Mara Dyer Week Post # 4 - Justine Guest Post

If you have seen the awesome Mara Dyer series trailers than you are most likely familiar with the lovely lady who is guest posting today.

Justine is Mara in the trailers. I think, and I am sure many fans agree, that she is a perfect Mara. She looks like what I pictured completely.

I'll let Justine take it from here -

A word of warning: This isn’t going to be some sort of well-constructed story, with a beginning, middle, and end; if you’re looking for that – or a cliffhanger, really -- I think you know where to find it. :)

Michelle Hodkin is a big nerd. I love this about her. I love this because I’ve found in her a sort of kindred nerd spirit.

I showed up on set one rainy morning in August of 2011 knowing little more than a pseudonym that had to be chosen and something about an “asscrown.” Mara Dyer was a mystery to me. I pronounced Mara with a hard A because I’m a New Yorker, and Michelle was quick to correct me: not Mara like arrow, but Mara like armor. I don’t think those are the examples she used, but they’re the ones that come to me now. Mara is her baby.

We found ourselves in conversation about Harry Potter, mostly, Game of Thrones, fleetingly, and Cassandra Clare, of course. I knew of Cassie Clare from her “Very Secret Diaries” days (“Boromir wrote me a poem”) and my closest friends had been obsessed with “Draco Veritas.”

I quickly realized I had made a new friend, albeit one who was horrified to learn I had never read Twilight. (A little about me: I love Remus John Lupin. That may be all you really need to know.)

And then Bradley showed up.

It’s never not disconcerting to say your hellos and nice to meet yous, and then strip down to your skivvies and hop into bed with someone while a crew hovers just feet (and sometimes inches) away. I’d just like to put that out there.

Anyway. Where was I going with this?

At a certain point during the filming process, Michelle wanted to record us, as Mara and Noah, reading some excerpts from The Unbecoming ARC. This had everything to do with Bradley’s accent, I’m sure. No objection from me. So we read, and I did not do a very good job, but my goodness, Michelle writes some intriguing stuff. I found myself unable to get through lunch without grilling her about the rest of the story. Michelle, as she is wont to do, played coy. And I love a good mystery. I was one of the lucky ones; she gave me the ARC to take home, and I was done with it by the next morning. Now I can’t wait for the next one.

So here’s my lame attempt at a beginning, a middle, and an end: I auditioned for a part, I found a new awesome book series, I made a new friend.

I’m so thankful for all the opportunities my acting career has given me, and this one – this one is so different, so unexpected. Being part of such a cool project, with such a devoted fandom, brought me back to my roots and makes my heart happy. I’m proud to be Mara Dyer. I’d like to thank Michelle for inviting me into Mara’s dark and crazy world. And for being awesome.

In conclusion, yes, Bradley is that cute in person.

You can find Justine on Twitter and her website. I want to thank her for taking the time to write up this post. She's obviously a wonderful choice for Mara and finding out she adores Professor Lupin has solidified her awesomeness status.