So in my last article, I had to get into the story of why Brandon Routh was chosen, as well as some of these other actors. Starting off, Brandon Routh was picked because he is Superman, and the story’s about him. Much like how it went with Harvey Keitel, Jonathan went after Brandon, even reaching out to other people in Brandon’s network and they all said “No” giving different reasons like, “He’s working in TV”, and when Jonathan finally met Brandon and gave him the script, the Superman himself accepted the part within 1 day. Everybody else in the cast had to agree that Brandon was fit for the role as the alternative just didn’t seem appropriate.
Janet Montgomery was another interesting addition, having not appeared in the original cast until recently. Jonathan explained how a year ago, he had sent the script out to Emmanuelle Chriqui. Emmanuelle had been around for a while, and Jonathan wasn’t sure what to do because she seemed a little old for the role, but since she loved the role Jonathan kept her by as it would’ve been better to continuously search. Emmanuelle didn’t really get in contact with Jonathan and he didn’t think much of it as he had all the other roles and director responsibilities to focus on. Three weeks before the shoot happened, Jonathan finally reached out to her and said to her team, “Listen. Put her on the phone so I can speak to her because I’m not doing this anymore.” The team refused, explaining contract this and requirements that. Emmanuelle finally got on the phone after some prompting and she openly admitted how she hadn’t read the script in a year. She said, “I want to the movie, but I’m not prepared.” Emmanuelle explained her appearance and how she couldn’t get there in time to be prepared. So Jonathan was about to fire her, over creative differences and eventually he found Janet who took the role and made the film so much better.
Now, Harvey Keitel had to be the most interesting, and this is how Jonathan told it:
“About a year ago, I had met Harvey Keitel in Venice, California through a friend of mine. I said “I got a project you might be interested in!’ and he said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah…” Wasn’t a big deal. He gave me his number, I sent the script to his manager, his production company. He’s the guy who doesn’t own a phone or a computer, he doesn’t have anything. He’s like old school mafia. At the end of the day, I sent it all off and I heard nothing. Okay, tried after a couple of weeks, nothing. I did it again, nothing! I thought “Wow. This must’ve been the right time at the right place and not meant to be.” No problem. But 2-3 weeks later, I’m sitting in Mr. Chow’s restaurant in Beverly Hills. Mr. Chow is a friend of mine, he said “Come in tonight, have some food, say hi to me…” I’m sitting in there, I’m halfway through my meal, and my wife looks, then turns white. It was like a ghost came into the room. I went “What? What’s wrong?” All of a sudden, the table in the back of me, populates, until he sits down, and pushes my chair. I’m thinking ‘It must be somebody I don’t like, something’s going on here.” I was worried about what’s really going to happen. So I turn around, and Lo and Behold! Who do you think it is? It’s HARVEY! That ruined my meal. I’m halfway through my meal and my wife’s thinking “How the hell do I get outta here?!” and I’m thinking “How the hell do I get to the next table?” and I’m sitting there thinking “How do I not ruin this guy’s meal?” There’s no way around it, I’m going over there. I clean up the table, the wife leaves, and I go over and sit there. It’s his wife’s birthday, on top of it. But I didn’t know. “Ah Harvey! I met you the other day! Remember?” and she’s like, “Yes! It’s great, and it’s amazing” I don’t know if the script got to him, didn’t get to him, I didn’t know anything. The wife was looking at me kind of embarrassed because she didn’t really know whether it was real because it didn’t come through his management team. I’m sitting there, and I said “Remember I got this role for you, I want you to play it.” and I told him what it was, and he looks at me, then goes, “Interesting, Jonathan. Here’s the thing: I really want to play that role, and I have not seen that role. But if it’s meant to be, I will see you again.” That was an interesting moment. I went to him, it was way before anybody. It wasn’t meant to be, it wasn’t meant to be, and now suddenly it’s meant to be and he’ll see me again. I walked away thinking “Okay, this is the best that I could get.” No response. Nothing. 1 month later, 2 months later, nothing. Donald Sutherland comes on, and I think “Okay, it’s not meant to be.” ‘Cause you gotta go with Faye and Destiny. I went down the road, all the way to where Donald broke his collarbone. At that point, I reached back out, because I had Harvey’s personal number. “Okay, this is what’s going on…” NOTHING. I’m thinking, “I must be doing something wrong. The guy doesn’t have a phone, he doesn’t have a computer, he doesn’t have anything and I’m sending my texts to somebody responding that’s not him and now, I NEED to get a response. It dawned on me, he might not have an agent, but he has a manager. And he did, and I called the manager, had an entire team jump on, we’re pushing on and all of a sudden it’s Passover! Nobody’s answering, nobody’s responding, nothing’s going on. But I didn’t know it was because it was Passover. I just thought there must be something wrong here. The next day after Passover, everyone starts to push really hard, they push the gas pedal down. All of the sudden, the manager pops up. She goes to Atlanta, reads the script, says “I love your script, everything about it. I’m totally in love with this movie, I will get a hold of Harvey and tell him that you’re the same person.” Harvey gets the script printed, Messenger’d over, and in true Hollywood fashion, has a time clock on him for 6 hours. On 6:01 of the day I sent it to him, he called and accepted the role. I’m saying “He still doesn’t know it’s me! That’s the crazy part!” So now, he accepts the role, he signs on, we negotiate the contract, and I’m kind of in my own world, and I get a call from his wife. But it was only because they wanted to do wardrobe and they needed some approval and I got her on the phone and went, “Do you remember me?” and she went “Are you the guy?” and I said, “Am I the GUY?” “Mr. Chow’s? The guy? We didn’t know, we didn’t think, we couldn’t figure it out. I can’t believe it! It was my birthday that night, that’s how I know!” “So do you know what he said to me?” “I-I don’t remember.” “If it was meant to be, I’ll see you again. If those aren’t the most magical words you could ever hear, I can’t imagine what the audience is going to believe if they hang on those words.” Harvey gets on the phone and goes, “You remember those words? Because I knew I liked you that day. You knew what I was saying was real!”
And that’s how Harvey Keitel came on to this project. Nobody said filmmaking was easy, let alone getting the cast together, but Jonathan made it work. I’m sure there are lots more fantastic stories behind how he cast everyone else but we won’t get into these stories today. Fate has a lot of stories put into it thanks to the magic of fate we experience just about every day, and by fate I am sure to see this film in theatres as it is sure to be incredible, like I keep seeing. But I know it will be. I just feel it. Fate will let Fate shine.