ALEX IN WONDER - FROM THE OFFICIAL SITE (no longer online)

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Dog Films presents Alex in Wonder, starring Angela Gots, Ellen Greene, Robert Hays, and special guest star, Genevi�ve Bujold. The film co-stars Soleil Moon Frye, Danny Masterson, Lisa Brenner, Allison Lohman, and Ivo Cuzarida. Directed by Drew Ann Rosenberg and produced by Robert Hays, John Walcutt and Drew Ann Rosenberg, from a screenplay by Drew Ann Rosenberg based on characters she created.

The creative team behind the scenes includes director of photography Dianne Farrington, production designer Franco Giacome-Carbone, editor Steven John Nevius, costume designer Maggie Morgan, choreographer Robert La Fosse and composer Christopher Joannou. The project was one this year's five screenplays selected for the new filmmaker's program by Panavision and shot entirely with Panavision cameras. Conrad Palmisano was stunt coordinator and Andrew Molina and Mindy DeBaise were co-producers.

Drew Ann Rosenberg wrote the script several years ago while she was looking for a project to direct. "I had been reading everything I could get my hands on but couldn't find anything I really was excited about. Then, I had this idea about Alex and I just had to write it. Having grown up in the 1970's, it was a story very close to my heart. I wanted to give a voice to the 16-year old girl going through her rites of passage."

The film is a drama but has been written with a deft hand and a light comedic touch. "I felt that if I could tell it truthfully, but with humor, a lot more people would relate," recalls Rosenberg. "When I finally looked at the finished script I said, �I want this to be my first feature.'" Ms. Rosenberg had directed two short films previously, winning the EMMYTM Award for direction of her short, Daybreak, A Community of Caring. Alex in Wonder is Ms. Rosenberg's feature debut.

Getting John Walcutt and Robert Hays on board to share the production duties was the first order of business. It wasn't difficult. "The script is really human and truthful but it isn't self-righteous, it's a fun story," notes producer John Walcutt. "This movie has edges. It's not pat. If you have a good script, you can begin to attract good talent and the rest of it just flows, at least on the artistic side."

Adds Robert Hays, "It was a tribute to the script and what Drew had done with it that attracted people to it. It was well thought out." Of his first Indi producing experience he says, "The independent films are much more interesting than anything else out there. Indi's are a solid part of this industry and will be around for a long time."

Besides producing Alex In Wonder, Robert Hays also stars as Alex's hippie father, Dr. Dan Markov. Producer John Walcutt holds duel responsibilities as well, playing a small but pivotal role. Portraying the white-bread father of one of Alex's best friends, Walcutt serves as a perfect counterpoint to define Hayes' �Dan' as a real bohemian.

Once the producers were set, the casting of the role of Alex and her mother, Clarice became the paramount concern for Rosenberg. Ellen Greene's name kept coming up as a possibility for the role of Alex's mother Clarice. "I had seen her in so many things on Broadway and in films and she was always so strong and talented and versatile," remembers Rosenberg.

"John Walcutt and I had done a play reading together and he called me and told me about the role of Clarice," recalls Ellen Greene. "He got the script to me. Drew Ann Rosenberg is an extraordinary writer and the script has so much heart to it." Greene was immediately drawn to the character of Clarice. "Drew wrote an amazing character that's very complicated. I've always been more interested in the cutting edge. I like playing people that have opposites competing at one time. The sweet side of a bitch," she adds smiling. "Clarice goes through an enormous range. I mean there are so many faces� Sybil doesn't hold a candle to Clarice."

Meanwhile the lead role remained uncast. "I had looked all over Los Angeles for someone to play Alex," explains producer/director Rosenberg. "The challenge was to find an actress that you could watch for an entire movie, but who also was a trained ballet dancer. Luckily, Ellen Greene had graciously volunteered to go to New York and look for a dancer who could play the part."

Adds Greene, "The producers let me get involved in pre-production and I went to New York. They were looking for actors that could dance and I said, �we have to find a dancer that can act.'"

Greene went immediately to her good friend and New York City Ballet choreographer, Robert La Fosse. La Fosse not only said he'd help with casting the part of Alex but agreed to choreograph the dance numbers for Alex in Wonder as well. "Robert La Fosse is a true professional and one of the best at what he does anywhere in the world." says Rosenberg. "His choreography is gorgeous and as an artist he understands what the character of Alex wants, so he was able to express that through dance. I feel very fortunate the way things came together."

Given free rein to put their choices on tape, Greene and La Fosse auditioned girls all day. "It was about eight o'clock that night that we saw Angela Gots," recalls Greene. I said, �you need any prep?' and Angela went �no.' And she was just, Wow! She was just amazing! She is pretty magical."

