Fantastic Fest '17! Annette Kellerman Talks JUVENILE With Blake Jenner, Grant Harvey, and Robert Ulr

During this years' Fantastic Fest I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Blake Jenner, Grant Harvey, and producer Robert J. Ulrich about their coming of age drama JUVENILE. Written by and starring Jenner, the film is about a young man whose ride or die attitude with his group of trouble making friends starts to take a dangerous turn. When Billy, Jenner's character, tries to distance himself from the group in an attempt to escape the downward spiral his life is taking, it becomes clear that despite his personal turn around, sometimes the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I hope you enjoy my talk with some of the fellows behind the film.

Annette Kellerman: Hey guys. Thank you so much for taking time to sit down with me today to talk about JUVENILE. I was at the screening last night, and I just wanted to congratulate you on a job well done. It's a very poignant story, and also visually stunning. Blake, as the writer on this project, can you tell me where this story came from and what inspired you to write such a heavy drama?

Blake Jenner: I grew up loving movies like this. Troubled youth testing themselves and not knowing how much power and potential they actually have with so much against them. I've just always loved those kind of movies. Luckily I feel like everyone involved does as well. I've written comedic scripts before this one, but this one was just part of my mind and part of my writing that I hadn't really explored yet. So once I got started- I mean, I didn't know if this was even going to get made- I just had a blast doing it, so I just wanted to keep going and finish it. I was just fun for me.

AK: Was the final cut pretty close to you original vision?

BJ: Yeah. I will say, I've always said this... what [director] Brad has done beautifully is that from the first script I gave to where the movie has found itself from cut to cut to cut, he's kept the spirit of the film from the first draft of the script. What we love about it, essence-wise, is still completely there. Yeah, absolutely I feel like its the same. Some things are arranged differently, some things are out, some things are played differently in the time line, but our movie is still there.

AK: Did you write it in a non-linear format or was that something the Brad did in post?

BJ: I did not. I wrote it linearly. So it was a formula that Brad kind of stumbled upon toward the end. He just fell in love with it and showed all of us, and we fell in love with it as well.

Grant Harvey: There was a locked cut of the movie. There's a DCP, it was locked, ready to go, submitting it. And then Brad said, nah I got a different feeling about this. He opened up the movie, he recut the whole thing beginning to end, and it made it much different from what we had before. It was very creative on his part to be bold enough to open up a movie that's locked, ya know?

AK: Yeah!

BJ: That's how ballsy he is man.

AK: [sarcastically to producer Robert Ulrich] I bet you were loving it. (everyone laughs) As far as casting, Grant you mentioned last night in the Q and A that you were brought on pretty early on.

GH: There was Melissa [Benoist] and Blake...(to Robert Ulrich) Was there anyone else lined up?

RU: It all kind of happened simultaneously. We did the auditions and had many, many call backs.

GH: Many!

RU: We auditioned in groups- many, many groups of boys, so when the casting eventually happened, it was all kind of about the same time.

AK: I was curious, because there's obviously such a good rapport between the core group of characters.

BJ: It was very important. Chemistry is everything, and finding a group of guys who weren't afraid to take chances and be game for it.

AK: Yeah, there's some pretty intense physical acting in the film as well as emotional, particularly for you Grant as the loose cannon. How do you harness that? Did you ever have to hold back? Did Brad ever say that some things were too over the top, or were you just able to go for it?

GH: No, he never said too over the top. He really let us just go for it. And I think once we got to set, everyone knew their job, what they were supposed to do, and what their part is so well that he didn't really have to give a lot of notes when it came to the performance. He would give a note- say this one this way or make this your intention a little bit more. He would get specific, but once we got there I knew that I had carte blanche to completely unleash and whatever I felt and did was Mikey. So I just cut loose. All the way from the audition when I choked Blake.

BJ: I love that! I have another story about this guy. Remember when we were shooting the scene where you're punching me in the car?

GH: I accidentally caught him.

BJ: He clocked me!

GH: Well, he accidentally clocked me in the kidneys at one point too.

BJ: That's right! But I remember that moment. It was awesome because they were rolling and we were in it and then he hits me by accident. And he's like, oh shit! And I'm like keep going, keep going!

GH: The thing about it is you don't realize in a movie with a lot of physical violence, yeah it's simulated but you get home all beat up still. You feel like you've really been through a fight because of accidental punches.

RU: Blake had to go to the hospital that night because of the car scene.

BJ: Yeah. The side of my head- it wasn't that bad- but it got busted open. It was fun day though. I love that scene.

AK: Man, you guys got physical. There's fighting, running, getting hit by cars...

BJ: It's like intense jazzercise. (everyone laughs)

GH: Billy and Mikey are both very physical guys. Physical as hell. That's kind of how they've survived.

AK: Was it Brad's choice to use some of the reverse imagery? The sequences that literally play out in reverse?

RU: 100% yeah.

AK: It was so cool. I mean maybe as producer you can speak about that choice thematically and the reasons.

RU: Oh yeah. The movie was locked- it had been locked for awhile and Brad just thought there was something about it that wasn't quite right. So he decided to re imagine it. He literally started from scratch. He locked himself into a room for six weeks, ten hours a day. His wife thought he was crazy. But he's a genius. Brad is a genius. He decided to make the movie- which was also tied into the title change from Billy Boy to JUVENILE- just more universal and more thematic. The movie is really about dealing with Billy's grief and you [to Blake] can probably explain better how Brad talked about that. In and out of time.

