Caffeinated Clint
One of Australia’s most popular actresses, Sigrid Thornton (“SeaChange”, “The Man from Snowy River”, “The Lighthorsemen”) has been cast in the American independent feature film “BFFs”.
Written by Tara Karsian and Andrea Grano, the film will tell of two best friends, Kat and Samantha (Karsian and Grano) who decide to pose as lovers in order to use a gift certificate for a couples weekend retreat.
Thornton, most recently seen in the local film “Face to Face”, would play Jacqueline, who, along with her husband Bob, runs the retreat.
Like the now in-demand Jacki Weaver, the Aussie actress is invading Hollywood later in the game than most do (though she did do the US series “Paradise” in the early ’90s, some may recall) – but the delay in attacking Tinseltown might only be because Thornton hasn’t sparked to any offshore scripts, the way she did to “BFFs”.
Director Andrew Putschoegl tells Moviehole, “Tara and Andrea were lucky enough to be friends with one of Sigrid’s managers who had agreed to read the script and give us feedback. He, thankfully, loved the script and asked if he could send it on to her. Sigrid was going to be in L.A. – as luck would have it – when they were doing a casual read-thru of the script and she graciously agreed to come do the reading. For us, It was love at first “how ya goin?”. She brought so much more to the role than we had ever imagined. Afterwards, she said she really wanted to be involved and would love to do the role. And so it began. And yes, she’ll be keeping her accent in the film for sure. We can’t imagine asking her to change it.”
Putschoegl, the co-producer and editor of acclaimed festival hit “Stephen Tobolowsky’s Birthday Party”, says he’s been revisiting some of Thornton’s work in prep for the shoot.
“We’ve all seen and loved The Man from Snowy River, which is one of the many reasons we adore Sigrid and felt she would be a perfect addition to our cast. While we’ve only seen clips from Sea Change (It’s hard to get full episodes here in the States), we can see why she is so beloved in Australia and we look forward to introducing her to those who don’t know her in America.”
“True Blood” star Carrie Preston will also be involved in the picture.
“Carrie is on board to play Rebecca, whose relationship with her husband David is troubled, to say the least. And we have tv and film legend Pat Carroll – known to Disney fans as the voice of Ursula in The Little Mermaid – playing Kat’s mother.”
“BFFS” reunites Putschoegl with Karsian, who he worked with on a short in 2010.
“I worked with Tara on my short film, Hello Caller, in 2010”, he recalls, “Even though it was only a one-day shoot, we became fast friends and when it came time to meet with directors for BFFs, Tara and Andrea called me in and it quickly became clear that we have a shared vision for this film. In an interesting bit of serendipity, there’s a scene in the film that takes place on a high ropes challenge course – and when Tara and Andrea called to tell me I got the job, I was 30 feet in the air shooting some footage on a high ropes challenge course. We figured that was a good sign.”
“BFFs” is is still in the financing stages, with the team asking for film-fans and those interested in seeing the terrific production come to fruition to donate via indiegogo.
