Eve's Preyer - The Movie

Once the script was completed, no more thumbs could be twiddled. Suddenly, everything moved. The principals — for the roles of Eve, Lenora, Kim, and Victor — were cast. Vic Martino, one of the actors from my previous film, “Wonderguy,” was handed the role of Victor. This was anti-typecasting, as Vic is usually sought for tough guy parts — the opposite of the sensitive, broken-man role he was now cast for. Elissa Groh, who possesses much personal strength, would also have to go beyond herself to portray the naive Eve. There were quite a few others who were cast against type. Sometimes, the tried-and-true is not always exciting; in fact, the reason I was attracted to such disturbing material is that it was against my own natural, usually comedic, inclinations.

The parts of “Jeremy” and “Ben” were also given to actors from “Wonderguy,” but when they dropped out, it was time to scramble. My casting notice did not call for these roles, and I didn’t have a pool of actors to select from...which became a problem when everything began to happen at once. Also, the original actress for Lenora needed to be replaced (very fortuitous, as Angie Spivey, who wound up with the role, could not have been more perfect). As a result, the first production meeting on November 5, 1998 was combined with an audition for Jeremy and Ben. Vic, Elissa, and Paula LaBaredas (who plays Kim) were given their copies of freshly-printed scripts. Now it would be their turn to decide whether they wanted to be a part of the production....and there was a good chance they would find the material to be too much. There were plenty of loose ends at this stage, not alleviated by the fact that we needed to get going immediately, and attend to the “exteriors” before the weather got too cold.

Epilogue: there was such a positive, gung-ho energy during the production meeting, for the first time, I realized “Eve’s Preyer” would become a reality. You know that “click” you feel when there’s no turning back? Despite my worries, a sense of empowerment and confidence developed, and that’s the kind of strength you need when you embark on a low-budget feature film production.

NEXT ANECDOTE: Cameras Roll, First Day

Discussion Forum