Casting 'The Girl on the Train’: And Haley Bennett makes Three

The girl that The Girl on the Train watches

We have our Megan! Haley Bennett will be joining Emily Blunt and Rebecca Ferguson in the screen adaptation of The Girl on the Train. Bennett has been cast to play Megan, the woman Rachel watches from the train, fantasizing about her perfect life. She’s beautiful, ever so slightly younger—a handful of years—than co-stars Emily Blunt as Rachel and Rebecca Ferguson as Anna and there’s something about her eyes that makes her look a bit sly; perfect for the character of Megan. 

Bale & Bennett in upcoming Terence Malick film 

The up and coming actor has a busy future working with some impressive actors and directors. We’ll be seeing her in the Untitled Terrence Malick project with Christian Bale as well as the Untitled Warren Beatty project. We’ll also be seeing her in the upcoming remake of The Magnificent Seven. You may have seen her in The Equalizer with Denzel Washington, The Hole, or Lost in the White City. 

And she can sing

Honestly the only thing I’ve ever seen her in is Music & Lyrics, her film debut back in 2007. She played a gorgeous, somewhat spoiled pop singer waiting for Hugh Grant to write her a new song; he’s got the music but he’s stuck on the lyrics and relies on help from Drew Barrymore, the woman who waters his plants, to help him write them. You probably know what happens between Drew & Hugh.

I knew her when ... 

Er, not really. But as we're old friends with the film’s director Marc Lawrence and his family,  my husband, son and I all went to the premiere of Music & Lyrics at Grauman’s Chinese Theater. I’ve only been to a handful of premieres in my life, but if you’re only going to go to a few premieres, one taking place at the famed Grauman’s on Hollywood Boulevard isn’t a bad one to scratch off your bucket list. It hit all the bells and whistles complete with red carpet,  those tell-tale beams of lights strobing the sky, and of course, the thrill of being on the VIP guest list while crowds gather across the street wishing they could get in too. Nothing like feeling like an insider to pump up your own flagging self-worth for an hour or two. After the movie, we went to the aptly named ‘after party’ held at some club high atop the Hollywood & Highland complex next door, arriving just in time to see the quickly disappearing back of Hugh Grant. If Haley Bennett was there, I don’t remember. Take away: great food, too many people, and not enough time to spend visiting with our friends who were mobbed most of the night. Grumble, grumble, grumble. 

Next stop. The men.

Now for the men in The Girl on the Train. I shared my thoughts on casting the guys here. Some of the names people are talking about are Tom Hardy, Ben Whishaw, Aidan Turner (yes, please), Cillian Murphy and Andrew Scott (Victor Frankenstein) Who would you cast? Hmmm. How about Christian Bale?

My take on the book