Could you be the next Muriel?
Actors Toni Collette and the late Bill Hunter in 1994 film Muriel’s Wedding. Picture: Supplied Source: news.com.au
WANTED: One 16-year-old unknown to be the next Muriel. No experience necessary. The wannabe star can audition in their own bedroom, but shrinking violets need not apply.
Director PJ Hogan (Peter Pan, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Confessions of a Shopaholic) is holding a national, open casting call for his next film, Mental, starring Toni Collette.
“I’m not looking for your standard leading lady,” stated the filmmaker yesterday after screen-testing Chelsea Bennett, 12, and Madeleine Benson, 13, in Sydney for the second time.
“They need to be a tiny bit offbeat.
“I do not want these children to think you have to look like Nicole Kidman to be in front of a camera. You don’t.”
Hogan is actually looking for five girls – aged between 11 and 16 – to play sisters in the film, which sees him reunited with Collette for the first time since Muriel’s Wedding.
But the lion’s share of the limelight will be hogged by 16-year-old Coral.
“She’s the oldest sister and it’s the biggest role. A lot of her scenes will be with Toni,” stated Hogan.
“I do not want to scare anyone off — working with Toni is more fun than going ona roller coaster — but they will need to hold their own on screen with her.”
Mental is the first film Hogan has shot in Australia since Muriel’s Wedding (1994).
His first original screenplay since that career-making comedy tells the story of a charismatic hothead who transforms a family’s life when she becomes the nanny. Filming starts in Queensland at the end of July.
The director points out that Collette was an unknown when he cast her as Muriel. And that both Matt Day and Gabby Millgate (“You’re terrible, Muriel) got their roles after attending an open casting call. So did Peter Pan’s Wendy, Rachel Hurd-Wood.
“When it comes to acting, you either have it or you don’t. There’s really not much separating a good young professional actor from a good young amateur actor except opportunity,” stated Hogan..
The director is fully prepared to be inundated by thousands upon thousands of hopefuls. The filmmakers have received 800 on-line auditions since the site became active last week.
The casting agent will do the initial sift, but Hogan has told her that he wants to see anyone who doesn’t flatline.
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Submited at Tuesday, May 31st, 2011 at 6:00 pm on Movies by chuck
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