Akeelah and the Bee (2006)

For Lionsgate’s President of Production Michael Paseornek, there was only one person who could make this movie and that was writer Atchison. “He lived with the story for years before he wrote the script. It was in his heart and in his mind. Doug could have sold the script a hundred times, but we were all intent for him to direct it.”

It was very important to Atchison that Akeelah and Dr. Larabee be portrayed as he wrote them. “Akeelah,” says Atchison, “because of where she comes from, has a sense that nothing good comes from her neighborhood. That's what she's been told. She asks, ‘how good am I?’ The fact Larabee comes from where she does, and has had the success that he's had, empowers her to get to the place where she thinks she can accomplish this task. That was important to me.”

Of course, what everybody knew is that the movie would never work unless they found the perfect person to play that little girl. Atchison knew he had written a part that would be enormously difficult to play. Their actor of choice would have to portray a girl who was smart and yet cover a full emotional range. They saw about three hundred girls during casting sessions in Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta and, although not prone to making snap decisions, Atchison knew he found had his Akeelah when an eleven-year-old actress named Keke Palmer walked in the door.

During her audition, Palmer read part of a speech that appears in the movie. “Keke was very special. She was the only kid that moved her eyes back and forth as if she was actually reading something that was on the wall,” says Atchison. “It was powerful to watch. I was not looking for a kid to whom I could dictate a part. I wanted somebody who understood Akeelah and with whom I could have a collaborative relationship, who, as an actor, would make this character her own. Keke displayed all those qualities.”

For her part, Keke understood how close Atchison was to the material. She recognized biographical elements to the story that, on the surface, may seem far removed from his own character but really are the same. “As a director, Doug was completely capable of guiding me,” says Palmer, “and helping me realize the character I needed to be.”

The producers got to witness this special relationship firsthand. “They connected right off the bat,” said Hult Ganis. “It's been a real wonderful relationship to watch and see evolve, their banter back and forth, etc. He’s almost a father figure type.”

Ganis had this to say about Keke: “We put a little demonstration tape together to show Lionsgate and 2929 that we found our lead actress. They saw it and agreed, ‘you found our star!’” Actor Sean Michael, who plays Akeelah’s arch-rival Dylan, has huge admiration for his co-star and they shared a lot of behind-the-scenes laughs when not competing against each other in the movie. "She's always there, you know, a big personality on set and it's funny just to watch her put a smile on everybody else's face.” Actor Julito McCullum, who plays her older brother Terrence agrees: “She’s a wonderful actress and she's really going to go far. She got nominated for a S.A.G. award for “The Wool Cap,” which we also shot together. So we had a relationship before, like a real brother and sister.”

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