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Casting Call: Prep

The soulless, manipulative, beautiful, wealthy, popular blonde girl—every high-school movie has to have one. Prep's queen bitch: Aspeth Montgomery, whom we think should be played by AnnaSophia Robb.

Sasha M'baye is not an actor; he's a Burberry model. Should Mr. M'Baye decide to follow the well-traveled model-to-actor path, we think that he'd be great as the popular basketball player (yes, yet another high-school movie character stereotype) Darden Pittard.

 

Cross Sugarman, the prettiest boy in school and the subject of Lee's yearning fantasies. On the surface, Cross has everything: good looks, popularity, wealth, and a fittingly silly name. Lee learns the hard way that, while Cross is attracted to Lee, she will never be more to him than a hookup, booty call, "secret sex friend." It's a very dismal, bitter cloud with one silver lining: time does not treat Cross well, and he ends up a balding, boring, middle-aged yuppie. We nominate the very pretty Scream 4 alum Nico Tortorella to play Cross.


Photo by Gregory Harris. Interview, March 2011.

An equally important high-school movie staple is the popularity-seeking, wealthy, average-looking, not entirely evil girl, who serves as a minion to the aforementioned queen bitch. Prep's equivalent is Lee's freshman-year roommate, Dede. She has her kind moments, and eventually breaks free from her queen bee, gets a nose job, and becomes a lawyer. We nominate Allie Grant, who was wonderful as Elizabeth Montgomery's precocious daughter on Weeds.

 

Martha is Lee's one true friend, the bosom buddy that helps her get through four years at Ault. Martha is sensible (she warns Lee not to carry on with Cross), and smart (she gets voted prefect and becomes a university Classics professor). We'd love Vera's little sister and American Horror Story star Taissa Farmiga to tackle the role of Martha.


Photo by Gregory Harris. Interview, September 2011.

Like every angsty teenaged character, Prep's protagonist Lee Fiora is occassionally compared to Holden Caulfield. If we are honest, Holden Caulfield is much more endearing, especially in his self-destruction. Lee's pretty, but too uncomfortable with herself and introspective (whiny) to be the high-school hottie. The sort of part often played by Kristen Stewart. It's getting harder to believe Kristen as a 14-year-old, so we are going to cast rising star Shailene Woodley, best known for her role as George Clooney's daughter in The Descendants.


Photo by Gregory Harris. Interview, September 2011.