The Fall Prodcution Notes
This is an excerpt I really enjoyed from the Production Notes.
As it turned out, a miscommunication between the casting agent and the young actress had a profound effect on the entire production: Untaru believed that the actor playing the storyteller was a real-life paraplegic. Singh found Catinca’s delivery of her lines with Pace so real, he made the audacious decision to keep not just her, but the almost the entire cast and crew under the illusion that Pace could not walk.
“He had only been in one TV movie, and in that he played a transvestite,” Singh says. “Nobody but me, my brother, the costume person and two executive producers knew that he could walk. I also had to tell the guy who played Alexandria’s real father in the movie, so he would understand that the part was smaller than it seemed in the script because in the fantasy scenes he would be replaced by Lee.”
To maintain this illusion, the hospital scenes were shot first, in sequence, over a period of about 12 weeks. During that time, keeping the cast and crew in the dark about Pace’s ability to walk presented some special challenges. Singh had to change Pace’s name to get him down to South Africa, where the hospital scenes were shot. On one occasion, a makeup person walked into Pace’s room to find him standing-and almost passed out.
“I had to take this person aside and ask her not to tell anyone,” Singh says. On a couple of occasions, Pace even ran into fellow actor Daniel Caltagirone at the gym, but Caltagirone-who plays Sinclair, the movie star who steals Roy’s girlfriend-apparently did not recognize Pace. Caltagirone “had only seen him in a wheelchair or a bed,” says Singh. “He almost got caught twice.”
In addition, Singh had to make an exception to the “communist rules” under which the movie was made: “Everybody in the cast and crew traveled equal. If it was a luxury hotel, everyone stayed there. If it was a crappy hotel, everyone stayed there. And everyone got paid the same amount, from the focus puller to the actors. But for Lee I had to make an exception. Not in terms of pay, but I realized he would have to stay separately so everyone on the set would still believe he couldn’t walk.”
Finally, when the hospital scenes were in the can, Lee stood up and the illusion was broken. “Some people were laughing, some were crying and some were very, very angry,” the director recalls. “Everybody said, ‘You could have trusted me,’ but it had nothing to do with trust. People would have reacted differently to him if they had known.” [Contiue Reading]
As it turned out, a miscommunication between the casting agent and the young actress had a profound effect on the entire production: Untaru believed that the actor playing the storyteller was a real-life paraplegic. Singh found Catinca’s delivery of her lines with Pace so real, he made the audacious decision to keep not just her, but the almost the entire cast and crew under the illusion that Pace could not walk.
“He had only been in one TV movie, and in that he played a transvestite,” Singh says. “Nobody but me, my brother, the costume person and two executive producers knew that he could walk. I also had to tell the guy who played Alexandria’s real father in the movie, so he would understand that the part was smaller than it seemed in the script because in the fantasy scenes he would be replaced by Lee.”
To maintain this illusion, the hospital scenes were shot first, in sequence, over a period of about 12 weeks. During that time, keeping the cast and crew in the dark about Pace’s ability to walk presented some special challenges. Singh had to change Pace’s name to get him down to South Africa, where the hospital scenes were shot. On one occasion, a makeup person walked into Pace’s room to find him standing-and almost passed out.
“I had to take this person aside and ask her not to tell anyone,” Singh says. On a couple of occasions, Pace even ran into fellow actor Daniel Caltagirone at the gym, but Caltagirone-who plays Sinclair, the movie star who steals Roy’s girlfriend-apparently did not recognize Pace. Caltagirone “had only seen him in a wheelchair or a bed,” says Singh. “He almost got caught twice.”
In addition, Singh had to make an exception to the “communist rules” under which the movie was made: “Everybody in the cast and crew traveled equal. If it was a luxury hotel, everyone stayed there. If it was a crappy hotel, everyone stayed there. And everyone got paid the same amount, from the focus puller to the actors. But for Lee I had to make an exception. Not in terms of pay, but I realized he would have to stay separately so everyone on the set would still believe he couldn’t walk.”
Finally, when the hospital scenes were in the can, Lee stood up and the illusion was broken. “Some people were laughing, some were crying and some were very, very angry,” the director recalls. “Everybody said, ‘You could have trusted me,’ but it had nothing to do with trust. People would have reacted differently to him if they had known.” [Contiue Reading]