The Great Gatsby Full Cast Audiobook
Project Overview
I'm working on creating a full-cast audiobook adaptation of "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald as a project for a class. I'm looking for anyone interested in helping me bring these characters to life! Note that I'm adapting the script directly from the text of the novel, so there will be terms and topics that are very dated.
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Gatsby should have an air of confidence but not to the point of being braggadocious. He's trying to put on airs, so a voice that can range from deep and smooth to soft-spoken and self-conscious.
[You're in a car ride with a friend you're trying to impress with an overexaggerated version of your life]
(Confident and Convincing)
Then came the war, old sport. It was a great relief and I tried very hard to die but I seemed to bear an enchanted life. I accepted a commission as first lieutenant when it began. In the Argonne Forest I took two machine-gun detachments so far forward that there was a half-mile gap on either side of us where the infantry couldn’t advance. We stayed there two days and two nights, a hundred and thirty men with sixteen Lewis guns, and when the infantry came up at last they found the insignia of three German divisions among the piles of dead. I was promoted to be a major and every Allied government gave me a decoration—even Montenegro, little Montenegro down on the Adriatic Sea!
[You're in an argument with your romantic rival who's married to the love of your life]
(Heated and Passionate)
I’ve got something to tell you, old sport-
(beat)
She never loved you, do you hear? She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart, she never loved anyone except me!
[A woman is dead and the love of your life is responsible]
(Solemn and Conflicted)
But of course, I’ll say I was. You see, when we left New York she was very nervous and she thought it would steady her to drive, and this woman rushed out at us just as we were passing a car coming the other way. It all happened in a minute but it seemed to me that she wanted to speak to us, thought we were somebody she knew. Well, first Daisy turned away from the woman toward the other car, and then she lost her nerve and turned back. The second my hand reached the wheel I felt the shock. It must have killed her instantly.
Daisy is a very pivotal character in the story. She gives off an alluring and pleasant vibe while being completely flighty. A heavy emphasis is placed on her voice in the book, being described as "money" by Gatsby. She tries very hard to be charming and witty and desires more than she'll ever get from her current life. She's pretty soft-spoken, and sweet-sounding, though it's almost an act she puts on. I picture her sounding like Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story.
[These two lines are from different parts of the book. The first is her first line, when she's seeing her cousin for the first time in years. It should sound like she thinks she's the most clever person in the room. With the fake stutter an air of haughtiness should emanate from the line]
"I’m p-p-paralyzed with happiness."
[The second line is Daisy confiding in her cousin, her feelings of dissatisfaction in her married life with Tom after he has stepped away.]
"It’ll show you how I’ve gotten to feel about...things. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. ‘All right’ I said, ‘I’m glad it’s a girl, and I hope she’ll be a fool. That’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.’You see I think everything’s terrible anyhow. Everybody thinks so, the most advanced people. And I KNOW, I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything."
[Daisy is drunk and confiding in her friend about her upcoming wedding to Tom Buchanan]
Take ‘em downstairs and give ‘em back to whoever they belong to. Tell ‘em Daisy’s change’ her mine. Say “Daisy change” her mine!
[These are several different lines cut together at the climax of the story. Tom has confronted Gatsby about his affair with Daisy, and Daisy is goaded into telling Tom how she really feels.]
You’re revolting! Do you know why we left Chicago? I’m surprised that they didn’t treat you to the story of that little spree. Why, how could I love him, possibly? I never loved him.
Tom is a rich, selfish, racist, and arrogant man. He represents old money and Fitzgerald didn't write him very sympathetically. He talks like he's educated and better than everyone else, but his ego is very fragile. He goes from overbearing to desperate to devastated over the course of the book. While he is a terribly unlikeable character, he shouldn't sound like a cartoonish bully.
[You're having a conversation with your wife's cousin and her friend and you're trying to sound intellectual]
(Confident and Arrogant)
Civilization’s going to pieces! I’ve gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things. Have you read ‘The Rise of the Colored Empires’ by this man Goddard? Well, it’s a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be- will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff, it’s been proved.
[You're speaking to the man you suspect has been sleeping with your wife, who you also believe to be a fraud]
(Trying to keep composure and failing)
Self control!? I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. Well, if that’s the idea you can count me out...Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions and next they’ll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white.
[Your wife has just told you she never loved you]
(Defeated)
Not at Kapiolani?
(beat)
Not that day I carried you down from the Punch Bowl to keep your shoes dry?
(beat)
...Daisy?
