Halle Berry's recent horror movie is out, and it's led by two amazing child actors––a feat that's hard to accomplish for any project.
The movie follows Berry's Momma, a woman with two sons who lives in a secluded cabin and believes that an evil has ended the world and is able to take over and infect someone if they aren't tethered via rope to their blessed house.
As the film progresses, the kids start to question if the evil is real, but the answer isn't as simple as they hope.
Casting the Two Leading Kids in Never Let Go
"When We Put [Them] Together... They immediately Started to Bond..."
- The Direct: "Percy Davis and Anthony B Jenkins are amazing as Nolan and Samuel. Which of the two was cast first, or were they cast at the same time? What was that process like?"
Rich Delia: They were [cast at the same time]. We looked far and wide, and we did several rounds with multiple [people], reading different Samuels, reading different Nolans, and then doing chemistry reads.
What I think we realized from the outset is that these boys existed as a cohesive unit because they were each other's entire world. They didn't have friends. They didn't have, other people that they interacted with, other than, of course, Halle. And so they needed to feel like a cohesive unit. And so we actually cast them both at the same time.
We had started to identify actors that we liked, and then we were pairing up different sets of boys. And I think we all immediately, when we saw Percy [Daggs], we all just fell in love with him. I mean, he's such an incredible actor, and he was giving such a beautiful, naturalistic performance as Nolan.
And then when we put him together with Anthony [B. Jenkins], they immediately started to bond. And I think a good sign in chemistry reads is when the actors start to start to interact with each other outside of the scene, and you could see that Anthony and Percy were just kind of, they were acting like they were friends, or like they were brothers, and I think that they were eventually able to bring that to their performances.
- The Direct: "Was there a particular moment during the process where you realized that these two actors were the ones?"
Delia: Alexandre Aja, who's amazing, he's such a great director, he encouraged the boys to improv when we did their chemistry reads. It was in a moment of improv when the two of them--a lot of times, improv can be hard for any actor, but especially for younger actors who are kind of taught to stick to the page and learn your lines and hit your marks and do everything.
So to tell them to improv can sometimes throw them, but these two, Percy and Anthony, and their improv, they just started really connecting in a way that was true to the characters. They didn't lose who Nolan and Samuel were, but they lifted it off the page and really started to interact with each other in a way that you thought they don't only know their lines, they know these characters. They know these boys.
And I think at that moment, myself, Alexandre, Halle, and everyone that was in the room, looked at each other, and we got this sense that these are the kids. These are these are our boys.
Halle Berry's Commitment to the Role Was the Key
"Halle [Berry] just 100% committed to the role..."
- The Direct: "I wanted to ask about Halle Berry, did she audition for this role?"
Rich Delia: No, she did not... Halle was a producer on the movie as well. So she was extremely, extremely involved in all of the aspects of casting. She worked very closely with Alexander Aja and all of the producers at Lionsgate and 21 Laps Entertainment and myself and her producing partner Holly [Jeter] as well.
What I loved and appreciated so much about Halle is she cared so much about the movie, about the casting, about getting the right actors in these roles. I've always admired her as an actress, and I've really loved her work. In getting a chance to work with her on this film, you can see why she is as successful as she is, because she puts her heart and soul 100% into it, and I think that comes across in her performance of Momma as well.
- The Direct: "I figured that was the answer, but I wanted to ask then ask a follow up question is, as a casting director, what do you think is the key of her performance that really makes the character?"
Rich Delia: I think it's commitment. I think that, especially in a story like this, I do a lot of different kinds of films, but in a genre film or a film with maybe a fantastical set of circumstances like this have, I really admire actors that commit fully to the circumstances, even if they may be a little outside of the norm of normal life.
And you know the boys, Samuel and Nolan really have to have to see the world through the eyes that their mother has created for them. And Halle just 100% committed to the role, and that, I think, carried through, and I think makes the audience believe what she believes, until the boys start to question it. We don't question it because Momma is so committed to it, and Halle is so committed to Momma's vision of it.
Does the Casting Director Get to Go to Set?
Despite Being Heavily Involved in the Process, Rich Delia Never Saw Set
- The Direct: "Are you on set a lot throughout the process, or do you not really see set in what you do on the film?"
Rich Delia: Depends on the shoot. This one shot in Vancouver, and I wasn't able to go up to the set. It's an interesting thing casting, yeah, where you're really, really, really involved up until the point sometimes of shooting, and then it's like, good luck, you know, and you hope for the best.