The tape with Angela Gots' audition was shipped back to Drew Ann Rosenberg along with all of the other performer's auditions and miscellaneous comments from La Fosse and Greene. "I looked over every inch of tape," recalls Rosenberg. "There was a lot of very talented dancers and actresses but I kept coming back to Angela Gots. She jumped off the screen. In her audition she read straight off the paper a very pivotal, emotional scene between Alex and her mother and it was just heart breaking. She literally brought tears to my eyes and to the eyes of close friends of mine as well. Men and women both. She was perfect!"

Adds Gots, "I live in New York and my mom works at Lincoln Center School of American Ballet. She happened to be there on a Saturday when Ellen Greene was auditioning girls with Robert La Fosse for the role of Alex. My mom called and I was there in like two minutes."

Angela's mother Marina Gots, a former ballerina who emigrated to the U.S. from Russia before beginning teaching at the school, had noticed the auditions and told Ellen Greene that she thought her daughter had similar features to Greene. She explained that her daughter Angela was a dancer and an actress.

"I had to sit there and wait about five hours," recalls Angela Gots. "It was Saturday evening and I wanted to go out with my friends. I was sitting there and I kept calling my parents and saying, �What is the point? I'm not even going to get this. This is going to take forever.' I'm primarily an actor now, not a dancer and although I've studied dancing all my life, I was really out of shape compared to these girls."

Fortunately, Gots stayed. "My parents said, 'Just wait it out. You're already there, you might as well audition,'" she recalls, "So, I waited and Ellen's reading was so strong that it really helped. I felt really good about it. Then I went out with my friends and said I had a great audition. It wasn't until two weeks later that Drew Rosenberg, the director called and said, �I'm not sure I can give you the part but you're my favorite so far.'"

Gots started dancing again to get back in shape and the director flew her to Los Angeles for final auditions. All three producers were impressed. "The role requires Alex to be both a woman and girl. One foot in both worlds," according to producer John Walcutt . "It's something we all go through at some point in our lives," explains Walcutt. "So much about the teenage years is about being isolated and struggling with your identity and getting people to understand you and this film deals with that with a great sense of humor. We needed someone who got that and was also a great dancer and a great actor. It was a tall order but we were all impressed with Angela the moment we saw her."

Adds Producer Hays,"I think Angela has a chance of really taking off and being something. She's a first timer but a raw talent and a great look. She's got a great quality." Three days later, Gots was hired.

"There's a lot of me in the character," states Ms. Gots. "The role has a lot of depth and felt very real to me." Gots doesn't see a significant difference between kid's problems in the 70's and their problems today. "I think kids will relate to Alex. Boy issues, parent issues, sex, drugs, alcohol � are still around. Although now there's a lot more divorce than there was in the 70's. That was a lot more shocking to society and Alex's friends in those days."

"The film is really about how do you love your friends and your family and love yourself at the same time," claims producer John Walcott. "How do you get through this stuff to the other side? I think every teenage girl should take everybody she knows to go and see it. And guys will like it because it's funny and it's sexy." "The girls are the real attraction," adds Robert Hays.

The film deals with a side to society that isn't often discussed. "While stories about children being raised in a strict environment have been done many times, stories about more liberal upbringings and their consequences are relatively few in comparison," states Rosenberg.

Playing Dan, the father role in this dysfunctional family, was fun for Hays. "I was raised in a Marine family, pretty different from the Markov family, but I had friends like this so I had that to draw on. We are our parent's children and we try really hard to correct the things that we think that they did wrong. We (parents) don't want to make those same mistakes but, not setting boundaries, not setting structure for your kids will come back to haunt you even with the best intentions," says Hays. Adds Walcutt, "Coming off the forties and fifties rigidity, it was refreshing to have this new freedom. I think we know now that some structure is a good thing for most kids."

Ellen Greene has fond memories of her days in the seventies and helped director Drew Rosenberg set that tone for the set. "I like to work with people when they begin. They're braver and they try very new approaches," she stated. "You get a wonderful, new fresh start."

Director Rosenberg went into the project determined to have fun. "As a director, I know you have to make a safe atmosphere for the actors in order for them to really perform at their best," comments Rosenberg. "I tried to surround the set with people I trusted and knew would do the best possible job. Also, I wanted to have a clear vision but at the same time, keep open to other people's ideas and make their ideas add to the experience. I've worked on films as a first AD for many years and so, I knew what to expect with the time constraints working within a budget. I made sure to give myself the time to do rehearsals and coverage. But this is a very different experience than AD-ing. It's a creative experience and, I think, a lot more fun."

Everyone was impressed with the first time feature director. "We were really lucky with Drew Rosenberg because she's really, really organized, terrific, a gift from God," notes producer Robert Hays. "She understood camera work and movement and has really been studying the (other directors) she's been working with. So we were lucky in that way. And she really seemed to handle herself well with the actors."

Actor Danny Masterson from "That 70's Show" plays Alex's boyfriend, Patrick. "Drew Ann Rosenberg has been on a lot of sets on a lot of great films and I'd seen her shorts and they were phenomenal so I never had any doubts about her ability. It's awesome to watch a new director when a scene goes well."

