the last great american dynasty

the playlist + dream cast

I have created a playlist for the novel so you can read while listening to the songs. These are the songs that aided me through writing the chapters. They place me in the right mood so I could feel the right emotions to write, and I hope that they will give you the emotions I have felt.

There are songs from the folklore album itself, some from the original album, some from the long pond studio sessions. Others range from Holly Henry to Trading Yesterday to Lifehouse to June's Diary (and June's Diary's Gabby Zike), and even older and new songs by Taylor herself.

The link to the Spotify playlist is in my Linktree (in my bio).

Ana xo

UPDATE:

I have changed the cover of the novel!

It used to be the wallpaper of one of Taylor's folklore photoshoot locations with the folklore font.

BUT... I changed it and added certain imageries that the book will mention such as the Battle of Guadalcanal, Taylor in the cardigan video with the green piano (obvi duh) as well as Holiday House.

Other than that, I have added in my dream cast. So here are the actors...

Josephine Langford as Betty West

For the cast, some came to me instantly, some I had to figure out who I can envision playing the characters while I went through the book. For Betty, I wanted someone I know that can portray emotions that I see Betty feeling in a way that no one else could. It was originally between someone else and Josephine but then I saw a clip on her on the piano and singing (but it was blurry) and I was like, "Yes. Her."

Danny Griffin as James Clark

To be honest, Danny was the second choice for James. The original person who I saw playing James is someone I adore watching. I love watching that person do combating in the roles he played, along with the fact that he can instantly morph into another character made me even more in awe with him. Me being the indecisive person as always, I asked someone to help me choose as I asked him/her, "Who looks better with [Josephine]?" And voila.

Olivia Rodrigo as Leah Patterson

Casting Leah was a bit tricky for me. The tricky thing that hesitated me from casting Leah was that Leah was able to play quite different characters within a short time span. After seeing Olivia's aesthetic and comparing it to HSMTMTS, I was about 80% sure that Leah would be played by Olivia in my head with how she could switch from her character in the series to herself—two (in a way) opposite personalities. But then her face and voice kept appearing in my head... so, yeah.

Blake Lively as Rebekah West-Harkness

Ryan Reynolds as William "Bill" Harkness

Jesse Tyler Ferguson as the neighbor whose cat was stolen by Rebekah and dyed key lime green

Okay, so these three became instant. I think Jesse tweeted something about Blake being Rebekah and Ryan playing Bill then tagging Taylor along in the tweet. Since then, I haven't been able to get that out of my head.