Movie News

Affleck cast passers-by in film

Mon 15 Oct 1:20 PM

Ben Affleck cast locals in his new film Gone Baby Gone instead of hiring professional actors.

The crime drama is Affleck's directorial debut, and the actor is so anxious to keep costs down he simply booked passers-by in Boston, Massachusetts for bar and street scenes.

Affleck explained: "Basically, what we did was, wherever possible, we went down to locations - say we shot in a bar - and we basically said, 'Whoever's at your barstool, we're gonna show up and make the movie, stay where you are. We're gonna make the movie around you.'

"A lot of times, and I'm not sure if this is legal, we were just buying people drinks. We would come into neighbourhoods... we'd set the scene, bring the cameras and, as people came out of their house to see what was going on, say, «You folks are in the movie...'

"We cast all our smaller roles from people who were not only local to Boston but people who were in that neighbourhood."

However, Gone Baby Gone does actually star professionals in the lead roles - Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris and Ben's brother Casey Affleck feature in the film about detectives searching for a lost four-year-old girl.

The film is due out in cinemas this month.