Calling Central Casting: "Out out damned spot"

HALLIE EPHRON: I was so excited to see that one of the Coen Brothers is putting together a movie based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth starring… wait for it… Frances McDormand and Denzel Washington. I am bereft that it will stream on Apple TV (I may have to subscribe  long enough to watch it.)

But what a pairing!



Lady Macbeth is surely one of the juiciest roles ever created for a ‘mature’ woman, right up there with Cruella de Vil and Miranda Priestly and Annie Wilkes. Scenery-chewing roles!

So this got me thinking about the other pairs that have brought Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to the stage and screen.

There was Dame Judi Dench who co-starred with Sir Ian McKellen. Helen Mirren who partnered with Nicol Williamson. Vivien Leigh who played the role opposite her then-husband, Laurence Olivier.

Which got me thinking: who would I love to see play Lady Macbeth? My 3 nominees:
Glenn Close
Kate McKinnon
Viola Davis

You’d get very different interpretations, that’s for sure.

How do you feel about Lady Macbeth, and who would you like to see play her. Extra points: opposite whom as MacBeth?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: How about Nicola Walker as Lady MacBeth, and Benedict Cumberbatch as MacBeth? Would that be totally awesome?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I think--and stay with me here…. Taylor Swift as Lady Macbeth. Updated, she’s gorgeous and manipulative, and it would totally work. Then get maybe..David Tennant to be Macbeth. Edgy, and sharp, but smitten. Or...I am watching the new Mosquito Coast, which I’m loving, and I know I’m supposed to know Justin Theroux (who’s in it) but I didn’t, but I think he could really do it. So they’re younger .

Otherwise--Annette Benning. Ooh. That would REALLY work. Can’t you SEE that???

RHYS BOWEN: I second Glenn Close. I’d add Kristin Scott-Thomas.

How young do you think they were? I picture him young and a little naive but ambitious. A younger Kenneth Branagh might also have included a younger Emma Thompson. You can either play her powerful and terrifying or quieter and manipulating I once saw an avant-garde play called Macbeth,Medea and Cinderella in which three stories run simultaneously and I believe Kady Macbeth ended up with Jason!

JENN McKINLAY: Olivia Colman! I’ve had such a crush on her since Broadchurch and The Crown. She brings just the right amount of crazy to the part. What about Colin Firth to play opposite? How old is he now? Too old? I second Rhys’s Kristin Scott-Thomas - her cameo in Fleabag, a show everyone should see, was superb.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I’ve been binge-watching THE EXPANSE, a wonderful science fiction show with five seasons (the last one is promised!) and some amazing characters. One of them would make a perfect Lady MacBeth - Sohreh Aghdashloo. She was nominated for an Oscar for her role as the matriarch of a refugee Iranian family in HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG, and she is perfect for characters who can be both aristocratic and capable of stabbing you in your sleep. Here are some moments of her performance as UN Secretary General Chrisjen Avasarala (warning: language!)

HALLIE: So many talented women we'd like to see navigate the sholes of blind ambition and guilt. Who would you like to see in the role? Extra points: paired with whom?

What's Your (Creative) Type?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  How did you think of that? Where did that idea come from? How often have we wondered about that or been asked that? How often have we tried to untangle and understand our own thought processes? How do the successful people do it?

Those of us who do something creative—writing, or painting, or music, whatever it is—why are we the ones who feel compelled to do so?  If we understood our own creativity, could we-- be better at it?

The brilliant Meta Wagner has thought about this—not only for herself, but for all of us. And because we all love to take quizzes (and believe the answers,) she studied the human mind, and created a structure of “creative types.” 

And she suggests, in her fascinating new book WHAT’S YOUR CREATIVE TYPE? we all fit into one of them. All we have to do is take her quiz to find out which one! (And then get her book to find out what it means--and how it can help!)

Which one are you? Turns out I’m a—well, first, let’s hear more from Meta.  

HANK: Can you remember a time when you were completely engrossed in a creative activity as a child? How has that memory shaped you as a writer?

MetaWagner: When I was a kid, I’d wake up on Sunday mornings way earlier than my parents or my sister. Still in my PJs, I’d sit on my bedroom floor and write little poems and stories during those hours of solitude and put them in a shoebox that I kept in a secret hiding place. I don’t really know why I felt the need for such secrecy! There was something about the early morning quiet that allowed me to just be in the moment, without anything else to do. It was pure.

It’s harder for me to find that pure experience now. But I think where I come closest is when I’m on deadline and there’s no time for distractions – I’m focused and there are just my ideas and my words and my desire to make the writing sharp, mostly for my own satisfaction.

Hank: You’ve developed the concept of the five creative types. How did you come up with it, and what are the types?

