The announcement this week of a new scripted series chronicling the epic downfall of holy-roller Jerry Falwell, Jr. has us oh-so-excited. To recap: the show will use journalist Gabe Sherman’s Vanity Fair exposé as its basis and will follow the saga of the Falwell family, from Jerry’s early days taking over his father’s position as President of Liberty University to he and his wife Becki’s present disgraced status thanks to an alleged affair with a pool boy. Here’s an opportunity to make a trashy show like Melrose Place look modest. Hollywood casting directors, start taking notes…
Joel Edgerton as Jerry Falwell, Jr.
Though Mr. Edgerton might be an Aussie, he’s proven himself effective at playing Southern Americans in such films as Boy Erased and Loving. He also has a knack for playing tortured and twisted character, which is probably more generosity than Falwell Jr. deserves.
Anna Paquin as Becki Falwell
Speaking of actors specializing in Appalachian accents, Oscar-winner Paquin has the right mix of sexuality, modesty, and cunning to embody a real-life Lady Macbeth like Becki Falwell. We can definitely see her passing herself off as a doting wife on the world stage and a man-eater behind closed doors.
Jacob Elordi as Giancarlo Granda
The former Miami-based pool boy—otherwise known as the Falwell’s third—needs a mix of youthful innocence, square-jaw looks, and raw ambition. Thanks to his work in the Kissing Booth movies and Euphoria, we can totally see him seduced by Paquin’s Mrs. Robinson—er, Falwell.
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Dan Aykroyd and Jerry Falwell, Sr.
Throughout his Vanity Fair article, Jerry, Jr. rants about his dear, departed, deplorable dad: career homophobe, and general slimeball Jerry Falwell, Sr. Maybe it’s just his work in Ghostbusters, but for some reason, we could picture Aykroyd as an oozing, domineering father figure.
Joan Allen as Macel Falwell
This saga wouldn’t be complete without his disapproving mother who, according to Becki and Jerry, bullied her son and hated his wife. Allen has played the calculating mother figure before to great effect, and call us callous, but we’d love to see her reducing Jerry Jr. to a sniveling welp.
Harris Dickinson as Benjamin Crosswhite
Crosswhite’s name often gets lost amid the other lurid details of The Fall of Falwell. He was a former Liberty University student and the hunky personal trainer to Becki and Jerry, Jr. who, for some strange reason, the Falwells insisted on paying $2 million in cash and loans from Liberty’s bank account. Coincidence? Not in our telling. We also think Beach Rats star Dickinson could easily slide into the role.
Dylan Minnette as Trey’s Friend/Bandmate
Anyone familiar with Minnette’s work on 13 Reasons Why as a neurotic, tortured teen should understand this casting. Becki Falwell allegedly seduced this friend and bandmate of her son, Trey, for a sexual relationship. In real life, said former beau remains anonymous, so we don’t really have an idea of what he looks like. That aside, we could totally see Minnette as a good Christian kid playing in a rock band… and in the Falwell bedroom.
Ben Stiller as Michael Cohen
No retelling of the Falwell saga would be complete without the bizarre episode involving former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and some alleged nude photos. Reports of Becki Falwell’s naked selfies first surfaced in 2019, possibly leaked by Falwell himself. Former Liberty employees recall that he loved to share provocative, sexual photos of his wife, and would discuss their sex life in depth. We nominate Stiller to step in here, as he could make Cohen both very funny and very contemptible.
Mr-DJ
Harris Dickinson was in BEACH RATS, not Beat Rats. You’re welcome.
Salacious1
We shouldn’t accept Falwell’s sniveling ‘admission’ he only was a voyeur watching his nympho wife have sex with younger men. The pool boy was a switch-hitter who had sex with both (I knew him). Moreover, Crosswhite and Falwell’s son Trey were ‘partners’ in more ways than one, bankrolled by Daddy & Mommy. It wasn’t so much hush money as a way to make their relationship seem a business partnership.
Aaron
We’ll see. As a Millennial/GenZ cusp who grew up in the church, nothing about his story sounds actually scandalous or interesting for today’s standards. It just sounds sad. It’ll definitely be for the seasoned gays.
animatedgifman
This ought to be quite the entertaining flick or miniseries …
Brian
I’m less interested in the closeted bisexual storyline compared to all the other messiness. This family misused university funds, among other sorts of corruption. It’s an expensive institution that teaches nonsense and doesn’t deserve its accreditation.
MarcyMayer
I’m looking forward to a film about Hunter Biden’s life: The crack addict who had an affair with his brother’s widow and daughter and received a million dollars a year from Burisma – a Ukrainian energy company – for access to his father, Sleepy Joey, the Alzheimer’s patient.
LifeinShaw
Oh rrrrrreally, Marcy. Get over it. That’s incredibly sad.
storm45701
Haven’t seen any sign of Alzheimer’s in Joe Biden. Just the normal slow down of a man of his age. Where is the quick flip of emotions and subjectivity to rage that sufferers of dementia experience? Only the orange-haired, Putin-living traitor exhibited that trait. I love the way Republicans project.
The Hunter Biden story is a nothing-burger, all the more proven irrelevant by the current situation in Ukraine. What is not irrelevant is that Trump attempted to extort the Ukrainian president, Zelenskyy, for information that didn’t exist. Now, I’d pay for THAT movie.
mailliw110
Will this movie of yours also have Hillary’s emails and Benghazi in it?
bluewindboy
Remind me again. Is Burisma part of Ukraine’s war effort or Russia’s? And what about Pizza Hut?
Kangol2
Miss MarcyMay wrote this on another thread: “Anyone with your extreme and hate-filled left-wing attitudes” and ” I’m not frightened of ideas or people with which I disagree,” yet her response to this article, like any criticizing right-wing Republicans–though she claimed, as James Hart first to be a Democratic voter, then she said she was a libertarian, then a civil libertarian, now she’s back to be a libertarian transwoman who strangely recites Breitbart/InfoWars talking points–is to show quite a bit of fear and spew “extreme and hate-filled” right-wing “attitudes” that don’t even address the article or topic at hand, which in this instance is about a film or series version on racist, homophobic, “family values”-touting hypocrite Jerry Falwell Jr. and instead try to deflect by attacking Hunter Biden, who, as far as I know, has never led a national university and used his post to attack LGBTQ students and people in general, and the president, who also was not actively spewing hate against LGBTQ people. If MarcyMayer thinks the Jerry Falwells of the world are her friends, she’s got another thing coming. Caitlyn Jenner despite all her wealth, continues to find that out.
As for who’ll play the parts, the proposed actors all seem like decent choices. The writers also probably should dig deeper to get the kind of background info Salacious1 mentions in his comment.
inbama
Great cast.
Of course I’m madly crushed on Jacob Elordi.