And I was so happy when I got a couple of reports from the set of, you know, that I knew that everyone was really happy with the cast and that it was going well. But then, by the time you see the movie, when you see it, it's almost like you're watching it with fresh eyes because it's been a moment since you've lived in that world. So it was so intense in the lead-up to it, and then I was so happy when I saw the movie because I absolutely loved it.
The Hardest Character to Cast in Never Let Go
"It Was One of Those Moments That Kind of Wakes You Up at 3am Thinking..."
- The Direct: "Who was the hardest character to cast in Never Let Go?"
Rich Delia: I think the hardest, I would say, was Samuel. Samuel was really, it was a tricky one. Especially because I think, as I said, you know, we had kind of identified Percy, maybe a beat beforehand... And I think a lot of the boys auditioned for both roles... They auditioned for Nolan and Samuel, and we were kind of playing around with them for both roles.
But Samuel has a heavy lift in this film. And I think that was the trickiest one to find. We felt so lucky when, when Anthony came into the process, and he's such an expressive, natural young actor. And as we said, immediately hit it off with Percy [Daggs]. But there was a tiny beat before we found him that I was going, you know, we had started to identify Percy as a Nolan, and I was going, but who's Samuel going to be?
And it was one of those moments that kind of wakes you up at 3am thinking, oh God, who's the boy going to be? And then very, very, very soon thereafter, we put Anthony [B. Jenkins] and Percy together, and that, that clicked.
What William Catlett Brought to Poppa in Never Let Go
"He Has Such a Presence..."
- The Direct: "I want to talk about Papa... What were you looking for in that particular character and in his brief appearances?"
Rich Delia: Well, I love William Catlett, who played Poppa. He's such an amazing actor. I had done a movie with him called 'Abigail,' directed by Radio Silence... William was fantastic in it. And what he brought to that movie, that he also brought to Papa, is he really breathes space and life into kind of quieter moments on screen.
He has such a presence, and you really feel his presence. And Poppa doesn't say a lot. He doesn't have a ton to do, but he's a very important character, obviously, in the context of the story. And so I think someone like William, you knew, could really, really breathe life into that and make a lot out of those moments, just with his kind of, the energy and the aura of his being, if that makes sense.
Casting The Many Faces of Evil in Never Let Go
Rich Delia Had to Be Sure The Chosen Actors Could Play Both Sides of the Coin
- The Direct: "Evil is represented by a whole bunch of different characters in this movie. How did you approach that process, and what were you looking for in them?"
Rich Delia: It was amazing. It was such a cool process. And it was working with our local casting directors to really find, because some of those roles were cast out of Vancouver, some we brought in, and it was just finding actors who, again, committed. And a lot of them, I think, not that they weren't sure of what they were doing, but, you know, it was kind of like bringing a playfulness to it.
Because you didn't want to give away the whole shebang on an audition. You wanted to kind of, you know, see what they would bring to the table. But it was finding those actors who could kind of play both sides of the coin. Maybe they appear to be really good in one scene, and then you would throw it again to them and say, now play it really dark.
So, that you knew that Alexandre on set could dial them up or down because you had seen a lot of different shades depending on what tone and energy he wanted to give in that particular scene, and it gave him a lot to play with and to work with, I think by bringing in all of those actors who were so wonderful, who really just approached it with a sense of playfulness.
The Most Unique Experience Rich Delia Had on Never Let Go
Finding Just the Right People for Nolan and Samuel Wasn't Easy
- The Direct: "Compared to everything you've done in the past, what was the most unique part about working on this movie?"
Rich Delia: Well, it's always an amazing experience casting twins. When I say twins, I mean brothers, but like, as I said before, these two boys are like two sides of the same coin, you know. So they were essentially. The unique experience about them, too, was that you couldn't necessarily cast actors who just walked in looking like they had just been to the mall shopping because these kids grew up in the middle of the woods, nowhere, malnourished.
Really, you had to find kids who just had a very, very natural feel because they weren't acclimated to the real world. And so that was a hard thing because, you know, that's why I think Percy [Daggs] and Anthony [B. Jenkins] are so incredible in the movie because these kids have never had Nintendo. They have never had Xbox or Fortnite or anything. They're completely unsocialized.
And so that was a very exciting challenge to find kids that could really lose themselves in that and portray these boys who had grown up with literally nothing except their mom and the clothes on their backs.
Never Let Go is now available to buy digitally.
