Casting for Talent

I confess to some amount of pride about our process of selecting acting talent for One Came Home. From the earliest stages of this film's development, Willy and I knew certain people we wanted for some key roles. I suspect this is pretty standard in filmmaking. For the other roles, we would go through the three top agencies in the city: Lisa Lax, Colors and Abby Elzemeyer. We wanted people who had made a commitment to acting.

Willy and I had stumbled onto Corey Parker's Memphis presence in an around-about manner. Corey came to us through Project 366, a documentary film Willy and I had worked on together in 2004. Willy had done a masterful job of pulling photo images of our city into a photo/video montage, sans narration, by way of an idea I had conceived initially as a book. When the film was released in 2006 and shown on WKNO TV, Corey Parker was watching. The film struck him and he sought out Willy to compliment him. Through that communication, which Willy shared with me, I did some research into Corey's own background. He had been an actor since he was a kid, with film and TV credits rarely, if ever, found in this city. Good fortune had led him to Memphis and eventually to us. When the script was completed two years later, his name loomed in front of us. The idea of a New York-trained, experienced actor to portray a New York con man seemed to make good sense. Duh. The choice of Savannah Bearden, Willy's daughter, to portray Savannah Hodges had been part of the deal since the conception of the film. Willy knew his daughter's ability, and with her stage acting credits and natural talent, combined with her connection to the family-based story, that decision was simple. The idea to ask Julia "Cookie" Ewing to portray Grace Hodges included perhaps a bit of the divine intervention. From the day our words began to go on paper, I knew I wanted Cookie in this role. Obviously, she had years of acting experience and was a much-loved theater professor at Rhodes College. I had known Cookie off and on for some thirty years, and I knew there was so much more to her than acting talent. Cookie exuded love and kindness, traits so common to the role of Grace Hodges. At a quick meeting in the fall of 2008 at Rhodes, Cookie agreed to accept the role, but shared her fears of being back in front of a camera after several years. Willy and I never had any doubt about Cookie. Finally, Willy asked me to assume the role of Harley, the postman. With very limited acting experience, but faith in Willy, I agreed, even though the writer in me told me that writers should stay writers.

There will be other blogs spent detailing events of the actual auditioning process, but certain people stopped Willy, Ryan Parker (our DP who helped in the formal audition process) and me right in our tracks. John Locke was Mr. Jenkins hands-down. Gerald Faught embodied the spirit and voice of Reverend Foote spookily, and John Sneed nailed phrases from the script so well that it made me laugh. I knew we had found Jefferson Daniels when he smiled and walked from that room. Dennis Phillippi had all the attitude of a New York bartender, plus some. And, he was off book when he came into the audition. What a pro! There were others. And, there will be other blogs to reflect those marvelous people. Remember, visit us at

www.facebook.com/pages/One-Came-Home/179962884812?v=info

Until next time, DT