BJ: One thing that I think- and I've had a few conversations with Brad about it- the title change I think bleeds into what he saw for the movie so great toward the end. You hear the word "juvenile" and you think, seven dudes in a line up and you're trying to figure out whodunnit. You don't know anything about them, you just see their faces and judge them. With this movie, it kind of peals back the layers of what these kids are experiencing non linearly. You're seeing his empathy. You're seeing his frustrations. You're seeing all this stuff and making up your mind up about him as you go along, and your mind might change from one point to another. A juvenile delinquent mind- or even just a young kid's mind- is on hyperdrive so much of the time, you can't really pinpoint. It's not just one straight gesture.

AK: I really like the reverse sequences as far as literally backing it up and wishing what could've been.

RU: That's exactly it.

GH: I love it. I thought it was such a stroke of genius.

RU: I do too. I think that was one of the best things in the movie and that was Brad.

GH: When Nick [Eversman] runs away backwards, that's my favorite of the backwards stuff. It's haunting in a weird way, like unsettling.

AK: Blake, did you always want to star? Did you write this part specifically as a vehicle for your acting career?

BJ: I loved the story and I just always wanted to play a character like this. Growing up and just being a human being day to day, I felt certain aspects of the character's frustration and emotions. Never once did I want someone else to play it. I wanted to see it through as a character regardless of anything.

AK: And it is such an interesting role to see a kid in a tough position who is trying to do the right thing, yet keeps screwing up and making wrong decisions. It's complex because he really is trying so hard, but gets sucked back into the bad stuff.

BJ: He's directionless. Part of the reason he freaks out, like in that one scene with his mother, he doens't know that he's trying to say that, but that's part of what he's so mad about. Just tell me what to do for once. Give me some advice that means something.

RU: I think the movie is about so many things, and that's what I think is really wonderful about it. But the lost potential aspect of it is what always got to me the most. Because I think that's the saddest thing.

AK: He's obviously a smart kid, he's just terribly misguided. Did I hear that this project started with a Kickstarter campaign? I guess it's been a long time coming.

BJ: I won't do it again. It was the scariest 30 days of my life. But it was incredible to build a rapport with fans and see how they come together and really care about my idea even when it was just the bare bones.

AK: So I always have to ask everyone at Fantastic Fest this question since we are at a genre festival. Are there other genres that you are dying to jump into?

BJ: Personally, like I know musicals are coming back slowly but surely, but I'd like to tap back into the singing stuff and do a musical or something like that.

AK: That's so cool! There's one at the fest this year- ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE.

BJ: Oh yeah- [to Robert] You were just talking about that.

AK: A zombie Christmas musical. What's not to like? Grant, are there any genres you are interested in?

GH: If it's a good story and it's a good character then I'm game. Obviously, I like Mikey because it's a great role. What actor wouldn't want to play a role like that. If it's an interesting role and it's a good project and it's different- I've been doing a lot of the crime/drama stuff- then I'm cool with doing it.

AK: Off to the westerns.

GH: Yeah, I would love that. If only they still made those!

AK: Well, they still do, they're just not like the traditional westerns that most people think of. How about you Robert?

RU: I actually like all genres and all movies, so to me it's about wanting to do something that I love. As a producer- I'm a casting director, and I thought that was hard- I did GLEE and Grant did many things...

GH: Yeah, its good to have a casting director friend. (everyone laughs)

RU: But I realize coming out of this movie that if you don't love it, it would be horrible. Because it's a 24 hour/day job. I loved it from the second I read the first nine pages Blake sent. So for me it's about loving the script.

GH: He's so right about that, and this movie wouldn't have been made. Everyone loved it because no one was making a dime, everyone was making themselves unavailable for five weeks when they could all be making money. I mean the Director of Photography was kind of a big guy, and all the way down. So, everyone loved it, and being in the movie was their payment. You can't do anything if you don't love it in the is business because it's too much work.

AK: What's the big take away? Or is there one? You can say there isn't and that's okay too.

RU: A big sale! (everyone laughs)

AK: Spoken like a true producer!

BJ: The take away from the experience or for the audience?

AK: The audience?

BJ: It's a hard question for me with this movie.

AK: Like, do the right thing?

BJ: You want them to feel a bunch of things. Yeah, that's one of them but it's kind of a cliche thing. I don't know. Being more aware. Listen. Talk. It's simple things for me.

AK: And to not be so quick to judge.

BJ: Yeah, well maybe that's the main thing. If you saw these people in real life, you probably wouldn't look at them twice. You'd probably just walk off. So it's kind of an inside look at certain people and their situation but you probably wouldn't ask them the time of day one on one. But then you get to see that everyone goes through things. I guess it's like a very, very amplified version of "don't judge a book by its cover." But not just that either. It's different for everybody.

RU: It's so many things. As a parent, I think it's such a cautionary tale. It's all about choices. It's all about the people you associate with. They're all a product of their parents.

GH: You're a product of your environment and that's part of it.

RU: And you also have to take responsibility and make good choices.

GH: Everybody who watches it can relate to it in some way. All these aspects of the movie that someone can find something to relate to. My mother watches it, she sees it as a mother. When my brother watches it, he sees it as a brother. He's looking at it from a different angle. I think the takeaway is that there's actually something for everybody.

RU: Andre Royo who plays Mr. Adams, the main father of the movie- we paid people such little money because the movie costed so little- Andre was attracted to it from the beginning when he read the script because he said he has a 16 year old daughter and he felt it was an important story to be told to teenagers.

AK: The cautionary tale.

RU: Yeah, a cautionary tale for everyone.

AK: Well, I think that sums it up quite nicely which is great because I think I'm out of time with you guys. Thank you so much for talking with me about JUVENILE. I'm excited to see where it goes.

I hope you enjoyed my chat with the JUVENILE crew. Stay tuned for more from Fantastic Fest!

Rebecca Elliott

aka Annette Kellerman

Fantastic Fest '17! Annette Kellerman Talks JUVENILE With Blake Jenner, Grant Harvey, and Robert Ulrich