Most of the people were good, not great. It’s definitely tough to read for an audition, I’m sure there’s some great actors who don’t do cold reads well, but seeing so many people reading the parts make you notice more when someone jumps out. All the people we cast, with one exception, were easy, no-question choices. And, they’ve all been working out really well so far, which is lucky. On the aforementioned Perfect Dose, there was the combination of actors who weren’t quite on the wavelength we needed and some poor direction/writing from myself hurting the film. It was pretty intimidating to work with pro actors for the first time, but now I’m much more on top of it and did a better job of picking the right people.

Here’s who we chose for the various roles.

Chris Zinone is the closest thing the story has to a main character, a ‘white collar’ drug dealer who’s none too happy with the direction of his life. In the writing, we called him the ‘Han Solo’ character, and in casting, we wanted someone who could match that sort of energy.

We ended up casting Brian Townes, who nailed the audition and had a lot of smooth charm that matched the character. As shooting has gone on, the character’s changed a bit. Originally, he was going to be a low level chaos magician, but we dropped that part of the character.

Morning is a damaged woman with great power. She’s an otherworldly character, and that proved a challenge for many of the people auditioning. We got a lot of robotic delivery, and a few William Shatners when people read for her. Admittedly, it was really tough to make right, and I was starting to get a bit down on the script. Then, Misti Garritano walked in and totally killed it; she made me believe the character, and that’s essential for a sci-fi piece like this. If we hadn’t found her, I don’t know if the piece would hang together like it’s been doing.

Jerrod is the head of Wolf Pharmecutical, the research organization that’s also involved in some decidedly otherworldly things. For this role, we got a wide variety of reads. There were some really intense people, some very laid back. The scene he was reading was an interview, and one guy - who we dubbed “crazy guy” - was barely reading the lines, he was just grilling the interviewee like a mad man. I’m hoping to get him in there at some point, but he was not cast. Another guy read the role in what was pretty much a Jack Nicholson impression; he didn’t get it either. We went with Ted Spencer, who brought a mix of sinister and fatherly charm to the character.