That being said, it may be her first film as a director, but she’s far from learning on the job. “She’s hardly starting out,” said co-star Daniel Stern. He’s done some directing of his own, and acted in a couple of films, too (“Harry….I’ve reached the top!”)

“To have the [directing] responsibility is somewhat new to her, but she knows the set like the back of her hand. She knows the audience and who she’s going for, she knows the results she wants, and she’s open to additions.

“She knows how to protect the set. She’s the wall between the pressure of the production and the pressures of the actors.”

Added Whip It star, Ellen Page; “She’s an awesome person. The luminous, infectious, passionate person you see…that’s who she is — She’s an incredibly powerful human being, an absolute pleasure to work with. She knew what she always wanted, and is remarkably present.”

The most important element with any successful film is the director’s vision; the ability to bring to life what’s on the page and to execute it with precision. Whip It captured all of that and more. And hearing Barrymore speak about the experience made it clear how a life-long actress could nail it, (directing and writing for that matter), so well.

“I wanted to make sure I was prepared,” said Barrymore.  “I worked with the script for three years. I wanted to put a lot into the characters, put a lot of myself into the writing.”

Three years? Yep, three years.

“I worked with the writer on re-writing the script for a year….(stunt) trained for the first couple of months….shot for several months….edited for eight months…and then you have the marketing after that.”

That’s working more than most Olympians!

“It’s a long process, she admitted. “You really have to be in love with it because it becomes your whole world. What’s going to keep you that passionate?

“The film tells the story of the culture of an incredibly unique sport, but it’s not just solely an action flick. It’s not just about roller derby. Its’ a mother-daughter love story… It’s a persons journey. It’s set in a world that’s very unique and a back-drop with a culture we don’t see everyday.”

We do get to see Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut on the big screen. After three years of hard work…Whip It is definitely a film where all her hard work paid off. Go check it out in theaters near you.

One small fact missing from the aforementioned notes is that this is the operation for what might be the most popular current show on television. “The way I explain it is that we are a human resources department for TV or movies,” said Laura Schiff, the casting director for the wildly successful American Movie Classics series, Mad Men. Though she did not cast the pilot which was done in New York, Schiff came aboard the series, set in Manhattan in the early 1960s, to cast episode two. The show, created by executive producer Matt Weiner, has gone on to win numerous awards and is one of the top-rated cable TV series of the past three years.

Of utmost importance to any series is finding the best possible performer for each role. Schiff noted that she is methodical about every casting choice from leading parts to the smallest speaking role. “We sit down with the director or writers or producers to determine what the parameters are,” she explained. “We know age and type, but we have to go out and find it. We are a little like headhunters. We talk to the agents and managers we know to talk about who would be the right fit for the job. If there’s someone we know well, we take them straight to the director or Matt. Then we take care of all of the various things that need to be done with schedules, studio and network clearances, and negotiating their deal.”

Now into season three, Mad Men has tremendous expectations upon it on the part of the viewing public. As such, that pressure translates right down to the tasks facing the casting director. Schiff is well aware of this reality. “Any casting director knows a phenomenal number of actors but we’re always looking for new ones,” she revealed. “Going to plays and movies and saying, ‘who’s that?’ Tomorrow, there’s a role that we’re casting and I’m taking it as an opportunity to meet a whole bunch of new faces. You can’t rely on just the people you know, especially when you are doing episodic television.”

As a Mad Men script comes to her, Schiff is always up against new challenges – and no two episodes are ever alike. “You may have two or twenty roles,” she said of each script, 13 in all per season. “You are maybe showing the producers 10-15 people. If you are showing the same faces all the time, they say, ‘we didn’t cast this person last time.’ Certainly there are people we bring back again because they did well last time and have a good chance of being cast on the show. But you must have a freshness to it.”

Part of the buzz of Mad Men is its unpredictability and uniqueness in every sense – including its largely previously unknown cast. “Matt doesn’t like to cast people who are too familiar to the audience because it removes you from just being immersed in it,” Schiff stated. “Most of the time, he really wants people who the audience won’t recognize. He really feels that as a period show, the fact that you don’t really recognize the actors makes you believe that you believe that it’s that point in time. It’s a good opportunity for young actors or actors in smaller roles who haven’t had that big break. On another show, it might go to an actor with a larger resume. Plenty of our people are still not that recognizable – they might work a lot in a lot of things, or they are chameleons and you don’t realize who they are because of makeup and wardrobe.”

To begin her process, after getting a script, that day or the following one, Schiff has a concept meeting with all of the department heads, including Weiner, the producers and the director to determine the entire goal of the episode. “We talk about everything page-by-page,” Schiff detailed. “As we get to a page that has new characters, we discuss what kind of person she or he is: their background, what their attitudes are even though we can’t share it with the agents and managers. In this show, we cannot be specific with agents because we want to protect the storyline on Mad Men. The overarching mystery on the show makes it more important to keep it under wraps. Part of the journey and enjoyment of the show is the discovery of it.”

In getting to make specific choices for each role, Schiff and her team must who exactly a script is describing on a person-by-person basis. “We want to find specifically what they are looking for,” she said. “We put out a breakdown which is a listing that goes through a service to all of the agents and managers. That could go out to 500 people. The description of the character is pretty oblique. ‘An intelligent poised woman’ and not much else. We don’t want to give away storyline. When we see the submissions based on that breakdown, agents and managers submit ideas to it through the online service. Because we know what it needs to be, we discuss it amongst ourselves and know what the subtle qualities are. We are looking for specifics in a particular character because we couldn’t be specific in the breakdown. We then hold auditions – we might read people just Carrie Audino [co-casting director] and I – then we will call people back to see Matt or the director later that day or the next day. Sometimes he looks at the videotape and calls them back to read them again before making his final decision. That entire process is between five and seven days.”

In television, even with a reduced cable schedule of 13 episodes, with only nine months of work, cast and crew have to move very quickly, and casting is no exception. “We have to very specific about calling in people for Matt,” Schiff said. “Between six and eight people per role, so you have to make sure that they are the right six-to-eight. With Matt, we have a good freedom to try different things, but you have to be specific because it happens so fast. In that seven days of an episode’s production, Matt is doing rewrites and doing post-production, going down to set to make sure things are going well, and meeting with department heads. We only have him for a limited number of hours for an episode.”

Of note, every cast member who has ever been on Mad Men has auditioned. “Matt wants to work with them in the room,” Schiff stated of Weiner’s process. “He plays with them a lot in the room. Someone putting themselves on tape in another city doesn’t work at all on Mad Men. We have never cast off of tape. When the actor comes in the room, they need direction. If they are on tape, they don’t have that opportunity.”

With that, Laura Schiff goes back to her day, both preparing for a future episode and taking care of current business, as Mad Men moves eloquently through its third season on AMC.

Set in the near future, The Roadconcerns a wholly righteous and doting father, played aptly by Viggo Mortensen, caring for his young son after a worldwide cataclysm which has left buildings standing – albeit without electricity or any social services – but has laid waste all animals and crops, leaving every person to fend for himself.  Partially told in flashback sequences where Mortensen and his wife (Charlize Theron) are leading an idyllic farming life before the catastrophe – which is only alluded to but never seen in full or explained – The Road is equal parts love story, travelogue, and tense drama as the abandoned father and son try to reach the ocean in hopes of a better life.

Without question, Hillcoat’s directing career and natural fit for undertaking the assignment ofThe Road was elevated with the completion of The Proposition, a Western set in the 1800s Australian outback.  “It had a long gestation period,” Hillcoat, 48, said of his 2005 revelation as a filmmaker.  “I had always wanted to make a Western and I loved genre – trying to find a new approach.  I had been researching a lot about the conflict between the British and Aboriginal culture in Australia and the lawlessness at the time.”

Starring Danny Huston in what may be his best career role, this time playing a ruthless outlaw, Arthur Burns,  The Proposition also featured Guy Pearce as Huston’s likeable brother and Ray Winstone as Captain Stanley, the lawman trying to bring order to the region.  “That had quite a strange [development] period as well because he [Huston] was originally approached to be the Ray Winston character.  There was quite an opposition to Ray playing that part because he was such a brute and Danny is such a cerebral guy with a visceral quality.  Danny wanted to play Arthur [the eldest brother] and not Stanley.  By a twist of fate, I managed to get Ray on board.  I was very fortunate with the casting of that film.  It was such an amazing team to work with.”

With the similarities in the basic settings of The Proposition and The Road, Hillcoat was able to get key meetings in Hollywood.  “I met with the producers in L.A., and I mentioned howNo Country was a big influence on The Proposition,” he said.  “The producer remembered that, and got the unpublished manuscript of The Road to me.  We share extreme environments that bring out the best and worst in people.  With The Road, you’ve got a whole other dimension that was expected in terms of the personal and emotional love story. I don’t think I’d be on it if it had been published and gone on to win the Pulitzer Prize.”

