Whats the secret to getting such great performances from these young non-actors?
The big secret is that I knew the kids for quite a while and I really worked on it. On the second of July, I will have known these kids for three years. And they got to know me and they could trust me. I always told them what I was going to do. I was very reliable. We had this bond. Otherwise it would have never worked out. In the scene where Kiko (Francisco Pedrosa) sits on the bed and opens up about this really personal stuff with Nikki (Jessica Steinbaum), it was all about getting him comfortable enough to talk about his life. Then I took the actress and told her certain questions that I wanted her to ask. I only told him we where doing this on the day we were shooting. Usually only on the day because I want it to be fresh and I didn’t want them to be stressed or have to memorize too much. Had they met before that day? Well, they knew each other but they hadn’t really talked. When we shot it, I made them lock eyes and it was just a magical scene. It was magical because it was so hon
