In a recent interview, Like Crazy director, Drake Doremus spoke highly about the importance of finding the ‘perfect’ chemistry – and how it all started with Anton Yelchin before Felicity Jones:
“We started with Anton. When we wrote it, then we started thinking about who’s out there in their early 20’s that was an actor. He came to mind right away. He sort of embodied the characteristics of Jacob. And I met with him and I was just like, ‘Okay, great. Let’s do this.’ And then I started to think about Jenn, and [Felicity and Anton] were friends, and I talked to him about her. Felicity came in before me a couple days before we started shooting, really about a week beforehand. I had seen a bunch of different actresses with Anton—chemistry reads in Los Angeles; just wasn’t quite feeling right. And Felicity videotaped herself in her flat in London and she did the shower scene in the film that, as you know, is at the end of the film.”
“But she actually got in her shower and put up a tripod and went through the emotional journey of what her character was going through in that moment. She sent me the tape and I saw the tape and flipped out and immediately called her and asked her, ‘How soon can you get to LA?’ She said, ‘I can get there tomorrow.’ And then she came and we started rehearsing. Seven days after she met Anton they were frolicking on the beach together, and they were in bed together… It was really surreal. They just had that magic between them. They were willing to go to the place that they needed to go in order to make Anna and Jacob really feel alive.”
Read the Complete Interview: www.firstshowing.net