Auteur Steven Soderbergh is a master of this, gambling on non-actors for his independent drama Bubble back in 2005, then building an entire movie around the new queen of action, Gina Carano. When Gus van Sant ( Milk) wanted to make his high school drama Elephant grounded in reality, he cast real high school kids the Johnny Knoxville special olympics comedy The Ringer challenged viewers by utilizing an ensemble of handicapped performers and the recent Academy Award nominee Winter’s Bone populated its desolate Midwestern landscape with actual Midwesterners. Larry Flynt), it’s the casting of true unknowns that’s becoming increasingly more prevalent in Hollywood. While we’ve seen plenty of musicians, sports figures and even politicians stepping up to the acting plate (see Dolly Parton in 9 to 5, Vinnie Jones in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrells or James Carville in The People vs. What Kubrick and Ermey could have trained a name actor to do, Ermey delivered ten-fold.
Lee Ermey up from a technical advisor on his classic Full Metal Jacket to the hair-raising role of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. Similar to Act of Valor, Stanley Kubrick famously bumped drill sergeant R. But as the sensibilities of making movies changed, so did the casting choices. In the early days it was out of necessity-one that quickly fell away when famous faces mastered the craft and became “stars” (yes, tell Jimmy Stewart or Marilyn Monroe they lost a role to random-person-off-the-street). Since the first innovators started rolling film and the industry evolved into a bankable business, movies have recruited amateurs to fill the roles that may have been suited for seasoned vets. Perfectly logical, but what does it mean for actual actors? The casting choice isn’t breaking new ground, but the movement to find non-actors appears to be ramping up in Hollywood. Whether the soldiers could deliver on the drama was a risk they had to take-the running, gunning and strategic combat on display in Act of Valor required people with training. The filmmakers’ history shooting videos for the Navy led them to develop Act of Valor with the military organization, but after penning a script with set pieces faithful to documented operations, the directing team realized they could only pull it off with real SEALs.
Yes, it’s a fictional story with fictional characters, but the covert missions and gritty shootouts are steeped in real life stories. The line between big screen fact and fiction isn’t blurring-it’s 100% out of focus.īesides being a large-scale military action picture, the new movie Act of Valor pushes the envelope with its reality-based roots, employing actual Navy SEALs to execute the tactical warfare depicted on screen.
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