Rick Dalton said:
I love reading about how first-time directors got their film made and this story is just as great as the movie. Here's a couple of quotes from the best thing I read today:Quote:
Eight years ago in 2011, they met a young actor with Down syndrome, Zack Gottsagen, at a Venice camp for actors with disabilities. "We were enamored by him as a human being," said Nilson in a telephone interview. "It was love at first sight. This is my guy. He's a special human. We spent a couple years with him making short films, having fun and experimenting. Three years in, he had a heart to heart with us about his dreams and what he wants to do. He let us know he wanted to be an actor, wanted to be in a film. He's earnest and truthful; we'd seen him performing in our short films, he's loose and honest, hits his marks and says his lines. We said, 'let's do it together.'"https://www.indiewire.com/2020/01/dga-awards-the-peanut-butter-falcon-rookies-shia-labeouf-1202205495/Quote:
Notably, LaBeouf stars in another DGA rookie nominee's film, Alma Har'el's "Honeyboy," which he wrote from the rehab facility he entered the day after completing "The Peanut Butter Falcon." He had no trouble tapping into his troubled character's feelings of pain and inadequacy. He was arrested for public intoxication three weeks into shooting and was sentenced to check into rehab at the end.
"We didn't know what happened," said Schwartz. "When he came back to set the next day, Zack said, 'Shia, I know you've done this before, but this is my shot. Don't mess this up for me.' The way Shia described it, that's the day he became sober."
With leading man Gottsagen sitting next to them at the first public screening at SXSW, the filmmakers were overwhelmed. They both cried when Gottsagen told them, "My dreams came true, guys."
That is outstanding!!!
