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  Together, Linklater and Phillips proved the New York casting agent wrong. They booked (and even turned down) several of the next decade’s biggest stars. And Phillips was just the kind of comically vulgar, self-mythologizing bigwig who amused the young actors and convinced them they were headed for greatness. It wasn’t long before the whole cast was referring to Phillips as “Uncle Don.”

  Joey Lauren Adams: You know how characters in movies have origin stories? For a lot of us, getting cast in Dazed and Confused is our origin story.

  Jay Duplass: There has never been a movie more prophetic of future greatness in terms of finding those up-and-coming young stars. I mean, Ben Affleck is, like, 16th billing in the movie!

  Nicky Katt: You’ve got to give credit to Don Phillips. He’s a truffle pig for talent.

  Kevin Smith: He’s the absolute unsung hero of an entire period of film, from the ’80s through the early aughts.

  Parker Posey: I had heard that Don was the inspiration for David Rabe’s play Hurlyburly, which I went on to do like 20 years later in New York. Ethan Hawke played Don.

  Don Phillips: Hurlyburly—that’s me. I’m “Eddie.” I’ve got this guy named David Rabe—who is a Tony Award–winning playwright—living with me in L.A. At the time, David was doing a rewrite of First Blood, the Rambo movie, and I said, “Stay at my place.” I had a little guesthouse with a spiral stairway, it was really darling. And, of course, I was acting like Uncle Don, so I had all these New York actors living with me, sleeping on the floor, and we were having parties. We smoked a lot of grass. We raised a lot of hell. There were girls. I think Dave was writing all this stuff down.

  Cut to 1985. All of a sudden, my partner, Mike Chinich, tells me, “You would not believe this play Hurlyburly. It’s you and I!” I go to New York and I walk in, and I see my apartment. The spiral staircase. Bill Hurt’s playing me. Chris Walken’s playing Chinich. Candice Bergen’s playing one of my girlfriends. We had a little 15-year-old girl staying with us. She’s played by Cynthia Nixon. And I’m a big asshole. Unredemptive. I was furious. I walked out of the play in the middle of it. First act in, I said, “I’m not watching this. This is disgusting. I’m never gonna talk to David Rabe again for the rest of my life.”

  Tom Pollock: Don Phillips and Mike Chinich had a casting company, and they are really good, especially when they’re finding newcomers.

  Don Phillips: Kevin Bacon, we put him in Animal House. First movie.

  Lisa Bruna: Don cast one of my favorite movies of all time, Dog Day Afternoon.

  Don Phillips: Dog Day Afternoon. Chris Sarandon. First movie. Dog Day Afternoon was from a Life magazine article, and they had pictures of the real Sonny, the real Leon, whatever, and I used to keep the article on my radiator. So, in walks Chris Sarandon. Nobody knows him. And there’s this transsexual part, and we auditioned every transsexual in the city. Every transvestite. Ballet dancers. You name it.

  So, Sarandon comes in to play Sal, [the John Cazale role], and I look over at Life, and there’s a picture of a transvestite who looks exactly like Chris Sarandon. Exactly! So I say, “Now listen, Chris. You can’t play Sal. Think about playing this other character.” He says, “Fuck! You crazy? Me?” Like, macho. I said, “Yeah. You’re an actor! Come back and read.” Fourteen times, he came back. Of course, he got the part. And he got the Oscar nomination. The rest is history.

  Tom Pollock: Who would have thought to put Sean Penn in Fast Times at Ridgemont High? It’s an iconic role, but he’s never done anything like it since.

  Don Phillips: Do you know the Sean Penn story? We were going to do Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and Art Linson was producing with Irving Azoff. So in comes Sean Penn. The only movie he’d done at that point was Taps with George C. Scott.

  So I say to him, “What’d you play?” He said, “I play the conscience of the film.” Most actors just say, “I played George the bartender.” Not Sean. I went, “This boy’s interesting!” By the end of our time together, I immediately know he’s going to be Spicoli.

  Four or five days later, Sean comes to my office to read. Well, he was terrible. It was the most awful performance I’ve ever seen in my life. Art kicks me in the shin and says, “Get this kid off the lot!” So I walk Sean out, and I say, “Listen, I got another office upstairs. You go sit in that office, you study the part, and I’ll get you back in at 7:00 when we’re done, but don’t leave.” That’s six hours sitting alone in a blank office next door.