Given the similarity with the new film and his last outing, Hillcoat drew natural parallels in his preferred themes.  “I am drawn to extreme worlds because they bring out the best and worst in people,” he said.  “It’s an intensive stressful activity, making a film, any film.  I’ve heard stories of behind-the-scenes making romantic comedies which make working on The Road andThe Proposition an absolute pleasure.  It’s the essence of drama in a way – it brings out conflict in how people behave in the choices that they make – that there are no limits on human behavior for the better or the worse.”

Nonetheless, despite the downbeat nature of The Proposition, one can see The Road as an ultimately positive story about the finding the essence of humanity in an unwinnable situation.  “Cormac said that The Road is about human goodness,” the director noted. “There is a real love story [in The Road] as in The Proposition between the captain and the wife.  It’s the loss of things we take for granted: the relationships in our lives and the gift of being able to eat and enjoy the weather.  How rare and special that really is – in the greater context.  This is a very special love story between a father and son – the crux of the story.”

Unlike other post-apocalyptic tales, including I Am Legend and The Road Warrior, Hillcoat’s film is far from an action-adventure story and is more metaphoric for many modern issues. “It was really the reality of the book: having all of your possessions in a shopping trolley conjured images of the homeless in every city,” he said.  “That made it stand apart from the normal apocalyptic genre.  It wasn’t about the spectacle – it was about survival.  It felt weirdly familiar, like we had already glimpsed it because our references were apocalyptic mini-events such as Mt. St. Helens, the Twin Towers, Hiroshima, Katrina or wherever.  It’s not on a global scale but may as well be if you are in the middle of it.”

Trying to recall those tragedies, Hillcoat carefully selected several critical sites throughout the United States for his shooting locations.  “It’s a road trip, so we wanted the change of geography,” he said. “Production designer Chris Kennedy has a keen eye and loves research, so we referenced a lot of events such as mining in Pennsylvania and the grey sand in Oregon.  It was a matter of making up the world in real environments.  It was a creative choice that made it feel free.”

Spanning 55 shootings days, somewhat expanded due to the short days required when shooting with a minor, principal photography on The Road included at least 50 locations with some actual footage of recent disasters.  “There were four states that we went into: Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Washington and Oregon,” said Hillcoat. “Many of [the locations] were in and around concentrated areas in Pittsburgh,” said Hillcoat.  It gave it the look, and we were able to do that because of the simplicity of the story.  There was actual footage from after Katrina hit.  We just replaced the sky because we couldn’t have the sun.  The mass of smoke billowing up in the background is the actual real footage of 9/11 of the smoke tower visible from space.  We just kept referencing the photos of the aftermaths of these events and went to these locations.  It also added poignancy to the crew who were local – it gave it a whole other level.”

To create the verisimilitude that he needed, Hillcoat build as few practical sets as possible, choosing instead to modify real locations.  “We always tried to start with a live location,” he said. “[Visual effects supervisor] Mark Forker came from photography originally, and the visual effects are coming from real locations, enhancing that world and making it all flow. They were sourced from real things.  There were also a lot of practical things [achieved with visual effects] like getting rid of jet streams in the sky and birds.  No matter how dead a location is, life is buzzing around.  We had to do that with sound as well.  We infamously were known to the locals in the way our mood was at a low point when there was beautiful sunshine.  We were elated when things were grim.  It’s an adventure to be on location and is like a forced method – the cast and crew get what world we are making.  Creatively it’s very exciting.”

With the cast of The Road, including veteran Robert Duvall and Hillcoat mainstay Guy Pearce, the director had another key challenge in casting not only the adults but this time needing to find the perfect actor to play The Boy.  “My biggest fear with The Road was getting a boy who could work,” he said.  Hillcoat eventually settled on young Australian Kodi Smit-McPhee.

To help create a believably forlorn group of characters, makeup expert Toni G, who had done much the same for Charlize Theron in Monster, was brought in as makeup department head, coincidentally getting to work with Theron again.  “Toni was a great help in transforming Robert Duvall and Guy Pearce,” said Hillcoat.  “We wanted them unrecognizable and full integrated into the world.  The Road was about not enough sun and too much cold.”

With the film in the can and finally debuting for audiences this fall, Hillcoat feels a responsibility to the material and author which have each gone on to create a wide impact in the time since the director became attached to the project.  “I had no idea the book was going to have the impact that it did,” he said. “It hit me when I first read it.  There were certain people like Nick Cave [Hillcoat’s collaborator on The Proposition] who didn’t want to go near it and take that risk of entering the world of Cormac McCarthy.  As time went on, that pressure kept going.  Once that started, I focused on the task at hand.  Cormac was hugely helpful pointing out the obvious as to what a different medium the two are.  He was very encouraging.  He loved the results.  That was a saving grace for me.  He never wanted to read the script, and we never gave it to him.  That was a mutual choice.  He was happy to see how it would be at the latest stage.  The writer [Joe Penhall] was very adept at adapting difficult material and very eclectic material.  He was well-versed in the intricacies of the movie from one medium to another.”

Of note, McCarthy did ultimately see the film with naturally unpredictable results. “We went out to Santa Fe to show Cormac the film, and we were absolutely shattered initially as he walked out and disappeared for 15 minutes,” Hillcoat revealed.  “We were totally crushed, but he just had to go to the men’s room.  But he loved it, and we went for a seven-hour lunch.  He went on to a great range of subjects.  We talked about film but in more general terms about general subjects.  He had come to the set and brought a fantastic 10-year-old boy who was half responsible for The Road – his inspiration in writing the book.  He was saying that his son wrote half the book.”

For his next film, Hillcoat is sticking to his basic themes but is decidedly switching genres. “We are very close on the next one – a rural Goodfellas,” he stated.  “I’d love to do a gangster film – that’s another great American genre.  But I do want to make something with more energy.  I have a wide range of stuff that I’m looking at.  There’s several different genres that I’d be interested in doing.  I’d like to find a science-fiction, but I love films that have a human element to them. They don’t have to have that degree of extremity.  I hope that I’m not pigeonholed.”

Reflecting on The Road, Hillcoat wished that his film affects audiences the same manner in which the book affected him.  “It hopefully will make you look at your own relationships and value what we take for granted,”
he described.  “It’s looking at ourselves and our own relationships and what makes us human at times of duress.  It’s very timely in that regard.  I’ve always loved to go on journeys with films and get transported into other worlds, and think about it for days to come.  I hope that it has a lingering effect on people the way the book has.”

Hands down, Gran Torino is absolutely the best movie of 2008. In fact, it is the best movie of the decade. Directed by and starring Clint Eastwood as Walt Kowalski, a pissed off ex-Korean war vet, who can’t let go of his painful past and carries his prejudices into the present, this true masterpiece in filmmaking begins at a funeral.

Looking more bitter and angrier than ever, Walt begrudgingly greets his family and friends (people he can’t stand), who are there to mourn their mother…friend and I’m guessing, Walt’s “better half.” Leaving her tormented husband of many years behind, she asked her young and ambitious preacher, Father Janovich (played by Christopher Carley) to watch over Walt after she passes away. Staying true to his word, Father Janovich desperately tries to fulfill a nearly impossible request.

He knocks on Walt’s front door only to have it slammed in his face after being called a 27-year old virgin among among many other things (that I can’t write in a review). Still, Father Janovich keeps coming back for more as do other people who hover over Walt’s isolated existence. Living in a Midwestern neighborhood that once belonged to white folks but is now occupied primarily by Koreans, Walt refuses to leave the home where he resided for most of his life yet he is disgusted by what has “happened to the neighborhood.”

Still…despite Walt’s blunt, racially incorrect dialogue, we can’t help but fall in love with him. I know, I know…it sounds impossible. But, it’s something only Clint Eastwood and maybe Jack Nicholson (in a different sort of way) can pull off. When you see past the bad and ugly stereotypical racial slurs, a good man is discovered. When Walt sees injustice, he fights! And he fights like Eastwood’s old-school cowboy characters fought. Basically, he takes the law into his own hands. It becomes obvious that he doesn’t just dislike Koreans, or blacks, Mexicans, purple people…he hates his own race, as well. He pretty much hates everyone.

And speaking of which, although Walt doesn’t get along with his own children and has no one left in the world due to his…shall we say…character defects, when a group of Korean “gangstas” begin harassing their little cousin/Walt’s neighbor, probing him to join their gun-toting way of life, Walt enters the scene (in the middle of the night) with a shotgun and a look that could kill.

Facing a man with some serious baggage and no more good reasons to live, the thugs back off, realizing the obvious…old man Walt is “crazy.”

“Get off my lawn,” he says, hoping they stay so he can pull the trigger.

He goes on to inform them, point blank (no pun intended), that he hasn’t got any problem blowing their faces off and then kissing his dog, Daisy, goodnight and sleeping like a baby. Yes, his dog’s name is Daisy, of all things! In his coldest of cold stares, the thugs see Walt’s fire within and the “bad asses” of the neighborhood realize that maybe there is someone even more bad-ass just looking for a reason to explode. Threatened, they slowly back off and walk away.

