Case in point: Mr. Miller’s own career. After directing a sweet, nostalgic and in many ways patrician short, he went on to direct three urban comedies, CLASS ACT, HOUSEGUEST and THE 6TH  MAN. Marlon Wayans literally thought he was meeting a black director when he got together with Miller to discuss work on THE 6TH MAN.  

Miller has also had a successful run directing television shows like “Thirtysomething,” “Northern Expsosure” and “Popular.”  He directed the pilots for the Nickelodeon kid sensation, “Salute Your Shorts,” and for the Warner Brothers series, “Dead Last.”  He got a DGA nomination for H-E DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS a children’s movie for the Wonderful World of Disney. 

 “A director learns from directing,” says Miller. “I learned from every one of the movies and shows I directed.” 

But Miller had a passion to direct his own material—something completely different, something personal. Miller and Savin had written and sold many scripts only to watch them stall somewhere along the way in development or pre-production. And the only way they could see to break the feature film perception of Miller as an urban comedy director would be to actually make something completely different, something personal.  

That was when they ran into Morris Ruskin who remembered the short film and suggested they go back (all the way back to where they had begun in the movie business) and turn that short film into a full-length feature. The suggestion stuck with them.  

Miller and Savin had each recently lost a parent. And they were living with the imminent loss of several dear friends to terminal illnesses. One of these friends, Patricia Fraser, played the title character in the short film.  (The feature version is dedicated to Patricia.) 

The feature film takes on that loss and much more. Although the ten-year-old boy’s first kiss is still in the movie, it is now part of the fabric of lost youth, lost innocence, and one man’s attempt to reach back in time that becomes the rickety bridge to another man’s future. The storytelling is complex but the emotions are clear and honest. It is a movie about people.  

The honesty and beauty of the script spoke to a group of wonderful actors. Momentum built when Carol Bodie and Chris Andrews of ICM read the script and responded enthusiastically. Andrews represents Robert Carlyle, an actor who brings incredible nuance and dignity to every role he takes. Carlyle was perfect to play the lead. He read the script immediately and signed on.  

“Bobby, who is Scottish, was originally going to do the part with an American accent,” says Miller. “But after thinking about it, he thought that a foreign accent would heighten the character’s alienation and serve the overall movie better. He opted for an Irish accent which we all agreed was better since his Scottish can be a challenge to understand.”  

Incredibly enough, Carlyle had never worked in the U.S. so getting him a visa in short order was a bit of a trick. “Bobby is an amazingly committed actor. If he was not on set, he was in his trailer thinking about his character, never even turning on the television or radio,” explains Miller. “His focus is extraordinary and his narrative sense was a gift to me as a director.”  

Other talent agents and managers read the script and lent their support. Sue Leibman of Barking Dog recommended it to her client, Marisa Tomei, who signed on to play the damaged Meredith Morrison. From the get-go, the chemistry between Robert and Marisa was evident. In life and in the movie, they are characters from two different worlds that seem to have been destined to connect. Marisa Tomei is an incredibly versatile actress who has taken on the gamut of roles in her career. One thing that remains consistent in all of her performances is a singular attention to detail that gives each of her characters so much life. As Meredith Morrison, she had to contend with certain physical challenges and she worked diligently and often not comfortably to make every choice true to the character.  

The cast was falling into place. David Paymer, who had worked with the couple before, came on board to play Rafael Horowitz. Consistently supportive of independent cinema, Sean Astin responded to the filmmakers’ passion and offered to play the tragic and funny character of Kip Kipling. Danny DeVito got hold of the script and offered to do a role. DeVito brought the script to his agent, Fred Specktor, who also represents John Goodman, a powerhouse of an actor and the ideal Steve Mills. Goodman and Carlyle were both very excited to work with each other. Both men are generous actors and they seemed to feed off each other in their work. Adam Arkin, Camryn Manheim, Ernie Hudson, Miguel Sandoval and Sonia Braga all signed on shortly thereafter.  

The casting was falling into place beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. Even veteran casting directors Sarah Halley Finn and Randi Hiller, who had been supportive of the team on previous aborted ventures, couldn’t believe how perfectly it was all going.  

