What audience is the Charlie Bartlett aimed at?
When I first pitched to do the film, I said it's a movie for teenagers for anyone who has a teenager and anyone who ever was a teenager. That's a pretty broad net there. Even though it's a teen film, and we really did want to make sure it was authentic for teenagers, I do believe it will play to any audience. Clearly marketing a movie, those guys have to have a target area and the R rating is an issue and a problem for them and they're very great that they took it on. We had no choice. You have a teen giving other teens drugs its an R rating, and I understand that. I respect it and I know the MPAA very well from years as an editor. They're doing their job, and the last thing I would want is for a teenager to watch this and go, "Hey, Ritalin looks like a lot of fun!" It's really not about drugs. It's about listening to people, and I think its heart's in the right place. Even though we play fast and loose with the drug stuff I think its fine for kids. We're doing this college tour because I think there's some resonance for people in college who were in high school and remember it better than anyone else.
How has being an editor impacted the way you direct?
Editing certainly was a good training ground because I've spent so many years judging performance and the irony is that I'm in a room with the lights off looking at a screen saying, "in the next take Dustin, please do this," so here I was on a set and I could ask them to do the things I hoped they would do.
Was Kat Denning's (Susan) being cast in Charlie Bartlett a coincidence, or did it have something to do with her previous role in The 40 Year Old Virgin, which you were an executive producer on?
Total coincidence I though Kat was great in 40 Year old Virgin, and its funny. At most Q&A's I ask people if they recognize her. They will - she's doing a lot of movies now, but nobody ever remembers her from that movie. I walked into casting one day and I went "Kat!" and she went "John!" and then she gave a reading. I'll quote David Rubin who said, "She's a force of nature." Charlie's kind of a special kid, and for him to fall for somebody, she's got to have something on her brain too, and I thought Kat was able to really pull that off.
Could you describe your role as editor on Austin Powers?
I've had a great relationship with Jay Roach [Director of Austin Powers], and he was originally going to direct this film. I found Charlie Bartlett through him. The whole nature of a director editor relationship is a fascinating one because it's like you're going through a director's underwear drawer, helping him put it all in order. There's so much film shot on movies like that it's really incumbent on the editor to choose the performances the director is looking for and try to shape it together. Working on an Austin Powers movie is kind of amazing because in a way even if the movie wasn't put together that well, people would love it. There's such affection for that character.
Were there any characters you were really fond of?
It's like you almost fall in love with all of them. I felt a real affinity for Robert Downey Jr. and his character, because we're of a more similar age and he had a daughter. That was something we were able to talk about a lot - the nature of having a teenage kid when you're a grown up. The character Charlie Bartlett was very close to me - the general philosophy that character has. He's a very optimistic, honest character even though he's doing these other things along the way. He's really trying to do the right thing, and I hope some of that optimism comes through in the film.
I have to talk about Gustin Nash, our screenwriter, a little. He was 26 years old and working in a Ritz Camera at the Burbank mall when he wrote the script and hanging out with teenagers at the mall who were all complaining about teen movies and how none of [the characters] seemed like teenagers to them. And that's how the movie started with him, trying to set up something where there really was an honest teen voice.
Anton Yelchin appears to be a very talented actor. How did he come to the project and what do you think he brought to the character of Charlie?
I really didn't know who to cast in the movie, and a director I knew told me about a film about Anton called House of D and then Hearts in Atlantis, which he did with Anthony Hopkins when he was 11. I saw those two films and said "Wow this kid is amazing." I went out to dinner with Anton, and I was very na've and made a mistake that night. I offered him a job. Then of course there's like 9 producers and a studio that have to approve all that. I had to see 82 young actors in Hollywood, and in all honesty nobody else could have played this part but Anton, I don't know if we would have made the film without him. He was really able to be this outsider, kind of odd quirky kid but then be a hero at the same time and be able to be a young romantic lead, be able to sing and dance and be able to hold his own dramatic scenes with Robert Downey Jr. Some of my favorite scenes are just the two of them acting across from each other. I expect we'll be seeing and hearing from Anton for years.
