James had been in Hollywood for many years and had worked as a producer in various capacities across three TV shows.
Robert and George were also veterans who had prepped numerous straight-to-video productions.
Ryan lacked experience, but he always asked for advice when he needed it, and the crew's prep work was now moving along on schedule.
By late March, equipment and prop rentals were locked in, all behind-the-scenes staff were hired, and the script, after several rounds of discussion and revision between Ryan, James, and Glen, was officially finalized.
Temporary actors were secured through a contract with a small talent agency, and even the actors for the Arab roles were confirmed.
In Hollywood, Arab-American actors were few, poorly paid, and rarely taken seriously. They were mostly cast as villains or terrorists.
For $15,000 total, Ryan found two Arab-American actors who had each appeared in over twenty roles.
The villain parts were easier to fill. The characters wore masks for most of the film, and Hollywood never ran short of day players with a rough look and some acting experience.
In the end, only the four members of the main family really needed proper auditions: the male lead, the female lead, and their two daughters.
For the male lead, James recommended an American actor named Robert Knepper.
Born in 1959, he had the required golden-brown hair, a standard Western Caucasian look, a distinctive face, and had been working in the industry since 1986. His luck had been average though, and up to that point he had only managed small, forgettable roles.
The price was right, the look and the acting both held up, and Ryan confirmed him after a single audition.
The female lead was cast second. Thirty-eight-year-old actress Melissa Leo, with long golden-brown hair, got the part.
Then came the two daughters.
The younger daughter was meant to be around ten years old, the elder around sixteen. Actors could run a few years older than those ages. In the teenage range, older generally meant more reliable, and it was common in Hollywood for actresses in their twenties to play fifteen or sixteen-year-old characters.
In an audition room at Warner Bros. Studios, a blonde girl of about ten stood in front of the camera.
The building was part of the office complex on the lot, which also housed post-production suites. Each floor ran over a thousand square meters. The Purge crew had rented the audition room and a handful of offices.
James was adjusting the camera. Ryan watched the candidate he had pulled from the stack of profiles.
The girl had a classic doll-like face, large expressive eyes, and long golden hair. She looked like an oversized Barbie.
Facing the camera, though, she was visibly nervous.
"Relax," Ryan said with a smile. "No monsters in here."
The girl giggled, and her expression opened right up.
Behind her and off to the side, her mother watched everything carefully, taking quiet mental notes.
Her daughter's sweet, endearing look was an advantage. She had noticed that when her daughter first auditioned for child modeling work. This producer seemed to have taken a good first impression.
Ryan ran the audition. James handled the camera personally, the same arrangement they had used throughout.
"Go ahead and introduce yourself," Ryan said.
The audition format followed standard industry practice. Nothing complicated about it.
"My name is Amanda Seyfried, I'm thirteen years old, and I'm from Pennsylvania." The girl smiled, her tone steady. "I started performing in community plays at the Polby Theatre in Allentown when I was nine, and became a child model at eleven, doing print ads and three TV commercials."
Ryan nodded slightly. That resume couldn't compete with child stars like Kirsten Dunst or Christina Ricci, but for a twelve or thirteen-year-old it was solid enough.
Then again, he couldn't afford Kirsten Dunst or Christina Ricci.
Ryan generally showed his work partners appropriate respect. After Amanda's introduction, he glanced at James, who gave a quiet nod.
If someone stumbled through a self-introduction in front of a camera, there was no point going further.
Ryan said, "Miss Seyfried, please act out a scene where you're terrified."
He glanced at the woman watching from the side. "The setup is that killers have broken into your home and you need to hide so they don't find you."
"Okay." Amanda's voice was very soft.
She took a few seconds, then hugged her arms tight against her chest and sank to the floor, completely curling in on herself. Her lips pressed into a thin line. Her big eyes looked like they were right on the edge of tears.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway outside.
Amanda let out a small sob, then quickly raised her hand to cover her mouth.
Ryan called a stop after ten seconds, then said, "Now act out a scene where you're annoyed with your bossy older sister."
The audition ran twenty minutes before wrapping.
Ryan called for the next actress to come in for the elder daughter slot, then turned to James. "What do you think of her?"
"She's fine. Her acting clears the basic bar," James said honestly. "She's not the most standout though. Two of the girls before her were stronger."
Ryan said directly, "Those two had terrible looks."
More precisely, they weren't appealing. Kids in their early teens who weren't cute or endearing wouldn't add anything to the film.
James had a different view. "Looks aren't the most important factor. There's makeup, there are filters."
Ryan pinched his chin. "Amanda's physical advantage is too significant. The delicate quality, the sweet face, those big eyes, they're more likely to pull in an audience. In the middle of all the killing and the horror, a soft, vulnerable little girl hits people right in the chest."
James thought about it for a while. "You've got a point."
Ryan didn't like leaning on his authority to settle disagreements. That was the cheapest way to solve a problem.
He smiled. "So she's the preliminary pick?"
James agreed. "Alright."
Ryan circled Amanda's profile with a red pen. As long as the price was reasonable, the role was hers.
One of Hollywood's former "Four Little Actresses," even if she later got stuck playing pretty faces, she genuinely had exceptional natural qualities.
A knock came at the audition room door. A staff member led in a blonde actress.
She wasn't Ryan's find. She had likely gotten onto the audition list through James or someone else on the crew. That was normal. Most people in Hollywood ran on connections, and personal networks applied here just like anywhere else.
As long as no one was crossing a line, Ryan wasn't going to make an issue of it.
Besides, this actress's appearance was genuinely hard to forget.
Round chest, round hips, round thighs. A textbook American bombshell.
Ryan noticed the staff member standing beside her quietly swallowing.
Even by American standards, a figure like that was relatively rare.
Ryan looked her over and said, "Go ahead and introduce yourself."
The blonde noticed his gaze and said, "I'm Jessica Blake, I'm twenty years old..."
After the introduction, Ryan exchanged a look with James. They reached a quiet consensus, and Ryan said, "Killers have broken into your home. Act out a scene where you're startled."
Jessica stuck out her tongue and ran it slowly across her full lips. Then she let out a piercing scream.
The sound was extraordinarily high-pitched, the kind that felt like it could punch right through the ceiling.
She kicked off her heels and ran, the movement setting off a violent chain reaction up top. Her tight shirt popped open several buttons, exposing a pink lace bra underneath. She grabbed the shirt and simply tore it open, threw it behind her on the floor, and turned to run straight toward Ryan and James.
Those two bombshells seemed to be surviving an earthquake of their own.
With the situation approaching a critical threshold, Ryan called out sharply, "Stop."
Jessica had some basic professional instincts and stopped immediately.
Ryan said, "Miss Blake, that's enough. We'll notify your agent of the results within three days."
Jessica nodded, then turned to retrieve her shirt.
Just before she walked out, she glanced back at Ryan and winked.
"Rejected?" James asked.
Ryan nodded. "Yeah."
The overacting wasn't the only problem. It had crossed into the absurd. If he hadn't called a stop when he did, her bra might have come off entirely.
The figure was dizzying, no question. But this was a formal audition. And the person sitting behind the camera wasn't the kind of director who ran on that sort of fuel.
The morning's sessions wrapped without finding a suitable actress for the elder daughter.
Ryan went back to his office, set down his materials, and headed to the restroom.
Jessica quietly followed him.
(T/N: What do you think will happen?)