WHERE

DO THEY

GET THESE

PEOPLE??

X

X

Garrison Taylor finds out when

he talks with Mark Bennett,

Casting Director for the arthouse smash

JUNEBUG

MARK, YOU'VE SERVED AS CASTING DIRECTOR FOR SOME MAJOR HOLLYWOOD PRODUCTIONS SUCH AS UNFAITHFUL AND OLIVER STONE'S RECENT EPIC, ALEXANDER. WHAT WAS IT ABOUT PHIL MORRISON'S JUNEBUG THAT MADE YOU JUST HAVE TO BE INVOLVED, BEING THAT YOU PROBABLY TOOK QUITE A PAYCUT (AS DO MOST IN INDEPENDENT FILM)?

I got a call when I first moved to LA from New York (about two years ago) from a manager friend, who said, "Listen. We represent this director, Phil Morrison, who has a script for a feature he's gonna direct called Junebug. Do you want to read it and meet with him?" The manager knew that I was certainly friendly to indie films, having worked with people like Allison Anders, Chris Munch, people like that, and having done a lot of Sundance kind of stuff. He also knew that I was new in town and so he presumed, rightly, that I was unemployed. But they were smart. They got me hooked on the script first, and only then told me what I'd be getting paid (or more accurately what I WOULDN'T be getting paid). But I just loved the script too much to worry about the lack of a payday. When I first got to LA, I read so many scripts, and so much of it was crap, that on that rare occasion that you find a script that really affects you, you just grab onto it. I remember, I had to go to their office to read the script before the meeting, and they had nowhere to put me, so they stuck me in the copier room. And so I sat there, huddled on a pile of recycled scripts, and read the script with tears running down my face, while all these poor interns scampered in and out copying scripts, and not knowing who this weird crying guy was and whether or not they should do anything for him. Somebody did bring me coffee, I remember.

PHIL MORRISON SERVED AS A CONSULTING PRODUCER ON ONE OF TV'S GREATEST COMEDY SKETCH SHOWS, THE UPRIGHT CITIZENS BRIGADE. NOW HE'S DIRECTED WHAT IS HANDS-DOWN ONE OF THE YEAR'S BEST FILMS. HOW WAS HE TO WORK WITH?

Phil was a treat. Generous with actors, polite, articulate, just great in every way.

WHAT EXACTLY WAS THE PROCESS YOU AND HE WENT THROUGH IN ORDER TO ARRIVE AT SUCH A PITCH-PERFECT CAST?

Celia Weston and Ben McKenzie were already attached before I came on. Phil read and met with a lot of actors in LA for the other leads, but we moved pretty quickly. I think we set all the leads after about two weeks, which is quite fast. We did maybe one round of callbacks for the Ashley role, but that's it. Phil is quite decisive, and he's not a literalist. He can see actors' potential and knows what they'll be capable of delivering, even if he didn't actually see it in their audition. There were a few locals that I helped with, but mainly the local supporting players were all cast through a really great woman named Lisa Mae Fincannon. And a couple of people came from Phil's personal relationships - like Will Oldham, who plays one of the art scouts - I'd love to say I was responsible for bringing him on, but that was all Phil.

WERE YOU AWARE OF THE ACTRESS, AMY ADAMS, BEFORE YOU BEGAN CASTING? I REMEMBER HER MOST FROM (BELIEVE IT OR NOT) THE CAMPY STRAIGHT-TO-VIDEO SEQUEL, CRUEL INTENTIONS 2.

I totally believe it. I think more people knew her from that, weirdly, than from the Spielberg film she did (Catch Me If You Can). It's one of those films that just lives on on video, I guess.

IT’S A GUILY PLEASURE, WITHOUT A DOUBT. I CAUGHT IT LATE ONE NIGHT ON CABLE, AND WHILE THE FILM ITSELF WAS A COMPLETE MESS, AMY DEFINITELY STOOD OUT TO ME. BASICALLY, SHE JUST REALLY MADE ME LAUGH. I ALWAYS HOPED SHE'D SOMEHOW GO ON TO BIGGER AND BETTER THINGS. HOW EXACTLY, THEN, DID SHE COME TO THE ROLE OF ASHLEY?