Jordan Baker is a young upper-class girl who just wants to have fun and doesn't want to think about the consequences. She's also a pro golfer, who cheats. She's very irreverent and thinks she's terribly clever. A youthful voice that's trying to sound older than she is is exactly the voice I imagine for Jordan.
[Retelling a story]
I was walking along from one place to another half on the sidewalks and half on the lawns. I was happier on the lawns because I had on shoes from England with rubber nobs on the soles that bit into the soft ground. I had on a new plaid skirt, also, that blew a little in the wind and whenever this happened the red, white, and blue banners in front of all the houses stretched out stiff and said tut-tut-tut-tut in a disapproving way.
Anyhow he gives large parties, and I like parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties, there isn't any privacy.
[Talking to a man who broke her heart]
(Trying to sound unaffected)
You said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver, didn’t I? I mean it was careless of me to make such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person. I thought it was your secret pride.
George Wilson is a middle-aged auto mechanic who is painfully bashful. He has a very nervous disposition and slowly becomes unhinged as the story goes on. By the end, he's a mess after his wife is killed. His character goes through the most obvious transformation, so being able to go from a non-confrontational, unassuming mechanic to a distraught, crazed widower capable of murder is important. He's also got something of a Brooklyn/New York accent.
I didn’t mean to interrupt your lunch, but I need money pretty bad and I was wondering what you were going to do with your old car. It’s a nice yellow one.
I just got wised up to something funny the last two days. That’s why I want to get away. That’s why I been bothering you about the car.
[Speaking to his neighbor, who's been trying to care for him after his wife died)
(Unhinged)
I told her she might fool me but she couldn’t fool God. I took her to the window and I said ‘God knows what you’ve been doing, everything you’ve been doing. You may fool me but you can’t fool God!
Meyer Wolfshiem is a sharky individual. He has clear ties to crime, wears human molars as jewelry, and more than likely fixed the World Series. All he cares about is what people have and how much money he can make from them. He's written with a very strong accent by Fitzgerald, and I picture a Trans-Atlantic/ Mobster/ John Mulaney-like voice.
I understand you’re looking for a business gonnegtion. (Accented "Connection")
The old Metropole. The old Metropole. Filled with faces dead and gone. Filled with friends gone now forever, I can’t forget so long as I live the night they shot Rosy Rosenthal there. It was six of us at the table and Rosy had eat and drunk a lot all evening. When it was almost morning the waiter came up to him with a funny look and says somebody wants to speak to him outside. “All right,” says Rosy and begins to get up and I pulled him down in his chair. “Let the bastards come in here if they want you, Rosy, but don’t you, so help me, move outside this room.” It was four o’clock in the morning then, and if we’d of raised the blinds we’d of seen daylight.
Start him!? I made him! I raised him up out of nothing, right out of the gutter. I saw right away he was a fine appearing, gentlemanly young man, and when he told me he was an Oggsford I knew I could use him good. I got him to join up in the American Legion and he used to stand high there. Right off he did some work for a client of mine up to Albany. We were so thick like that in everything—Always together.
Myrtle is a young wife who married an older man early in life, and now she's regretting it. She's having an affair with Tom, a man who could care less about her, and she's desperately trying to seem richer than she is. Ideally, her voice should sound a bit on the higher pitch end, but I'm open to different interpretations.
I want to get one of those dogs, I want to get one for the apartment. They’re nice to have, a dog.
Crazy about him!? Who said I was crazy about him? I never was any more crazy about him than I was about that man there. The only CRAZY I was was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in and never even told me about it, and the man came after it one day he was out.
[Yelling at her husband, who's locked her in her room]
Beat me! Throw me down and bat me, you dirty little coward!
A Greek neighbor of George Wilson. He becomes very concerned for his neighbor when he locks his wife up in their home, and becomes his caretaker after his wife is killed. He is a very understanding guy, who is just trying to be helpful to his neighbor.
There was two cars, one comin’, one goin’, see? One goin’ each way.
Well, she—she ran out there an’ the one comin’ from N’York knock right into her goin’ thirty or forty miles an hour.
You’re morbid, George, this has been a strain to you and you don’t know what you’re saying. You’d better try and sit quiet till morning.
A bespectacled individual who attends one of Gatsby's events and marvels at the fact that his books are real. Later, he ends up being one of the few people to attend Gatsby's funeral. No particular type of voice needed, try what works for you!
Absolutely real- have pages and everything. I thought they’d be a nice durable cardboard. Matter of fact, they’re absolutely real. Pages and- Here! Lemme show you.
