I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell - July 9, 2008

Matt Czuchry is playing me, and the Tucker Max character is definitely the center of the movie, but I have a sneaking feeling that Jesse Bradford, playing Drew (the character based on my buddy SlingBlade) is going to steal the film.

If you have read my stuff, especially the book, you have a good indication of how funny the Drew character is going to be and what the Drew character is going to be about. I wrote about this already in this piece:

"At that point, something clicked in the director, and he went on this ten minute riff about SlingBlade and all kinds of artsy film school crap that, to be honest, I barely followed. He was talking to himself out loud, not really to us. But the finish was good.

Bob "If we get the right actor, the guy who simultaneously exposes his vulnerability while covering it with his bitterness and intelligent humor...we'll create one of the great characters in American cinema. I'm not kidding.""

It's one thing to write a great role; it's entirely another to find an actor who can deliver it right. I honestly thought it would be harder casting Drew than it would be to cast Tucker, but I was way wrong; we had three guys come in and do a great job in the first two weeks. So we had options, but none of them were quite perfect.

Jesse is kinda fancy, so he is meeting only for the most part, but he liked the script and agreed to meet with us. His agent wanted him for the Tucker role, and it was obvious within about two seconds he didn't have the right look or type of charisma to play that part. Bob and I politely bullshitted with him, waiting for the meeting to end, when he changed course:

"Are you guys open to discussing other ways to go? Because when I read a script, if I identify with a specific role, even if it's small, I want to play that. I've passed up bigger roles that I didn't think made sense for me, and in this script, I really identify with the Drew character. I am kind of a fantasy and sci-fi nerd, I used to approach women like him, and this script reminds me of my friends in college--except I was Drew, not Tucker."

I shot right up in my chair. In real life, SlingBlade looks nothing like Jesse, but this is a movie and a fictionalized character, so that doesn't matter. What matters is how well the actor can occupy the emotional space of SlingBlade, how much you believe him as not only highly intelligent and possessing razor sharp wit, but also very sensitive and childlike. Jesse had it. As soon as he said it, I saw it all there in him. I saw him saying the lines, I saw his eyes, I saw it all.

I gave him a copy of my book, told him to read the "Everyone Has That Friend" story, and then set up drinks with him the next night. Jesse showed up and outlined his vision of the character, where he came from, where he was going, and how he wanted to play it. It was fucking perfect. He got it on a visceral level; I could tell he was in many ways just like SlingBlade, and he could channel the emotional content of the character perfectly. Plus, he is super smart in real life (he graduated from Columbia).

This was VERY early in the movie's life, and we needed a legit actor on board, someone who would let people know this was a real movie. Jesse isn't a bankable star--yet--but he has been the lead in movies and he has worked with the biggest names in Hollywood and has a great reputation. He doesn't attach to bad or stupid projects. So I did something that was a bit risky, but whatever, I'm not averse to rolling the dice: I offered him the role and made the deal in the bar (contingent on his read). I won't talk about the deal terms for obvious reasons, but they are pretty unorthodox, and great for both parties; Jesse and I both won. The upside is I got a name to attach to the movie at the deal I wanted, but the risk was that if he blew the reading, we'd have to tell an established actor he didn't get the role, which could've made us look bad.

Thankfully, he made the risk pay off and fucking nailed it.

I have hung out with Jesse several times since we've cast him, and like Matt, I have nothing but good things to say about him. He might be the smartest actor I've ever met, he is super down to earth and easy to deal with (Max worked with him on BRING IT ON and loves him), and is just a good guy. Not at all the stereotype of an actor (Matt and Geoff are the same way).

All three of the actors are real pros, but you can tell there is something special about Jesse. He picks up most everything on his own, he only makes mistakes once, he immediately makes the corrections you ask, never improvises lines and scenes on the fly except to make them better, and he can immediately occupy the right mental space for a character. This shit is not easy to do. Plus, he has that spark, that strange alchemy of characteristics that make someone an actor. I don't know what it is or how to define it, but I do know it when I see it, and he has it in spades.

The fact is, Nils and I have written a character that has the potential to be iconic, a character that people will love and quote for decades, but it's going to take Jesse Bradford to actually make those words come alive, and I am really excited to see it. Here is Jesse right before a rehearsal:

Comment and discuss

Posted by Tucker Max at 6:37 AM