Meta: I teach a class at Emerson College that asks the question, “Why do people create?” I looked into hundreds of famous creators in all the arts, from Ernest Hemingway to Meryl Streep to Lin-Manuel Miranda, and I discovered that they have such a clear understanding of their reasons for doing creative work. At the same time, I, personally, kept coming up with new book ideas that I’d be really excited about but then abandon out of fear or doubts. Sound familiar to anyone?

I wondered, what if we all could become motivated like the masters? And so I grouped their motivations into five categories and translated those into creative types: A-Lister, Artisan, Game Changer, Sensitive Soul, and Activist. Once people identify their type and become aware of their strongest motivations, they can return to these motivations anytime they have trouble getting started or breaking through creative blocks.

Hank: In honor of Mother’s Day, what advice to you have for moms who want to write or paint or do anything creative but can’t seem to find the time?

Meta: If you’re a mom who’s pulled in multiple directions with barely a moment for yourself, creativity might seem like a low priority or a luxury you can’t afford. But, I believe if the creative urge is strong in you, you’ll find a way.

Creative expression is also important—study after study shows that it’s good for your mental health! Maybe you could spend ten minutes a day doing creative writing exercises or plotting your novel. Maybe once a month you could go to a reading at a bookstore to get inspired. And, then, as your kids get older, you might finally have the time to write the novel you’ve been “training” for all these years.

Jungle Reds, tell us why writing (or any creative activity) is so important to you? What are your motivations for doing it?

HANK: And as it turns out—my quiz results were very different from what I predicted! Whoa. Now I have to see what that means.  And Reds and readers--what's your type?

To figure out your creative type, take this fun quiz and post the results  in the comments--and on Facebook and Twitter if you’d like! http://snapp.to/2lHVOEY

And read more about the book and Meta below!

WHAT’S YOUR CREATIVE TYPE?: Harness the Power of Your Artistic Personality

By Meta Wagner

How do the world’s greatest creators produce such amazing works despite experiencing the same doubts and fears as the rest of us? What’s Your Creative Type? cracks the code, revealing that legendary artists don’t just possess talent, they also understand their motivations for creating. Whether you write, paint, film, act, dance, develop software, or even play the ukulele as a hobby or a profession, What’s Your Creative Type? can teach you to identify your creative type (A-Lister, Artisan, Game Changer, Sensitive Soul, or Activist) and discover your motivations so you can break through blocks to finally fulfill your creative potential.

 

Meta Wagner is the author of What's Your Creative Type (Seal Press). She is a contributor to Boston Globe opinion pages, was a columnist for PopMatters, and has written for Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, Salon, and Wall Street Journal custom studios. She was also a 2017 TedxBU speaker. Meta teaches creative and communications writing at Emerson College and Boston University and also teaches a seminar on creativity that served as the basis for her book. Her background is in public relations and marketing. To connect with Meta, visit www.metawagner.com.

Novelist Kwei Quartey, Detectives to Remember, and Creating an Unforgettable Sleuth

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Kwei Quartey is a crime novelist (and physician) living in L.A.—and one of my favorite authors. He's written WIFE OF THE GODS, CHILDREN OF THE STREET, MURDER AT CAPE THREE POINTS, and we can look forward to his forth, GOLD OF THE FATHERS, coming in January 2016. Kwei's blog is is pretty darned amazing, too, and when I read his post on sleuths and archetypes, I had to ask Kwei if we could reprint it here on Jungle Reds. Readers, he said yes! He'll also be stopping by to chat with readers today.

Take it away, Kwei!

KWEI QUARTEY: A memorable detective in crime fiction stays with the reader long after the novel is completed, no matter to which one of the four archetypes the sleuth belongs:

• The amateur (Miss Marple, Easy Rawlins): Not officially within the criminal investigation system, but having knowledge, curiosity, desire for justice, etc.
• The private investigator (Holmes, Marlow, Poirot, Wolfe, Millhone): Working professionally in criminal investigations, but outside the official criminal justice system.
• The police investigator (Dalgliesh, Morse, Wallander): Part of an official investigative body charged with solving crimes.
• The forensic specialist (Scarpetta, Thorndyke): Contributing specialized forensic knowledge rather than solving the crime as a whole.

There may be some overlap, particularly the amateur and the PI. The examples above obviously don’t comprise an exhaustive list, but they are some of the most recognizable detective characters in crime literature over the decades and centuries. There is nothing new under the sun. Incorporating characteristics or features of these famous detectives into one’s own is not so much stealing as it is learning by emulation.

But one’s emulation must fit your creation. Agatha Christie‘s Miss Marple and Walter Mosley‘s Easy Rawlins are both indomitable in their quests for truth and justice, but they are radically different characters. In The Murder at the Vicarage, someone describes Marple as “a white-haired old lady with a gentle appealing manner,” while another condemns her as always knowing “everything that happens and draws the worst inferences.” Marple is somehow present even when she doesn’t appear to be, and that so-called “gentle appealing manner” belies her remarkable ability to dig up the truth. She solves mysteries within the rather stuffy confines of manners and modesty expected in the docile English village of St. Mary Mead.

