With the screenplay built around four extremely well crafted characters, Godsend afforded Hamm the opportunity to cast the movie from the top of the talent pool.
Oscar® nominee Greg Kinnear was drawn to the very human story within the structure of a thriller, and to the subject matter itself. “Of course it’s the script,” he says of his initial interest in this role. “A very interesting element of the screenplay is that it feels like an adult drama that starts to get more and more frightening – it really sneaks up on you subtly but very powerfully. It is also a very contemporary topic. As far-fetched as it sounds, the technology of cloning is very plausible. Mark Bomback has taken the scary and harrowing premise of the moral ideology of the issue – just how far the science should be allowed to go -- and captured it in an elegant and human story.”
“Greg is just one of the most intelligent and thoughtful actors I’ve ever worked with,” says Nick Hamm. “He is a joy to work with, he is precise, he understands, he has absolute focus, and brings with him a real analyses of the material.”
In Godsend, Kinnear portrays Paul Duncan, a high-school biology teacher who first must make the decision to illicitly clone his dead son and then search out the truth behind this decision. “Greg has the wonderful ability to make himself available to the audience,” explains Hamm. “It takes great skill to convincingly portray an ‘everyman’ character, letting the audience feel they could be in your shoes. It’s very hard for an actor to really hold the middle ground without ever going too soft or too hard.”
While his character may be described as an ‘everyman’, the emotional arc of the character is extraordinary. “I pretty much had to go to the most horrible place in my own humanity scale to imagine what this couple had gone through and how they’ve suffered,” explains Kinnear. “I had to do that to try to understand what inspired them to accept Wells’ offer and to cross that moral and ethical boundary.” Preparing for the role, Kinnear happily immersed himself in scientific material. “Science interests me,” says Kinnear. “I’m intrigued by the technologies of cloning and what those technologies can do. The huge evolutionary curve that has taken place in the last twenty years is absolutely astounding. Just as we’re shooting this movie we’re getting a barrage of reports of human clones. Nobody knows (at this point), if they are true or not. But, in the not-too-distant future it likely will be true and that’s a remarkable thing to consider. To find a way to touch on that while telling a very human story is an exceptionally compelling notion.”
Rebecca Romijn-Stamos caught the eye of Marc Butan with her evocative work in Brian De Palma’s film noire, Femme Fatale. “I saw an early screening around Cannes, and Rebecca just stuck in my head,” recalls Butan. “That performance showed me that she really had acting chops. There’s also accessibility to her. I thought she’d be an exciting and interesting choice for Jessie.”
Movie Database
In Theaters
