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Gayle Forman interview: ‘Chloë Grace Moretz pushed out my mental image of Mia and became her’

As the movie version of If I Stay hits the screens, site member HelloitsHeath catches up with the book's author Gayle FormanCheck out this gallery of movie stills with inside info from Gayle ForemanWatch the trailer of If I Stay
  
  

Gayle Forman
Gayle Forman, author of If I Stay Photograph: PR

How much involvement did you have in the making of the If I Stay film?
I was an executive producer on the film, which can mean all sorts of things. In my case, it meant that I consulted with the director (RJ Cutler) and producer (Alison Greenspan) and the screenwriter (Shauna Cross) on drafts of the screenplay and other things they might have questions about. I also considered myself an ambassador between the filmmakers and the readers, who I've been hearing from for years. As such, I could communicate things like their favorite scenes and the bits from the book I knew were important to them. RJ, Alison and all the actors were making If I Stay the movie, which is a separate entity and piece of art from the book, but they were always very cognizant of the book's core readership. Which is wonderful. I was also on set for a few weeks, but that was more as a fly on the wall.

Can we expect a cameo from you in the film?
I didn't want to or plan to do a cameo but on my last day on set they were short on extras so the line producer and first assistant director and then the director of photography all sort of bullied me into being a woman sitting in the waiting room. If anyone can actually spot me, I will be shocked.

If I Stay is mostly Mia's inner monologue and memories. Were you apprehensive about how this would be transferred into film?
Not so much apprehensive as dubious. I didn't think anyone would want to make it into a film for those reasons, as well as the structure, which alternates between present tense (a lot of which is in Mia's head) and non-chronological flashbacks. I had no idea how they would structure that into a film. Luckily, that's where really good screenwriters come in.

Are Chloë Grace Moretz and Jamie Blackley similar to the Mia and Adam you imagined when writing and before the film was cast?
I knew Chloë's work and I knew how versatile an actress she was. (Once I was watching a movie on TV and after about a half hour I realized it starred Chloë – that's how much she disappears into her roles.) But there was a moment when she tweeted a photograph of herself from her first cello lesson. She happened to have dark hair at that moment, and then there was the cello, and she had this look of intense focus on her face: At that moment, Chloë pushed out my mental image of Mia and became her.

With Adam, I really had no idea how they would find him or who they would find. None of the young actors I knew really fit the bill (especially since filmmakers were insistent that the actor who played Adam could sing and play guitar.) The search for Adam was a three-continent hunt and when I finally saw the tape of Jamie's audition, I was just blown away. He was Adam. It was as if someone extracted Adam from my brain and animated him.

Music is a huge part of If I Stay – do you play any musical instruments yourself?
I don't. But I'm always flattered when people ask me that because it means I fooled them. I'm not a musician. I took piano lessons as a kid and I learned to play guitar in my teens but I have no proficiency. What I am is a huge music fan. Music has always been part of the emotional soundtrack of my life. When the character of Mia showed up, fully formed, as a cellist, it was a surprise because I knew nothing of the cello. But when I started listening to cello pieces, how emotional they are, and having that same emotional reaction to them, I realized maybe it wasn't such a surprise at all.

Any chances of a Where She Went film or an adaption of Just One Day?
Always a chance…

What YA books would you recommend right now?
There is so much good YA right now I hardly know where to start. I absolutely loved E Lockhart's We Were Liars, which came out this year. I won't say much about it, but I adored it. Maggie Stievfater is one of my favorite authors. Her writing is so deep and complex and she just gets better and better. I love David Levithan for the risks he takes. Ditto that for Andrew Smith. Carrie Mesrobian's Sex & Violence was a fantastic debut and I can't wait to see what else she writes. Jackie Woodson is fantastic and goes to deep and painful but also redemptive and true places. Melina Marchetta is probably my favorite contemporary YA author, no, make that contemporary author, period. Libba Bray's work is rich and funny and operates on many levels, and Beauty Queens should be required reading for all women. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein blew me away. Rainbow Rowell is a goddess. Stephanie Perkins, whose latest book Isla and The Happily Ever After comes out soon, is one of my favorites. Nina LaCour consistently writes these beautiful, human stories that stay with you. Nova Ren Suma and Jandy Nelson are both authors I am in awe of, and both have new books coming out (Jandy in 2014; Nova in early 2015). I could go on and on and on, obviously.

What projects are you working on now, that we can look forward to?
My next book, I Was Here, comes out in 2015. This fall, once all the movie hubbub dies down, I will sit down and figure out what book to write next. Or more likely, the right book will burble up.
That's usually how it happens.

What advice would you give your teenage self?
The advice I'd give to my teenager self, my teenage self probably wouldn't get it, but here it is anyway: Own yourself. Own who you are. Own what you like about yourself. Own what you don't like about yourself. Understand that sometimes the thing you can't stand about yourself is the flipside of what you admire about yourself (maybe you're bossy but also really capable). And find your people, the people you can be your true, authentic self with. Life is hard enough without having to cover up the person you truly are.

• If I Stay is out across the UK from tomorrow. You can buy the book from the Guardian bookshop. Check out the movie trailer here.

 

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