Найруулагч Жордан Фирстман “Club Kid” киноны бяцхан од Регги Абсоломыг олоход “Harry Potter” цувралын багийн туслалцаа их байсныг онцоллоо
Найруулагч, жүжигчин Жордан Фирстман өөрийн бүтээл “Club Kid” киноны гол дүр Арлогийн дүрд тохирох хүүхдийг олох нь хамгийн хэцүү сорилт байсан гэв. 4-6 сая ам.долларын төсөвтэй тус кино нь олон сар үргэлжлэх өргөн хүрээний шалгаруулалт хийх санхүүгийн боломжгүй байсан тул кастинг найруулагч Кармен Куба өөрийн найз, “Harry Potter” цувралын кастинг найруулагч Люси Бевантай холбогджээ. Беван сая гаруй хүүхдийн дундаас сонгон шалгаруулалт хийж байсан туршлагадаа үндэслэн Регги Абсоломыг санал болгосон байна.
Жордан Фирстман Регги Абсоломыг хараад л өөрийн төсөөлж байсан дүр мөн гэдгийг шууд ойлгожээ. Жүжигчдийн хоорондын холбоог илүү байгалийн мэт харагдуулахын тулд тэд уламжлалт бэлтгэл сургуулилтаас илүүтэйгээр хамтдаа цагийг өнгөрөөж, хөгжим, сошиал медиа контентын талаар ярилцах замаар харилцаагаа бэхжүүлсэн байна.
A24 студийн бүтээл “Club Kid” кино одоогоор Нью-Йорк болон Лос-Анжелес хотын кино театруудад гарч эхэлсэн бөгөөд арваннэгдүгээр сарын 13-нд нээлтээ өргөжүүлэх юм. Жордан Фирстманы ярилцлагыг “Filmmaker Toolkit” подкастаар дамжуулан Apple, Spotify болон YouTube сувгаар хүлээн авч үзэх боломжтой.
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Jordan Firstman knew that the success of “Club Kid” hinged on finding the perfect preteen actor to play his character’s long-lost son, Arlo.
It was a demanding role that had a lot of boxes to check off: A British kid, whose hard-partying mother had just committed suicide, finds himself dumped in New York City, where he struggles to break out of his protective shell to bond with his party promoter dad, Peter (Firstman, who wrote and directed the film, in addition to starring in it ). But the perfect candidate had to project an effortless coolness that allows him to organically blend in with his newfound father’s social circle of hard-living, LGBTQ+ clubgoers, whose lives revolve around their love of music, dance, and drugs.
“[Arlo’s] not just cool, he’s empathetic and wise; there’s a lot of stuff about that kid that was on the page that needed to be there,” said Firstman, who on this week’s episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast, called the casting search the most “nerve-wracking” part of making “Club Kid.”
“Club Kid” had the right casting director for the job. Carmen Cuba has a legendary track record of finding child stars, including the original “Stranger Things” ensemble. But as Cuba pointed out while participating in IndieWire’s Craft Roundtable of Casting Directors, “Club Kid” was different from those previous assignments.
“I do six-month searches for kids,” said Cuba. “On ’Stranger Things,’ ‘Starfighter,’ you have time and money, and this was a small film.”
The $4 to $6 million production (reports on “Club Kid’s” budget have varied; A24 did not reply to IndieWire’s inquiry) could not afford a lengthy search. It didn’t even have the money for Cuba to fly to London with Firstman for auditions. She would be reliant on a UK casting team, working within a limited budget, to help her find a needle in a haystack.
“I was very nervous about just sort of the plan of attack, because I was going to have a UK team, and you need a British kid who looks like he’s half-Jordan,” said Cuba.
Right before jumping into “Club Kid,” Cuba went on her yearly vacation with a group of close casting director friends. As the holiday wound down, Cuba tried to work through her upcoming casting dilemma with some of her closest colleagues.
“I [said], ‘How am I going do this?’ just trying to map it out for myself before I left to go start it,” recalled Cuba of the conversation. “And one of those friends is Lucy Bevan, who had just finished her ‘Harry Potter’ search, so she so generously said, ‘Why don’t I share some of the names.’”
To cast the first season of the $200 million-plus upcoming HBO series — based on the first Harry Potter book, “The Philosopher’s Stone,” in which Harry turns 11 — Bevans had just finished her own six-month search. She had auditioned thousands of young British actors to play the next generation of Harry, Hermione, Ron, and their Hogwarts classmates.
“This is just a testament to our relationship because Lucy would not normally do UK casting on a tiny movie,” said Cuba of the prominent British casting director, whose credits include “Barbie,” “F1,” and “The Batman.”
“She had just seen 40,000 kids,” said Firstman of Beaven, who early on showed him a photo of Reggie Absolom. “I saw his face and I was like, ‘that is the face that I’ve seen in my head.’ Even in the script, he’s supposed to be a quarter Indian – “Innit Babes” [Peter and his friends’ nickname for Reggie’s mom based on her favorite expression] is supposed to be like half Indian — and Lucy [said], ‘Let’s not focus on that. That’s not going happen.’ And Reggie’s a quarter Indian. Every single thing that I had asked God for, this kid came to me in Reggie.”
In total, according to Cuba, Bevan showed Firstman 90 kids, with a wider range of ages — Cuba and Firstman went back and forth about how old Reggie should be, with the character originally skewing younger than 10 — but Firstman never wavered from Absalom, whose résumé included roles in “Silo” and “The Other Bennet Sister.”
“Lucy was so generous. They had no money to fly me to London to do the session in person, so she hosted the callback session there,” said Cuba. “Jordan is incredible with kids, he was like, ‘Let’s not do it in this casting office, let’s take it outside.’ So suddenly Lucy’s assistant is outside with the camera, and they’re walking and talking. I rewatched that audition recently, and it’s just amazing. Jordan’s brain, and how he connects to everyone that he casts. I think that’s what you feel in the movie; it’s so familial.”
On the podcast, Firstman talked about how beyond his decade of drug-fueled clubbing in Europe and New York City, one of the inspirations for “Club Kid” was the bond he formed with one of his close friend’s child, something he felt would be essential to replicate with Absolom.
“The reason kids like me is I don’t treat them as kids,” said Firstman. “They’re surprised at my candor, or the inappropriate things that most adults wouldn’t be willing to say in front of a kid. I know what Reggie sees on the internet. I’m not going to say something too much, but I can push it a little bit. I think he always appreciated that in me, and once he understood that I liked to be made fun of too, everything shifted. Once he got permission to make fun of me, the whole dynamic shifted, and we just got so much more comfortable around each other.”
Much like his unorthodox, take-it-outside, walk-and-talk callback audition with Absolom, Firstman quickly realized, after casting the young actor, traditional preparation wouldn’t work.
“We tried doing traditional rehearsals, and it was awkward,” said Firstman. “I [said], ‘Let’s just keep hanging out, and keep having pizza together, and keep talking about music, and keep talking about TikTok clips we’ve seen, and send each other TikToks,’ and that’s how we bonded.”
An A24 release, “Club Kid” is now in New York City and Los Angeles theaters, and will expand on Friday, November 13.
To hear Jordan Firstman‘s full interview, subscribe to the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast onApple,Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform. You can also watch the full interview on YouTube.
