Filmmaker blog by writer / producer Georgia Menides

3/09/08 - Colombia... As in the Country

We had no reason to think that casting Still Green would, in any way, shape, or form, involve the Vice President of Columbia. So I was of course beyond skeptical when Vice President Santos first called the house and left a message for me with Doug’s mom.

Let me back up.

A lot of preproduction is a yo-yo between the extremely boring (budgeting spreadsheets, investor term sheets, insurance applications) and the extremely stressful (in this case, battling Turtle time, and the realities of shooting during Hurricane season in a ocean teeming with dangerous creatures such as barracuda, sting rays, and scariest of all, sharks). Casting Still Green fell like a white spotlight reminding us that yes, sometimes making a movie was, indeed, really fun.

As a writer, there is nothing like watching these characters that once existed only in your head enter their essence into real people with real bodies, real voices, and their own energy. Picking the actors to play these 10 roles was absolutely exhilarating

We knew we had our three Hollywood actors, although Jon was working with Anonymous Content to find another option from their cannon of teen talent to play the role of Alan should Trevor fall though. We had one actress coming in from MA to play a small role that ended up getting cut anyway. Everyone else was coming from Florida.

If you are working Hollywood actor, the prospect of a small indie film is not exactly going to make you salivate. But if you are a high school or college kid living in Florida who has been in a few plays, maybe a student film or two, the prospect of starring in a real movie alongside recognizable Hollywood talent, even if it is an unpaid gig, is exciting as hell. We posted casting notices everywhere from FL agencies to Craigslist. And for two months, literally, it rained headshots.

I am glad I am not an actor. After fielding hundreds of calls from some of the nicest kids I’ve ever talked to, and reading endless cover letters from so many enthusiastic earnest young adults attached to stunning headshots, only to toss them into the our terminally overflowing recycling bin, all I can say is…I am glad I am not an actor. If the competition was this fierce for a small film that didn’t even pay, I can’t even imagine the odds in scoring a role on a big film. At any rate, by the time we were headed to Florida, we had lined up a handful of actors to audition for each role. These were all actors who looked the part, had some experience, who we’d talked to, and sent sides to, and who were legitimate exciting prospects. We had reserved the last two hours of the audition for an open call, which turned out to be a manic free for all that I would probably never do again, but this all has nothing to do with Columbia.

The point is that there were a few stipulations clearly listed in our casting notices; the big one being that all actors had to live within a reasonable commuting distance from Naples, FL as we could not afford to house local talent. This stipulation did not stop the headshots from arriving from all over the country, as well as slews of video taped auditions from actors who offered to put themselves up in hotels in Naples should we cast them. Not knowing all the area codes in Florida, this stipulation did not entirely stop us from accidentally scheduling auditions with, and even almost casting a few out of state actors either. A few actors slipped through the gates, who said they were from Florida, and then drove or flew in from all over the place for the auditions. There was one talented actress who we were really gung ho about casting, and it wasn’t until I was on the phone with her ready to offer her a role that she admitted she was 16 and living in Dallas, TX, but insisted her parents would be fine with pulling her out of school and relocating to FL for the duration of the shoot. Cleary, we did not cast her.

But for the most part, when a headshot arrived, the first thing we looked at was where the actor lived. If they did not live in FL, their headshot went straight into the “probably not” pile.

There may be times, like this one, where I refrain from mentioning full names, but anyway, this is why when the e-mail first arrived from an agent named Maria with Jaime’s headshot attached, I did not pay it any attention. The agent wrote that she had seen our casting notice on Mandy, read the description for the role of George, which was simply “pudgy, funny, good natured” and was sure this actor would be perfect. She said they were from Colombia, which at the time I assumed meant Columbia, SC, which is still not Florida, so I deleted the e-mail. A few days later, another e-mail from Maria hit our inbox again endorsing Jaime for the role of George. Again, I deleted it. A few days after that, a headshot arrived in the mail. It was Jaime again, except from the return address, I could see that this agent was from Columbia, as in the country. I thought it was a little odd that this Colombian agent would be so persistent, but again, just threw the headshot into our no pile.

