How to Get Cast in a Colleen Hoover Adaptation

From her 2012 debut, “Slammed,” to her latest novel, “It Starts With Us” (2022), Hoover has published 26 books so far. Hoover’s 2016 bestseller “It Ends With Us” was her first title to be adapted for the big screen. Released in 2024, the film starred Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Brandon Sklenar, and Jenny Slate. 

“Verity”—which will star Anne Hathaway, Josh Hartnett, and Dakota Johnson—tells the story of ghostwriter Lowen Ashleigh (Johnson) as she works to finish Verity Crawford’s (Hathaway) novels, per the request of Verity’s husband, Jeremy (Hartnett), while the author remains in a coma after an excruciating car accident. But as Lowen becomes more involved in the process, she soon discovers there’s more to the Crawfords’ story.

“Regretting You” will star Allison Williams and Mckenna Grace as Morgan and Clara Grant, respectively, a mother-daughter duo who must navigate an increasingly tense relationship amid the unexpected death of Morgan’s husband and Clara’s father, Chris. Dave Franco will also star as Jonah, Morgan’s love interest.

Meanwhile, “Reminders of Him,” which does not yet have a cast attached, follows Kenna Rowan, mom of a four-year-old daughter, as she returns to society after five years in prison. While everyone in Kenna’s life is set on icing her out, bar owner Ledger Ward offers the support Kenna needs to get her life back on track.

Although the casting directors for “Reminders of Him” and “Verity” aren’t yet known to the public, we do know Kristy Carlson (“Wonder Woman,” “Man of Steel”) cast “It Ends With Us,” while Nancy Nayor (“65,” “Barbarian”) is attached to “Regretting You.”

With dynamic relationships at the heart of Hoover’s work, each role will require a certain 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,” she said in an interview with Backstage, “but if you genuinely feel that intensity and that depth for the right scene, that tells me that person can get to that place.”

“It Ends With Us” Credit: Jojo Whilden

As CD Carlson told us, casting the lead role of Lily Bloom in “It Ends With Us” was an important undertaking, as passionate fans were clearly going to have their opinions, so the team had to get it right. “There were expectations,” she noted. “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 Swooon. “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 are 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.”

While there aren’t any active public casting calls for future Hoover adaptations, Backstage has featured a number of relevant listings in the past. From a featured pre-op patient and nude body double for “It Ends With Us,” to twins and a female foot double for “Verity,” there has been no shortage of opportunities. 

Keep in mind that knowing where a film is shooting is also helpful for getting cast, as most productions look for local talent (especially when casting for extras). “Regretting You” is set to start filming in Atlanta this spring, and “Verity” already began filming in New York City in February. We suggest bookmarking our main casting page, which is updated regularly with the latest available casting calls for both background and featured roles.

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.” While filming the movie, she learned the best 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 said to Backstage. “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. So 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, creating a perfect storm of events that led to Williams getting cast. That’s why, as she told us, much of the process depends on timing—all you can control is what you bring to the table. “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.”