Easy Rawlins, on the other hand, operates in the gritty environment of 1940s to 1960s Los Angeles. Mosley’s novels practically crackle with tension on every page, and we fear that the next time Rawlins turns down an alley off Slauson Avenue, he will run into either a cop with a grudge against him, or an equally unsavory gangster who would prefer Rawlins dead. But don’t fear too much. Easy is a tough customer as well.

Washington as Easy Rawlins in DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS (Photo: TriStar Pictures)

Just because your crime fiction is set in Iceland or Ghana doesn’t mean Rawlins or Marple are irrelevant to you. From Christie, you can learn the art of misdirection if you’re writing the classic mystery rather than a thriller (more about the distinction in an upcoming blog), and how to manipulate time and alibi in relation to the murder. With Mosley’s novels, study his tense style and the ability to weave multiple characters into a progressively tangled world of crime and corruption. If your detective is an amateur, notice how Easy believably knows many people, both honest and crooked, who can help him out. This is your chance to create a bunch of scary, creepy, slimy, or dangerous folks encountered along the way. Easy Rawlins is charismatic enough to have been played in film by Denzel Washington. When your character gets portrayed in the movies, you are probably doing well.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle‘s Sherlock Holmes is a transcendent and influential figure among detectives. He’s a singular creation, challenging enough to have been played on screen by multiple actors over decades. In the literary version, because he’s seen through the eyes of his companion Watson, who we sense does not always altogether understand Holmes, we as readers don’t ever get inside the great detective’s head or heart–well, rarely, at least. He is only what Watson reveals to us, and that makes Holmes wondrous in many ways. We want to follow him and his magical set of characteristics: an eerie ability to make deductions from keen observation, a nervous, excitable energy on the one hand, and a predisposition to depression and drug abuse on the other. He solves mysteries through logical, scientific reasoning and doesn’t go by gut feeling. “I never guess,” he says. “It is a shocking habit,—destructive to the logical faculty.”

Benedict Cumberbatch as the modern Holmes (Shutterstock)

Sometimes, his inferences can be a little improbable–as when, in The Sign of the Four, he deduced that his companion Watson had been to the post office that morning because Watson’s shoe had a speck of reddish mud found only opposite that post office, where the sidewalk was being dug up–but we are willing to accept these deductions and even marvel at them, no matter how implausible. That is Sherlock Holmes. In many instances, Holmes’s attention to detail foreshadows modern forensics (e.g. as in trace evidence), and it’s interesting that a BBC TV series has successfully portrayed a present-day Holmes.

Your detective can emulate some of Holmes’s powers of observation and deduction, or be as methodical (or not), or perhaps have some of his physical characteristics (unexpected strength for his thin physique), or failings like drug abuse and depression, but even if you use nothing Sherlockian at all, remember one vital principle from the master himself as he declared in The Sign of the Four: “Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth.” Here is the character giving advice to the mystery writer. Perhaps author Raymond Chandler once saw this powerful reflection and took it to heart, because he made a remarkably similar pronouncement in Casual Notes on the Mystery Novel, 1949: “The solution, once revealed, must seem to have been inevitable. At least half of all the mystery novels published violate this law.”

Ouch, Raymond.

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Reds and lovely readers, do you find you have a favorite archetype of detective? I'm a big fan of the amateur, but also adore Sherlock Holmes. What about you? And who's your favorite example?

Kwei Quartey is a crime fiction writer and physician living in Pasadena, California. Having practiced medicine for more than 20 years while simultaneously working as a writer, he has attained noteworthy achievements in both fields. Dr. Quartey balances the two professions by dedicating the early morning hours to writing before beginning a day in his clinic.

Kwei Quartey attended medical school at Howard University in Washington, D.C. In 1990, he began practicing medicine in California with HealthCare Partners. Dr. Quartey later founded the facility’s wound care center while working as an urgent care physician.

As a crime fiction writer, Kwei Quartey made the Los Angeles Times Bestseller List in 2009. The following year, the G.O.G. National Book Club awarded him the title of Best Male Author. Having published Wife of the Gods (2009), Children of the Street (2011), Murder at Cape Three Points (2014), he anticipates publication of the fourth Darko Dawson novel in the series, Gold of the Fathers, in early January 2016. Death at the Voyager Hotel, a mystery e-novella not belonging to the series, was published July 2013. Dr. Quartey is also a member of the Los Angeles chapter of Sisters in Crime, a fiction writers’ organization.

Kwei's web site is here and you can find him on Twitter and Facebook.