Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: Amber Reign Smith, Elena Sanchez, exclusive, interview, Jeremy London, Lindsay Anne Williams, Miles Doleac, open, William Forsythe

Open: Stars Doleac & Williams on Casting, Authenticity & Soundtrack

Director Miles Doleac and co-writer/star Lindsay Anne Williams talk to Bleeding Cool about Virgil Films Open, casting, performing & more.

When Miles Doleac and Lindsay Anne Williams wrote Virgil Films Open, they aimed high to build that surreal 80s music video experience to fit their narrative of a struggling relationship in a glorious rock star fashion. The film follows Krista (Williams), a woman in a troubled marriage, who falls for a former TV star and teen heartthrob Erik (Jeremy London), whose previously promising career has collapsed. All the while, Kristina experiences music video-like hallucinations wherein she fronts an 80's new wave band. Doleac, who also directed, plays Robert in the film. The two spoke to Bleeding Cool about casting, bringing authenticity to the performing the 80s music video scenes, and expanding the marketing to era-specific nostalgia.

Open: How Doleac and Williams Assembled the Cast to Act as Their Band

Bleeding Cool: How did casting come together by bringing in Jeremy, William [Forsythe], Elena [Sanchez], and Amber [Reign Smith]?
Williams: When we started writing the script, we'd been friends with Jeremy London for several years and wrote it with him in mind. There was no other actor we ever considered [for Erik], and we texted him as we wrote it. "Hey man, I hope you're okay with singing" [laughs]. When we finished the script, it was relatively quick, about ten days to two weeks, and we sent it to him. He was heading up north to go to a con. He said, "I'll read it when I have time, and I'll touch down." He immediately exited the plane in Texas and said, "I read it. I'm totally in. I can't wait." He was the third person on the project because we hadn't shared it with anyone else. We did that around a couple of names for the character of Emma. Still, eventually, we ended up returning to where we had worked with Elena Sanchez on 'Demigod,' our previous film, and she's such a delight to be around, an amazing actress, and such a generous person. We talked about it repeatedly, and she seemed perfect, so we asked her to participate in the project.
Doleac: After which, she immediately started taking drum lessons and taught herself to play.
Williams: Not to mention taught herself to play all the songs that we wrote for the music so she could play in the music video.
Doleac: All of the drumming you see on screen in the movie, there is no drum double. It is all Elena playing them, which I was floored by and very impressed. We also wound up making a producer. She's spectacular—some of the other roles. Amber went through the standard audition process for Megan. We had never worked with her before. We loved her read, and it was clear among all the others who auditioned for the role that she was top of the heap. We worked with Yohance Myles, who plays John Daigle, twice before on 'Demigod' and on our film' Demons.' It was great getting him back to play that role, and then with William Forsythe, we worked with on our previous film, 'The Hollow,' and he was terrific in that as Big John Dawson. He was so menacing and playing that as a truly frightening & imposing character. The great thing about Will is that he also has comic chops; we needed that for this movie. We wanted him to be able to crack a joke during that menace and all that power that he imbues. Luckily, the schedules lined up. We've been trying to get him back on a film for a while. He could come out and do it, and he's wonderful in the film. His chemistry with Elena on-screen percolates. It's stellar; we even got him in some glam garb after the finale of playing that gold top guitar.
Williams: He makes a beautiful appearance in the hallucination scene that is great and fun. We had a dynamic and excellent cast, and everybody worked well together. The people that we had already known and the people that were new to us, we had quite the Scooby gang [both laugh].

What was the most difficult aspect of production? Was there a sequence that took longer to realize?
Williams: Besides regular things you come up against, there was a storm where the power went out. We had difficulty using that location because we had to operate on generators. The thing that was the most difficult, because it was a combination of logistics, all these moving pieces, costumes, and things like that were the voice scenes. We shot the music videos in an old paper warehouse. We had this big open space that we could turn into whatever we wanted, and we shot ten music videos in three days, each with different makeup and costume pieces. Elements and set design are changing. Plus, we also had to produce in as close to final form as possible all the songs so that the actors could sing along. Nobody was lip-synching. Everybody was singing. As we said, Elena was playing the drums to the track. All the planning and organization that went into that to make it happen so we could get those ten music videos in three days was wild.
Doleac: That was early in the show, too. It wasn't the show's beginning, but it was day three when we were in the Void, and we were still finding our footing as a crew. Lindsey is correct. There were so many moving pieces in those music videos, and the necessity to have the songs right going in meant that a lot of work went into the writing arrangement and recording of the music before production because we wanted the audience to feel like these characters were singing. We didn't want it to seem like they were lip-syncing, so we used playback, but we had actors singing to playback to sell it.

Given the nature of the project as an ode to the 80s, was there anything about the marketing side where you thought about releasing a cassette of the soundtrack or a VHS copy of the film?
Doleac: Cassette, I didn't think of that. That's a great idea. I'm going to have to take that under advisement. We are doing a limited-edition vinyl release of the soundtrack, and I'm a big vinylphile. Vinyl was huge in the 80s. I'm glad to see it's made a comeback. The soundtrack is already available on all the major streaming platforms. You'll find these songs if you search for the name of the fictional band "Kristina's Glam Hallucination Band" on whatever your favorite music platform is. We plan to release the music videos separately there, probably on YouTube or other outlets, but that's a great idea. Why didn't we think of that? I wish we had talked to you.
Williams: I know, right? We should check it out. It is hard, though, because I wonder if cassette players have had the kind of resurgence that vinyl has had, so that it might be more difficult.
Doleac: We considered the nostalgia element, so I wanted to do a vinyl release. I tried to make the soundtrack available, and it's out there, and we're going to keep pushing to get these little earworms into people's heads and hopefully have them humming along.

Open is currently available in theaters and digital.

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