Naturally, this is where the story begins. Without wanting to reveal any more, I will say this: despite Walt’s loose tongue, which, by the way, he never really loses throughout the film, he does learn how to love and it is from the same “type of people” whom he fought in a bloody battle in Korea. Thus, his past does meet up with his present, as mentioned, but this time around, he gets a second chance.

Never before have I witnessed a film where a ferociously fearless old-timer takes on a bunch of gang-bangers and wins. And he wins, alright. Even when he loses, it really is a big win! Poetically beautiful and moving, Gran Torino will have you laughing out loud. The story will also dredge up some tears.

After I left the screening held over at Warner Bros., I was so incredibly touched by this movie. I felt the same way I felt after viewing some of Eastwood’s other directorials such as Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River and Letters from Iwo Jima. Calling Clint Eastwood a one-of-a-kind artist seems to do the brilliantly talented creator injustice. Basically, everything he works on is heartfelt and told in such a special way. His work makes me crave something more. I am left emotionally charged and ready to embrace life.

.

Gran Torino is a movie that shouldn’t be missed. It hits theatres, nationwide, January 9th!

Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins is recognized as one of Hollywood’s greatest actors. Receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003 for his outstanding accomplishments in the arts, Hopkins is also a double Emmy, triple BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Academy Award winner. His lengthy list of films include The Mask of Zorro, Hearts In Atlantis, Fracture, Nixon, All the King’s Men, Beowulf, The Human Stain and of course, who could forget the Hannibal Lecter saga. Playing a cannibalistic serial killer in The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and Red Dragon, Hopkins haunted our dreams with such a frighteningly realistic performance of a madman. However, he is anything but mad. Hopkins is incredibly humble, down-to-earth and kind. While his latest film yet to be released is The Wolf Man, co-starring Benicio Del Toro, Acted By wanted to know about this outstanding actor’s journey down a director’s lane.

With his first directorial called Slipstream, which currently resides on your local Blockbuster’s shelves just waiting to keep getting rented, Hopkins talked to Acted By about putting on several different hats and bringing his first-born screenplay to life.

I’m really excited to talk to you. And nervous, too. Because, well… you know why… It’s you.

[Hopkins laughs].

Now, let me get this straight. Not only are you starring in it but you wrote it, composed the music and directed it, as well?

Yep. When I wrote it, I had no idea what it was. I just let go, trying to make sense of coherence or actions. Like all films, there is an order and I wanted to screw around with that.

Slipsteam’s premise is quite strange, if you don’t mind me saying so. It’s very unusual. How did you decide to write such a uniquely told story?

Yes, well, I’m interested in memory and the nature of time. And ahhh… life and death and all that stuff. So, that’s how I made the movie. I began writing it several years ago and I didn’t spend days writing. I would just write a scene and go away from it and then come back after a few days, fresh! I’d read what I had and think, ‘This is really interesting.’ Like I said, I didn’t have any basic idea of what it was meant to be.

And now?

Deep down inside of myself, I know it is really about life and death. I mean, the plot is about filmmakers making a movie, the movie is… I hate this old-school word, a ‘metaphor’ to represent life.

See, when I watch a movie on television or anywhere, I’m most fascinated by the whole team of people who make up the movie. The crew, electricians, craft services or whatever… There’s always another reality. What we are actually watching is just a glimpse into some kind of make believe world. So, I spoil my own entertainment. That’s why I can never really get involved in a film when I’m watching it. I’m very detached. That is how I came up with Slipstream… a movie within a movie. A dream within a dream. That’s my take on life.

In the beginning of the movie, my character, a screenwriter, gets killed and when he does, he flashes backwards and reinterprets the events in his life. Think about it… we see something and don’t even notice that we saw it. And then it’ll come up in a dream a few days later. We even dream of people we haven’t seen in years. I’m so interested in that… the unconscious mind.

I just want to take a sec and say that I admire you greatly for your achievements in the film industry. You are looked up to by so many of us.

Oh, come on. I don’t cure cancer.

[We laugh].

True, but still… I respect your work very much.

Thank you. I’m always wondering what the hell the purpose of acting is? I watch movies and see actors, acting up a storm, taking themselves very seriously. You hear of actors that are monsters and nobody’s allowed to look at them on set and all that ridiculousness. They take themselves so damn seriously. In my film, Christian Slater’s character [who plays an actor] dies from overacting. He’s just taking himself way too seriously.

Slipstream sort of pokes fun of the whole business of living and the business of making movies and the seriousness that people invest in what they do. It’s definitely not meant as a vicious attack. It’s just a slight poke in the eye. Come on, wake up! It’s not so serious.

You can’t be so serious about your life. We are all going to be dead one day. So, right now, in my life, I’m just living in the moment and enjoying it. That’s what I base my life on. I paint, write music, read… And acting… when I get a job as an actor it’s like the gravy on top. I don’t have any ambitions.

It’s so cool to hear you say these things, considering that you are one of the best artists in Hollywood.

Oh, please.

You are!

Can I tell you a little story?

Of course!

I was sitting in a taxi in London in a traffic jam and this taxi driver leaned back toward the window to talk to me. He said, ‘Look at all these people crossing the road here. Look at that one over there. He’s so full of himself. She’s so full of herself. It’s so funny because one day he will be replaced. She will be replaced. We will all be replaced.’

I’ve always remembered that. And you know, nothing is permanent. We take things so seriously expecting permanence but that’s completely insane. There is no such thing. Everything changes. Everything passes. That’s also what this film is about. Nothing is of huge importance.

Nobody’s important? So, there’s no power, no purpose, no control?

That’s right. Everything is based on chance, I think. There’s a good book out there called The Way of Solomon by Rami Shapiro. I recommend you read it. Basically, it’s about how little we know and how we cannot grasp reality. We can’t grasp a moment in time because everything flashes to the past. We can’t even think of the future. So, we have this eternal moment.

I understand. Even this moment, talking to you will soon be over and it will just be a memory. A memory that will be very hard to believe, I might add.

We just have to enjoy life as it comes. We can’t make sense of why we are here. And that’s what my movie is about. What the hell is it all about?

Do you believe in Karma?

Nonsense.

So… no?

What the hell does that mean, Karma? What does any of these man-made philosophies mean? Sometimes I wonder if it’s just a shield to stop the inevitable horror of mortality.

Honestly, the key to wisdom is to say I don’t know. I know nothing.

How long did it take you to shoot Slipstream?

Six weeks.

Did you enjoy making it?

Oh, yes. It was fun to make. I got the privilege of working with a great group of actors. We had a really good time.

Do you think you’ll write and direct another one?

I have no idea. I’ve only got this moment.

Inflicted with the acting bug at a young age, Ben Affleck began pursuing his dream early on. Although he definitely knew what he wanted in life, how successful he would become was a gamble. The aspiring actor started with commercials, which progressed to TV movies and in 1993 he landed a role in Dazed and Confused, leading to Affleck teaming up with independent film master, Kevin Smith. Starring in Smith’s Mallrats followed by his amazing performance in another Smith classic, Chasing Amy, audiences began to do a double-take at the handsome actor. However, it was when he and best bud, Matt Damon, wrote their first screenplay, Good Will Hunting that Affleck officially appeared on Hollywood’s map, scoring him an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Since then, Affleck has starred in films such as Armageddon, Shakespeare in Love, Pearl Harbor, Forces of Nature, Reindeer Games, Dogma, The Sum of All Fears, Daredevil, Paycheck, Hollywoodland, and numerous others.

Despite Affleck’s win for Good Will Hunting, it appeared that his screenwriting days were short-lived. That is, however, until now. Bringing his career to a whole new level, Affleck has written his second script and directed his first film. Affleck risked it all by putting himself out there with his biggest artistic challenge so far, Gone Baby Gone.

Privileged with the great opportunity of speaking with this true legend-in-filmmaking; both my photography team and I were filled with excitement when the day of our interview/photo shoot finally arrived with Ben Affleck.

At our location, which was a beautiful, multi-million dollar castle, and as A-list photographer, Ash Gupta dramatically flung his scarf around his neck and puffed on a cigarette, his assistant placed muffins, juice and water on a long dining room table. Cameras were set up in the enormous living room with high ceilings, marble floors and a window view that overlooked all of Los Angeles. A publicist from Miramax paced up and down the long hallway while routinely checking his blackberry. Stylists brought in a rack of clothes and began rummaging through them.

Photo by Ash GuptaMakeup by Meg Rell

Waiting for Affleck, I sat in a room by myself and thought about his new film. It was only a few months earlier that I first heard of the movie and before seeing it, I honestly had no idea what we were going to get from him.

