It was supposed to be the next Miss Congeniality. When Lionsgate announced they were bringing Janet Evanovich’s beloved bounty hunter Stephanie Plum to the big screen, fans of the novels—a massive, dedicated army—lost their minds. They had been waiting since the mid-nineties for this. But when the cast of the movie One for the Money finally hit theaters in 2012, the reaction was... complicated.
Katherine Heigl was at the height of her "it girl" fame, even if the tabloids were already starting to turn on her. Putting her in the signature hoops and big hair of a Jersey girl with a gun felt like a slam dunk on paper. Honestly, the casting was the biggest point of contention before a single frame was even shot. If you ask ten different Plum fans who should have played Stephanie, you’ll get twelve different answers.
The Jersey Girl in the Spotlight: Katherine Heigl
Katherine Heigl didn't just play Stephanie Plum; she basically lived the pressure of an entire fandom's expectations. Looking back, she definitely nailed the "hapless but trying" vibe that makes the character work in the books. Stephanie isn't a professional. She's a laid-off lingerie buyer who blackmails her cousin into giving her a job catching skips. Heigl brought that specific brand of desperate-yet-plucky energy.
People forget that Heigl was an executive producer on this flick. She fought for it. She wanted this to be her Bourne Identity but with more cannoli and hairspray. But there was this weird disconnect for the audience. Some felt she was "too blonde" or "too polished," despite the brown dye job. In the novels, Stephanie is a chaotic mess of Italian-Hungarian heritage, and while Heigl did the work, she couldn't quite shake the "Grey's Anatomy" sheen that followed her everywhere in the early 2010s.
She carries the movie. Without her comedic timing, the whole thing would have collapsed under the weight of its own tropes. Whether she’s getting handcuffed to a shower rod or trying to handle a firebombing, she stays likable. It’s a shame we never got to see her grow into the role in Two for the Dough.
Moretti, Ranger, and the Men of Trenton
Then you have the guys. The love triangle is the heartbeat of the Evanovich universe. On one side, you have Joe Moretti. He’s the Italian cop with a history—specifically, he's the guy who took Stephanie's virginity behind a pastry shop and never called her back. Jason O'Mara stepped into those boots.
O'Mara is a solid actor, but he’s Irish. Using a dialect coach to get that specific Trenton, New Jersey rasp is a tall order. He’s charming, sure. He has the chemistry with Heigl. But for the hardcore readers, he didn't quite capture the "danger" that Moretti is supposed to radiate. He felt a bit more like a supportive boyfriend than a hot-headed Jersey detective.
On the flip side, we have Ranger.
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If there’s one person in the cast of the movie One for the Money who actually walked right out of the pages of the book, it’s Daniel Sunjata. As the mysterious, lethal, and devastatingly cool Ricardo Carlos Manoso (aka Ranger), Sunjata was perfect. He has that stoic, "I know everything you’re thinking" presence.
- He drove the black Porsche.
- He called her "Babe" without making it sound condescending.
- He looked like he actually knew how to use the tactical gear he was wearing.
Sunjata’s performance is often cited as the highlight of the film. He understood that Ranger isn't a loud character; he’s a shadow. Every time he appeared on screen, the movie's stakes felt a little higher.
The Scene Stealers: Grandma Mazur and the Supporting Players
You can't talk about this cast without mentioning the late, great Debbie Reynolds. Casting a Hollywood legend as Grandma Mazur was a stroke of genius. Grandma Mazur is the fan-favorite character—the gun-toting, funeral-hopping matriarch who has zero filters.
Reynolds looked like she was having the time of her life. She brought a level of professional gravitas to a role that could have easily been a caricature. Her scenes at the dinner table, waving a pistol around like it’s a salt shaker, are the most authentic moments in the film. It felt like a real Jersey family dinner, mostly because Reynolds understood that the humor comes from the character’s utter lack of self-awareness.
Then there’s Sherri Shepherd as Lula.
