Casting

Now, of course, James Gleeson, wonderful character actor, oddly enough, was not originally cast in the film. No. They had another actor who was not as well-known, and Lawton was not happy with his performance. So after trying twice to do the same scene with Billy and Uncle Bertie... Emmett Lynn was his name. Emmett Lynn, that's right. Thank you for remembering. He just gave up, and a few days later they were shooting

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69 Rupa Gal was later released as an Ed Wood paperback. Many of the films were also released as paperbacks. Let me find, if you can carry it for a minute, Rudolph. The sad part is that the 69 Rupa Gal movie, the script was all done. I read the script. The casting was all done.

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Nick Pinkerton

and featuring Francis the Talking Mule. It was very catch-as-catch-can for Clint until 58, when he was cast in the role of Rowdy Yates on the hour-long CBS Western series Rawhide, opposite Eric Fleming, both men playing cattle drovers.

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Fran Fullenwider, who's, of course, no longer with us. She's in heaven too. - Yeah, she is. She wrote me a wonderful letter when my husband died. What, recently? - Recently. Yeah, I'm sorry about that, Fran. And I remember she was in trouble one day, and Jim Sharman was very cross and crotchety. Well, we had to get the film done in two days, was it? How long did it take to make? - Six weeks. Six weeks. And I stopped the show. I remember your dear wife Kimi saying to me that... I stopped the show because Fran had a coughing fit or something, and couldn't go on, and he got very cross with her. So I sort of called a strike. I don't remember that, but it's been reminded. I'm quite... people were quite proud of that. You were very bold in those days. Fair. I was fair. - Fair. I thought you were red. - Honorable. Oh. - Oh. There's the beauty. - There he is, Mr. Curry. We've been-- we had a-- you know, when we... when we were casting this originally, we had a young man called Jonathan Kramer, American who is now also in heaven. That was... - Who isn't in heaven? We're lucky to be here. - Well, you and I. And... well, maybe we're luckier to be up there. Yeah. Kramer. And Jonathan was gonna do this part, and Tim came along... uh, to audition for us. And I'm afraid poor, old Jonathan... No. - ...never had a chance against this guy. But I heard it was Tim came in and said, "Let's rip it up." But did he say that? - I don't Know. I heard that, but I knew Tim before this. - Me too. Um, because I was working at the Royal Court Theatre and so was he. I was playing much bigger parts than him at the time, and he was so rather in awe of me, I believe. I'm sorry, but he did. He was very kind and admiring. - Mm-hmm. I knew him in Har, of course, because we were in Hairtogether. Of course. And I always thought he was the most beautiful thing on stage, seriously. Really? And when Jim and I were talking about putting this show on at the Royal Court, I went along looking for muscle men. I thought that would be a nice thing for me to do, is to go around the gyms and see if I could find a nice muscle man to play the part of Rocky. What a lovely way to spend your day. - Yes. And then I went into a little gym in one of those streets, George Street or Blandford Street off, um... Yeah. And who was there? And hang on, Baker Street. Baker Street, Blandford Street, George Street, yes. Yeah, you're a man of London. - And there was this gym. I went into this gym and there was very sweaty men, ugly sweaty men. You know, been pumping iron. And there was-- there was this young man who was living next door above a place called The Speed Queen. I know. The launderette. - This was a laundromat, yeah. And I thought, "That's very nice." And he asked me what I was doing, and I told him what I'd been up to. Sorry, was he in the gym? - No, he'd been-- he'd been living... He'd just come out of the flat, the apartment above The Speed Queen. So why did he speak to you? Oh, 'cause he knew you from Harr. - He went, "Hello, how are you?" I went, "Fine, and..." blah, blah, blah. - Yeah. "I've just been doing some casting." - Yeah, yeah, yeah. And next thing, he auditioned for us. Oh, God, another accident! Well, kind of. - Yes. Wonderful. And I auditioned for you singing a Jessie Matthews song. Yeah, "Over My Shoulder." It goes, One care... I told you not to play the piano because the music would put me off. I said, "I've got this." I surely would have done because I can't play the piano. I said to Richard, "Hardly." -

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Roger Moore

Now, Irka is very, very beautiful... ...but has a slight cast. When we're in an interior... This is in the stage in Paris. But Irka has a slight cast in one eye. And when she looked around at me... ...the operator looking through couldn't tell... ...whether she was looking camera right or camera left. I said, "I think it's optional."