Two roles remained to be cast: Randall Ipswitch and Marienne Hotchkiss. The roles where challenging both emotionally and in that they required the actors to dance masterfully. When the filmmaking team met with Donnie Wahlberg they knew they had found Randall Ipswitch. He had a unique understanding of the complex character and the body of a dancer. He had never done ballroom before but he had danced and they were confident he could learn. Wahlberg was perhaps less certain but Miller and Savin did not let him say no and soon the actor found himself spending all his free time in ballroom dance studios imbibing the world and the language of the peculiar character he was working to inhabit.

 Hardest perhaps was to figure out who could play the daughter of the grande dame, Marilyn Hotchkiss. In the years since the making of the short, Patricia Fraser, the actress who had played Marilyn Hotchkiss in the short film, had become one of Miller and Savin’s dearest friends. A larger-than-life woman and actress, her passing on December 31 of 2003 in many ways heightened the sense of responsibility the filmmakers felt in awarding her the perfect daughter to complete the cycle in the movie. Furthermore, the role demanded superior dancing and a certain unsettling self-possession that would be a great challenge for any actress. Mary Steenburgen signed on two weeks before shooting began. A cha-cha champion in her youth, Steenburgen began practicing her dance routines every free minute she had—in Little Rock, in New York City, in Los Angeles, in airports, in dance studios, at home until she felt confident with the role of this teacher. Steenburgen and Wahlberg’s commitment to their parts, to the movie and to the dance it required of them was a gift to the movie and everyone working on it. Steenburgen is the perfect Marienne Hotchkiss. Miller and Savin know in their hearts that Patricia Fraser would be proud to be her mother.  

The lead of the short film was ten years old when he played Young Steve Mills. In the movie he grows up to be John Goodman. In real life, he grew up to be an excellent actor in his own right. His name is Elden Henson. He has starred in THE MIGHTY DUCKS, THE MIGHTY, and THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT. When Savin and Miller met with Henson all these years later, they knew they had to find another role for him in the movie to underscore the unique process of the making of this film. What actor can play two different roles in a movie simply because he was allowed to grow up between takes.  

Catching up with the other actors from the short was an amazing thing. Young Lisa grew up to be an accomplished dancer and choreographer. The other kids grew up to be a policewoman, an oceanographer, a professional football player. One of the actors now works as an FBI agent; another is a successful rock video director. Lives had changed but everyone remembered the experience of the short fondly and they were all excited to re-visit it as a feature.  

“I had made an off-handed suggestion but when Miller and Savin came back to me with the finished script, I fell in love with it beyond my wildest dreams,” says Morris Ruskin. Miller and Savin teamed with Ruskin who had produced many independent films including GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, THE MAN FROM ELYSIAN FIELDS, THE VISIT, and PRICE OF GLORY.

 

Miller and Savin were determined to make this Pasadena-centric movie in and around Pasadena. With all the tax and labor incentives everywhere but in Southern California, this is all too often prohibitive. Staying “home,” however, made it easier on the cast (except for Carlyle who came a long way from home to do the film). It also made it attractive to a level of crew they had always dreamed of—but never counted on—working with.

 

When Miller started considering D.P.’s, one man’s work stood out—a young D.P. named Jonathan Sela who had also gone to AFI (and who had also, like Miller and Savin, coincidentally but perhaps synergistically, met his future wife at the Institute). Only twenty-five years old when the shooting began, Sela proved himself a gifted artist of light and a great ally on this enormous undertaking. Sela brought with him an amazing crew of veteran camerafolks who all clearly recognize the promise of the gifted young man. Other notable crew are Academy Award winning make-up artist Lynn Barber, veteran choreographer JoAnn Jansen, ballroom dance champions Tony Meredith, Phillip Gott and Mary Murphy, and Academy Award winning sound designer Lon Bender. Every single person who worked on this movie made a creative or personal choice to do so and that made for a very happy set.  

The film is a homecoming in many ways. Miller hasn’t worked in Pasadena since directing his very first film. This was a chance for him to return to personal and creative roots. Like Frank Keane, the lead character played by Robert Carlyle in the movie, and like all of Frank’s friends from his grief counseling group (Arkin, Hudson, Sandoval, Astin, St. James and Paymer), and like many of the other characters in the movie, the filmmakers opened themselves to an opportunity they could not have foreseen. And MARILYN HOTCHKISS BALLROOM DANCING & CHARM SCHOOL has certainly changed their lives.