Saturday, October 8, 2011

"And They're Off…" production notes

From the Production notes for "And They're Off…":
The opportunity to work in the mockumentary genre excited Sean Astin. “It took me about a sixteenth of a second from when my agent told me what this movie was, for me to want to do it,” the actor remembers. “All he needed to say was that it was a mockumentary about horse racing. I said I'm in, I'm in.” 


“Mockumentaries are fun for actors to do,” continues Astin. “You get a lot of 'get out of jail free' moments and as a performer, it lets you do what you want to do. It's fun to be able to break the fourth wall because you can look right at the audience. Moviegoers now are internet savvy people who know just as much as what's going on behind the scenes as in front of the camera, so as an actor, you're basically saying to them: you know what I know, and now I know that you know what I know, so let's play together.” 
“Sean is fantastic and I wanted Sean for the role because he is a very, likable and lovable, earnest-looking guy,” adds director Rob Schiller. “I think his persona from his earlier films sort of helped. You look at his face on screen and you empathize with him. He plays that lovable loser so well. You find yourself wanting to root for him and so he brought a real grounded center to the movie and that grounded center allowed me to use the camera to fly around him which helped add to the insanity happening around him. 
My hope is to make people laugh even if they know nothing about horse racing,” says producer Alan Grossbard. 
“You might learn a little bit about horse racing,” adds Schiller, “but you're definitely going to learn a lot about the human spirit, through Dusty Sanders.”
Rob Schiller, Sean Astin, Alan Grossbard
Caveat is played by Freckles!

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