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What a great nose this man has. He also did a really good job. Obviously none of these people had ever been in front of a camera before. Casting Bruno and Isabelle...? Because of "The Story of Adele H", Isabelle was already a big star, which wasn't true of Bruno... - No, he was a star of the theatre. ...even though he had just done "The American Friend". There were several films that had made him very well known. He wasn't a big international star, but he was already quite important for the European cinema. Did you choose the cast yourself, or was that...? Yes. I decided that myself. And Kinski as we will see. We always knew we would not make the film without Kinski. That makes sense. For Kinski... The strange thing is that even though we haven't seen him yet, you can already feel his presence. The whole film works towards that. You get closer to him. Right, that is the result of the dialogue, images, and the text. We planned how we would work towards that. In total, I believe that Kinski is in the movie for less than 17 minutes runtime. Nevertheless, he dominates it completely. ...in the graves and the undead. That is great dialogue with the undead and... For this I read a lot of the vampire literature of the 18th and 19th century, and then used parts of it. Neither Bram Stoker nor Murnau have that. You have always been interested in liturgy and things like that, right? Maybe that's the result of a traumatizing religious period when I was younger. When I was 14, I converted to Catholicism. Texts like that, liturgies, or very ritualistic things... The ritual itself. All that resonates somewhere in the background in many of my movies. Along the street... The ritualistic and liturgy necessarily are connected with the film structure and the music. Yes. I also noticed that frequently you use references to the music of the Middle Ages... Yes. Without it being spherical. It confuses me...

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Stephen Prince

in a bit of ultra-weird casting. Kurosawa and Scorsese met in the 1980s when Scorsese was valiantly trying to put the issue of film preservation on the industry's agenda. Kodak's Eastman Color film stocks were fading badly. The dyes were unstable, threatening to destroy the heritage of cinema. Scorsese was very active in trying to rally industry support for a solution to the problem.

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Paul M. Sammon

And I know the best thing to do when you find yourself in a situation like that is to stay calm and let people run their course. And I asked Frank what was the matter. I found out, and everything was cool. This guy with the hot dog was a real hot dog vendor. They're going to kick somebody's ass. That's the way he really talked. That's why he was cast. He was a local that everybody loved. And so he's an actual person. OK, all these four tawarsas, this is a Budweiser plant. This is a beer plant outside of Houston.

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I don't think that works either. I think that's a bad idea too. Sigourney Weaver has explained that she sees Ripley as a loner type, and I agree with that. I think that's the right way to do it. I think they did have to separate Ripley. I know Michael Biehn is really upset about not being cast in this, and in the documentary he makes a passing comment about how Sigourney Weaver may have been behind that.

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Michael Mann

Running in is Shingachgook. Shingachgook, played by Russell Means. It was an idea early on in the casting. I never forgot an image I'd seen in the early 70s of the two leaders of the American Indian movement in a standoff against the FBI at the Wounded Knee Reservation. Two leaders were Russell Means and Dennis Banks. I thought it would be...

