Pictures of cast chosen

The following are photos of the actors and actresses that I have chosen to play the characters in Crimes of the Heart:

Felicity Huffman as Lenny Magrath

Katherine Heigl as Chick Boyle


Mark Wahlberg as Doc Porter

Rebecca Gayheart as Meg Magrath

Rose McGowan as Babe Botrelle

Tom Cruise as Barnette Lloyd

Cast and Justifications

After listing the given circumstances needed to cast actors for each character in Crimes of the Heart and doing a character analysis for each character, I have chosen the following people to play the roles in Crimes of the Heart:

Lenny Magrath: Felicity Huffman
Chick Boyle: Katherine Heigl
Doc Porter: Mark Wahlberg
Meg Magrath: Rebecca Gayheart
Babe Botrelle: Rose McGowan
Barnette Lloyd: Tom Cruise


I chose Felicity Huffman to play the role of Lenny. I think that she would be a good person to play a motherly role because of her "motherly looks" and the fact that she is well known for playing a mother of three boys and a daughter on Desperate Housewives. Lenny is the oldest of three sisters and because they no longer have a mother, nor is there mention of a father, Lenny tries to take on the role of the mother for her sisters. I think that Felicity's role in this television series is very well played out and I think that she is a very good mother. Her role in Desperate Housewives involves a lot of frustration with her children, and like Lenny, she takes on a lot of responsibility to take care of her entire family. She has a bond with her family, just like Lenny has with her sisters, so I think that Felicity Huffman would be a great Lenny.

I chose Katherine Heigl to act out the role of Chick. The description of Chick in the script says that she has yellow hair and shiny, red lips. Katherine Heigl has both of these, so she fits my idea of what Chick would look like. I believe that Heigl would be able to play the role of someone who is worried about what the community thinks of her and she would be a good person to play someone who gossips and is in everyone's business. The different roles that she has played such as in Knocked Up and 27 Dresses make me sure Heigl is a sure choice to play Chick Boyle.

Mark Wahlberg is my choice to play Doc, In the script, Doc is described as someone who looks older than he really is and he has a quiet, seductive personality. Mark Wahlberg fits my picture of what Doc would look like. He is an attractively worn man and I believe that if someone was casting two people to be a couple (like Meg and Doc were), my choice of Wahlberg for Doc would go well with my choice for Meg. Wahlberg plays many serious roles, such of that Four Brothers and The Lovely Bones. Because of the serious roles that he has played, I think he would be able to portray Doc well since Doc seems to be a serious man that values his friendship with the three sisters.

To play Meg, I am casting Rebecca Gayheart. The main reason I have chosen her is because of her looks. To me, she fits my picture of Meg perfectly. For Meg, I see someone with long, blond hair, blue eyes, and a very pretty face. Rebecca Gayheart is a very attractive actress and I think that she could play the role of someone who leaves home to pursue a singing career in California. In the movie Jawbreaker, Gayheart played the role of a snobbish high school girl. Because of Meg's "loose reputation" in high school and the fact that in Jawbreaker, Gayheart's character, Julie, was the only one to break away from everyone, makes me believe that she would be a good Meg because her roles have called for some of the same kind of actions as Meg's in Crimes of the Heart.

Rose McGowan is who I have chosen to play Babe Botrelle. In the script, it describes Babe as having an angelic face and fierce, volatile eyes. I think that McGowan's look fits this description perfectly. When I look at Rose McGowan, I see Babe. I think that McGowan just looks like the type of actress that could play someone who would shoot their husband. She reminds me of the "bad ass" type, which is kind of how I pictured Babe. Again, McGowan also starred in Jawbreaker. Her role was a cold-blooded, high school girl that accidentally killed her friend and tried to get away with it. Because of the role she played in Jawbreaker, I think that she would be able to play Babe well - especially because they both committed a crime and are trying to get away with it, although in Crimes of the Heart is is not nearly as drastic as in Jawbreaker.

Last but not least, the actor I have cast to play the role of Barnette Lloyd is Tom Cruise. Barnette is a slender, intelligent young man and I believe Tom Cruise fits Barnette's physical description well. I also think, based on his roles in movies, that Cruise would be able to play someone who would make sacrifices of things that he has dreamed of for a long time for someone that he has not known very long but cares about enough to give up what he wants for her. I chose Cruise to play the lawyer based on his role in A Few Good Men. In this movie he played an exceptional lawyer and this is why I ended up deciding on him to play the role of Barnette Lloyd in Crimes of the Heart.

This is my cast for Crimes of the Heart. I am satisfied with who I have chosen to play what role and I think that through the given circumstances and character analysis', I have chosen (and justified) my chosen cast well enough for someone to understand my decision behind my casting.

Character Analysis'

Here are the character analysis' for each character in Crimes of the Heart. This is how I would describe each of the characters and I feel that this will help me in choosing a cast to better play these roles.

Lenora (Lenny) Magrath. Lenny, at the age of thirty, is the oldest of the three sisters. Her sisters have forgotten her birthday, only adding to her feeling of rejection. Lenny is frustrated after years of carrying heavy burdens of responsibility. Most recently, she has been caring for Old Granddaddy, sleeping on a cot in the kitchen to be near him. Lenny loves her sisters but is also jealous of them, especially Meg, whom she feels received preferential treatment during their upbringing. Meg has also been surrounded by men all her life, while Lenny has feared rejection from the opposite sex and become withdrawn as a result. She fears continuing the one romantic relationship, with a man named Charlie Hill from Memphis, which has gone well for her in recent years.

