With the story underway it was time to get on with the difficult task of casting the film. While it was important that each actor bear some physical resemblance to the characters in the book, so as not distract or disappoint the millions of girls and boys who had been reading the series for the last decade, more important to the filmmakers was the ability of the actors to embody the characters. Jane Startz. explains, "We really wanted each girl to capture the essence of the character. Even more important than looking like the character was the real personality of these girls, we wanted that to come through and we looked and looked and looked."
The filmmakers conducted a national search and saw nearly 6000 girls for the seven lead roles, all along with the help and guidance of author Ann Martin. "She above everybody else," Startz explains, "had to be the one who felt the kids were right."
Six young actors were found and, from the national search, Bridget Kate Geraghty was cast as "Vanessa," one of the young day-campers. But it was nearing the eleventh hour and still no one had been found to play the lead role of Kristy. Director Mayron recalls, "I'd been in an acting class for two years with Sissy Spacek's nephews and one of them told me at the time that Sissy's daughter was acting. Well, twelve and a half years ago I had a baby shower for Sissy when she was pregnant with Schuyler. I saw Sky the day she was born and then they all decided to move to the South where they figured it would be better to raise their kids. Cut twelve and a half years later and he's telling me Sky wants to be an actress. I said 'really?' and he said 'yeah, and she's pretty good and she's tomboyish.' So, I was bandying her name about while casting 'Freaky Friday,' and then, when I started on 'Baby-sitters Club,' I called Jack and Sissy and said, 'You've got to put her on tape. I'm faxing you the pages. This is the kind of movie it is. It's a double "G" movie. We're starting a new rating. It's not just general; it's 'good girl.' We're making history here. There's nothing to be afraid of and it's me!"
Two weeks later, I was coming back from the production office late at night. There was a tape at my house. I put it on and I started weeping. I burst into tears. I said 'This is Kristy!' She had spunk and feistiness and was incredibly intuitive."
Producer Jane Startz adds, "Schuyler sent us this homemade audition tape, she had never acted in anything professionally before and she was Kristy. She just had the perfect combination of pathos and exuberance that nobody else who walked through the door had -- and she even looked like her, which was wonderful."
All the actors, the seven baby-sitters, the three, what came to be known as "bad girls," the boys and all the young children who played campers, made up an inspired cast, each actor bringing something quite unique to their part. Producer Peter Almond touches on some of the strengths of the seven leading girls. "Larisa Oleynik just inhaled the part of Dawn," Almond explains. "The moments that struck me most vividly were her sequence of scenes with Ellen Burstyn. I could see this young child was just hungry for this play with Ellen. She was indeed awed by the situation, but then she just stepped right up and went with every nuance from this Academy Award(R)-winning performer.
"Bre Blair, who was relatively inexperienced," Almond continues, "showed a similar inspiration in her scenes with Christian Oliver. I really felt she was able to go toe to toe with this 20-year-old guy and hang in there. I think that Stacey Ramsower showed depths of cleverness and Zelda Harris, who is already an actress of some stature, had a great sense of timing and dramatic purpose. She's also a brilliant physical performer.
"The more I watched Rachael Leigh Cook," remarks Almond, "the more I could see that she had really become this Mary Anne character, who is the most correct and therefore restrained and perhaps even a little uptight of the group. And here was the real Rachael and she's a little grunge-head, a little hip-hop, happening kid who happens to be obsessed with "THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB" as a reader."
Last but not least was Tricia Joe, who played the most popular of the seven baby-sitters among "THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB" readers, Claudia. "Tricia is very funny and still a very quiet and dignified young actress. I think she's the real sleeper of the whole group," explains Almond.
The film was shot in and around the greater Los Angeles area in early 1995. In another testament to the popularity of the books, one of the locations where the film was shot, a suburban home outside of Pasadena, was obtained with some help from a Baby-sitters fan.
A couple who had adopted four children who had lost their parents in an earthquake in their native Mexico were approached by the production about their house. One of the little girls overheard someone speaking to her parents about the possibility of using their home to shoot a film called "THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB." An avid reader and fan, she begged her new parents to let them shoot the movie at their family house. Several weeks later the company arrived with trailers, trucks, actors and crew and the young girl met the baby-sitters who gladly signed a copy of a "THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB" book for her.
On the eve of its second decade, "THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB" has become a motion picture and Baby-sitters Club fans continue to communicate with author Ann Martin at the rate of 15,000 letters each year. 50,000 girls log onto Prodigy's BSC features up to four times a week. Ann Martin's celebrity status grows and grows: a 1994 Mall Tour drew up to 6,000 fans at each of eight stops. In Spring of 1995, Ann Martin traveled to Europe for the first time to meet thousands of British and Irish fans. The author begins a two-year, Fifty State National Tour beginning in the Fall of 1995. The movie will be released in August nationwide.
http://hollywood.com/movies/baby/text/castingthe.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)
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