It was back in May when I entered the screening room to Gone Baby Gone, and plopped down in a plush comfy seat. When the room grew dim, the film opens with private investigator Patrick Kenzie (played by Casey Affleck), walking through his urban nest full of birds who forgot how to fly as we hear the words of Dennis Lehane, the original author of this brutally honest book-turned-film about two of the most prevalent kinds of crime inflicted on children – abduction and molestation.

Set in Boston’s hardscrabble, blue-collar neighborhood, a place where local Cops view these rougher parts of their beloved city from the outside looking in, Gone Baby Gone’s storyline officially begins when a heartbroken family member (played by Amy Madigan) seeks help from the inside. Turning to detective Kenzie for assistance, he is awakened by a loud knocking sound and as our leading man goes to answer the door, we follow close behind.

Standing before him, a little girl’s aunt pleads for Kenzie to take a stab at solving the now three day abduction of 4-year-old Amanda (played by Madeline O’Brien). This is the moment where Kenzie’s life is about to drastically change. Despite the detective’s live-in love, Angie Gennaro’s (played by Michelle Monaghan) fears over swapping the investigation of credit scofflaws for child snatchers, something buried inside Kenzie’s unconscious nudges him and impulsively, he chooses to take the case.

Back at the castle, as I continued to think about Gone Baby Gone and its film creator, Ben Affleck casually waltzed into the interview wearing a T-shirt, jeans and running shoes. He waved and immediately began chatting to all of us as if he’d known everyone for years. His friendly yet sarcastically-charged sense of humor shined through and instantaneously, we all loved him! As he joked about turning the ripe old age of thirty-five on August 15th, leaving behind his youth and entering a “no more excuses” era where being irresponsible went from rad to bad, Affleck turned this Hollywood-style interview/shoot into something down to earth and chill. Even when our photographer gasped at the site of Affleck’s worn-out running shoes, our new favorite Boston star shrugged his shoulders and kicked off his shoes and socks with no qualms. Although this has been said many times before about certain individuals in Hollywood and with some of them, you can clearly see that it isn’t true, in Ben’s case, I promise… he genuinely keeps it real.

I led Affleck to a large oak desk where he sat opposite me. Fumbling with my recorder, Affleck must have noticed that I was a bit nervous and said, “I’m the easiest guy in the world, trust me. I just talk and talk and talk. I’ll do your job for you.”

“Right on,” I replied. “You can write the article.”

“Yes, yes,” laughed Affleck. “Amazingly enough, Ben Affleck is the greatest thing that ever came along.”

“Perfect in every way,” I added.

He continued, “There’s nothing I can say about this man that is critical in any way. Feel positively towards him.”

Instantly, I saw what was so charming about Affleck. Along with his humorous nature, he has the ability to make you feel like everything is going to be alright. Although this is a man with a lengthy acting career and a new film that he wrote and directed, Affleck is one of the coolest guys I’ve come across in Los Angeles or anywhere else for that matter.

“How did you decide to tackle such a difficult story like Gone Baby Gone?” I asked.

“I read the book and really liked it,” he replied. “I thought it was a challenge in so far as making it into a movie. There were some structural challenges, for me, anyway. I talked to another writer I was looking at it with and asked him to help me adapt it.”

Immediately following his meeting with the head studio execs at Paramount, the company who owned the rights, Affleck and co-writer, Aaron Stockard, took over the project that was collecting dust and began tackling the screenplay version of Gone Baby Gone in 2002. However, Affleck’s initial plan was not to direct it but to act in the dramatic thriller.

“After years developing it and putting it together, I got more attached to the project,” explained Affleck. “And at the same time, the idea of directing something had become more and more appealing to me. And those two serendipitously came together and it made more sense.

“When this idea came to the surface, it was the obvious choice to do. It was pretty daunting, though, because here was Dennis Lehane and when it first started, there was no Mystic River and all of a sudden that had come out and I was following that giant success with a guy who is my hero.

“The sort of person I would like to be when I grow up and become twice the man that I am now is Clint Eastwood.”

“Eastwood is my favorite, too!” I responded, excitedly. “I love him!”

“Yes, and I had to pretend Mystic River didn’t just happen, otherwise, I would be paralyzed by second guessing myself in a lot of ways,” Affleck stated. “So, I just closed my eyes and leapt.”

“Blind faith,” I said.

“Yeah,” replied Affleck. “At a certain point you have to say, ‘I’m committed to this.’ Once you make the decision that this is what I want to do, there’s always going to be factors that cause you to second guess yourself. Those nagging voices, like, ‘Boy, maybe you shouldn’t do this. They already have this great, successful movie out.’ But, I made the choice.

“You never know if it’s the right bet but once you are committed to that bet, you make the bet, and see where the cards lie. Good poker lessons for life.”

With a story that carries a strong message about child abuse issues, Affleck didn’t divert from the book’s ugliness regarding crimes against children. And regardless of how it may be perceived by audiences, Affleck did what he does best. He remained true to the reality of child abuse cases and the devastating impact they have on the victims and families involved.

“As this movie takes on these issues of child abuse and child neglect,” said Affleck, “it takes on some unconventional situations and, ultimately makes an unusual choice in how it deals with the ending.

“Like the book, I also wanted to keep it [a graphic scene] in the movie in a strong way because I didn’t want to suggest that this doesn’t happen. I didn’t want to say, ‘Ok, this isn’t real – child sexual abuse, child abduction isn’t real. Even child murder isn’t real.”

“Child murder is substantially less common. But child sexual abuse is extremely common. Terribly common,” added Affleck.

With help from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Affleck was able to bring the severity of crimes committed against children to the screen, accurately. One scene in particular, while hard to swallow, was supported by the organization.

“We are doing a benefit screening with them in October in Washington, D.C.,” Affleck said, enthusiastically.

Challenged with a movie based on incredibly disturbing issues, along with his determination to keep the rawness in tact, Affleck knew that the background settings were equally as important as the plotline itself. Therefore, once again, he set out to ensure that the locations and people in them were the real deal.

“The thing with this movie was I could have done the film on a bunch of different levels,” explained Affleck. “I could have done the Pulp Fiction end side of it where a lot of people get killed.”

“Thrilling kind of version,” he said. “High adrenaline, sort of.”

“Or it could have been the sort of middle ground version where it’s more elevated and not as shoot em uppy.’ And then there’s sort of the version that I did, which was where I wanted to make the abduction story the most pronounced aspect of it. So, if everything around it is as grounded and real as it can possibly be, that’s the one that sticks out the most.”

“I wanted the city [Boston] to be a part of the movie – a character in the movie,” stated Affleck. “And I didn’t really want to use extras. Producers were terrified by this.

“I didn’t want SAG actors. I just wanted people. I kept saying, ‘No extras, people will just be there because the camera’s there.’”

Smiling, Affleck reminisces, “I know they just thought, ‘he’s crazy.’ Still, they brought SAG extras in. They’d try and sneak them in and I’d have to go around and be like, ‘Who is this guy? Get him out of here.’”

He laughed, “So, I was constantly throwing extras out, and having to battle them.”

“How could you tell who was who?” I asked, amused.

With a burst of energy, Affleck said, “You can tell!”

“That’s why I only wanted locals,” he reiterated.

Nervous about winging it, the producers reluctantly went along with Affleck’s vision but always hired two people for one role, which Affleck admits was needed a few times. However, he still felt that they were “being unnecessarily cautious.”

“In some ways I felt like… you know, they were thinking poorly of my people,” said Affleck, light-heartedly.

Along with Affleck’s decision to cast locals, he took two camera teams on a field trip around Boston where he told them to get footage. “I wanted to shoot people on the streets and weave it into the movie,” explained Affleck. “We went out into Boston and we just drove around.”

“At first, they wanted to organize everything,” Affleck said. “It’s hard for people who are used to a call sheet and planner. They started saying, ‘we are gonna go here and here,’ and I was like, ‘No guys, just get in the car with the cameras and just go and I’ll take you places. We’ll look around and we’ll stop and get out and shoot people.’”

Stated Affleck, “I think they initially thought, ‘This guy has no fucking idea what he’s doing. He is a total hack. He has no idea about directing.’ I could actually tell they thought that but I figured they’d probably think that anyways, so hey!”

Despite the crew’s obvious fears when Affleck brought them into those areas where there’d be no way in hell you’d get out of the car and ask for directions, the fact that he was recognized made things much safer.

“Fortunately,” said Affleck, “one of the benefits of being a recognizable actor is people shift pretty quickly from being menacing to being like, ‘Heyyyyyyyyyyy, I know you.’”

While Affleck mingled with locals, he told the crew to shoot. Unaware of the camera, the crew captured people in their natural state.

“It was amazing,” said Affleck, enthusiastically. “This stuff… I wish I could use it by itself. We got people’s subconscious behavior because they were paying attention to the actor getting out of the car rather than the camera.

“We got this incredible documentary footage. Once these guys got inspired and realized what I wanted, everybody figured out what the movie was, the feel of the movie, the rawness of it.