While almost continuously pushed beyond the point of frustration, Lenny nevertheless has a close bond of loyalty with her sisters. The sisters' cousin Chick is constantly criticizing the family (culminating in her calling Meg a "low-class tramp"); when Lenny is finally pushed to the point that she turns on her cousin, chasing her out of the house with a broom. This is an important turning point in the play by demonstrating the ultimate strength of family bonds - and their social value - in Henley's play.

Chick Boyle. Chick, the sisters' first cousin, is twenty-nine years old. She is a very demanding relative, extremely concerned about the community's opinion of her. When news is published of Babe's shooting of Zackery, Chick's utmost concern is how she's "gonna continue holding my head up high in this community." Chick is critical of all aspects of the Magrath's family and is always bringing up past tragedies such as the mother's suicide. Chick is especially hard on Meg, whom she finds undisciplined and calls a "low-class tramp," and on Babe, who "doesn't understand how serious the situation is" after shooting Zackery. Chick seems to feel closest to Lenny, and is genuinely surprised to be ushered out of the house for her comments about Lenny's sisters.

Doc Porter. Doc is 30 years old and Meg's old boyfriend. He is still known affectionately as "Doc" although his plans for a medical career stalled and eventually died after he was severely injured in Hurricane Camille. His love for Meg (and her promise to marry him) prompted him to stay behind with her while the rest of the town evacuated the storm's path. Many people now have the perception (as Meg and Lenny discuss) that Meg "baited Doc into staying there with her." Doc, who now has his own wife and children, nevertheless remains close to the Magrath family. Although Meg abandoned him when she left for California, Doc remains fond of her, and Meg is extremely happy to have his friendship upon her return to Mississippi.

Meg Magrath. Meg is the middle sister at twenty-seven years of age. As an eleven year-old child, Meg discovered the body of their mother (and that of the family cat) following her suicide. This traumatic experience provoked Meg to test her strength by confronting morbidity wherever she could find it, including poring over medical photographs of disease-ridden victims and staring at March of Dimes posters of crippled children. At the beginning of the play Meg returns to Mississippi from California, where her singing career has stalled and where, she later tells Doc, she had a nervous breakdown and ended up in the psychiatric ward of the county hospital.

The other Magrath sisters share a perception that Meg has always received preferential treatment in life. When Lenny ponders "why should Old Grandmama let her sew twelve golden jingle bells on her petticoats and us only three?" this is not a minor issue for her and Babe. The two sisters feel on some level that this special treatment has led Meg to act irresponsibly - as when she abandoned Doc, for whatever reason, after he was severely injured in the hurricane. Lenny is angry with Meg for lying to Old Granddaddy in the hospital about her career, but Meg states "I just wasn't going to sit there and look at him all miserable and sick and sad!" Both Babe and Lenny are concerned when Meg disappears with Doc her first night back in Mississippi. Both sisters, however - especially Lenny - are also protective of Meg, especially from the attacks of their cousin Chick.

Rebecca (Babe) Botrelle. Babe is the youngest Magrath sister at the age of 24. At the start of the play, she has shot her husband, Zackery, a powerful and wealthy lawyer. At first, the only explanation she gives for the act is the defiant statement: "I didn't like his looks! I just didn't like his stinking looks!" Eventually, she reveals that the shooting was the result of her anger at Zackery's cruel treatment both of her and of Willie Jay, a fifteen year-old African American boy with whom Babe had been carrying on an affair.

Babe makes two attempts to kill herself late in the play. After being rescued by Meg, Babe appears enlightened and at peace with her mother's suicide. Babe says she understands why their mother hanged the family cat along with herself; not because she hated it but because she loved it and "was afraid of dying all alone."

Barnette Lloyd. Barnette Lloyd, at the age of 26, is Babe's lawyer. An ambitious, talented attorney, Barnette views Babe's case as a chance to exact his personal revenge on Zackery. "The major thing he did," Barnette says, "was to ruin my father's life." Barnette also seems to have a strong attraction to Babe, whom he remembers distinctly from a chance meeting at a Christmas bazaar. Barnette is prevented from taking on Zackery in open court by the desire to protect Babe's affair with Willie Jay from public exposure. He is willing to make this sacrifice for Babe, and the play ends with some hope that his efforts will be rewarded.

Given Circumstances

As I did not realize that I needed to list given circumstances before casting actors, I am now going to do so and probably re-think my tentative cast. Here are the given circumstances that I feel that I need to cast someone who could play the role of the particular actor well. The given circumstances that I have listed mainly deal with what those characters look like - so this will help me in choosing a cast that will at least look the parts. After I do the character analysis for each character in the script, I will then be able to choose an actor based on what roles they have played in other such movies, plays, tv shows, etc. so they could play the role of whatever character well.

Lenny Magrath:
30 years old
Round figure and face
The oldest of three sisters

Chick Boyle:
29 years old
The sisters' first cousin
Yellow hair
Shiny red lips
Brightly dressed matron
Wears size extra petite stockings

Doc Porter:
30 years old
Attractively worn man
Has slight limp that detracts from his quiet seductive quality
Appears slightly older than what he really is
Married and has two children
Meg's old boyfriend

Meg Magrath:
27 years old
The middle sister
Chick says she had a loose reputation in high school
Has sad, magic eyes
Went to Hollywood to pursue singing career
Smokes cigarettes
Works for a dog food company

Babe Botrelle:
24 years old
The youngest sister
Always the prettiest and most perfect of the three sisters
Angelic face and fierce, volatile eyes
Lenny says she is out of jail on bail

Barnette Lloyd:
26 years old
Babe's lawyer
Slender
Intelligent
Has an almost fanactical intensity that he subdues by sheer will