Adventures in Casting: Don't Kill Yourself Yet. Hope is Around the Corner

I spend a lot of time in pre-production and for that I am sorry. The reason being is I really want this project to turn out well. Another thing I must apologize for is casting. Casting is one subject I spend A LOT of posts blabbing about. It probably is not the funnest thing to read about. Again, I'm sorry.

Any who, this post is again, about casting.

Stop smiling. Ass.

One of the major characters in OotGG is a man named Two-Bit. This is a character that our protagonist spends a large amount of the film with. Two-Bit is the man who tempts Caleum into the world of underground fighting and into a life of crime. Their relationship is tumultuous. Two-Bit is poison. Caleum trusts him in the beginning, but as the story progresses. Two-Bit is a complicated man. He lures these vulnerable people into this life and uses their weaknesses against them. Although he is not a mustache twirling bad guy. He whole heartily believes in what he does. Two-Bit does not view himself as a bad person. He is helping these people. Two-Bit is akin to Lucifer. He tempts these people, gets them to commit the acts, but never himself gets his hands dirty.

To sum up, Two-Bit is really important. I have no idea who could pull off this performance.

I looked around. Trying to find an actor who could play this role and as the time rolled by and I didn't find my Two-Bit, I was getting really worried. None of the actors I have found could really capture the character that I had envisioned in my mind. In my opinion, Two-Bit is JUST as important as Caleum. This was one moment when I actually thought about giving up. Then, I was recommended an actor who might work. He was a good friend of my buddy Guy's and when I asked Guy about him, I got glowing praise. His name is Frank Bryant.

Hello ladies.

I sent him the script and he told me he really dug it. We then decided to get together for a read. It took a while to get our schedules lined up for us to meet. He worked and had school the times when Ben and I didn't. After about a month of playing tag we finally got together in Studio C to do a read through of the scene.

In the scene, Two-Bit takes Caleum on a Training Day-esque ride along in which Two-Bit explains King James' operation and what he does. Two-Bit has Caleum collect some money from a junkie. Caleum has never done this and is thrown into the deep end. They find the junkie and Caleum confronts him. The junkie runs and Caleum chases him down an alley. Caleum than puts the boots to him and asks about the money. The junkie does not have it. Two-Bit shows up and tells Caleum to break the junkie's finger. This is an important scene because it puts Caleum on the point of no return. Caleum makes a decision and than breaks his finger. The scene ends there.

It is a pretty intense scene and I was nervous and excited about doing the read. Frank and Ben were ready and we ran through the scene.

Frank was brilliant.

Here is Frank acting the SHIT outta Hamlet.

He portrayed Two-Bit EXACTLY how I pictured him. It was amazing. This was one of the instances where it felt like the page was coming to life. I am so happy with Frank and cannot wait to get this scene in the can. More and more I feel this movie will be something special.