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::FILM NEWS::
LE Newsletter - February 2, 2012
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SAG Nominated Directors Discuss Crafting The Perfect Ensemble
Cast
Source:
www.thestar.com - By Glenn Whip
(Jan 26, 2012) LOS ANGELES, CALIF.—Alexander Payne, director
of The
Descendants, likens it to “inviting people to my home for
dinner.”
Bridesmaids helmer Paul Feig describes it as spending
hundreds of hours waiting for that “one aha moment.”
Tate Taylor, who wrote and directed The Help, uses
starker terms when describing the process of crafting the
perfect acting ensemble: “One bad casting choice, one weak link,
can spell death for your movie. That’s why you see tons of
people and you don’t stop until it’s right.”
The Help, The Descendants and Bridesmaids,
along with the silent movie The Artist and Woody Allen’s
Midnight In Paris, are all vying for the
Screen Actors Guild’s
ensemble trophy at Sunday night’s 18th annual Screen Actor Guild
Awards.
SAG began giving its movie ensemble award in 1994, after an
equivalent trophy for favourite TV cast proved popular in its
inaugural awards show a year earlier. The honour, says SAG
Awards producer Kathy Connell, originated with the guild and
reflects its desire to “acknowledge the creativity of chemistry
and the teamwork that actors do.”
That’s fine by the directors of this year’s nominees, many of
whom spent more time casting their movies than making or editing
them.
Payne began casting The Descendants nine months before
filming began, starting with George Clooney, whom he had
politely rejected for the lead in his last movie, Sideways.
Payne takes a unique approach to building an ensemble, working
with a single casting director, longtime associate John Jackson,
for hiring the lead roles, the locals and the extras.
“I don’t like the Hollywood system of hiring three different
people for casting,” Payne says. “I don’t want to explain myself
three times over. I think one person should be in charge of all
the flesh in front of the camera and bring a single vision to
that.”
Critics frequently praise Payne’s knack for placing actors in
unlikely roles. He and Jackson did that several times over in
The Descendants, starting with casting Clooney as a clueless
father who wears, as the actor puts it, “khakis up to his
armpits.”
“If I cast against type, I do so unwittingly,” Payne admits,
“because in reality I don’t see that many contemporary American
films. So I don’t know the actor’s type to begin with.”
That wasn’t the case for Taylor, who, when adapting longtime
friend Kathryn Stockett’s bestseller, wrote the roles of Minny
and Charlotte specifically for two other dear friends — Octavia
Spencer and Allison Janney, respectively.
Taylor also wanted Viola Davis for the lead role of maid
Aibileen, and pushed the film’s start date to accommodate her
schedule.
Rehearsals were critical for the Bridesmaids ensemble,
Feig says. The cast met two months prior to filming, reading
through the script and then going through rigorous improv
sessions so Feig and the movie’s writers could tailor new
material to the actresses’ strengths and personalities.
During this revision process, the filmmakers expanded Melissa
McCarthy’s part, putting her in a key scene opposite Kristen
Wiig late in the movie. McCarthy wound up being the only cast
member nominated for a SAG Award.
“It’s when you’re rehearsing more and more, you start to think,
‘Wow. These girls together are strong,’ ” Feig says. “That’s
also when, as a director, you get nervous. You’re thinking, ‘Oh
boy. I’m the only thing that could throw this all off.’ ”
Since SAG began giving its ensemble awards, other groups, like
the Broadcast Film Critics Association, have jumped on the
bandwagon. Television’s Emmy Awards added three casting
categories in 2000 and some in the industry, like Modern
Family co-creator Steve Levitan, believe an acting ensemble
award should be added, too.
Meanwhile, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,
which added an animated film category in 2001, has no plans to
supplement its four acting honours.
As it stands, members of popular ensembles, like Chastain and
Spencer in The Help, often find themselves in competition
for a film’s top accolade.
“If the actors give distinctly different performances, they
stand on their own and don’t cancel each other out,” says
Kristopher Tapley, executive editor of awards coverage website
In Contention.
The beauty of SAG’s ensemble award, says Taylor, is that, for
one night at least, “everyone’s on the same team.”
“It’s going to be a great reunion,” Taylor adds. “It might get a
little loud, though.” |
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::ENTERTAINMENT NEWS WITH A CANADAN TWIST::
