I’m sitting on the couch working on a script that’s due, waiting on the phone to ring with some work-related answers, including the latest on how the film rights are going for You Take It From Here. I’m flattered and relieved that there’s interest. Things are moving forward (yet creeping along).

One of the questions I’m inevitably asked about a project, and one that I always dread, is about casting. I’m always asked, “Who do you see playing this role? What’s your dream cast?”

I don’t mind the writing, the outline, the pitching, the waiting. But since it’s always such a long shot that anything would ever get the greenlight, I long ago stopped trying to mentally cast things in my head. Why get myself even more hopeful for something that probably won’t/can’t happen? I’m always so grateful and happy to hear when an actor or actress is interested in a property or attaching to a project, and I think it’s an effortless happy partially because there’s no name or face to knock off my dream list for that person to stand there.

But it poses a problem, like I’m having right now, when I’m asked on a phone call or in a meeting, “Who do you see playing these parts?” Because they’re not asking to find out how I’d play a Barbie DreamHouse version of my script. They’re asking to find out if there’s box office appeal, if there’s an actress or an actor who’s got heat who would make this project more interesting to buyers. They’re asking so that they can get reassurance that this could be a movie or a show that people would want to be in which would make people want to pay to make it because they believe people would pay to see it.

And I’m never ready with that answer. Part of it is because I don’t have the skill some of my friends, like Tara, have where they can list off all these names and faces as I’m scrambling through the IMDB trying to figure out who the heck that person is. For years if I didn’t know who that person was, in the end, he or she was usually on a show on the CW. I’m not proud of this weakness; I just don’t seem to have all the actors in my head anymore that I used to. This Pop Culture Princess has definitely given up her crown. I need help.

For those of you who read the book, especially those of you who wrote to ask/hope for a movie adaptation, I’m asking you the question I get asked: Who would you cast? Who would you love to see take on the small, sassy role of Smidge? Someone out there already asked me/demanded that I make sure Chris O’Dowd plays Tucker, which — see, I would never even think to list him, but that’s a decent idea. I’m going to get asked again, and I’m hoping next time I won’t sound so clueless.

So if it sounds fun to you, please put on your best Hollywood game face and cast this movie in the comments below.

(I’ll be nearby with the IMDB so I can see the face of who you’re talking about.)

And people, fingers crossed, let’s hope one day soon we get to make your dream cast come true.