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February 6, 2008
Family Photos And Orthodontics
There's something wrong in this photo:
Yesterday, in keeping with a tradition started on The Outlaw Son in which I convinced the lead actor to have his tongue pierced, we had braces put on the young star of St. Nick.
I decided the character needed to have braces back in early November, when I first started casting. I'd been in touch with the parent of a child who I wanted to see for the part, and she let me know that her son had braces, just in case that had any effect on my decision. I was opposed to it at first, but then I started thinking about it more and more, and certain ideas (that shall remain unspoken for now) began to attach themselves to this possibility. Before too long, I was obsessed; this character had to have braces. It was an unavoidable tenet of his character. I set about figuring out how we'd do this. I figured there had to be some sort of cosmetic appliance that could just snap into place with a little bit of dental glue...
...but I was wrong. The only way to get braces, fake or otherwise (and without risking arrest in Thailand) is to have the real thing put on by an orthodontist. There are specialty companies in LA that create custom dental work for actors, but they were out of our price range. So Adam made some phone calls and one thing lead to another until yesterday, when we found ourselves at the Baylor School Of Dentistry yesterday, watching the Chairman of the Board of Orthodontics apply braces to our actor's upper teeth. It was rather surreal. The brackets will remain on for a week, throughout the first four days of shooting, and then we'll have them removed.
So that's one more thing off the checklist. Today I've got to go buy a bicycle and some vintage lad mags.
Posted by David Lowery at February 6, 2008 11:37 AM