It’s a question I’ve gotten many times before: “How did you find your actors?” When you think casting call—what do you think? There’s a scene in La La Land where Emma Stone’s character walks into the waiting room at an audition wearing a white blouse—only to see a horde of identically-dressed red-headed women who are all fighting for the same part. That really happens—but only in LA and New York. Certainly not in Hillsdale, Michigan, which is, for all intents and purposes, the middle of nowhere. Thankfully, we have the internet. There’s a great website called Backstage.com that connects casting directors hungry for talent to talent hungry for roles—I’ve used it before on a commercial project with good success. But this time was different. I wasn’t just looking for one actor—I needed identical twins a very specific skill: they needed to make me laugh at the script that I had written myself. And Backstage can be a little like Craigslist: you can find a diamond, but it will always be in the rough. I received 185 submissions. Most of them were terrible—and many of them weren’t even twins. I even had one guy submit a headshot that was a selfie he took in front of a cigar shop, between his lips a thick stogie with three inches of ash at the end. There were, however, a few bright spots. One pair of twins from New York stood out. I called them—we had a nice conversation. But then I saw the Zukowskis. Immediately, I knew we had our twins. They had everything we needed: great chemistry, improv skills, the right physicality, and most importantly, the ability to land the jokes. In fact, when Ian Ried, our cinematographer and owner of Distant Moon Media, saw their tape, he said: “Oh man. Those guys are freaking amazing. 100%. Let’s get them.” Bad acting is a hallmark of indie short films. So by casting the Zukowskis, we were already setting ourselves above the hordes of bad shorts that clog festival submissions. Join the party by pledging to our kickstarter today! Link in bio.