Theodore Melfi had to convince Harvey Weinstein to cast Melissa McCarthy in his new movie.
The director-and-producer helms comedy film St. Vincent, which stars Bill Murray as a war veteran who befriends the young boy who lives next door after his parents get divorced. Melissa plays mom Maggie and while Theodore was confident she was perfect for the part, Harvey - whose multimedia production and distribution company released the feature - wasn't initially keen on the choice.
"My first choice for the role of Maggie was Melissa. And I told the producer Jenno Topping, 'I really want to try get Melissa McCarthy,' and she said, 'Oh my God, I think that’s brilliant.' And so we told Harvey Weinstein and he said, 'I don’t see it. I don’t see it at all.' And he’s like, 'I don’t think it is going to work, the movie is a drama with some comedic moments and she is a purely broad comedic actor,'" Theodore recalled to beliefnet.com.
“On a Friday, she came over from her show and I taped her doing a couple of scenes. And I sent them to Harvey Friday night and Monday morning my phone rings and it is Harvey, and he goes, 'Ted, I don’t say this often and you might not ever hear it again, but you were right and I was wrong. She is a revelation. I can’t take my eyes off her. I can’t see anyone else in this part. She makes the movie for me.'"
Theodore was also determined to get Bill on board from the beginning and didn't let anything hold him back in trying to contact the iconic actor. The filmmaker admits his wife thinks he has "happy delusions", something he describes as a "disease" in his area of expertise.
"I actually put it in my calendar: 'Call Bill Murray' every day, every other day, once a week. People think I’m crazy and I guess I am. I am just so persistent, I mean, I don’t know much about myself, only that I am persistent," he added. "Maybe it is all OCD, I don’t know, but I just keep going and I keep going, and I keep going. I probably just wore Bill down even if it is to call me back and get a restraining order."