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Taylor Hackford

Hello. My name is Taylor Hackford. I'm the director of Devil's Advocate. And. I thought that you might find it interesting for me to give you a little... ...commentary about what went into making this film. The opening credits were particularly important to me... ...because I was not going to have a normal credit sequence... ...meaning two minutes of listing everybody who worked on the film. I wanted to get right into the action, and I asked Richard Greenberg... ...and Lauren Schluter, who are fabulous title designers... ...to come up with something very unique that could speak to the fact that... ...this film is a little extraordinary. It's going to have a little something... ...let's call "supernatural" to it, because we immediately go right into the film... ...which is extremely realistic. It's a courtroom scene. The actress you see in full close-up... ...is named Heather Matarazzo. She is probably known to a general audience as the star of... ...Welcome to the Doll's House. You now see Kevin Lomax, who is the star of the movie played by Keanu Reeves. But you see his boots. I wanted to say, this guy dressed in a wash-and-wear Southern suit... ...has something a little bit wild about him. Tony Gilroy, who is the writer with... ...my collaborator on this piece, we wanted to basically say this guy... ...may look straight on the upper half of his body. But look at those boots! They're $500 boots. They show that he's got a little flair... ...a little wildness to him, and those are little characteristics that one wants to use. You see him just basically doing his job, supporting his client... ...and then, all of a sudden, you want to feel that this man believes in his client. He's there. He's confident. He's about to take this girl apart. And then he discovers something that completely changes the course... ...of one, this trial and two, his life. He realizes that the man next to him, who he thought was innocent is guilty. That revelation, right now, and this moment of decision... ...is what the film is all about, because this is a moral tale. One has to make these choices, professional choices, in your life... ...where you realize your job says: "I must go forward. In this instance, as a lawyer, I have a professional oath." But on the other hand, you have a personal code of morals and ethics. What the entire film is about is this moment of decision, right now... ...where Kevin Lomax has to decide: "Do I go forward? "Do I take this girl apart on the stand, and do I win the case for my client... "...or do I do the right thing?" And he takes a break, and he takes a moment to think. At this point, we go into what the film is truly about... ...which is moral choices. Kevin's client, Lloyd Gettys, is a math teacher at the local high school. He's played by Chris Bauer, who's a fabulous, young actor... ...I discovered in New York. I didn't discover him... ...but I found him in the casting process. He had gone to Yale. He doesn't look like this. It just shows the chameleon quality... ...of what an actor can do. But at this point, you can really see the passion and the anger in Keanu here. I wanted to establish: here is a guy who thought he was on top of the world... ...who had it all basically lined up. He sat there calm and collected at the table. You can tell he's not at all upset. Everyone in the room thinks: "Oh my God, this girl is gonna take him apart." But right here, he's got to look at himself in the mirror... ...and realize, "My God, what do I do? "I've never had to make this choice before." I think that maybe some lawyers never have to make it. But I think this is a moment of truth, where you realize: "What do I do, my professional ethics or my personal ethics?" At this moment of choice, in the bathroom enters a character... ...that you will see later in the film. He's the Southern reporter, newspaper reporter... ...a friend of Kevin Lomax's, a drinking buddy. He's played by Neal Jones... ...who's a wonderful New York actor. You want to feel a sense of familiarity here. These are a couple of cynics who like to get together and drink... ...and laugh about life in the courthouse. But basically, right now, he's setting up the fact that this character, Kevin Lomax... ...is unbeaten, he's a hotshot, he doesn't really take anything too seriously... ...because he's got great confidence. But right now, he's about to lose his first case. While looking in the mirror... ...Keanu has to decide, "What am I gonna do?" I thought particularly interesting, and it was an actor's choice... ...Keanu goes through that whole thing. He has his moment of seriousness. He's looking at himself. And then he checked his teeth. It looks like a smile. It's not a smile. It's a smirk. It basically is saying, and is in the best kind of cynical sense: "Hey, I'm going to do my job. I'm a tough son of a bitch. "And I'm gonna go in that courtroom and I'm gonna take this little girl apart. "Because that's what I do. I'm a lawyer and I'm a winner. "And I'm not about to become a loser here." And I think that choice that Keanu made, it was the only time he did it in a take... ...and I included it in the film. He comes in this courtroom and he starts very nice, very sweet to her... ...and appears to be... You know, she's been warned by the opposition that he's a killer, so be careful. You can tell that Heather is being very wary of him. But she's a little arrogant herself. She tends to feel that she's pretty confident. She's supposed to play a character who's very bright... ...and kind of the leader of her group. I think she feels that she's righteous... ...and in a good position right now. So she challenges him a little bit... ...and then Kevin springs a trap. He has this piece of evidence... ...which is a piece of her homework... ...where she's doodled and made a derogatory comment about Mr. Gettys. The fact is, however, that this is an unscrupulous bit of professional behavior. If you notice at the beginning of the scene, Kevin Lomax goes over. He doesn't know whether the judge will admit this or not. He turns his back to the jury, holds the piece up so that they can see it. If the judge doesn't admit it as evidence, he's already shown it to the jury. And this, actually, is a lawyer's trick. It is a bit of an unscrupulous trick... ...but it shows how far Kevin Lomax will go and how tricky he is... ...in terms of getting what he wants. He does, at the same time, get it in place, because he is also a very good lawyer. He's able to, as you see, he starts very nice and then he gets progressively tougher... ...and he's nice, kind of nice to her for a while. When the attorney objects, immediately you could see... ...Keanu Reeves jump like a cat... ...in terms of qualifying why he wants the objection sustained... ...and why he wants to win over the objection. Pardon me. And in this instance, he starts getting tougher and tougher and tougher... ...with Heather. Barbara is the character's name. He is going to take her apart, and slowly the opposition and everyone... ...in the courtroom starts to realize that this guy is not gonna be Mr. Nice Guy. He is perfectly capable of destroying a 13, 14-year old girl.

