Hunt was also particularly admiring of her director: “I'll tell you the thing about Marc that's just extraordinary – he sits in the room with the actors and watches the actors. Most directors these days watch the monitor, which is, you know, like sitting and watching TV. Marc sits and watches you. And he closes his eyes and he listens to you. This is old-fashioned, but it's brilliant and there's never been a better way of doing it.”
Also joining the cast, in the role of IRS Human Resources counselor Dr. Cayly, is Tom Hulce. Best known for his tour-de-force, Oscar®-nominated performance as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Milos Forman’s Amadeus, Hulce ended a 13- year hiatus from film acting to take the part after Marc Forster, a long-time fan, doggedly pursued him. “Tom Hulce is one of those great actors who sort of suddenly decided he didn’t want to act anymore,” Forster says. “We met with him and we had to try to convince him.”
Recalls Doran: “Marc essentially said to Tom, ‘There are five open parts in this script. Some of them are women. Some of them are men. Here’s the list. Take your pick. You can do whatever you want.’”
It worked. Hulce was utterly charmed by the screenplay. “There is something about the ambiguity of the story that I found really fascinating in that, as potentially comedic as it is, it’s also quite beautiful and moving,” he says. “We talked about me playing several different parts, but I think we all agreed that Dr. Cayly was the answer. He’s been employed by the IRS to make sure no one goes off the deep end as people in these kinds of jobs often do. He’s an unexpected oasis in the middle of this incredibly bureaucratic territory.”
Returning to a movie set after years away was a thrill for Hulce. “I haven’t been in front of a camera for a long time, so just to be sitting in a room with Will Ferrell was delightful,” he says. “It was especially fun to be playing opposite somebody who is so beautifully comedic in his essence even when he’s being serious.”
Completing the supporting ensemble is Tony Hale in the role of Dave, Harold Crick’s fellow IRS employee with a hidden desire to attend Space Camp. Although well known for his role on the acclaimed television series “Arrested Development,” he had never appeared in a feature film before being cast in STRANGER THAN FICTION (though he subsequently appeared in a small role in RV, released earlier this year). “I really loved the character,” says Hale of his initial reaction to the screenplay. “I loved that he and Harold are these two awkward outcasts who develop such a great friendship.”
Forster felt that Hale perfectly embodied the character as Helm had written him. “There’s a tremendous reservoir of innocence and sweetness in the character of Dave, and when Tony came in and read for the part, it was all there,” he says. Doran agrees: “There was this sort of boy-man quality in everything he did – not just in the lines about Space Camp, but even when he’s simply saying hello. You get a sense of someone who hasn’t quite grown up yet, but in an incredibly endearing way.”
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