SnitchSeeker recently sat down with CBGB husband-and-wife filmmaking duo Jody Savin (writer) and Randy Miller (writer/director) to talk about their soon-to-be released punk rock comedy starring Alan Rickman and Rupert Grint. The pair also discussed another movie they planned to make with Rupert called The Drummer.


Actor Johnny Galecki, writer Jody Savin and writer/director Randy Miller at the
CBGB press day at the Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angeles.

SnitchSeeker: You worked with Alan Rickman on a couple of films prior to CBGB. How did you two meet?
Randy Miller: The first movie we did with him was called Nobel Son, which was about a Nobel prize winning chemist loosely based on my dad - he was on a team of people who won the Nobel prize. So we pursued him, like you would any actor. I remember we had this long route where different agents passed on it. We finally got to him.

Jody Savin: Everyone kept saying, "No, he's never going to do that. No, move on. Move on.

Randy: We eventually got to this London agent and he called us up and said yes. So we became friends with [Alan]. Professional friends, and regular friends, too. And then we did Bottleshock and we convinced him to do that with us. He played an English wine connoisseur. This one (CBGB) was a couple years after Bottleshock and we asked him to look at it. It took awhile. He said he liked it. Jody went back to New York and worked a bit with him on the script.

Jody: We spent three days going through everything, making sure we were on the same page about everything. And then he said OK.

SnitchSeeker: And you wrote all three of these scripts that he's done for you?
Randy and Jody: We wrote them together.

SnitchSeeker: Why does he like working with you two so much?
Randy: I think just the way we are, there's mutual respect. We don't do anything lightly. We go into it wholeheartedly and I think he really appreciates that. It's not really about the commerce, and that's what he really appreciates.

SnitchSeeker: Most good actors do.
Randy: Once you get past the agents and the reps and everybody, you get the real actor, the artist. That's what it's about. If you find someone where it's not like that, then we're probably not going to work with them anyway.

Jody: They probably don't want to do independent movies.

Randy: Because there's not a lot of money. You're doing a movie sometimes in not the best environment, location or whatever. You're doing the best you can. So he really is all about that.

SnitchSeeker: What is Alan's work ethic like?
Jody: He's a perfectionist. He wants everything completely accurate. He studies everything really, really, really hard. He doesn't take anything lightly. He never wings it at all. He's always extraordinarily prepared. He's a very generous actor. He's always there for the other actor.

Randy: He never leaves the set. He's one of those kind of people who ... oftentimes you'll hear stories about actors who, when it's not their coverage, they're not really performing. [Alan] is always there. He's always performing with the other actor. He is always on set even when it's miserably hot.

SnitchSeeker: He's there to work.
Randy: Yeah, he doesn't go back to his trailer. He stays.

Jody: And he's very encouraging to young actors and new actors. He's great because he's an icon in his industry. For a bunch of actors in this movie, this is their first professional job. He was so kind and encouraging to them and that meant so much to them that it raises their performances up.

SnitchSeeker: Both Alan and Rupert Grint did American accents in this film.
Randy: We had a phenomenal dialect coach on the set all the time for both Alan and Rupert.

Jody: Well, for everyone.

Randy: Even Malin Akerman, who played [Debbie Harry of] Blondie, had a very specific accent. We tried to make it a great working environment for everybody. That's how we are. We work together, and we probably step on each other all the time, but we're basically about trying to create almost like a theater company of actors who really want to work together and support each other. That's what we try to accomplish.

SnitchSeeker: How did Rupert Grint become involved with CBGB?
Randy: Well, Rupert, it was interesting, because before this movie we were going to do a movie about Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, and he was cast in that.

SnitchSeeker: What happened with The Drummer?
Jody: We're not going to make it anytime in the near future.

Randy: When that movie started to fall apart and wasn't going to happen, we already had a relationship with Rupert.

Jody: Well, the whole time, I kept saying to Rupert's agents, "OK, the movie right after The Drummer - CBGB - there's this part, Cheetah Chrome, and Rupert has to do it - HAS TO DO IT.

Randy: Because he looks like him.

Jody: Yeah, it's just perfect. You couldn't get more perfect.

Randy: As it turns out, Rupert's a big punk guy. He's really into punk music. We called him on Skype and he's in some punk T-shirt. His brother's in a punk band or something*. So he didn't know specifically The Dead Boys, but he knew the scene, the loud music. So it made sense. We asked him, and he said yes.

SnitchSeeker: What are your thoughts on Rupert?
Jody: He is an amazing actor. He's very shy.

Randy: He takes things very seriously as well. We had the dialect coach work with him. He learned to play the guitar in the movie. We had him play these songs. They're not so complicated because they're punk songs. But still he did have to really be familiar with that. He's amazing. He's amazingly game, even with the other actors. Justin Bartha couldn't be more different in some ways, sort of this outgoing, try some crazy thing in one scene ... maybe do something different the next time ... because he's from The Hangover and all that. And yet Rupert just takes it in stride. There's a scene in the movie where Justin Bartha's hitting him in the crotch area, and Rupert went with it. I mean that's pretty crazy, but he's very game. That's what I think is the amazing thing about him, that he's a willing-to-try-anything kind of actor, which is really great.

CBGB releases in theaters in the U.S. this Friday. Click here for show times.

*EDITOR'S NOTE: Rupert's sister Samantha is a singer. His brother James is a race car driver.