  So we go back at 7:00, and Sean walks in, and without missing a beat, he did that famous surfer thing where you take your T-shirt off with one arm, by pulling it over your head, and he starts in with “Gnarly!” and “Dude!” and he’s fucking brilliant! He blows everybody away. He gets the part. He becomes Sean Penn.

  Sometime later, I said, “You know, I’ve never asked you. What did you do for six hours in that office upstairs?” Sean goes, “I climbed out the window, went to a buddy’s house, got stoned, came back, and climbed in the back of the office to pretend that I hadn’t left the whole time.” Isn’t that classic?

  Tom Pollock: Obviously, one of the great things about Dazed and Confused is the cast of newcomers they put together.

  Richard Linklater: If Tom thought they were so great, why didn’t he have confidence in selling that cast as a positive thing, an actual selling point, instead of “a bunch of actors nobody knows”? I remember saying, “Isn’t it the Hollywood way to make stars? And you’ve got some here.”

  Alison Macor: Don was 52 when he was brought on as casting director for Dazed and Confused. He told me he saw Dazed as a challenge to himself to “duplicate”—and that’s his word—“the success of Fast Times.” They were looking to find the next Sean Penn or Phoebe Cates.

  (left to right) Wiley Wiggins, Richard Linklater, and Don Phillips.

  Courtesy of Wiley Wiggins.

  Richard Linklater: I had to not even tell Universal to what degree we were fishing around for nonactors. We auditioned in L.A., New York, and Chicago, but the nonprofessional actor thing was based in Austin. And we did what we did on Slacker: We handed out cards.

  Wiley Wiggins: I was in front of Quackenbush’s—that’s the coffee shop that’s in Slacker—and Anne had been handing out little cards saying, “We’re making an independent feature film. Give us a call if you want to audition.” So I did that. Anne seemed really excited to find me because I had long hair and a funny name. It’s a family name. There’s been two other Wiley Wigginses on my dad’s side of the family.

  Richard Linklater: Catherine Morris, who ended up playing Julie in the film, Mitch’s girlfriend, she was helping us. She was handing out cards at her school.

  Catherine Avril Morris: I must’ve been 14 going on 15. Anne was going around to all the high school theater departments, saying, “We need someone to go around to parties. We’re gonna cast hundreds of extras, so we want you to go pass out cards to anyone that has a ’70s look.” So I did that for six months and they paid me $100 a month. Cash! Christin Hinojosa was one of my best friends back then, and she ended up playing Sabrina. And I was friends with this guy Justin O’Baugh, who ended up playing a senior boy.

  Shana Scott: Anne and I also went to Dallas and Houston to cast the other speaking parts that Don didn’t cast out in L.A.

  Heidi Van Horne: There was no audition. We just talked.

  Richard Linklater: Some of my theories about acting are, like, for certain roles, you don’t necessarily have to be a professional actor, you just have to be an interesting person.

  Justin O’Baugh: They asked me, “What is my high school experience like?” I told them, “I play on the football team, but I don’t like the coaches. I hang out with all the stoners, and I really like rock and roll.” I basically gave them the plot to their movie without knowing the plot to their movie.

  They asked if I smoked pot. And of course I was like, “Nope! Never!” And they’re like, “Look. We’re not the cops. You won’t be in trouble. It’s relative to the movie.” />
  And I was like, “Oh! You wanna buy a bag, then?”

  Wiley Wiggins: They asked me about partying and teen life. I think I might’ve revealed that I had done LSD, but I hadn’t drank any alcohol. That’s pretty fuckin’ Austin for you. I did acid before I got drunk. Sorry, Mom! Sorry, God!

  Priscilla Kinser-Craft: We were talking about algebra and how I didn’t get it. I didn’t understand that x could be a number, which made them laugh.

  Mark Vandermeulen: They asked basic life questions, like, “What are your grades like?” I’m gonna confess: I lied. I got really good grades, but I said, “I get Bs and sometimes a C.” I knew they were looking for not-stereotypical kids.