“I was hoping the footage would bleed into the other stuff and make it feel more authentic. Therefore, we got the stuff shot on the stage with actors you recognize mixed with these non-professional actors in Boston so it all sloped up and down and melted together. In the end, you have this overall feeling of total authenticity.”

“I loved it,” continued Affleck. “I wish I could have used more of that stuff. In fact, in the editorial process, Billy, the editor, kept telling me, ‘You gotta take some of this out. You can’t have all of this.’ But it was one of the most satisfying elements of it. I loved the nontraditional thing that we managed to pull off. It’s not that it hasn’t happened before in movies but it was really successful.”

Putting together a loose twelve minute montage of stuff, Affleck showed his footage to the actors, saying, “This is the movie. This is the degree of realism that I want for the movie. In other words, I don’t want any artifacts. Just reflect the city.

“It was nice to have an interesting piece of film to show everyone in the beginning that said, ‘We are all going to be on this page,’ even though it came from right off the street. It still was sort of unifying because you thought, ‘Ok, alright, this is as real as you can possibly be and sort of align ourselves with this.”

Along with Affleck’s decision to use real folks in his flick, he also worked with an incredible cast of pros such as Ed Harris, Amy Ryan, John Ashton, and of course… Morgan Freeman.

“What was it like to direct Morgan Freeman?” I asked.

“Well, luckily,” said Affleck, “I spent one-hundred days working with the guy as an actor. That helped with the terror but also, quite frankly, he’s a very generous, professional guy. He could easily have made it difficult for me.

“He could have really intimidated me and made it tough but he didn’t. It was really his choice. But, you know, even being the professional that he is, I also could have fallen apart on my own.”

“As a first-time director, I could have intimidated myself,” stated Affleck. “So, every little bit of my own confidence I was able to hold onto, helped. I knew that if I let my worries and insecurities overwhelm me, they could possibly hurt the movie.”

It was Affleck’s fantastic cast, which he credits for the smooth-sailing production. “Not only were they all talented actors,” said Affleck. “Not only did they show up and do outstanding work and make the movie great but they also brought so much just in terms of their presence. Because of those guys, everyone on set worked twice as hard.”

Laughed Affleck, “So, if you can bring Ed Harris to your job every day, it would increase productivity one-hundred and fifty percent.”

Taught to Affleck by Gus Van Sant during the production of Good Will Hunting, casting is key in good directing. With an enormous amount of respect for the work his brother Casey does as an actor, Affleck knew that he was the perfect person for the lead role.

“One of the things that is too bad about movies is that because of the star system in relation to financing, only certain people who are recognizable merit certain budgets,” said Affleck.

“They [film investors] go, ‘I know who you are… ten guys, twenty guys… and anyone who is not one of those ten-to-twenty people, well, we haven’t heard of them so we won’t finance the movie based on them.’ So, you have this limited range of guys. You are used to seeing these people. You like them. They are good actors and you’ll see movies with them BUT there’s a certain kind of familiarity and you’re familiar with their behavior.”

“I gottcha,” I said. “You are one of those twenty actors on the list.”

“Yeah, and that’s fine,” Affleck said. “The list is great but on a certain subconscious level, I think you know what will happen because you think, ‘I’ve seen this person in so many movies where things have gone their way, and I know things will work out for them.’ Because Casey hasn’t been that guy, I thought the great thing about casting him is that there’s not that subconscious security with him in the role.

“You’re not really sure what’s going to happen with him in this part. You get a sense that he might make a mistake. He might not be strong enough. Something terrible might happen to him. I thought that was a really rare opportunity because you don’t have that safety net as you go through and this movie, wants to… you know, it asks some, I think, provocative questions.”

During detective Kenzie’s investigation, he gets involved in a separate child abuse case where he makes a choice that ultimately changes the core of him. Therefore, Kenzie’s final decision regarding Amanda’s disappearance is based on the outcome of something else and he is forced to live with the end result.

“It’s about becoming a man and Kenzie had to learn that as he becomes an adult, the decisions you make have lasting consequences and they impact not only you but other people, as well,” Affleck explained. “In the real world, often times, you never know if you were right or wrong. And you have to live with that.

“You have to live with the consequences of the choices that you made,” continued Affleck. “And beyond that, you get precious little.”

Gone Baby Gone ends with a scene, powerfully told through Kenzie’s facial expressions and body language. As he quietly sits beside the person that was directly impacted by his actions, it is the silence that speaks a thousand words and provokes a million questions.

Days after the screening of Gone Baby Gone, I kept asking myself the same recurring question: “Did detective Kenzie make a mistake?”

Alan Ball is one of the best filmmakers in Hollywood. After seeing American Beauty, which was a film that strayed from the big blockbuster norm and surprised everyone by winning five Oscars, one awarded to Ball for best screenplay, he became someone I admired most, not only for his humble award winning speech about no longer having his family bother him to “get a real job” but for his ability to make true art and transform it onto the big screen. While there are some writers, directors and producers who create a movie for reasons that are obviously about hitting the right marks and bringing in big bucks, it’s very clear that Ball’s reasoning behind filmmaking is completely different. He thrives from it…that need to use artistic avenues as a form of self-expression and his films and cable series are a demonstration of that.

After American Beauty, Ball went on to write HBO’s Six Feet Under followed by a new sexy, racy, Vampire HIT, True Blood and on September 12, his adapted screenplay Towelhead, which he directed as well, hits theatres near you.

Is it a musical comedy? No. Will it make you run from the theatres crying in horror? No. However, is it controversial due to the subject matter? Yes. It is raw because it is based on truth. It is brilliant because it is the story of a girl named Jasira (played by Summer Bishil), who is sexually violated by her neighbor (played by Aaron Eckhart) and living in a dysfunctional family. However, she faces her confusing world head on and doesn’t die from it. In fact, she survives and although it will have some impact on her future, she will move forward in search of happiness. Nothing and no one will stop her. And nothing will stop Alan Ball from telling it the way he sees fit. He is a true artist and this is what he had to say about his latest feature, Towelhead.

We met at the Four Seasons Hotel and he greeted me with a warm smile. Confident, sweet and charming, you could tell that Ball knew who he was as an artist and person. He believed in his new film and the actors who worked alongside him.

It’s an honor! Thank you for meeting with me. I am very passionate about this particular topic – sexual abuse.

It’s a very, very ridiculously common experience for a lot of young women and men, for that matter. Towelhead isn’t a tale of victimhood. So often the only way we as a culture are comfortable at looking at child sexual assault is to paint the child as a total victim. No curiosity, completely victimized by a predatory subhuman monster. I agree the act is monstrous but both parties involved are human and I think seeing that doesn’t in any way justify adults who make that choice because when they do that they commit a huge crime, legally and spiritually.

But…it’s not quite as simple as we’d like to think. And I think the realities of it and the fact that it is so common makes us want to sweep it under the carpet. And I don’t think that really serves anybody. Especially in a culture that is so sexualized in which children are taught to think of themselves as sexual creatures, especially girls.

Yes, this film is controversial but truthful, too. Jasira is portrayed in a real way because she is thirteen, confused about what’s happening around her and trying to make sense of it all during her developmental years. She doesn’t run and tell everyone what she is going through because she, herself, doesn’t understand it.

Also, just because she somehow finds a way to overcome the things she is enduring, I don’t believe you are trying to say that abuse is OK. You are not trying to say that all children who are abused will not be affected by it.

Oh, no…I think the neighbor did something really wrong. He ends up losing everything. He knows it. He realizes it. I think you make a mistake when…you can’t judge her by the same standards. She’s not an adult, she’s a child. She doesn’t have the same perspective.

I’m speaking of Jasira, specifically. She is imprisoned in a life devoid of any pleasure or sense of power. And as she discovers her own sexuality that feels good, and she realizes the power she has over this handsome, charming man…of course she’s going to explore it. And I don’t think she should be blamed for that. It’s very human to do something that feels good and to feel like you have some control over your own destiny. To feel special. To feel validated. But she is a child. She doesn’t have the perspective or knowledge to make the right decision.

He could have declined. He breaks the law. He does a monstrous thing. Granted, he’s a miserable man and he’s hungry for that same kind of validation and to be looked at the way she looks at him. It reminds him of when he was a young man and felt sort of excited about life as opposed to now where he’s trapped in this very sterile existence. But, he’s an adult. He knows better.

When I read the book, Towelhead, by Alicia Erian, it all felt so real to me. It felt like everybody was a complete character and the book refuses to judge anybody and allowed the reader to come to their own conclusions.

It’s very clear that what happens is wrong, terrible.

I think people expect a child to shriek at the top of their lungs, “He or She’s hurting me!” And if they don’t, or if the child has flirted with the adult in some way like Jasira has, they receive all the blame.

