Next came the exciting process of finding three fresh, young comic talents to bring out both the natural humor and the adolescent heartbreak of the bullied threesome, Ryan, Wade and Emmit. “The whole time we were writing, we kept thinking, we can do anything we want with the comedy but it’s not going to matter unless we can find three really funny guys to play these roles,” notes Seth Rogen. And so it was that the filmmakers began a nationwide search for three truly offbeat yet utterly relatable youngsters, auditioning scores of hopefuls in Miami, Atlanta, New York, Toronto, Chicago and Vancouver.
“We were looking for kids who were really original, yet also seemed very real,” notes producer Donna Arkoff Roth.
There were only a few ground rules for the auditions. “We were completely open to the idea that the characters could be played by any type of kids, so long as they were interesting, amusing, looked like they could be bullied and had great chemistry together,” says Apatow.
As they progressed, these wide-open auditions themselves became part of the development process. “We really encouraged improv, excessively,” notes Brill, “to see what the kids would come up with and encourage them to really tap into their own emotions, histories and back-stories. In the process of casting, we sort of found out who these kids really are and then reshaped the script a little bit more towards them.”
Ultimately, the filmmakers found their three stars right in their own backyard, in Los Angeles, where Troy Gentile, Nate Hartley and David Dorfman were each kicking off their movie careers. No one could believe how perfectly each of them fit the characters in Brown and Rogen’s screenplay. “When we put the three of them together during their screen tests, we just looked at them and all started laughing – they looked so great together,” recalls producer Arnold.
Troy Gentile, who has twice played a young Jack Black in “Nacho Libre” and “Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny,” almost didn’t audition because technically he was too young for the role of high schooler Ryan. “But every time I looked at the script, I thought how much more like me can you get?” recalls Gentile. “I mean, I even rap. So I had to fight to get into the audition, but once I went in there, it went really well and I got the callback. Judd Apatow was there and he told me to really improv it and I had a great time.”
Everyone agreed that Troy had the right wisecracking stuff – not to mention a somewhat intriguing similarity to screenwriter Rogen. “Troy was fantastic. He’s so verbally agile that, even at his age, he’s able to keep up with Owen. He’s very funny but he’s also got a soulful quality to him,” says Arnold.
Adds Brill: “Troy is such an interesting sort of magnetic extrovert and we tweaked the character to reflect that. He’s so smart, he’ll probably be taking my job at some point, which is fine, because then I’ll come to his set and harass him the same way he harassed me,” the director laughs.
Gentile not only felt an affinity with would-be rapper Ryan, he also felt the script was a story just begging to be made. “You had all these classic bully stories in the ‘80s, but there haven’t really been any for our generation,” he notes.
Once Gentile began working with Hartley and Dorfman, things got even more exciting. “We fit so well together, it all just clicked,” he says. As for what Ryan brings to the ensemble, Gentile says: “He’s the one who is always skeptical of Drillbit – wondering, you know, ‘if you’re in the military why are you always sleeping in the woods and needing money’? Ryan’s someone who doesn’t necessarily trust people, but he learns to.”
Gentile especially loved getting the chance to work with Wilson and watch him in action. “It’s the chance of a lifetime to work with a big comedy actor like Owen,” he says, “and I learned a lot.”
Troy’s physical opposite was found in tall, skinny newcomer Nate Hartley, who takes on the role of the skeletal, magic-obsessed Wade with his own original aplomb. “Nate is really the anchor of the movie,” says producer Roth. “He’s the guy everyone can relate to and, even though he didn’t have a huge amount of experience, he has really grown during production both as an actor and, literally, in inches!”
When Hartley came into his audition, Brill immediately connected with him. “I remember he had a deck of cards with him, and I was a magician growing up so we instantly bonded over that – and ultimately we made the character a magician because that’s who he was,” says the director.
There was also another element to Hartley that struck the filmmakers. “He looks so similar to me as a kid that it’s actually kind of scary,” admits Judd Apatow.
Like Troy, Nate was also pretty excited after reading the script. “It was brilliance wrapped up in excellence,” he summarizes in his distinctive fashion. “I think everyone can understand this movie because almost everyone’s been bullied, whether it’s in school or somewhere else in life.” He also loved the ensemble of misfits. “Ryan, Emmit and Wade are kind of a neurotic, crazy little family and Owen’s like the big brother,” he summarizes.
Nate also liked Wade’s peacemaker role among his friends. “Wade’s take on life is that everybody should get along,” he explains. “He doesn’t like violence, but it’s his idea to hire a soldier of fortune, really so they won’t have to fight, although it doesn’t quite work out that way.”
As for his favorite scene, Hartley doesn’t hesitate: “The kissing scene with Brooke [Wade’s crush in the film, played by Valerie Tian],” he says. “The kiss was originally supposed to be on the cheek but I just knew that Steve was going to say ‘on the lips’ in the middle of the take so you’d see my face change, and you know it worked. It was a little awkward but very, very fun.”
Speaking of awkward, completing the trio is the ensemble’s biggest oddball: shrimpy, nerdy yet surprisingly brave Emmit, played by David Dorfman, best known for his recurring role as the unforgettably creepy child in “The Ring” horror films. Dorfman’s audition focused on his own personal obsession with maps, which rang so true, it too became part of Emmit’s character. “David has a profoundly disturbing ability to remember maps,” Brill observes, “and we felt that Emmit would certainly be that kind of kid, too.”
On set, the filmmakers were constantly surprised by Dorfman’s comic skills. “David is brilliant physically,” says Arnold. “He moves and dances in hilarious ways and when he runs into a tree and falls down, he’s just terrific. And he loved it. He kept saying, ‘let me run face first into that tree again.”
Dorfman himself fell in love with the screenplay. “It just really made me laugh. It’s so funny and far-fetched and, at the same time, it’s also realistic. want to deny how real it is but I can’t no matter how much I want to,” he laughs.
While Dorfman notes that the main thing he and Emmit had in common was an obsession with maps, he could definitely empathize with the character – and found himself rooting for him from the get-go. “Emmit’s never had a real friend in his life,” he observes, “and he’s hungry for that connection because it can be hard to be so lonely. Luckily, he does find friends and just like Drillbit says, finds himself under a wing of protection.”
For Dorfman – who is smushed into a locker and jumps off a moving car, among other stunts – a big part of the fun of the movie was feeling protected as an actor to go to the very edge of comic experimentation. He credits Brill with creating a liberating atmosphere on the set. “If I had to go to Mars with just one person, it would be Steve,” he comments, “because he’s the kind of guy who could navigate a ship through anywhere.”
All three boys underwent their own mini-boot camp to get in shape for the film’s many stunts and fight sequences. “We learned to throw fake punches. We learned to rappel down a wall. There’s a lot of action in this movie, even Samurai swords. It’s insane,” says Hartley.
It wasn’t always fun, although the filmmakers did their best to keep up the boys’ spirits. “I hate running,” admits Gentile, “but they hired a hot Swedish woman trainer for me, so then I was in heaven.”
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