Friday, August 5, 2011

Leslie Daniels' "Cleaning Nabokov's House"

Leslie Daniels' stories have appeared in Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, The Florida Review, Gulf Coast, The Santa Monica Review and New Ohio Review. The Shooting Gallery in New York City produced her one-act play. She has been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize and for the Best of the Associated Writing Programs. From 2005 to 2010, she was the fiction editor for The Green Mountains Review.

Here she shares some ideas for casting a big screen adaptation of her debut novel, Cleaning Nabokov's House:
AAAhhhh you are asking me to casturbate in public! Yikes. OK, I think that the lead actress must be able to be funny, not in a light amusing way, darkly funny, the kind of woman who would make a joke out of anything; humor is her defense. She must also look plausibly down and out. So many of American movie stars are so polished it is hard to believe their lives as anything but enviable. The relationship between the two women would be very fun to act, like Julie & Julia. I think the pairing is key, and one must be older. I could see Susan Sarandon as the agent and Laura Linney as the protagonist. They are both wildly smart and independent, which is a key trait. The guy could be any number of actors, but I happen to love Sam Rockwell, he’s deadpan and sexy and odd. The ex-husband has to be someone who can play super uptight, maybe Stanley Tucci or Titus Welliver? Both are great. No, save Stan Tucci and Titus Welliver for the lawyers, and the ex-husband could be someone that people love to hate: Greg Kinnear, maybe. There are fun cameos for other parts: the mother, the male sex workers, the women sex clients.

My absolute favorite part to cast would be Rudy, the coach, and “a man of a certain age.” I would want Rainn Wilson, he would slay that role. Maybe he could take the part away from Robin Williams? Pass me a martini, I am on a roll.
Learn more about the book and author at Leslie Daniels's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Cleaning Nabokov's House.

Writers Read: Leslie Daniels.

--Marshal Zeringue