We had auditions last week, and we have callbacks this coming week. We saw a lot of great actors in Austin and I think our cast is definitely in there.
It was good and strange hearing the scenes read out loud so many times. It’s got me thinking a lot about the tone of the movie. Some actors got the tone right away – the language is colloquial but definitely also has its own style and rhythm. Other actors read the content (drugs, jail, rehab) and leaned towards a bit of sadness and melodrama.
This isn’t a comment on the actors – I can help them negotiate tone, so anyone who doesn’t nail it on a first read still definitely has a good chance.
But I’m thinking about how people in recovery talk about the worst thing they ever did with a smile on their face. How they repeat the craziest words they ever said as the punchline to a joke.
People don’t know that from reading the words on the page. If we’re working with actors who haven’t been a part of 12-step meetings and don’t know the culture of a recovery community, we have to establish that sense of play and shared laughter at our pasts and shared language of the million clichés people use in recovery.
The tone might surprise actors reading from the page, but it can be clear to viewers, and hopefully make it clear to them that even if they haven’t had these experiences, they’re allowed to take part and laugh, too.
I’m writing this at O’Hare in Chicago, on my way back to Austin from the Ignition Festival at Victory Gardens. The festival had a lot of conversations about audience, and works written by members of a community for that community. Black writers writing for Black audiences, queer writers for queer audiences, etc. I think these issues of tone happen when we are communicating across audiences – people aren’t comfortable laughing at in-jokes of a community they’re not a part of.
Hal is trying to do both – we’re trying to make a movie that recovering addicts can identify with, and that can help people on their way to halfway houses know what to expect. But we’re definitely also communicating with a broader audience of people who have not directly experienced addiction. Our hope is to increase compassion in people who don’t know what it’s like. And that means we have to find a way for them to feel alright laughing, to feel close with the characters, to feel like they’re sitting on the porch of that halfway house with everyone.
Callbacks next week. Time to start building that group.
Lane Michael Stanley | August 4, 2019
