Finding a Crystal in the rough.

Crystal Green was a character I had created over a 10 year period. During those years, her personality has changed and she has grown into a woman whom the audience will have a strong opinion about. When it came time to cast, I had an idea of who I wanted for Crystal, but knew it wasn't as easy as wearing a bra on my head and creating some Weird Science.

When Peace & Riot was released to various casting services, our production team was swamped with over two thousand submissions. Our Casting Associate extraordinaire, Alysia Hudson worked with me and the other producers to come up with a list of possible matches. Alysia contacted managers and agents of hopefuls. Unknown productions set up an open audition at my friend Mike Skelton's office to begin working on the heart of our production: finding Crystal.

That weekend, a group of producers watched prospective Crystals enter, give their best impression of the character, and leave. After each girl left, a round table discussion followed.

We needed someone with talent.  Crystal goes through a collection of emotions and interactions with various characters throughout the film. Second, she had to have the look, not only did she have to have the “pretty face,” but she had to be a girl that wouldn’t mind crashing on a couch or drinking from the carton. Lastly, I wanted to see how she took stage directions, since I knew we were going to be on a tight shooting schedule, and I needed someone who could react quickly to direction.

Of the thirty-plus actresses who read, we narrowed the field to about a dozen possible Crystals for call backs the following weekend. We set up a video camera, and I included two females in our round table to rule out male bias of one girl over another. We wanted Crystal to be rooted for by her own gender. All the girls who got called back had the look and the ability, what we were looking for now was at personality.  On first audition, an actor might get four minutes in front of the table, the second time around we might keep a lady in for twenty minutes.

Although we disagreed on our secondary picks, everyone agreed on feisty and young Anna Pheil. It was obvious that Anna was the girl who would gladly hop on a bus to play her guitar in Omaha for one adoring fan, or the girl the ladies invited to a baby shower to turn it into a party. Her presence screamed Crystal Green.