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Casting
Casting for Muffin Man presented
its own unique problems. We needed a cast of thousands ... thousands
of
pounds, that is!
Since we knew it probably
wouldn’t be difficult to find a thin talented actress with stars in
her eyes, we focused our search on acquiring fat actors.
Pickle Tub Productions ran ads in
local Seattle papers as well as in eastern Washington, Oregon and
Los Angeles audition websites. They took a simple approach at first
and put in ads which read "FAT ACTORS wanted, male & female, for
feature film".
Illustrative of America’s
confusion about weight, this elicited an inordinate number of calls
from chubby men and curvaceous women (i.e. 5’7" and 150 lbs) who
thought they were fat. For the next ad, they were more specific; the
audition notice read: "FAT ACTORS WANTED, 300 + lbs."
Over 145 people auditioned for
the 7 primary roles.
Jack’s character was a casting
challenge. The role demanded a cocky fat kid in his 20s who, as the
romantic lead, was also easy on the eyes. Many actors auditioning
couldn’t fulfill the last criteria. The role also demanded a
versatile actor with a wide range of abilities.
"It was the first role I landed
with any real meat to it," said Ben.
The role of Mom required a fat
older woman who could convey an element of physical intimidation.
About 8 women had auditioned when one of the actresses missed her
appointment. Auditions were being held in small groups and someone
was needed to read the role of Mom.
"Steve had read for both Jack and
T-Bone - but wasn’t physically right for either role. He’d read so
wonderfully though, that I kept him around. I wasn’t serious about
having him audition for the part of Mom. We just need someone to
fill in for the read," explained Eisner. However, as soon as Steve
assumed the character of Mom, it became clear that he was the right
... er, man.
"He was perfect!" said Culpepper.
"He was a riot," added Eisner.
"It was as if I’d written the part for him." Steve never balked at
the offer to play Mom.
"Acting is my passion," exclaimed
Hodgson.
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