Our Own, Personal, Jesus

…or, Where the Hell is That Guy!?!

As I know many of our Christian readers can attest, Jesus can be hard to find. Just look around you. Lot’s of folks haven’t found him, and for some, it ain’t for lack of tryin’. Well, we had our own problems with it. And so, too, for us – it weren’t for lack of tryin’.

We knew that we needed to hire someone to get us our actors; to make magic happen between our vision, and the right people to enact it. If you don’t have the right actors for the roles, then it doesn’t matter how good it looks, it doesn’t matter how good it sounds – it doesn’t matter how well it might have been directed. You need actors who A) can really frickin’ act, B) are right for the roles, and C) can play well with others. This is all not, as you might imagine, that easy a task.

So we went to International Talent Casting, and Sarah Kliban. Sarah was AWESOME at finding our perfect cast, even when there were some bumps in the road. Such as…we had the whole cast all lined up. Through Sarah. This was about 6 weeks before filming. Everyone’s good on the shooting dates, everything’s all set. Except…2 weeks later, I get a call from the guy all lined up to play Jesus. (He Who Shall Not Be Named!) The conversation goes something like this:

Him: “I’m really sorry, but I’ve thought about it, and I can’t play Jesus in your movie.”

Me: “Oh? Ummmm…I see?”

Him: “I thought I could do it, but I’ve thought about it, and I just can’t do it.”

Me: “I see. Well, I’m disappointed, obviously. Thanks for letting me know, and…good bye.”

I mean, what was I gonna say? I think there were probably familial, religious issues. Nothing he said, just a vibe I got. Well, I was certainly glad that it was a month away from shooting and not a few days! Still – that left us in the lurch.

And that’s where Sarah really kicked into gear. I was freakin’ a little bit, and she just kept at it, linin’ up actor after actor who would fit the bill I was looking for. At one point, we had a guy who I had seen in another religiously themed short who was in NYC, but could fly back for the shooting. We were even going to pay for his flight! But he was hemming and hawing about the subject matter too, and quite frankly, I wasn’t interested.

Finally, 4 days (yes! 4 days!) before shooting, we saw Alfonso Godinez. And very quickly, it was “Oh, yes, thank you. We’ll take this one.” And so we finally found our own, personal Jesus.

And you can see the magic in our trailer, and soon, in a festival near you!

la,

Ian