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ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Allison Segan and Marcy Drogin of Furthur
Films (Michael Douglas’s production company) brought
the script to GreeneStreet’s Head of Development, Jamie
Gordon, at the end of 1999. Although it was a larger project
than normal for GreeneStreet, Gordon recognized both the creative
and commercial potential of the project immediately. “I
saw the opportunity to maintain our independent sensibility
while targeting the teen audience,” says Gordon, who
also serves as a co-producer on the film. The companies set
out to use strong production values, maintaining an independent
feel and budget, while always keeping an eye on the market
the film was geared toward. “The idea was to make something
that was accessible to the teen market, as well as the adult
audience, while attracting a great cast,” said Williams.
GreeneStreet Partner and President John
Penotti, who served as a producer on the film, continues by
saying: “Basically we wanted to make a movie that didn’t
condescend to our teenage audience.” The process of creating
such a project included visiting a high school in Westchester
over a weekend with 18 kids. Two hours were spent reading
the script and then a questionnaire was passed around. After
this, the producers and the director spent many hours talking
about the movie with the group, finding and exploring both
the positives and negatives of the script. “We also learned
that teens sometimes go to these ‘teen movies’ even
though they think they’re going to be dumb,” continues
Penotti. “They were desperate to see a movie that challenged
them and didn’t take them for granted. And, if you made
something that did not ‘talk down’ to them, they
would actually respond to it. At the same time, older people
might actually find it intelligent enough to go see it, thus
bringing in both the teen and adult audiences.”
After reading the script, GreeneStreet and
Furthur began the long and involved process of finding the
right director to make the project come alive. After meeting
numerous potential directors, the producers finally found
their director in John Polson, a young but accomplished Australian
actor who had segued into directing. They loved Polson’s
first film, “Siam Sunset,” and saw that he had a
strong directorial hand. “He was obviously adept at working
with actors, but also had a strong sense of pacing. In addition,
the production value on his film was impressive, especially
considering its shoestring budget,” says Gordon. During
the first meeting, without prompting, Polson said “I
want to make a movie that’s intelligent and different,
but for a commercial American audience.” From the first
day of shooting, he put everyone at ease, particularly the
actors who appreciated his background as an actor on films
including “Mission: Impossible II,” “The Sum
of Us,” and “The Boys”.
CASTING
“Our cast came together in an amazingly
varied way,” says GreeneStreet Partner and Executive
Producer Fisher Stevens. “Because the project was in
development for a while, the original list of people we came
up with was obsolete after six months. By the time we were
actually ready to cast the project, our original choices were
too old, too big or unavailable. We also needed a strong enough
cast to support the financing of a project this size - an
important aspect of any type of independent financing. When
it came down to it, the casting process was directly effected
by when we shot, who seemed right at the time and who was
of the right age. “
“Jesse Bradford is an actor we had
watched and always kept in our mind,” says Penotti. “Fisher
had worked with Jesse in “Hackers” and felt very
strongly about his talent and ability to pull off a role like
this.” While they considered other actors, Bradford was
the first choice.
“I took this role because ‘Ben’
is a great character” says Bradford. “I kind of
said to myself after I did my last movie that I wasn’t
going to do another all-encompassing role because the hours
were getting to me. I did two back to back, so it was four
months of being on the set 14 hours a day. It can wear you
down. But this particular role had a big enough arc that it
was very appealing to be able to go through the emotional
gauntlet that this character experiences. From having his
life stripped from him, to being wrongfully accused, to all
of these horrible things happening to him, I thought that
it would be interesting to play. I was excited to work with
Erika and Shiri, both of whom are very talented. And, the
kicker was Polson because I saw “Siam Sunset” and
I thought it was fantastic - - it was a really solid film
with a lot of creative stuff in it. So, the combination of
Erika, Shiri and Polson was a win-win for me.”
Erika Christensen was a lesser-known quantity
at the time the casting process started, as “Traffic”
had not yet been released. Christensen originally read for
the role of ‘Amy,’ and Polson had liked her performance.
When the director and producers saw her performance in “Traffic,”
they were convinced she should play the role of ‘Madison.’
For Christensen, the role was a no brainer.
Having come off of the four time Oscar winning “Traffic,”
she was drawn to darker kind of characters. “I really
like that she is in essence the bad guy, but at the same time,
she’s got vulnerabilities. One can play a villain in
different ways - - as completely evil through and through,
or evil mixed with vulnerability. I think it is more interesting
when there is more dimension to the character - - it makes
it more fun for me to play.”
Not only were the characters fun for the
actors, the set definitely had its share of pranks as well.
For Bradford, the film marked his first on-screen sex scene.
“We (Erika and I) had just started making out, and I
guess Erika had convinced the sound guy before the scene to
put on “Let’s Get It On,” so when we started
making out and the song came on, I just lost it. I couldn’t
handle it. It was too funny. It was just hilarious. Everybody
got a good laugh out of that and it was a late night, so we
needed a good laugh!” Christensen was nervous for the
love scene as well. “I gave the Marvin Gaye CD to the
sound department and said ‘Okay, at some point during
the night, you have to play “Let’s Get It On.”’
And so, we’re in the middle of a take, making out and
you hear that opening part, and we cracked up!”
For the role of ‘Amy,’ GreeneStreet
suggested Shiri Appleby based on her work on “Roswell.”
They brought her in to meet with Polson who liked her immediately.