Or, if they witness the child voluntarily spending time with someone, they assume the child is lying if somehow the abuse makes its way to the surface (which tends to not always happen). I suppose they can’t understand why the child didn’t appear frightened of him/her. You see, I think people envision a pedophile as being some wife-beater-wearing alcoholic stranger on the streets.

YES, and most of the time it’s the coach, neighbor, someone the child knows and trusts… a member of the family.

It’s not a black and white topic. That’s why it’s hard for people to validate it.

Maybe. It’s not the kind of movie I expect everyone to get. It’s obviously an uncomfortable movie to sit through. And if someone watches it and they aren’t uncomfortable, there’s probably something wrong with them. Know what I mean?

It was an uncomfortable book to read but I felt like the story was important. For me, to read a story about a young girl involved in an inappropriate sexual interaction with an older man…usually when that story is told, at the end of it, the girl is sort of branded “victim” for life.

And what I loved about Towelhead, and what I felt and recognized from my own traumatic experience that I went through as a kid is that it doesn’t have to turn you into a victim. You can come out of it stronger. You can come out of it with more knowledge. You don’t have to let the experience destroy you.

You experienced that?

I’m speaking mainly of when I was thirteen years old, my sister was killed in a car accident and that was a huge traumatic experience.

Oh, gosh, I’m sorry.

But yeah, there was inappropriate stuff with me as a kid. It’s a theme that resonates with me in my work because I have first-hand experience with tragedy.

I believe that if Jasira had parents who validated her and gave her a sense of purpose and power and who weren’t so wrapped up in their own lives…who didn’t make her feel ashamed of anything…her blooming sexuality. If they would have helped her understand what that means and the responsible ways to incorporate that in her life as an adult, then none of this would have happened. She would have realized, ‘Hey, this is weird. I shouldn’t go there.’ But, her parents failed her tremendously. That’s not to say they are responsible for what happened because the neighbor is responsible.

Basically, you chose this topic because it means something to you, and showed it in a way that is based on how it was through Jasira’s eyes. Not the way people envision it to be or how they believe she should react to it all. Is that right?

I would say actually, Alicia [novelist] did all that. She told the story in the way it needed to be told. I saw the movie as I read the book. The book made me laugh out loud but at the same time I was horrified by what was happening. As I got closer to the end, I felt like this is not going to be good, I’m going to be so upset because you really start caring for this girl.

But when it turned out the way it turned out and she wasn’t a victim for life and came out in a better place, it was such a profound experience of relief and redemption. And it felt organic, not like a manufactured, happy ending. And I felt, well, you know, this isn’t a big movie. Most of it happens in three locations. It’s all about the acting and the characters. There are no special effects, there are no crowd scenes. I think I can do this.

You showed young children and adolescents who have been victimized that they can go on and have a real shot at a future, regardless of how others may react to them. Maybe they won’t all see themselves as cursed or branded for life.

I think as a culture, we have this idea that we are supposed to be happy all the time and nothing bad is supposed to happen to us. When something bad does happen, it’s so devastating where as…

We become paralyzed?

Yeah, we get disempowered by it. You know you can go to Nietzsche who said, “That which does not kill me makes me stronger.” I look at all the things that happened to me in my life that I thought would kill me at the time and they’ve made me much stronger. They’ve also made me much deeper, much richer.

Again, Towelhead is a remarkably told film and will be in theatres this weekend.

The Day After Tomorrow writer and first-time feature film director Jeffrey Nachmanoff brings audiences another heart-pounding thriller that gets you shouting at the big screen as the unexpected happens again and again. Starring Don Cheadle as Samir Horn, Traitor is the story of a man zeroed in on by the FBI and seen as an extremely violent and threatening informant who needs to be taken down. Connecting Samir to a prison break in Yemen, a bombing in Nice and a raid in London, this guy in hiding has got the world on his shoulders (in a bad way). As his struggle continues, the good guys and bad guys become harder to identify as world’s collide and danger resides around every corner.

Although you’ll have to wait to see the film to find out more about the story and all of its unexpected twists and turns, Nachmanoff takes Acted By behind the scenes as he discusses where the story originates, how it developed, what led him to the project, and everything else you may not have otherwise known about the making of Traitor.

AB: Thank you so much for talking to us, Jeffrey.

Nachmanoff: Of course. I’m happy to do it!

AB: Fantastic! So, how did the concept of Traitor originate?

Nachmanoff: Well, the producer, David Hoberman, was making Bringing Down the House with Steve Martin. And 9-11 had just happened and Steve is a deep thinker, writer and essayist and he came up with a terrorist story idea. But David thought he was kidding. So, when he didn’t show up to a meeting, Steve said, ‘Why didn’t you come by to hear the idea?’ And David told me he said, ‘I didn’t think you were serious?’ And Steve said, ‘Yes, I’m serious.’

So, Steve wrote a five page treatment, Disney bought it but…they needed a writer. This wasn’t the type of story Steve writes and that’s where I came in.

AB: They contacted you to come in for a meeting?

Nachmanoff: Yep, and honestly, I’m a HUGE fan of Steve Martin and I wanted to meet him. That’s why I really wanted to come, initially. So, David and I met and they showed me the idea and I was hesitant about it.

AB: Really, why?

Nachmanoff: Well, first off, I wasn’t sure if this was a movie the studio would make and secondly, my politics came into play. I’m only interested in making a movie that plays a very even-handed approach to the issue of Islam and the West. I don’t feel it makes a good movie if you treat a villain as only the villain.

AB: You mean you wanted to create characters from “enemy territory” that are gray?

Nachmanoff: Exactly! See, I grew up in London, England in the ‘80s when the IRA were bombing and there were a lot of terrorist attacks. Maybe America doesn’t know this, but women and children were being blown up by the IRA. They were the same as Al Qaeda but the only difference was the IRA were white people. And, there cause was one we could understand.

AB: When you mention the IRA to me, my thoughts are pretty positive. I think of rebellious leaders who fought for their rights. But, when you mention Al Qaeda, I visualize evil maniacs who have no cause. They are just out to hurt America.

Nachmanoff: I know, I know. But everyone has a cause, in their own mind. I wanted to make a movie in which you attempt to look at the current conflict through the eyes of fully rounded characters from both sides. It just makes for better storytelling to see characters that way. It’s the only way to do it.

AB: From what you are saying, although the original story came from Steve Martin, you were also a huge part in creating it, yes?

Nachmanoff: Sure. I mean…there was no script before I got involved. There was a brief treatment and it had elements with the general notion that the main character was going to do a trick to get the terrorists to be in one spot. But, the characters themselves, they weren’t flushed out. Actually, a lot of the character’s personalities come from the actor’s themselves. Don collaborated extensively to help make the character real.

AB: Did you have any influence in casting?

Nachmanoff: The casting was a dream cast for me. I’m very lucky because the only element of the cast that was decided before I came on board was Don. He read the script before I was attached as the director. I was thrilled! I’m a huge fan. He’s such a talented actor. Once we had a chance to meet and I was chosen as the director, as well, it was even better. And I got lucky because I got to cast the other parts.

AB: Really? That’s rare.

Nachmanoff: It really is. Normally, the director works with the studio and they push stars into the movie. For me, I was able to cast actors. I cast out of L.A., Toronto, London, Paris and other places around the world. This is one of the greatest experiences as a director. The most important job is casting the movie. So, if you get a movie already cast, as a director, although that can be great, you may or many not like what has happened. I was lucky because there was no cast. I got to make all the choices and was really happy with all the people I got.

AB: So, obviously, you enjoyed working with the actors and directing this film?

Nachmanoff: Yes! It was one of the most pleasant surprises because it’s the area where I had the least amount of experience. There’s nothing like directing great actors.

AB: Were you nervous?

Nachmanoff: No, I wasn’t nervous for two reasons. First, I got to choose the actors so it wasn’t like a forced marriage. And that makes your relationship a little different. Second, I had worked with Don for several months before we got to the set so it wasn’t like stepping onto a movie set with an intimidating star you don’t know. Respect was built up prior to shooting and basically, it was two professionals trying to give their best performance possible.

AB: What is it like to direct a talented cast? Easier, I imagine?

Nachmanoff: The job of a director when it comes to really strong actors is to get out of the way and let them do their job and watch their back. It’s like coaching a great ballplayer, I suppose. You need a good coach to make sure the team performs but you don’t need to tell Michael Jordan how to dribble a ball. They know what to do.

My job is to understand the big picture, inform them of what we are telling in a particular part of the movie and remind them of where the character is at this point in the story.

AB: How do you get to be a good director?

Nachmanoff: You direct. How do you get to direct? Well, not everyone gets that chance but you have to be really prepared to do it well when you do get the chance and I think if you are prepared, it comes naturally.

AB: Since many of our readers are aspiring writers, actors and directors, what advice would you give them? What are your words of wisdom?

Nachmanoff: (laughs) My advice is to distrust all words of wisdom. If my path is any example, you really can’t plan your path.

AB: That’s awesome! Any final words of…not “wisdom” but advice for actors?

