What was it like directing a film without a lot of experience?
Bryan: It was definitely a learning process. I had seen Mallrats being filmed, and I watched Chasing Amy. I had spoken to Kevin and Scott Mosier, the producer, at great lengths about the process; anything I learned, I pretty much learned from them. A couple of things I picked up from books, like Rick Schmidt’s book and John Russo’s book. Toby: How did you go about casting it? Bryan: I wrote with certain people in mind, like [Brian] O’Halloran for the clown. Everybody else was pretty much hand-picked, or we had auditions at Sandy Hook. We held open auditions for two days, and let a ton of people come over. We watched a bunch of local talent give it a shot. Toby: Was Ethan Suplee the only cast member from the West Coast? Bryan: Yes, I believe he was. Toby: Did you do any rehearsals with him before he arrived? Bryan: Ethan arrived two days before we started shooting. He’s just genius; I was never really worried about him because of conversations that we’ve had. We talked a lot on Mallrats