“Shiri was the perfect complement to Erika, and with
Jesse as the male lead, the three of them created an exceptional
‘love’ triangle,” says Polson.
“My agents told me there was a great
script running around town that Jesse Bradford was starring
in with Erika Christensen,” says Appleby. “The two
of them were both people whom I was really excited about,
so I went and auditioned, met with Polson and then got the
part a week later!”
Appleby identified the most with the character
of ‘Amy.’ “She’s very much an open person,
incredibly honest with how she feels and willing to apologize
when things aren’t going her way, when she has done something
wrong, and I think I have some of those traits,” she
says. “But she’s more free and just a lot more creative
that I am, which is a lot of fun to play.”
Appleby took intense scuba lessons to prepare
for her role (since the production spent almost eight days
shooting underwater) and Bradford worked with a swim coach
and went on a strict diet to physically look like a championship
swimmer. Bradford trained extensively, committing hours on
end to lessons and training. “For the month before this
movie started, I was literally swimming everyday. I took a
lot of lessons and really worked at getting the right form”
he says.
Dan Hedaya, who also met with Polson during
the initial casting process, was the perfect actor to play
“Coach Simkins,” Ben’s high school swim coach.
Kate Burton (Broadway’s “Hedda Gabler”) followed,
and her rapport with the director was instantaneous as well.
She slid right into her role as ‘Carla Cronin,’
Jesse’s mother.
“These actors were the best. They did
things that I never expected from any of them. With Erika,
although I knew what she had in her from “Traffic,”
I found her range inspiring. Jesse’s work from to “A
Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries” all the way back
to “King of the Hill” was so impressive,” says
producer Joe Caracciolo. Polson completely agreed, “The
best thing about the shoot was that they were always there,
always ready to do anything, always willing to give what was
needed to give, always willing to try something…just
lovely people. There was no attitude. They were a great cast
and we got very lucky.”
PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY
“swimf@n” was shot in and around
the New York tri-state area - New Jersey suburbs, Westchester,
Brooklyn, Manhattan and Long Island - during the summer of
2001. “I think the fact that this movie was shot all
over New York, yet doesn’t feature New York City, makes
it very unique, “says Williams. Although the original
script was set in sunny Santa Barbara, GreeneStreet always
intended to make it a very East Coast movie. “We had
initially discussed principal photography beginning in the
fall of 2000 carrying into the winter of 2001, because there
would be no leaves on the trees which would make it easier
to capture an eerie, stark feeling. But schedules conflicted
during these months and caused production to be pushed to
the spring of 2001,” says Caracciolo.
The shoot went extremely smoothly. “The
biggest difficulty stemmed from the fact that, because we
were shooting during an impending strike (the threatened WGA
and SAG strikes during the summer of 2001) and “swimf@n”
was one of the smaller movies in town, we had trouble getting
available crews. However, it turned out to be a blessing,
because we ended up with an excellent crew, who had just come
off of larger films and went on to deliver great work,”
says Williams.
Since “swimf@n” is about a high
school swimmer, many days were spent shooting in and around
the water. The underwater sequences were not only tough for
the director and the director of photography (Giles Nuttgens),
but for the actors as well. “Moviemakers and actors in
general don’t spend a lot of time underwater,” says
Williams, “so that sequence of filming was very difficult.
There was a lot of pressure to get it right. But our DP made
it worth it - - the underwater footage is incredible. Giles
was a real coup.” Both Gordon and Williams saw Nuttgens’
film “The Deep End” at Sundance 2001, and were blown
away by its beauty and style. In fact, Nuttgens won that year’s
Cinematography Award at Sundance. “‘The Deep End’
was so visually unique I knew he would bring something different
to our film,” says Gordon.
“We were worried that Giles wouldn’t
respond to the material because it was a teen thriller. Once
he heard Polson’s vision for the film, he was convinced,”
says Caracciolo. After “The Deep End” Nuttgens had
returned to his native England to shoot parts of the latest
instalment of “Star Wars,” so he seemed a natural
choice to deliver a combination of aesthetic and style. “He’s
an artist, he’s a filmmaker, but he’s first a photographer
so everything he shot has a beautiful artistry to it,”
says Penotti.
Nuttgens used a new type of Kodak film,
which added contrast, and then he manipulated the film even
more - constantly pushing one to two stops. Says Caracciolo,
“He wanted a great contrast and he achieved a visual,
very present feel. He had a whole color scheme which, although
admittedly fairly simple, worked tremendously well. He also
used a “bleach bypass” process, which enhanced the
storytelling and mood of the piece.”
“There’s one shot that blew me
away. It was day two and they put Erika on a rotating dolly
while she played the cello. She rotated one way while the
camera went the other way - - it was right after an intensely
dramatic moment in the story, and she comes around revealing
she’s playing for a tea party of old ladies. She was
beautiful; she looked like a porcelain doll from a 1955 movie.
It just a gorgeous shot and Giles made it look highly engaging
and ominous,” says Williams.
THE SOUNDTRACK
The composers (Jonathan Debny and Louis
Febre) and Alex Steyermark, the Executive Music Producer,
worked closely with Polson to create a soundtrack with excitement,
pulse and suspense. The score will be significantly enhanced
with a mix of hip, current songs, which is Steyermark’s
strength (he did “I Know What you Did Last Summer,”
“Urban Legends” and many of Spike Lee’s films
including “Summer of Sam”).
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