Anywhere, USA is a genuinely odd and quirky regional comedy of manners that doesn't quite resemble anything else you've seen before. Directed and written by Chusy Haney-Jardine, Anywhere, USA is a du jour portrait of one man’s America that draws on the director’s love for the weird and unusual in US suburbia.
Told in three segments, the latest ‘Chusy production’ features Haney-Jardine’s own daughter Perla, who currently stars with Colin Firth in Geneva, alongside a cast of mostly amateur actors whose raw acting comes straight from the heart.
Being part satire, part tragedy, part masterpiece theatre gone awry, Anywhere, USA won the special jury prize for The Spirit of Independent Cinema at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008 and the praise of fellow director Quentin Tarantino, promising that “Anywhere, USA reduces every audience that sees it into a delighted, giggling mob.”
Anywhere USA features a cast of mostly non-professionals. Apart from your daughter Perla who plays Pearl in the film, how did you find the ‘perfect’ amateur actor/actress for the roles of Little Ricky (a dwarf), Gene (a rock loving carpenter) & co?
Actually my ex-wife takes the credits as casting director. We found most people by accident, going around the streets of my hometown, Asheville, North Carolina, Wal-Mart stores and fast food joints. Jeremiah, the guy who plays my daughter's uncle in the film, was living out of his van in front of our makeshift production office. We did a lot of looking - hats off to my ex!
Brian Fox who plays Little Ricky came to an open casting call and I remember telling my ex that I'd be damned if I cast a small person in an independent film - it just stinks to high heaven of independent film clichés! But later, when I was at a car dealership, I saw my 4-year-old son pointing at and laughing at a kid who had a tattoo and a cigarette. This kid turned out to be Brian, a 3 feet 4 tall - or better - short man. I made my son walk over to Brian and apologize for his behaviour. Brian was cool with that and performed his regular stand up comic act. (...) After I saw Brian's performance, I was blown away. I HAD to work with this guy!!!
Mike Ellis who plays Gene, a carpenter who enjoys loud rock music, is a brilliant autodidact carpenter in real life. He helped build an extra room in my house and came to work every day in cut-off shorts, a hippy leather hat and no shirt or shoes. He was such a wonderfully sweet man and I fell in love with him and that beautiful ****ing moustache. And as it turns out he also was a brilliant actor as well.
Anywhere USA was created ‘in situ,’ meaning that you created the film on the spot. How did you know what situation would be worth using as a scene in the film?
When we started production of the film, I was bitten by a tick and contracted Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and I went into a coma. I had a hell of a time figuring the world out after that. We lost half our budget and I lost half my mind. After that I let divine intervention guide me and absolute personalization take over. I'd wake up two hours before having to go to work every day, find out who was coming to the set that day and think ‘What would I do in the character's shoes? What has happened in my life that pertains?’ (...) I don't recommend this system because it is so taxing on everyone since they have no idea how to prepare. It is worth mentioning that there is no improvisation in this film and every single word comes from the in situ script. I'd give the actors the words, they'd devote a few minutes to trying to remember the lines and then I'd throw them into the fire.
Where did the inspiration for the beautifully bizarre story line for Anywhere USA come from?
The entire film is autobiographical, it is fictionalized reality. For example, I cast the guy who plays Gene because he looks like my first American Girlfriend (I am from Venezuela) who had long beautiful long hair. That girlfriend was a habitual philanderer and creating this character and placing it into the storyline was not necessarily about exacting revenge - instead it was therapy! I’ve met a lot of Little Rickys in my life who I considered half-men and who spew ignorant crap like Little Ricky. Brian Fox who plays Little Ricky stands much taller than so many men I’ve met.
Summed up in 3 lines, why should Suite101 readers watch Anywhere USA?
You should watch Anywhere USA because I think it aspires to be entirely personal yet at the same time universal. You should watch it because it was made with heart, with little means, and yet climbed a very big mountain. As I made it under the influence of a tick bite, the sideways storytelling of Anywhere USA is a little bizarre but fun to watch.
With the success of Anywhere USA as winner of the Special Jury Prize at Sundance 2008, are there any more ‘Chusy movies’ in-the-making?
I just finished a shooting A Ride With George, a Chusy documentary about a world class cyclist and I have been working together with my daughter Perla to create a coming of age story. I am also making a thriller next year, a Chusy thriller about psychological somatisation. A preposterous premise, I know but it will be fun to make! There's going to be a lot of figurative blood spilled.... so watch out for more Chusy to come!
