Casting

Paul Davis

It's funny, Rufus Deakin, who played the little boy with the balloons, he was one person that I did manage to track down for the book of an American werewolf in London. And it turned out that the reason, the way he got the role is that his mother was best friends with Debbie McWilliams, who was the casting director on this. And Debbie has gone on to, you know, she cast all the James Bond movies. So she's had a very prolific career, post-American werewolf.

1:12:31 · jump to transcript →

When we were casting this woman, there were lots of possibilities. But I had always liked Candy Clark from American Graffiti. And there's just something slightly, you know, wacky... ...and kooky about her. She just had kind of a fun thing about her. So she was the one that wound up with this part.

22:06 · jump to transcript →

Judd Nelson

There's Judd. Right on. I told the story when we did the interview before with Jason, that you came to the audition just so ready, man. You were just there. You were already there. That's a long time in high school. - Yeah. All seven years of high school really paid off, and you got a great role. Judd, you were great. I remember from the day you came in for the audition, you just came in, like, "What movie? Can we start, or what?" Even these rehearsals, 'cause, John, if you remember, man, we did rehearsals in this space 'cause this art department had constructed this. And it was inside a gymnasium, so we had the benefit of working as if it were a stage, and it was already there, ready for us. It was cool, 'cause the studio took over the school, in a way. So, we could turn their gymnasium into this library. However, at the time, there was a USFL football team, the Chicago Blitz, they were practicing and using the school as their home base. So, they practiced in the big gymnasium. Not anymore, it became the library, and they went to the old, small gym, or had to go outside. And it was Chicago, and it was really cold, and they hated us. These hulking dudes would be like, "Get out of the way." I miss Paul, man. Paul was great. - Yeah, he was a cool guy.

4:49 · jump to transcript →

Oliver Stone

an Indian actor who conveyed to me the essence of Elias successfully. And I looked. So I ended up casting a Dutch actor out of New York. I was very impressed with Willem's performance in To Live and Die in L.A. And the moment I saw him, I felt that he looked so evil and seductive and interesting that I thought that we could go the other way with that sense of strangeness.

1:02:17 · jump to transcript →

Here's Elias Koteas, who actually plays Skinhead, and auditioned for John Hughes for a different movie. And John called me when we were casting. He said, "You got to see this guy." And the minute he walked in, I knew. Oh, my God. John had, like, found another unique kid. He was great in it, and I thought, grounded in a comedic reality that was a very tough tightrope to walk. Getting laughs and being real at the same time is difficult.

8:36 · jump to transcript →

Barry Levinson

One of the choices that you have to make in terms of casting with Valeria, I was looking for someone that didn't speak English as the first language. The reason being, in scenes like this, I thought that by having someone who was a foreigner, that she could interrupt more often and kind of break certain rhythms and at the same time doesn't quite understand what he's trying to get at.

11:33 · jump to transcript →

Richard Donner

My name is Dick Donner, and I directed this wonderful film Scrooged. And Danny Elfman did the music. Paramount put up the money. A lot of great actors, a lot of great fun. And Scrooged was supposed to be advertised as, "You've been Scrooged." But, you know, people are chicken, and they were worried about the, you know, the right. You know which right I'm talking about. And, so we never said, "Scrooge," but I'm saying it now. And if you guys don't want to buy it, then go Scrooged yourself. How's that? Now, okay, this is a great little set. A wonderful little set. I have a lot of this at home. I know I shouldn't, but... And these are all the little people. We got little people from all over to come, and some of them turned out to really be Santa's helper. We didn't realize it and... But they showed up, because they heard about the casting and figured it would work. That... Last time a star appeared like that, it was Joel Silver. You should pardon the expression.

0:21 · jump to transcript →