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You know in Hong Kong they call them action directors instead of choreographers. Right. This is one of my favorite lines in the movie. Now we know. Mr. Yeo has been kept complaining about I keep casting those big guys.

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E. Elias Merhige

which would kill him and that which is something that he hasn't been able to see for centuries. Like a child, he's sort of casting his own shadow over that which he longs for, these images of the sun and images of the clouds. It's a very beautiful scene and it was a very important scene and I basically begged my crew to stay on for an extra 45 minutes to film this scene because otherwise it would not be in the film.

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And that's the thing with Benicio. You're never going to get what you expect, but you're always going to get something great. Yeah. And I love this look right here. It's one of my favorite moments right here, where he just means. He does such a great job with his eyes. And here is our man Dylan Kussman. Yay. So great. He was cast literally, literally at the last minute.

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Jonathan Lynn

Michael Clarke Duncan, who plays Frankie Figgs, is an old friend of Bruce's. They worked together on Armageddon. And when we cast him, he'd just finished shooting The Green Mile. You're in the right place. In which he plays a very different kind of role. Extraordinarily gifted actor with a presence

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You have broken the chain and the Covenant! "Must be judged!" I love that your eyes well up with tears without, like, me having to cut away. You see that as he's talking to you. I love that scene. Now, what was challenging about this? This was not a happy day for all of us. Why? Do you remember? Wasn't that the first day I was back after the pneumonia thing? lt was stressful that day, because I had so many things... I think you weren't happy with the red carpet. That's right. - Why didn't you like the carpet? That it was red. - It was red. It was really red too, I guess. - I guess I wasn't really... I don't love colour all that much, and it just was really red. Jarring? - This day, though, here, I had fun. You didn't know it was red until you got there? There was nothing you could do? - I didn't Know how red it was gonna be. I wanted it more of like a... - I see. This was all, like, up in that corridor, right? Towards the end. I had fun. It was a fun time. Yeah, so we're actually back from a break... ...and you will notice Speedman is not with us anymore. He had to skip out. He has an audition. - He has an audition. He wants it, so we can't hate him for it, because it's something he wants to do. I wish him luck. It's something with the Olsen twins... ...and I don't know what the name of the film is. I think it's set in Paris, and he wants to do the whole thing, right? Yeah, he's been talking about it... ...and I know he's really excited about it, so we wish him luck. Since it was his dream job, we decided not to be mean while he's not here. No. - Anyway.... I hope he's reading with the Olsen twins, just to.... Anyway. Why was this funny? There was funny things about this. Well, that was the shot that Danny McBride had done. I tease him about it, because I think it was the most takes that we had done. There were 19 takes of that gun falling, and I used take one... ...and I give him a hard time about it. It's a beautiful take one, though. It is.

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People get confused here because her name is Carrie, and then Jim Carrey was cast, and so they're wondering why he's talking about Jim Carrey there. We've had that problem more than once in focus groups. There is some, like...

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