Ultimate Dolph

In the casting of your film, I’ll have to get to someone you worked with here who I went to school with many moons ago. Melanie Zanetti. She’s just the loveliest person and it’s so great seeing her in film, because I always knew that’s what she was going to do. I believe you worked with her before this, so did you always know you wanted her for this role?

(Laughs) So, first, dude, I gave her her first movie role! I had been looking for somebody who could play a teenager, but you can’t really cast a teenager and that’s a battle in itself. Maybe you can cast a teenager, but it’s better to get an adult who looks like they can play much younger, so I was asking around and I had been searching really hard. Someone then turned to me and said “I know this person. She’s a theatres actress in Australia.”

I looked her up and there’s these images from the production of Romeo & Juliet, and I was like “No, no, no, this is a child!” (laughs) and he’s telling me she isn’t. I thought she was like 12 or something. (But) I ended up casting her back then (for Battle of the Damned) and, of course, that was it for her. She’s hooked by film and television and we stayed good friends. She’s the real deal. Super talented, and it’s just a happy coincidence that my super talented, great friend was genuinely perfect for this role.

If you want that archetypal, Gothic female figure? She loves it. And, unbeknownst to me, she desperately wanted to do a gothic horror film, so we were just having a great time out there. There was one night doing the scene where she’s outside in a nightgown and it’s freezing cold and I was feeling so guilty. I was constantly running out to her asking if she was okay, and she was always “I’m fine. I’m fine.” Later on she told me I was crazy because this is what she lives for. She’s a wonderful person and a great talent.