Chloe Grace Moretz says Jamie Blackley is the perfect Adam in If I Stay

I added Gayle Forman’s YA best seller If I Stay to my Guide to Movies Based on Books at the beginning of the year; the film starring 17-year-old Chloë Grace Moretz comes out August 22.

There's no trailer, no poster yet; but courtesy of EW we do get the young actor's take on the novel, along with this most recent image of Moretz (Mia) and newcome Jamie Blackley (Adam) goofing around with a cellphone.

Moretz told the entertainment mag ...

“Being a fan of the book myself, I kind of understood what I wanted to see from the character. And in listening to Gayle, who originated the character, I knew what she wanted to see. We all tried to stay incredibly faithful to the story. That’s why we’re making it.”

In the novel, Forman allows the unconscious Mia - the 17 year old cellist, comatose after a fatal car accident that kills the rest of her family - to explore her memories and feelings in order to decide whether whether to 'stay' (live) or let herself go (die).  
Moretz said -

“I got very close to Mia and who she was. I was really in her head so there wasn’t really a question I couldn’t answer.”

A big part of Mia's 'should I stay or should I go now' decision-making process comes back to her boyfriend, Adam. Director RJ Cutler cast new guy on the block Jamie Blackley after his audition with Moretz blew her away. 

“He’s the perfect Adam. We took a really long time casting him,” she says. “When Jamie walked into the room I looked at R.J., and R.J. looked at me, and we did the audition and he left. And I went, ‘That’s Adam. That’s who he is.’ There was not a question. Not even a worry. That’s Adam. And I was like, ‘If you don’t hire him, that is so dumb.’”

 Moretz told EW that she thinks the book's YA designation diminishes the novel's value. 

“What’s interesting about Gayle’s novel is that it’s not really that YA. It deals with issues that are much bigger…it’s much darker than I think most YA is,” says Moretz. “I want people to walk in and feel like they actually felt something, and learned something, and realized something different about life that’s more than just, ‘Oh, I saw this love triangle and it’s super sad because she chose the guy I didn’t like. And then the movie was over.’ And you’re like, ‘Okay, that’s pathetic.’ You want to watch something that actually means something and makes you feel and makes you want to be involved. That’s what I wanted to make and that’s what I strive to make.”