Stardom rests on the word of kids
The scions of moviedoms elite have increasing sway in casting decisions....
They were words on which a young mans fate would hinge: Dad,you should check this out. Focus Features Chief Executive James Schamus was doing homework with his then-15-year-old daughter,Nona,one evening in 2007. The two began perusing YouTube videos. Nona wanted her fatherwho heads the specialty studio known for making art-house fare such as Atonement,Lost in Translation and Brokeback Mountainto watch a clip featuring Demetri Martin,a stand-up comedian. Nerdily dressed,strumming a guitar and delivering deadpan one-liners,Martin performed a routine called Jokes With Guitar.
I loved how gentle and observant and smart Demetris voice was, said Schamus. I called up Demetris agent and said,I have no movie to pitch. Id just like to meet him. The meeting was completely awkward and totally stilted. But it gave me about three minutes of street cred at home.
Half a year later,Schamus collaborator,Oscar-winning director Ang Lee,presented him the memoir he wanted Schamus to adapt for his next project: Taking Woodstock. As Schamus read the material,he heard Martins voice in his head. I realised I wanted a gentle but really funny kind of humour as the tone for the film, Schamus said. And I thought Ang should meet Demetri.
Martin,36,now stars as the central character in Lees Taking Woodstock,written and produced by Schamus. The character,a closeted gay artist who shelves his ambitions to help his Jewish parents run their Catskills moteland enables an epochal rock festis a breakthrough part for Martin. But the gig came about because of Schamus daughter.
The comedian is hardly the only up-and-comer plucked from obscurity by the child of a filmmaker,studio head or actor. These days,the scions of moviedoms elite have increasing sway.
Joanna Colbert,co-founder of Colbert/Mento Casting who was head of casting at Universal Pictures from 1994 to 2001,admitted the influence of her eight-year-old son has changed her outlook. He watches a show called iCarly that I never would have heard of, Colbert said. Jerry Trainor from the show is adorable and I had never seen him before. I brought him in to read for a movie.
Jonah Hill was Jonah Hill Goldstein,a muse to comedy mogul Judd Apatow,starring in 2007s Apatow-produced Superbad and appearing in Apatow-anointed movies Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the upcoming Get Him to the Greek. In New York to study writing at New School University,Hill met Dustin Hoffmans kids,Jake and Becky,and became fast friends. And they were like,You should meet my dad, Hill says.
Auditioning actors in Mumbai,India,for the central role in Slumdog Millionaire,British director Danny Boyle had run into a problem. I had been looking at all these guys in Bollywood,where we had found the rest of the cast, Boyle said in 2008. Boyles then-17-year-old daughter,Caitlin,was an avid fan of Skins,the popular TV series that follows drug-taking,sex-obsessed teenagers. She suggested one of the programmes stars,a gangly 17-year-old with soulful eyes named Dev Patel,for the part.
While I hadnt really thought about Dev,as soon as she said that,I thought,Yeah, said Boyle. Patel,the British-born son of parents of Indian descent,iced it.
Although Schamus credits his daughter with pointing out Martin,he scoffs at the notion that hes using his children as a teenage focus group for my business. Its not a calculated thing.
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