Press conference: Get Low - the indie film that almost wasn't

The film tells the story of Felix Bush, a man who decides to stage his own funeral while he's still around to enjoy it, to get his affairs in order while he still can. It's a spin on the true-life story of Felix "Bush" Breazeale, who did just that in Tennessee in 1938.

When producer Dean Zanuck first stumbled across the film's script, he knew that it wouldn't be easy to turn it into a film, not least of all because it featured layered, aged characters, hardly what Hollywood associates with a blockbuster western. But the story stood out in his mind.

"I was really taken by the script's originality," he said.
Next director Schneider came on board. Then came the question of casting. Both Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek, who would go on to play Bush and his ex-lover, respectively, were approached and both expressed interest in working on the project.

"I had always felt that Sissy and Bobby were these sort of acting icons, that everybody sort of lumps into the same category, but they had never really worked together in something like this," said Schneider.
Getting ahold of Bill Murray, who plays the conniving mortician who organizes Bush's funeral, was slightly more difficult. According to Schneider and Zanuck, the star does not operate like most in his profession. Working without a publicist, he does not read scripts, but only synopses, which are sent to a P.O. box. Inquiries are left in voicemail messages to a 1-800-number and, according to the two men, Murray is infamous for getting fairly far along in the pre-production process without actually committing to a project 100%.

Schneider joked that when Murray did briefly contact him about the script and promised to call him again to discuss it he "slept with the phone by [his] bed for six weeks waiting for that call, which never came."

Eventually though, Murray did announce his absolute interest in the film.

"That was a tremendous shot in the arm for us," said Zanuck.

"This cast was shaping up. This is a producer's dream, to work with any one of these guys, but to have three just amazing American icons... I feel blessed to have had this experience."

But even with an A-list cast on board, the fact was that the film was still not associated with any big studio. Finding the funding necessary to get the project off the ground took years. So many that Duvall joked that he forgot about the project between the time he was first approached about it and the time it started filming. But eventually, it did come together. Ironically, the project's main private investor offered his financial support one day before the stock market took a nosedive this time last year.

Zanuck is the son of legendary 20th Century Fox producer Richard Zanuck. He said that his father gave him the following advice about the film industry:

"'Just focus on stories you wanna tell and tell them as passionately as you can,'" he said his father said.

"'The rest of it, more often than not, will take care of itself.' I knew Get Low wasn't going to be easy. It goes against the grain of what people believe will work these days. But we all agreed that this was something that could work."

One of the things that did make Get Low work, according to its cast and crew, was the fact that its screenwriter and actors were real southern folk. Bush is not necessarily a cowboy, but the film feels every bit like a western, recreating on-screen a small, 1930s, western-American town beautifully. According to Duvall, you have to fully understand the cowboy's hat and overalls to don them.

Spacek said that acting with Duvall was not only a privilege, but a pleasure, and downright easy. She said he's such a natural actor that there's nothing to do when working with him except react to his performance.

"He's the engine, and you just have to catch the moving train and you get a great ride," she explained.

Duvall had a much simpler way to describe his approach to Bush, and his acting style in general.

"It's all about talking and listening, listening and talking," he explained.
As to what "get low" actually means, Duvall thinks that it has to do with being humble in preparation for whatever world lies beyond this one.

"I think it's 'get down' to your saviour, to your beliefs," he explained.
Sissy had another take on the expression. Although she thought the script was "sweet, deep, lyrical," she found the idea of "getting low" "odd."

"Myself I'm going to be cremated and I'd like to get things straight before I go," she laughed.
And despite the hardships that came out of producing the film independently, Zanuck has absolutely no regrets either.

"At the end of the day we got to make the movie without any studio interference, without interference from our investors," he said.

"And as filmmakers you can't ask for anything more. These are very rare experiences, to control the entire filmmaking process, from the very first day all the way to this moment. This film will succeed or fail based on our decisions and our performances and that's a great place to be."

Press conference photo by Michelle O. Get Low will screen for the public tomorrow at noon at Ryerson Theatre and again on Wednesday, Sept. 16 at 02:00 pm.