  Jeremy Fox: I went into the interview and I showed them a magic trick with two rings and a coin.

  John Swasey: I just started recollecting old stories, like getting high and climbing the water tower. The crazier and more stupid the story was, the more they were gonna be entertained. I left there thinking, well, that was one of the weirdest auditions I’ve ever been on.

  Lisa Bruna: Don said, “I don’t want 30-year-olds playing 17-year-olds! I want the real deal.” We found out later that some of the agents had slipped some older ones through on us.

  Deena Martin-DeLucia: I was 21 or 22, and I played 17. My agent told me to dress like I was young. I wore a tight purple sweater, and I reminisced about things I did in high school instead of talking about what I was doing in New York City at the time.

  Joey Lauren Adams: I think I was 23 when I did Dazed. When I was 22, I was playing a 16-year-old on television. My lines were like, “You know I don’t like boys, Mama!”

  Richard Linklater: The average age was probably 20, 21. Sasha was probably the oldest.

  Sasha Jenson: I was 26. And I think I told everybody I was 19 or 20. Rory found out later that I was older, and he was pissed.

  Rory Cochrane: I wasn’t pissed. It was like, hey, good for you, buddy, you lied, and you got through.

  Richard Linklater: In high school, it’s so weird, there are guys whose hair’s already thinning and they look 28, and then there’s young women who look 25 and date college guys, and then there’s people who are 17 who look 14. So it was just like, do I believe the ensemble? It was a mix of young adults and underage.

  Cole Hauser: I just remember being 17 and going, I was the right age!

  Adam Goldberg: Cole seemed like he was fucking 30!

  Ben Affleck: I had just turned 20, and I’d been in L.A. for a few years, struggling as an actor. I had been in a Danielle Steel TV movie of the week called Daddy, and I had a few lines in a movie called School Ties. But mostly, I was just going to auditions. I auditioned to be a guest star on Beverly Hills, 90210 and all that goofy stuff that was going on in the early ’90s.

  Sasha Jenson: There was a lot of stereotypical casting in movies. It was like, you’re the fat kid, or you’re the character kid. And Dazed kind of fuzzed the edges. No one really fit into the John Hughes role, or the traditional high school jock role. Everything was a bit more textured. So, honestly, at that time I was like, I don’t know if this movie will ever be seen! Because none of us were archetypal characters. We were just real.

  Rory Cochrane: Don Phillips’s process is that he meets actors and talks to them, and if he gets a vibe off someone that he feels is a good fit, he’ll call them back.

  Adam Goldberg: I was sitting in Don’s office, and I don’t know exactly what we were talking about, but I saw my father’s truck. My dad had a wholesale food business called Goldberg and Solovy Foods, and his trucks were all over the place. They were probably delivering food to Universal. And, as if in slow motion, the truck sort of glides by the window, and I said, “That’s my father’s business truck, and if I don’t get this job, that’s what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life.” And apparently this really struck a nerve for Don, because he told Rick.

  Jason London: You’d go in and meet with Don Phillips, but in the back, there was what looked like an assistant. Little Dutch Boy haircut. Real quiet. I just assumed, that’s Don Phillips’s assistant.

  Ben Affleck: Rick seemed really young to be a director, like they let the wrong guy be in charge. I thought, “This is the director?”

  Jason London: Maybe Rick was playing that role so that you didn’t think about that guy. Most of the time you’re going into some big studio thing, and it’s like, I’m gonna go into some bigwig’s office and they’re intimidating. And Rick just made you completely feel totally comfortable.

  Richard Linklater: Everybody came in for an audition. Everybody.

  Jason London: We go into the waiting room for the audition in Don Phillips’s office, and there’s a beautiful girl sitting there and she just keeps looking at me. And I’m like, man, this girl is just smoking hot! But I didn’t have the cojones at that point to start flirting, so she started talking to me and asking me questions, and then she got called in. She’s in there for 20 minutes, and I’m just sitting there, waiting. And she comes out and gives me a look, and then walks out.

  Don Phillips: Jason comes into my office and says, “Who’s that girl that was just in here? I’m crazy over her!” And I said, “Her name is Ashley Judd.” Ashley had never done a movie. She was so green that I decided that she was not ready to do this movie.

