Arriving in Toronto and 'Parkland' notes on Zac
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There is going to be a 'Red Carpet Show' for Parkland at 9pm ET tomorrow by CTV available here. Not sure if it will be accessible outside of Canada.
Notes from the 'Parkland' Production Notes
“It is an embarrassment of riches,” says producer Matt Jackson. “We got every actor we wanted for this. Agents, managers and actors read the script and flipped for it. And because Peter is so charming and so passionate about this, he was also an actor magnet.”
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Some of the film’s most compelling and revealing scenes take place in the Parkland Hospital Emergency Room and Trauma Unit, where both JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald spent their final moments. Actors Zac Efron, Marcia Gay Harden and Colin Hanks form the core of the extraordinary ensemble cast playing the medical professionals who treated both the president and his assassin over a period of just three days.
Dr. Charles “Jim” Carrico, the resident on duty when JFK arrives at the already hectic emergency room, is an overachieving young surgeon just two years out of medical school. Zac Efron’s breakout performance in Lee Daniel’s The Paperboy convinced Landesman that he was right for this role.
“I knew Zac could do anything after I saw that film,” the director says. “He has no idea how good an actor he is. He’s incredible looking and he has been playing to a different demographic in projects like High School Musical. But he is a professional and he came to work. He listened to direction and he gained strength from the amazing performers around him.”
Carrico was a relative newcomer to Parkland and still learning the ways of the hospital, says Efron. “He starts out pretty cocky and then his day takes a shocking turn. I was able to work with some fantastic surgeons who took me through every step of what happened in the trauma room, so I had great technical guidance.”
The actor is proud to be a part of the telling of what he sees as an important story. “I really admire and respect this cast so I’m honored to share the screen with them,” he says. “And Peter is a great leader, very direct and confident. We didn’t film this movie in a typical fashion in any way. He was capturing the action as if he were a fly on the wall. I’ve never worked this way. You never knew when you were on camera, so you always needed to be prepared. It became a whole different animal, especially in the trauma room.”
The emergency room’s Nurse Nelson, the majordomo of the trauma unit is played by Marcia Gay Harden. “She brings a combination of compassion, discipline, grace under fire and pathos to the proceedings,” says Goetzman.
Parkland was a teaching hospital with many doctors just at the beginning of their careers, Harden points out. “They work with a bevy of nurses who really run the trauma unit. Nurse Nelson is a rather stoic individual with an unflappable quality and she’s in charge when the president is brought in. She gets the job done despite the wealth of emotions she’s experiencing underneath the surface. Her job is to take care of the doctor who’s taking care of President Kennedy and she does it well.”
Harden and Landesman, whose children attend the same school, knew and admired each other before she was cast. “Nurse Nelson is present in virtually every moment of the hospital thread,” says Landesman. “There are not a lot of lines, but as you watch the movie, it’s clear that she’s leading the charge. I needed someone with Marcia’s presence and power. She also brought things to this role that I didn’t anticipate. She moved me to tears a number of times.”
The actress embraced working with Efron. “Zac’s beautiful, he’s fun, he’s charming, but he is also becoming an actor of depth,” says Harden. “We were both terrified on Day One. Nurse Nelson and Dr. Carrico were working on Lee Harvey Oswald in an operating room, there was blood everywhere, and Peter was saying, ‘Do what you would do as a nurse and a doctor.’ We didn’t know what we were doing. Thankfully, we had medical personnel on hand to tell us what to say. We were just moving, moving, moving.”
“Marcia is extraordinary in every way,” says Efron. “She’s always the most sensitive and smartest woman in the room. Nurse Nelson is a leader and a mother figure for the rest of the staff. She wills everybody to continue and Marcia gives an incredibly strong performance.”
via screenslam.com