layers come down, there’s so much vulnerability and warmth in her, and she’s so lovable, and she holds both of those things with equal balance, and so brilliantly. I think that’s very hard to do.” 

Hoover has had a hand in casting these adaptations. When asked about developments on the “Verity” front in 2024, she told “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” viewers they were about to begin actor talks. For the three leads, the team sought to bring in big-name actors instead of turning to auditions to cast the roles. Thus, she was given a hefty list of names to consider ahead of time. The role ultimately went to Hartnett. 

Do what makes you happy: Having grown up in the business, Johnson recognizes the value of balancing work and life, especially for child actors. “[My childhood was] normal kid stuff. ‘Can I go out?’ ‘Leave me alone.’ But some kids are really good kid actors, and we need kids in movies and shows, so I feel like, do what your heart wants. If you feel like going outside and playing, then do that. If you feel like being on a movie set, then do that,” Johnson told us. “But don’t be forced into anything you don’t want to do when it comes to being a human. Obviously, your parents are going to tell you what to do, but the part of parents forcing their kids to work if they don’t really want to, just because they’re super cute or something, that fucking kills me. I hate that. But then there are some kids who just love it and just want to be there all the time, and I’m like, ‘Go for it, dude. Run like the wind.’ ”

Be fully present: Hathaway skyrocketed to stardom when she landed the lead as Mia Thermopolis in “The Princess Diaries” (2001). While filming the movie, she got advice from its director, Garry Marshall. “You have absolutely no control over how a project is going to be received. You don’t know if it’s going to make money or flop. You don’t know if you’ll love it or the critics will hate it. You don’t know if the critics will love it, but you’ll hate it,” Hathaway told us. “The only thing that you have control over is the time you have making the project. So I would just sit down with myself and explain that, when you’re an actor, the line between your life and your career—it’s a blurred one, because you’re living so many hours at your job. This is your life, too. And these are the people of your life, even if it’s temporary or transient or any of those things. So be fully present in that aspect of it as well.”

Develop your unique skills: Before Williams nabbed her breakout role as Marnie on HBO’s “Girls” in 2012, she put herself out there by creating online content with fellow entertainers. As luck would have it, “Girls” co-creator Judd Apatow saw one of her videos and cast her. That’s why, she told us, much of the process depends on timing. “There’s no trajectory to follow. Even if you were to say, ‘OK, I’m going to model my ascent based on this other person’s,’ luck and timing play such a big part that it’s really futile,” she said. “So the key is figuring out what skills you have that other people don’t. Chief among those are your personal experiences and your face and body and voice—those are things that no one else shares. So think about that, and then think about who you know around you that’s also creative in other roles.”

Grow a thick skin: Monroe has enjoyed success since her breakout role in “It Follows” (2014), but even she admits that auditions are tough. “Auditions are so weird. You hope to get to go into a room and [find] it’s a cool casting director who is enjoyable to read with. You’ve got to go into an empty office space and give it your all. It’s very bizarre,” she told us. “I’ve tried to remember and learn that so much goes into making a decision [to cast] an actor,” Monroe added. “Sometimes I do, but I try, for the most part, to not let it get to me. It’s a hard industry to not take personally when you’re told no a million times before you’re told yes.”