A week later, Doug and I were coming back to the house from lunch and opened the door to find his mom standing in the kitchen looking really confused. She said that a very well spoken man with a thick accent had just called claming to be Vice President Santos of Columbia. He wanted me to call him back immediately regarding incentives he could offer me, in exchange for casting an actor named Jaime in Still Green.

Yes, I was beyond skeptical when I called “Vice President Santos” back, but figured it would be better to waste 20 minutes on a prank phone call than potentially miss out on any prospect of “incentives” in the rare event this guy was actually for real. Besides, Doug’s mom had a feeling in her gut that the man was legit, and her gut feelings have always had an uncanny accuracy.

In a nutshell “Vice President Santos” explained that Jaime was the son of one of his closest associates. His big dream was to break into the American film industry. At the same time, the success of Maria Full of Grace had begun to change the world’s view of Columbia as a place basically, known solely for growing cocaine. Because of this, his press team was beginning to look to the film industry as a way to improve Columbian relations. His press secretary, Maria, had been heavily involved in Maria Full of Grace’s selection into the Cannes and Berlin Film Festival and had handled the marketing for the film in Latin America. If we were to cast Jaime, they wanted to offer the same support to Still Green.

As Jaime was currently in Miami working as an extra on the Miami Vice movie, Vice President Santos had been pressuring Maria to find a production company shooting in Florida that may be interested in casting Jaime in a leading role in exchange for the incentives he could offer the film. Apparently Maria had been impressed with our website, and with the imdb pages of both Trevor and Doug. Santos also admitted it was hard to find leading roles for Jaime as he was hardly the tall, cut, chiseled prototype of a Hollywood leading male. “Pudgy, funny, and good natured” was an infinitely more realistic choice for this boy. In a nutshell, Santos said he would guarantee us pre selection into both Cannes and Berlin, 30 million Pesos towards the marketing of the film in Latin America, and the full support of his entire press team.

I admitted to the Vice President that I found it pretty hard to swallow that A-he could really guarantee us all these perks and B-that he was even the real Vice President Santos in the first place. I also explained that while, at this point, I was intrigued enough to send Jaime a script and to schedule an audition slot for him, the final say on all casting decisions was going to come from our director, Jon Artigo, and not from me.

I asked him to please put everything he has just explained to me in writing, on government letterhead, and send it to our attorney, who would no doubt be calling him with many questions and requests for proof of identification etc. He said that he was leaving for Malaga for a press conference in the morning, but assured me that before he left, he would get a letter out to our attorney and that our attorney was welcome to call his cell or his office at any time, and he gave me both numbers.

Honestly, the man sounded legit to me; polite, educated, and extremely entitled. Doug was convinced the entire thing was a weird hoax from a desperate actor, but agreed to hold off all judgments until our attorney had enough info to make an educated decision.

Doug called our attorney, Kirkpatrick, to brief him on the situation. I called Jamie, to introduce myself and to find out where I should send a script. Jaime’s English was pretty mediocre and I immediately doubted whether he could pull off the role of George, but he seemed very nice and extremely excited about Still Green. I asked him if he knew the Vice President of Columbia was giving this much support to his film aspirations. He said the Vice President was very close to his father, laughed and said “They think I’m going to be the next hot Columbian film star.”

I also called Jon to give him a heads up that one of the actors auditioning for the role of George may just need some special consideration when watching his audition tape. Jon has never been responsive to pressure from anyone to cast anyone in any role ever, which is something I love about him, and simply responded that he would cast the actor he felt was the best for each role, including George. He did admit this was a wild situation, and jokes about what we would wear to Cannes were certainly thrown around, as well as jokes about a Columbian cartel coming after us if we did not cast Jaime after all of this.

Our attorney was, of course, also very skeptical. But in three days, a letter from Vice President Santos, contractually offering everything he said he would offer us, as a matter of fact, did arrive, on government letterhead, in his office. By then our attorney had made enough phone calls and done enough fact checking that after one final conversation with Santos, he called us to say thumbs up. He felt confident in assuring us that, at least in his opinion, this deal on the table was indeed, for real. Did Vice President Santos really have the sway to get us into Cannes? We were not so sure. Was this man really Vice President Santos? Well, as it turned out, he was.