Nachmanoff: During the audition process, when you [the actor] doesn’t get a job, it’s almost certainly not because of what you did or didn’t do. Auditions are a strange thing. You are really looking to see if a person is right for the part. Rarely, are you looking to see how well or how poorly an actor can act. A good actor shines through but a decision is often made before you even arrive. Actors worry that they are to blame when they don’t get cast but that’s not necessarily true. Directors already know what they are looking for with the part. They are just sort of waiting for it to walk into the room.

AB: And when Guy Pearce, Said Taghmaoui, Neal McDonough, Aly Khan, Archie Panjabi, Jeff Daniels and the other cast members walked in, you knew!

Traitor opens nationwide this Wednesday, August 27th in theatres near you. According to Nachmanoff, the thriller turned out just as he could have hoped.

“Traitor is the movie I set out to make,” said Nachmanoff. “I have no apologies. I feel like I got the backing from the studio to make the movie I originally envisioned. I got the actors I wanted. It’s exactly as I wanted it to be and I have nothing to complain about.

“I enjoyed the process so much. I’m really proud to see it finished but the process was the most important thing.”

Based on the novels by Ann Brashares and starring Amber Tamblyn (Tibby), Alexis Bledel (Lena), America Ferrera (Carmen) and Bridget Vreeland (Blake), Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 is about a friendship that began on film in high school and reconnects three years later when all four girls are 19-years-old.

Tackling this adventurous story that follows four women’s journeys from adolescence to young adulthood is the talented, hip, very sweet and highly passionate director Sanaa Hamri. With a background in theatre acting that led to editing then directing music videos for artists such as Mariah Carey followed by directing hit TV shows and a feature titled Something New, Hamri chatted with Acted By about working on Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, as well as offering her inspiring take on what led this ambitious woman to achieve her dream as a filmmaker in Hollywood.

AB: So, Sanaa, how did you end up directing this film?

Hamri: Well, I was a huge fan of the first film and I loved the book series! When I heard the producers were looking for a director, I really wanted to meet with them and jump to the occasion. I read all the books and I knew that this story could continue in sequel form successfully.

AB: Since Ken Kwapis directed the first Sisterhood, do you feel like you brought your own unique style to the second?

Hamri: Hmm, well, I wanted it to feel like a progression to the first. However, the tone has changed because the girls are older and it is a PG-13 movie and I am a different filmmaker. So, sure, I think that there’s a certain quality about it that reflects me as a director in it.

There’s more comedy in the movie now because the girls are 19-years-old and the world is a lot more multidimensional versus when you are 16-years-old and in high school. I just felt like the film really reflects the tone and the story.

AB: Speaking of which, how was it to take the story from high school and jump a few years to college age? In other words, did you build off the original?

Hamri: We based the sequel on the fourth book and took elements from the second and third book just to make cohesive story lines and develop characters in the right way. You want space between the first and second novel so there’s enough material and different emotional journeys that these young women are going through.

AB: Were you a part of the creation of this second film?

Hamri: I was part of the process in which the producers had a treatment and basically the concept of what storylines they wanted to go with and I, in turn, sat with them and we developed it together. It was definitely a development piece for me, as well.

AB: What was it like working with all the girls? How was that experience?

Hamri: It was such a great experience! For a director, it’s always great to tell stories that you can also relate to. You don’t necessary have to do stories about your own gender but it’s a great process because you have insight. Working with young women… it was incredibly rewarding.

All those girls became friends after the first movie off-camera so when we met for the sequel it was like a reunion on set for them and they were just happy to be there. And because they were really friends, there was a lot of chemistry.

AB: Did you feel right at home with them even though you came on board for the second film?

Hamri: Yeah, as a director your job is to create a mood and give your actors a platform to do the best they can. I truly believe that’s how I go into any project. It’s part of the movie process.

I love directing. I love taking a concept on paper or a concept that’s in someone’s head and collaborating with people and putting it on the screen. That’s the most fulfilling process for a director. Really, you know, breathing lives into these characters and into the story and then presenting it for the world to see.

AB: I think that sounds awesome! How long was your shooting schedule?

Hamri: It was about six weeks, I would say. It was a very tight schedule because we had four storylines to get in and our actors had TV shows they needed to get back to and that was a challenge.

AB: What is your most memorable scene from Sisterhood…?

Hamri: When we were shooting in Greece. It’s just so beautiful! It’s like being in the middle of a painting. For a filmmaker, it’s amazing to be in such a stimulating place. So, all those scenes were very memorable to me.

Greece is where we started filming…last year in June. And now it’s so incredible to know that our movie is coming out in August.

AB: Did you connect with any one particular character?

Hamri: What was so great was that even though Sisterhood is about 19-year-old women, there’s something for everybody of all ages within each character. So, there are different moments within the journey each girl goes through that I connect to. You know, there are these scenes when Amber Tamblyn, who plays Tibby is at a video store in the East Village and is attending NYU for summer school. I did the East Village thing and I really was laughing at the fact that I was shooting in Alphabet City where my stomping ground was–where I was once walking around–you know, just trying to make ends meet. And there I am on set doing the movie.

AB: That sounds really powerful to me! You were standing in places where you once dreamt of doing what you are doing now. And there you are, in the exact spot where you used to wonder if it was all ever going to happen for you.

Hamri: Yep!

AB: And while we are on the subject, since many of our readers are fans of filmmaking or either in the industry or aspiring to be, I’m sure they’d be curious to know how your own personal journey into the entertainment business started.

Hamri: I believe the path to direct films almost found me. I studied theatre acting in New York but when I graduated, I started working in post production and became an editor. Through editing, I transitioned into directing and so I have both the creative background of acting mixed with the technical background of editing and I always loved telling stories and was really into films and stuff.

AB: What advise would you give our readers regarding their decision to possibly tackle the film world head on?

Hamri: The one thing I could see that made a difference was that wherever I was, I tried to do the best that I could and worked really hard. I think when you are starting off and you, for example, are interning at a company, my advice is that even if you are just filing papers or making coffee or whatever you are doing, just do the best you can. File the best papers… (Hamri laughs). I think it’s about being a perfectionist. It’s about being driven. It’s about excellence and I think that allows other people to place you in better positions and that’s how you get closer to your dream. It’s not something that you just say, ‘Oh, I want to be a director and imagine yourself sitting on set in a chair with your name on it.’

It’s really about putting in that time and that work and learning, and reading, and researching. I was an assistant at a post production company and I answered phones. But I was reliable and because I was reliable people noticed me. People then placed me in better positions.

AB: People say so many different things in so far as breaking into the film industry. They say part of it’s luck and part of it is being in the right place at the right time.

Hamri: Yes, it’s about being in the right place at the right time but everybody’s in the right place. They just aren’t aware of that. So, actually, it’s about what you do when you are in that right place, right time. You have to take advantage of it.

AB: You have to learn to put your ego in a drawer.

Hamri: Exactly!

AB: Last question for ya…I asked about your favorite scene and you said it was when you were filming in Greece, but, was there a particular event that stands out to you the most while filming?

Hamri: Yes! I think the one scene that stands out to all of us was when the girls are jumping off a cliff. See, I gave them an assignment to think amongst themselves of an activity that they could do in Greece together. I always take the collaborative approach and I wanted it to feel natural. I gave examples such as hanging on the beach, shopping…you know, something that girls could do together. And they came to me and they said, ‘We saw these guys jumping off the cliff and we want to jump off the cliff.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh nooo! Can we do something not as dangerous?’

They showed me the spot, we did safety checks and I said, ‘Oh, OK, Let’s do it, it will be fun.’ As I was filming the scene, I realized that it was going to be in the movie, first and foremost, and that it was going to be such a symbolic metaphor of their friendship because they are taking the plunge of friendship together and entering the sea of the universe as they glide off the cliff. It was visual…and…emotional and just perfect.

Inspired by the life of William Shue, Gracie centers around the sudden death of a young man and the effect such an enormous tragedy had on an entire family.  With wounds that are sudden and unexpected,  healing becomes a thing that seems too far away to reach.  And for the main character named Gracie,  a young girl whose idol has been abruptly stolen from her,  life’s meaning seems obsolete.  However, this passionate, feisty girl fights for a meaning through a sport that forever bonds her to her big brother.  To begin mending the wound, Gracie finds solace in soccer, a game in which her brother triumphed, and the one thing that ends up saving her from going down a dark, deserted road.

The creation of the film Gracie began long ago when Andrew Shue (Melrose Place) yearned to make a movie about his deceased brother, Will.  However, initially, he imagined a father-son story but as time went on, Andrew’s vision changed and one day, he went to his brother-in-law and sister Elisabeth’s husband, Davis Guggenheim, and suggested that the main character be a girl.

“Immediately, everything clicked into place for me because, one, I’m in love with his sister and, two, I saw this theme in their lives – this girl who was the only girl in a family of boys and who didn’t quite fit in,” said Guggenheim.  “A girl who loved her brother and when he died, she was inspired to remember him.”