See! It’s a bonafide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella’s a regular Belasco. It’s a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop too-didn’t cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?
[At Gatsby's Funeral]
Go on! Why, my God, they used to go there by the hundreds. The poor son-of-a-bitch.
She is Myrtle's sister. She seems very obvious to the world around her, and yet she is very gossip-y. I imagine her voice is very soft, but no particular preference,
What I say is, why go on living with them if they can’t stand them? If I was them I’d get a divorce and get married to each other right away.
[After being asked if she stayed long in Monte Carlo]
No, we just went to Monte Carlo and back. We went by way of Marseilles. We had over twelve hundred dollars when we started but got gypped out of it all in two days in the private rooms. We had an awful time getting back, I can tell you. God, how I hated that town!
She really out to get away from him. They’ve been living over that garage for eleven years. And Tom’s the first sweetie she ever had.
Henry Gatz is the proud father of Jay Gatsby. He comes from humble origins and is wowed by the rich life his son made for himself before he died. He is supposed to be an old man, so any voice that passes for older sounding works!
I saw it in the Chicago newspaper, It was all in the Chicago newspaper. I started right away.
Jimmy always liked it better down East. He rose up to his position in the East. Were you a friend of my boy’s, Mr.—?
He come out to see me two years ago and bought me the house I live in now. Of course we was broke up when he run off from home but I see now there was a reason for it. He knew he had a big future in front of him. And ever since he made a success he was very generous with me.
A very minor character, he's a boarder at Gatsby's house who comes and goes. He seems to be something of a social leech. He also plays the piano and sings, which he does in one scene. You would be singing some of the lines, so anyone with a singing voice would be appreciated!
I was asleep, that is, I’d been asleep. Then I got up-
I’m all out of practice, you see. I told you I couldn’t play. I’m all out of prac-
[Sung to the tune of 'The Love Nest']
In the morning, In the evening, Ain’t we got
fun-
One thing’s sure and nothing’s surer, The rich get richer and the poor get
(beat)
children. In the meantime, In between time-
A guest of Myrtle's, he's a photographer who acts like he's in the east coast art scene.
I should change the light. I’d like to bring out the modeling of the features, and I’d try to get hold of all the back hair.
I’d like to do more work on Long Island if I could get the entry. All I ask is that they should give me a start.
[Drunk, Sleepy, and listing off his works]
Beauty and the Beast...Loneliness...Old Grocery Horse...Brook’n Bridge...
Chester Mckee's wife, is friends with Myrtle. Very easy to please, or at least trying to seem agreeable. She's also a casual anti-semite if that affects your choice at all.
I like your dress, I think it’s adorable.
But it looks wonderful on you, if you know what I mean. If Chester could only get you in that pose I think he could make something of it.
I almost made a mistake, too. I almost married a little kyke who’d been after me for years. I knew he was below me. Everybody kept saying to me ‘Lucille, that man’s way below you!’ But if I hadn’t met Chester, he’d of got me sure.
A friend of Tom's, not much is known about him other than that he rides horses.
Be ver’ nice. Well, think out to be starting home. Tell him we couldn’t wait, will you?
Daisy and Tom's young daughter. Has a very minor role in the story, which itself is a commentary on Daisy and Tom. She is around 3 or 4 years old, so any voice that sounds passable works for me.
Bles-sed pre-cious.
I get dressed before luncheon.
Yes, Aunt Jordan’s got on a white dress too.
Wolfshiem's diligent secretary. She provides a bit of levity after Gatsby's death scene. I imagine her sounding like the secretary from Ghostbusters, Janine, but any New Yorker accent works. Alternatively, if you have something in mind, please feel free to try it out!
Nobody’s in, Mr. Wolfshiem’s gone to Chicago.
I can’t get him back from Chicago, can I?
You young men think you can force your way in here any time, we’re getting sickantired of it. When I say he’s in Chicago, he’s in Chicago.
There are various butlers, bystanders, and roles that only have a few lines. If you have a versatile voice, perhaps you could play more than one. I'd appreciate as many people as possible, as there are quite a few and it's only one or two lines at the most.
[Drunk Driver]
Wha’s matter? Did we run outa gas?
[Friend of Jordan's at Gatsby's party]
I like to come, I never care what I do, so I always have a good time. When I was here last I tore my gown on a chair, and he asked me my name and address. Inside of a week I got a package from Croirier’s with a new evening gown in it.
[Butler]
The master’s body! I’m sorry, madame, but we can’t furnish it-it’s far too hot to touch this noon!
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