In the books, Lula is a "plus-size" former sex worker turned office assistant who wears neon spandex and doesn't take crap from anyone. Shepherd brought the volume. She and Heigl had genuine buddy-comedy chemistry. While the script didn't give her as much to do as the later books do, she served as the perfect foil to Stephanie's suburban anxiety.
The rest of the ensemble was filled out by reliable character actors like John Leguizamo, who played the slimy Eddie Gazarra. Leguizamo is a chameleon. He can do "low-level crook" in his sleep, and he added a layer of grit to the otherwise glossy production. Then you had Leonardo Nam as John Cho and Nate Mooney as the creepy Jimmy Alpha. It was a stacked deck.
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Why It Didn’t Stick the Landing
So, why aren't we on movie number fifteen by now? The book series is on something like thirty novels. The cast of the movie One for the Money was talented, the source material was a gold mine, and the budget was a healthy $40 million.
The problem was the tone.
The movie tried to be too many things at once. It wanted to be a rom-com, a gritty crime thriller, and a slapstick comedy. In the books, that blend works because you’re inside Stephanie’s head. On screen, it felt disjointed. One minute she’s findng a dead body in a meat locker, and the next she’s having a "cute" mishap with a hamster.
Critics were brutal. It currently sits with a dismal 2% on Rotten Tomatoes. That is... harsh. It’s not a 2% movie. It’s a 50% movie. It’s a "perfectly fine Saturday afternoon on Netflix" movie. But the critics' savaging of Heigl’s performance—much of it fueled by her personal reputation at the time—poisoned the well.
The film only made about $37 million worldwide. In Hollywood math, that’s a disaster. When you factor in marketing costs, Lionsgate lost money. The dreams of a franchise evaporated almost overnight.
The Legacy of the Plum Cast
Even though we never got a sequel, this cast remains a fascinating "what if." If this had been made as a TV series on a platform like Netflix or Max today, it would probably be a massive hit. The episodic nature of Stephanie’s life—new skip, new disaster, same man troubles—suits a 10-episode season much better than a 90-minute feature film.
Looking back, the actors weren't the problem.
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- Katherine Heigl proved she could lead an action-comedy.
- Daniel Sunjata set the gold standard for how Ranger should look and act.
- Debbie Reynolds gave us one last iconic comedic performance before she passed.
There is a weirdly cozy quality to the film now. It’s a time capsule of 2012 cinema. It’s bright, it’s loud, and it smells like New Jersey. For fans of the books, seeing these characters come to life—even if they weren't exactly how they pictured them—was a milestone.
What You Should Do Next
If you actually liked the vibe of the cast of the movie One for the Money, don't just stop at the movie. The film only covers the first book, and honestly, it’s the weakest part of the saga.
First, go grab the audiobook of Two for the Dough. Lorelei King narrates them, and she does the voices better than any Hollywood actor ever could. She is Stephanie, Moretti, and Grandma Mazur. It’ll give you the closure the movie never provided.
Second, check out the 2020 TV series The Flight Attendant on Max. It stars Kaley Cuoco and carries the exact same "chaotic woman solves a crime she has no business being involved in" energy that One for the Money was aiming for. It’s basically the spiritual successor to the Stephanie Plum formula, just with more airplanes and less Jersey.
Finally, if you’re a die-hard Sunjata fan, he went on to do Graceland, which lets him lean much further into that "cool under pressure" archetype he started in this film. It’s worth a watch just to see what Ranger could have become with better writing.
The movie might have been a one-hit-wonder, but the characters are immortal. Sometimes, the best way to enjoy a cast is to realize they were just one version of a story that’s still being told on the page every single year.
Practical Next Steps for Fans:
- Track down the "making of" featurettes: The chemistry between Heigl and Shepherd in the behind-the-scenes footage is actually funnier than some of the scripted bits in the movie.
- Compare the "Lula" descriptions: Read the first three Plum books and see how Sherri Shepherd's portrayal differs from the literary version (the books emphasize her size much more as a plot point).
- Follow the author: Janet Evanovich is still incredibly active. She often posts about why certain film projects stall, providing a peek behind the curtain of Hollywood options and rights.