Amy was one of those actresses that I'd been rooting for ever since I first met her. She was always so fucking good, I mean, she nailed EVERYTHING. And on top of that, she was smart and worked incredibly hard. I could never figure out why Hollywood wasn't just throwing offers at her. So when I read Junebug, and specifically the Ashley character, I just sort of knew that I'd finally found the perfect fit. I mean, there were similarities to her Catch Me If You Can character, but this role just had so much more for her to do. I knew it was the “money” role, and that Amy would kill it. When I had my first meeting with Phil, I actually went so far as to predict, right there on the spot, that Amy's who he'd cast - and I NEVER do that, just because it is such a journey, casting, and you can never predict what'll happen. But this was one of those rare occasions when the ideal person, and the most deserving person, was the one who actually got cast.

I WAS ALSO GLAD TO SEE CELIA WESTON AS THE FILM’S FAMILY MATRIARCH. NOT ONLY DOES SHE VERY MUCH LOOK THE PART, BUT SHE SEEMS TO HAVE THE ACTING PROWESS TO BREATHE BOTH LIFE AND COMPLEXITY INTO WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN JUST ANOTHER OF CINEMA’S TWO-DIMENSIONAL, DISAPPROVING MOTHER-IN-LAWS. HER WORK WITH ALESSANDRO NIVOLA, ESPECIALLY IN THEIR FINAL SCENE TOGETHER, IS SOME OF THE FILM'S BEST. HOW DID CELIA COME TO THIS PART? WERE YOU AWARE OF HER BEFORE CASTING BEGAN?

Any casting director worth their salt knows Celia and, rightly, worships her - she's one of our great characters actresses. But she was actually attached to the project before I came on. She'd been attached for a long time before it finally went. And, of course, actors all want to work with her, so it helped to attract the interest of the other cast.

AS A NATIVE OF SOUTHERN ALABAMA, ONE THING THAT USUALLY BUGS THE SHIT OUT OF ME IN FILM IS WHEN ACTORS MUCK UP THEIR SOUTHERN ACCENTS. THE CAST OF JUNEBUG, HOWEVER, PASSES MY LITTLE AURAL LITMUS TEST WITH FLYING COLORS. I WONDER, THEN, IF THIS WAS A MAJOR CONCERN FOR YOU DURING CASTING?

Well, Phil Morrison, the director, is a native of North Carolina, so he was definitely aware of the need for authenticity. Ben McKenzie and Celia Weston are both real Southerners, so they at least had an ear for it. And Celia has played so many variations of the Southern woman that there was no doubt she had this in her repertoire. Scott Wilson too - he'd just done Monster and Clay Pigeons before that (among other things), a lot of different variations on the theme, as it were, so there was never any doubt that he could pull it off. And Alessandro and Amy both have such an incredible gift for dialects, and work so hard to get everything right… we also had the privilege of getting to see Amy read before we cast her, so we could sort of field-test it. And all the supporting roles and “dayplayers” were cast locally. We were lucky enough to be able to actually shoot in North Carolina, which happens so rarely these days. They always want to move you to someplace cheaper, and so you cast locally there and you end up with all these Canadians, say, trying to understand what a North Carolina accent is... not that I don't love Canadians.

ALL RIGHT, ONE MORE QUESTION, CAUSE I KNOW HOW THE READERS OF “NATHAN JR.” JUST LOVE THEIR HOLLYWOOD SLEAZE. TELL ME… ARE THERE ANY SPECIAL, BEHIND-THE-SCENES CASTING STORIES FROM JUNEBUG THAT YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO SHARE WITH US? ANYTHING WILL DO, AS LONG AS IT'S DIRTY.

Like what, an actor showing up drunk or offering to sleep with me for the part of something? Traditionally, the only one drunk at casting sessions is me. But no, I didn't sleep with or get propositioned by anyone in the cast - although if Celia ever asked, I'd probably hop the fence and do it, just out of respect. I'm pretty sure she's married, though.

--- Mark Bennett, 30, currently resides in Los Angeles, California. He has served as casting director for numerous feature-length films, including the Academy Award-winning MONSTER'S BALL, IN THE CUT, ALEXANDER, UNFAITHFUL, and the latest from director David Cronenberg, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE.

--- Garrison Taylor, 24, is your humble Hollywood reporter. He is a frequent, almost obsessive, contributor to NATHAN JR. (in which this interview appears next month), and has recently decided that (despite an undeniably acute allergy) he may indeed like cats.