In casting the film, producers Larry Brezner and Walter Hamada and director Wally Wolodarsky looked for actors who could play off each other well as their primary goal. "The main thing was, how did they work together?" says Brezner. "Could we find three guys who blended well? Ultimately, this is an ensemble movie, and we had to cast it with that in mind."
But chemistry wasn't the only criterion; the leads would spend most of their time in drag, which presented an unusual casting challenge. "We were never trying to get Jaye Davidson from 'The Crying Game,"' Wolodarsky jokes. "There was never going to be that level of reality in the film. We knew we wanted the makeup to be right, and the wigs and costumes would be good - they would look like women - but there would always be something slightly off about each of them.
"We knew we wanted the actor who played Dave to be good-looking, but it was a sliding scale down from there," Wolodarsky continues. "Adam/Adina doesn't really get the fashion right, and as a result, maybe isn't the best-looking woman. And then, of course, Doofer never gets anything right and looks horrible throughout the film. He's just a person who doesn't know how to look like a woman.
"We were going through every young actor in town, looking for somebody to play Dave," Brezner remembers. "We had to find a lead character who was so believably attractive as a woman that the lead girl from the sorority house would fall for him. And we found Barry Watson, who comes from '7th Heaven,' who's not only a good-looking kid, but, I must say, a very attractive woman as well."
"But what set Barry apart from the rest is a sweetness he brings to the role," adds Hamada. "At the beginning of the movie, you've got three guys who treat women very badly and you hate them for it... but Barry softens that. You can't hate him too much because his sweetness always comes through."
"There are certain days when you're in drag, your eyebrows are being plucked... suddenly, being a minister's son isn't so bad anymore," Watson kids. "Seriously, this is actually a wonderful change of pace from '7th Heaven.' With this, we have a lot of freedom. Wally's good about giving us a chance to do a take that's just kind of out there. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but if it does, maybe it'll add something to the movie.
To prepare for his role, Watson researched the fairer sex; some would say he did a little too much research. "I went to an aerobics class once," he says. "I don't know what I thought I'd get out of it -- I guess I was trying to learn women's mannerisms, not that you can really do that in an aerobics class.
"If I saw one thing, it's hands. I mean, everybody talks with their hands, but the certain things that women do with their hands are more feminine than anything a man would do. I really worked on getting down womens' mannerisms, their walk, and some sort of voice down that was really going to work - those were my biggest challenges."
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