Casting the Role of Dean Martin
On tour in Australia, the multi-talented performer's daughter shares an interesting suggestion
Ten years after Deana Martin released Memories Are Made of This, her memoir about growing up with a famous father, the New York Times bestseller is inching closer to a movie adaptation. She is to be played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, while Dean Martin will be played by…?
It’s an interesting casting question. Deana, currently in Australia for a series of performances starting Friday, gave Daily Telegraph columnist Christine Sams a gift of sorts, suggesting that one of Australia’s movie stars is one of the few non-unknowns who could pull off the role:
“I think Hugh Jackman would be fabulous. He’s the right height, he’s got the hairline, he can sing, he’s suave,” she said. “He could handle that.”
Martin, 66, admits finding the right man to portray her much-loved father is a tough ask. But she says other than finding a talented, unknown actor to play her father, Jackman is one of the few Hollywood stars who could carry it off.
Martin certainly here sounds a little surer about Jackman than she did a few years ago when she spoke to the late Marilyn Beck. Jackman, a communications and journalism major at the University of Technology Sydney, is slated to play P.T. Barnum in the Bill Condon co-scripted The Greatest Showman on Earth.
By the way, if Hewitt does indeed still end up playing the part of Deana, it will complete a crazy, NYC circle. From that Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith column:
Deana tells us that she and Hewitt shook hands on Hewitt’s anticipated involvement, which came about in an amazing way. “I was performing at Feinstein’s in New York last year [2010], and I was talking about the book and the movie between songs, and I said, ‘I’ve always wanted Jennifer Love Hewitt to play me.’ And this voice came from the audience: ‘OK, I’ll do it!’ She and her mom were there. It was so wonderful, I get chills thinking about it!”
[Image via: deanamartin.com]
