Fiction

Quiz: Actors as Authors

Jeff O'Neal

CEO and co-founder

Jeff O'Neal is the executive editor of Book Riot and Panels. He also co-hosts The Book Riot Podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @thejeffoneal.

I caught a little bit of The Autobiography of Malcolm X on TV the other night, and it got me thinking about screen portrayals of authors…not Barton Fink or whatever Jack Nicholson’s character’s name was in The Shining. I mean real authors. As is my wont, I started thinking of as many as I could. But rather than draw up just a regular old list for you, I have a quiz for you.

Pretty simple: for each of the below images, can you identify the actor and the author they are playing? Link to answers at the bottom. Have fun!

1.

Val-Kilmer-As-Mark-Twain

2.

denchjudiirismurdoch

3.

Hemingway & Gellhorn - Clive Owen

4.

kidmas as woolf

5.

hathawy as jane

6.

zellweger as beatrix potter

7.

depp as barrie

8.

fiennes as shakespeare

9.

john cusack as poe

10.

catherine keener as harper lee

11.

cross as ginsberg

12.

jennifer_jason_leigh_as_dorothy_parker

13.

meryl streep as susan orlean

14.

stephen fry as oscar wilde

15.

depp as hunter s. thompson

____________________________

Ready for the answers?

1. Val Kilmer as Mark Twain, photographed for his one-man show about Mark Twain.

2. Judi Dech as Iris Murdoch in Iris.

3. Clive Owen as Ernest Hemingway in Hemingway & Gellhorn.

4. Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf in The Hours.

5. Anne Hathaway as Jane Austen in Becoming Jane.

6. Renee Zellweger as Beatrix Potter in Miss Potter.

7. Johnny Depp as J.M. Barrie in Finding Neverland.

8. Joseph Fiennes as William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love.

9. John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe in The Raven.

10. Katherine Keener as Harper Lee in Capote.

11. David Cross as Allen Ginsberg in I’m Not There.

12. Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dorothy Parker in Ms. Parker and the Vicious Circle.

13. Meryl Streep as Susan Orlean in Adaption.

14. Stephen Frye as Oscar Wilde in Wilde.

15. Johnny Depp as Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.