  Jason London: Uncle Don goes, “If you don’t go out there and get that girl’s phone number right now, you don’t come back into my office. All she fuckin’ did was talk about the cute guy in the lobby!” I ran out and caught her just before she got in her car, and got her number. We talked on the phone a few times, but then the miracle of getting the job happened.

  Lisa Bruna: It was a huge audition process. Don saw quite a few more people than he was used to, because he was looking to discover new talent. I pulled out all the casting sign-in sheets and all of Don’s notes on the actors who came through. I’d forgotten some of them. Mark Ruffalo. Hilary Swank. Wil Wheaton. Mackenzie Astin. I mean, the list goes on!

  Richard Linklater: I think we floated it to Brendan Fraser because he was in Encino Man, and he was a name. That was kind of a studio thing. I suspected he wouldn’t want to do it because he was a little older, and sure enough he liked the script but did not want to play another high school kid, because he was actually like 22 or 23. So I could be like, “Well, I tried!”

  Lisa Bruna: Jared Leto auditioned. I don’t see him on any callback lists.

  Don Phillips: I love Jared, but Jared’s a real piece of work.

  Richard Linklater: Claire Danes came in. She was in sixth or seventh grade. It was like, “You’re one of the best actors I’ve met! But you’re just too young.” The next year when she got My So-Called Life, I wrote her a note, like, “I’m the least surprised person in the world.”

  Don Phillips: Reese Witherspoon came in. She’d done Man in the Moon. I really dug her. But I asked Jason about Reese, and he said not to do it.

  Jason London: When I did Man in the Moon with Reese, she was a baby! I probably just thought she was too young.

  Richard Linklater: Jennifer Love Hewitt came in. And Mira Sorvino. Ron Livingston.

  Lisa Bruna: Elizabeth Berkley was auditioning for Shavonne.

  Richard Linklater: I remember Elizabeth Berkley! The cameraman who was shooting the auditions was like, “Oh man, she’s so hot! Call her back!”

  Lisa Bruna: Denise Richards was also up for Shavonne. Vince Vaughn was up for two roles, Benny and O’Bannion. The notes Don took were very brief. For Vince Vaughn, he wrote “big.” Alicia Silverstone auditioned for Sabrina. Also, I have a very early headshot of Kirsten Dunst in the folder, so I have to assume that she was being considered.

  Don Phillips: Parker auditioned in New York. She was so fuckin’ great. She was still at SUNY Purchase [State University of New York at Purchase], and she had done a soap opera, but she hadn’t really done anything else. Anyway, she came in and she blew Rick and I away. She reminds me of Katharine Hepburn.

  Parker Posey: I really
liked the character Cynthia who hangs out with the guys, because I have a twin brother and I hung around his friends, so that was the first part I felt really right for. But then there was Darla, the bad girl. Rick and Don had described Darla as being like Rizzo from Grease.

  Richard Linklater: Parker walked through the door, and from the moment I heard her say, “Oh, heyyyy!” it was like, Who is this? Darla was originally a little more tough-girl character, like some girls I remember from Huntsville. We’re talking pretty country bumpkiny, tough, mean-girl types, a little chunky. But then Parker came in, and I was like, oh no, this is much better! That will be funny rather than just ugly.

  Shana Scott: I found Renée Zellweger. She was the last person auditioning that day.

  Don Stroud: Renée was just a girl from some small town in Texas. She was living in Austin and she had connections to the Slacker folks because of her boyfriend [Sims Ellison], who played in an Austin band called Pariah.

  Tracey Holman: He was really pretty and he and his twin brother were in one of Madonna’s videos, the black-and-white one for “Deeper and Deeper.” He was playing a Joe Dallesandro type from the Factory.

  Renée Zellweger: I was living with Sims and Kyle Ellison, and they played in a band, so there were always different musicians around the house. We lived in this little artistic haven. And I was finishing up school, and running around Texas, doing auditions. I had done little parts in a lot of things, like a film called Eight Seconds, and something about [the murderer] Charlie Starkweather, with Tim Roth. I was a day player, but they were definitely speaking roles. The only one where I didn’t speak was Dazed and Confused.