Adding to the collaborative effort was Director of photography, Diane Farrington. Diane Farrington had previously partnered with Rosenberg on the EMMYTM Award winning short film, Daybreak, A Community of Caring.

"Diane did a beautiful job with the camera and the look of the film," says Ms. Rosenberg, "and knowing how artistic she is, I always felt confident in the choices we made." Adds producer Hays, "I think the Director of photography, Diane Farrington did a wonderful job. Her creativity camera-wise was really good so I realized we had good people and I could settle into dealing with my acting work."

"Alex in Wonder was a true collaborative effort all around," recalls Rosenberg, "I just had the time of my life on the set. Everyone was so much fun. Robert Hays, Ellen Greene, Angela Gots and the other extraordinary cast members. I loved them all." "Robert's wonderful fun," adds Ellen Greene, "Robert was very funny and very supportive when I needed to laugh."

"Working with all these great actors was an unbelievable experience for me," admits Angela Gots. "Robert Hayes, Ellen Greene and Genevieve Bujold? It's a dream come true. It really is. I never want it to end."

The fun on the set was often a nice counter to the problems faced by the characters. "I play someone who is essentially lost," says Ellen Greene. "Clarice sees herself primarily through her husband so when the marriage is over� She gave up her career as a dancer to raise her family and, I also felt, she was afraid to pursue it. So years later, she pursues it through her daughter. She's lost because she doesn't have a me." Adds Rosenberg, "Clarice and Alex have a very strained relationship. They think they're friends for a long time but, in the end they have to face the fact that they're mother and daughter and Clarice didn't live up to her end of the bargain. They get past it eventually but it takes a real toll on both of them to get there. For me, there's a lot of personal content there but it's not an autobiography, it's a fictional story. It has it's own reality very different from mine in many ways."

Alex's relationship with men is another point of concern for the teenager. When she has a sexual relationship with her mother's ex-lover Armand (Ivo Cuzarida), shortly after her own break-up with high school sweetheart Patrick, (Danny Masterson), the mother daughter relationship seems to be irreparable.

"It was the only way this girl could really get her mother's attention," explains director Rosenberg. "Their relationship would possibly never have healed had Alex not done this. Like the Armand character says when quoting Nichi, �You must destroy your world in order to build a new one.' It was Alex's wake up call to herself and her mother. A scream for help. She couldn't get her mother's attention by smoking pot. Her mom approved of that. I think we all need to shake up our world now and then. If we don't we get stuck."

Adds John Walcutt, "If you have dreams, fight for them. Your own dream and your own journey is just that, yours!"

Alex's dream, of course, is to become a great dancer. "What attracted me to the film," recalls Robert La Fosse, "was the opportunity to choreograph dances that were the expressions of the inner emotions of the character. Alex, in a sense, �acted out' her emotions through her dancing, and this is a rare opportunity for a choreographer. I had to get inside the head of a sixteen-year-old dancer!"

Other innovative, behind the scene people were drawn to the film for their own creative reasons. Costume designer, Maggie Morgan related to the story and it's times on a personal level. "I grew up in the seventies and so, costume-wise, it was very nostalgic for me," Morgan recalls. "I wanted to recreate what I remembered and I wanted to have fun with it." Morgan's great eye for detail sets the right balance to highlight the divide between the Markov household and the more conservative society around them. "I approached the design of Alex In Wonder", says production designer Franco Carbone, "by putting the characters in ironic context to their time. Sometimes suffocating in it, sometimes in harmony with it, very much like the dance and choreography that is at the thematic center of the film. I loosely color coded the characters but played more on pattern than on a rigid code of color."

Carbone continues, "Alex's Mother is a driving force that determines much of the way we see Alex in her environment. Clarice and her environment are in constant search for identity, often a cacophony of world pop-art culture, and up to the minute accoutrements of the time. Yet equally valid is Clarice's hopelessly romantic vulnerability. We see her sitting contemplative in her papered boudoir, herself her own romantic heroine, often eclipsing her own daughter, with her unfulfilled yearnings. I decided the best visual impact could be made by a play in scale. Dan sits despondently lost in his new bachelor's efficiency apartment after having lost his home and family. Behind him is a giant photo realistic mural, (popular in seventies d�cor), of a dark forest, the metaphor abundantly clear in both irony and scale."

No film set in the seventies can ignore the richness of the music from this time. "I love the seventies songs," states producer/director Rosenberg. "Composer Christopher Joannou really did a nice job of balancing the score with the popular hits from that era. It never overwhelms but flows as a sort of constant reminder of a more naive time. A time when dreams were attainable to everyone and everyone had dreams."

Summarizes John Wallcott, "Balancing your life's dreams and the changes in those dreams along the way is one of the most important things I think. It's your faith or vision that gets you from here to there and you really see that in this film." .

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