SHE
This week, Kat Bouska asked, “Who would you cast in the role of your parents in a movie about your life?”
It’s Mother’s Day weekend, so I thought about suggesting who would play my mom in a movie about our life. I came up blank, and the Star By Face celebrity lookalike app only came up with a 30% match at best for this picture:
(The 30% matches were Susanne Klatten and Elizabeth Taylor. Klatten isn’t an actress and Taylor is deceased, so I guess they’re out anyway.)
Even if it had come up with a 100% match, I probably would have disagreed. Appearance is such a small part of what made my mom unique.
If I had asked my mom who should play her (when my mom was alive), I can almost hear her response: “Oh, my life just wasn’t interesting enough for anyone to play me. There’s no story there.”
But we all have stories, and she would have (as usual) sold herself far short.
The actress playing my mom would need these qualities, to name a few:
She would need to portray humility and a deep sense of service to others.
She would need to be able to demonstrate a wide spectrum of the emotions a woman goes through in her lifetime. (She was never diagnosed, but I am 99% certain my mom was clinically depressed at several points in our life together. I write that lovingly — dealing with that probably drove much of my orientation toward mental health.)
At her funeral, her former boss (a pastor) compared her to a “worker bee,” talking about how she was always flitting around getting things done. He would have a project he needed her to do and she would virtually have it done before he finished explaining it. Although she was incredibly competent, I never saw her industriousness as the “flitting” type. She got things done without pointing out to others how much of the load she was carrying.
My mom did have a story. No actress could really portray her, no matter how much they were paid. Looking back, I wish I had more opportunities to tell her what a treasured, original human being she was.
Welcome to this week’s Five Minute Friday. Our instructions, via coordinator Kate Motaung: “Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation.” (But I can’t resist spell checking, as you can imagine.)
Wife of one, Mom of two, Friend of many. My pronouns are she/her/hers.
Oh, she sounds wonderful, Paula!
And what a question! Who to get to portray my mother? It would take five actresses, I’m sure. Just like it would have taken five women to fill her shoes!
I feel exactly the same way.
I never think in terms of who would play anyone so I would be at a loss, too!
I hear ya!
I could not come up with anyone for that prompt either. No one else is Mom! You certainly had a good one.
I see this question often and/or see people fantasizing about who would play them. They usually pick someone famous and beautiful (Kate Winslet, Reese Witherspoon, etc.). There are so many incredible actors at the regional level who don’t have national cred — who could probably do just as well. It’s an interesting thing to think about.
Your mom sounds lovely! How interesting to be able to look back and recognize what she might have been going through. That must have been challenging for her at the time with all of her responsibilities.
She really was (lovely). And yes — she carried a lot of weight in many ways. A true original.