Guggenheim, the brilliant director and winner of an Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth, first met his other half one year after she lost her beloved brother, who was on a rope swing at the family’s summer home on Block Island, Rhode Island when the rope snapped and he died from internal injuries resulting from the impact of the fall.

Referring to Elisabeth Shue as “Lisa,” a preferred nickname amongst close friends and family, Guggenheim stated, “When I met Lisa and her brothers, you could feel that the immediate pain was there.”

“I felt like I was being led into this incredible tragedy of which I wasn’t a part and although I never knew Will, I could feel their love for him.  It was so powerful.”

“That was the context of how I met and fell in love with my wife,” continued Guggenheim.  “When the idea to make a film about the family came up more than fifteen years later, I felt like I finally knew Will and could do this. ”

“Doing this project was an amazing experience because it became therapeutic for the family and I was lucky enough to be along for the ride.”

Once Guggenheim jumped on the “project Gracie” bandwagon, he and Andrew and another pal, Ken Himmelman, wrote out a treatment.  From there, the guys raised some dough and hired the writers – (Lisa Marie Petersen and Karen Janszen.)

“It was very much a team effort,” explained Guggenheim.

While Guggenheim’s past experience is mainly drama-based with complicated plots such as seen in his work in Deadwood, The Shield, 24, NYPD Blue, ER, and so on. . .  making Gracie was somewhat new to the edgy director.

“Gracie was a big departure for me,” said Guggenheim.  “But in the end, I don’t think in terms of genres.  Every script I read, I have to find a way to connect to the material.”

“I try and find something I can put myself into and discover a way where I can get fired up and find emotion.  That’s what I look for in a script.”

“Just as you can’t choose who you fall in love with, it’s the same with a script,” added Guggenheim.  “You can’t choose what story you’ll do next.  You just have to fall in love again.”

Elisabeth Shue loved “project Gracie” from the beginning stages.  With raw emotions regarding the loss of her brother, Will, this story was monumental in her filmmaking career.

According to Davis, “It’s a completely different thing to make a movie where the events are personal and where all the things in the movie actually happened.  Although we did have our characters find their own voice within the story, a lot of the things in the film remained the same in spirit.”

For Shue, she was up for an enormous artistic challenge.  Playing the mother who lost her son, she found herself experiencing the brutal loss partially from her own mom’s point of view.

“As Davis mentioned, one thing we decided was to make the characters stand on their own,” explained Shue.  “We wanted the story itself to have its own power and its own reality.”

“For example, Dermot Mulroney plays my father but his character is quite different from my father and the last thing I’d want him to do is to try and play my father.  Instead, we were interested in capturing the depth and complexities of Dermot.”

“I felt the same way about playing my mom,” continued Shue.  “I can play my mom.  I know her very well but I also wanted to find parts of me that I can bring to her character that are mine.”

Still, Guggenheim recalls some rehearsal scenes where Shue’s role was highly emotional.

“During the rehearsal where Lisa played the mother hearing the news that her son had died. . .  man, that was tough,” explained Guggenheim.  “We couldn’t even finish the rehearsal without falling apart.  We were reliving it.  Everyone felt it.  The emotion was so thick, it seeped into the movie.”

While Shue was faced with many emotional challenges including the “big hurdle” of trying not to worry about what people will think of the roughest period in her life, which has been reenacted on film, having her husband direct the movie put an ease to her concerns.

“Davis helped me with my fears,” said Shue.  “He was the only one I would trust as my director for this particular project.”

“I know what kind of a director he is and what his goal is in anything that he does.  He strives to make it as authentic as he possibly can and keep it real.  I knew that as long as he is the person guiding the ship, then this is the best chance we have at making Gracie something to be proud of regardless of whether people like it or not.”

Taking place in South Orange, New Jersey in 1978, fifteen-year-old Gracie Bowen (played by Carly Schroeder), lives in a family full of boys.  With three brothers who are obsessed with the game of soccer, Gracie’s father (played by Dermot Mulroney), puts all of his spare time into coaching his kids in the backyard from dawn to nightfall.  However, after Johnny (played by Jesse Lee Soffer), the star of the high school varsity soccer team and the only one who sees great potential in his little sister’s knack for the sport, is killed in a car accident, Gracie is left to fend for herself.

The Gracie character was based on Shue who was also the only girl brought up in an all boys’ domain.  “On some level,” said Shue, “I think of it as a girl in a man’s world, trying to gain her father’s love.

“That’s part of the story.  But then there’s the whole other part of the story about overcoming grief.  That grief can sometimes inspire you to do things that are beyond what you thought you could do because you no longer have anything to lose.”

“You’ve been feeling so badly.  Nothing can ever feel as bad as that.  So, you’re not scared anymore.  You become raw in your approach to life if you aren’t swallowed by it and if the person you love is somehow still with you.”

Casting for the role of Gracie was a difficult one.  And playing a role that is based on Elisabeth Shue can’t be easy on the young actresses going up for the part.  However, Ms.  Carly Schroeder was determined.

“I had the script for two years,” said Schroeder.  “When I first read it, I wanted to do it.  I kept bugging my manager, ’when are they going to start casting for this?’ I wanted to go in for Gracie, bad.  So, when I finally got to audition for it, I was so happy.”

“Since I’m not the kind of actress that can go into an audition room and turn on the water works, it took me a little while but after an hour and a half, Lisa and I were just cracking up at everything.  We tried doing scenes a bunch of different ways, and it was a lot of fun.”

“I felt really comfortable with them [Guggenheim and Shue] because they made the atmosphere a really great place to audition in, which is really important when you are going in for a part, especially when it’s something you really want to do.”

“When I first got to the audition, I told them I really want the part,” continued Schroeder.  “So, I said that if they want me to go to soccer camp, I’ll start camp today.”

Shue and Guggenheim’s decision to make sure the characters were partially based on the real person being portrayed and partially a reflection of the actors’ personae, made it especially important to find the perfect person to play Gracie.

However, Schroeder immediately impressed the Shue-Guggenheim team and was cast shortly after her audition for her inner strengths that shined through during the audition.

“Even though Carly is playing me at fifteen, she is really an interesting and complicated young girl and I wanted her to bring out her own fierce spirit,” said Shue.

Not a problem for Schroeder who began training in soccer even before she knew she landed the part.  “As soon as I left, I told my mom I need to start preparing,” stated Schroeder.  “I told her, ‘I don’t know if I have the part or not but I have to train.’”

Schroeder continued, “I started running every day to build up endurance.  And when I went to play with a man we hired to teach me, I was so nervous but I got all dressed up for the occasion.  I put on some shiny lip gloss, I blow-dryed my hair straight, wore a hot pink shirt, cute black shorts and some cleats.

“I figured if I’m going to fail, I’m going to do it with style.”

During Schroeder’s second visit with her soon-to-be director and co-stars, Davis, Elisabeth and her brother Andrew Shue played soccer with her.

“Before training for this project, the only other few times I played soccer was once when I was five year’s old; during an episode I did on Dawson’s Creek, and for a soccer commercial and that was it!”

When Schroeder finally landed the part, she was thrilled.

“I was so excited it wasn’t even funny,” said Schroeder.

Her training became extensive.  Monday through Friday, the former captain of the Galaxy coached her.  However, weekends were Schroeder’s time off but that didn’t stop this sixteen-year-old fireball from pushing forward.  On her own, she’d venture off to a nearby high school where twenty- year- old guys played.

“I asked them if I could play and they said, ‘Sure, Blondie, come play with us,’” recalled Schroeder.  “They were pretty brutal.  Just like in the movie, they did not want to see a girl win.

“At one point I scored a header.  Oh, man, that hurt but afterwards, I called Andrew and was like, ‘I scored a header’ and he’s like, ‘nah’ and I’m like, ‘yes,’ and he’s like, ‘awwww!’”

Happy to have found the perfect girl to play Gracie, production began and as mentioned, it was a melancholic experience for everyone.

“There were lots of pressures making this movie,” explained Shue.  “This was an indie film so there was never enough money and time.  All of that lay on my husband’s shoulders and it was really hard to see.  However, I do think Will’s spirit guided us through this project.  There was this unwillingness to stop or quit on any level.”

“And the commitment we got from everyone was so beautiful,” a teary-eyed Shue said.

One year prior to Will Shue’s death, his father jotted down a quote that his son said at a friend’s funeral and Guggenheim repeated it with fondness: “You feel as if everyone should write a book before they die, but their book is already written,” said Will.  “The pages live within those they’ve touched.”

Stated Guggenheim, “To think of a young man thinking that way, and to be so sensitive to life and death and so intensely aware, that’s something.”

Although it has been many years since Will’s passing, he will always be remembered and Gracie is a dedication to his memory.

“It’s not like one day, all of a sudden, they are gone,” explained Shue.  “Their spirit never leaves you.”