Starring Jess Weixler, Jesse Eisenberg, Jason Ritter and movie legend Tippi Hedren, Free Samples (TFF 2012) opens this weekend at the Laemmle NoHo 7 in LA. We spoke to director Jay Gammill, who serves us the dish on his exceptional cast and Generation Y. In this interview from TFF 2012, director Jay Gammill talks about Free Samples, his directorial debut that stars indie darling Jess Weixler, Oscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg, Jason Ritter, and Tippi Hedren. Available to watch now on-demand or through digital platforms, the film is now playing in LA and opens next week in NYC.
Tribeca: Tell us a little about Free Samples. How would you describe the movie in your own words?
Jay Gammill: Free Samples is a film about finding yourself. I think we've all experienced times when our idea of what our life should look like is at odds with what it actually is, but eventually life intervenes, and so this film is about the journey through the wayward moments. It confronts that journey front and center, and through Jillian, the main character, it pokes some fun at it. Everyone makes choices in life, be they good or bad, and those moments of decision are the ones that matter. I think this film really says that this happens to everyone.
Tribeca: Every Generation Y-er can relate to Free Samples. Was it the fact that Jim Beggarly's script addressed a much-shared experience that drew you to the project?
JG: Well, partly because the script is so relatable. I met Jim when we were coming out of film school, and we knew we wanted to work together. Jim had written a bunch of scripts, and this was one. I loved the idea itself and immediately connected to it. I was able to relate to the story, especially having gone through something similar, like everybody else. Over time what the story means to me has changed. My intuition about the script was good it is about a life crisis but I began to understand that the real theme of the movie is the challenge of trusting again and taking a risk after you have been disappointed, especially when you are not sure what's going to happen.
The other thing that drew me to the script was how authentic the characters were as written. Their dialogue was so witty and organic, and I also related to this story of a person who's trying to find meaning in her life and wishing she could somehow stop the world around her while she figures it out
Tribeca: Were you able to have input on the final script?
JG: Jim did a few drafts of it, and we would go back and forth. I had a couple of ideas that he liked and implemented, but at the end of the day, it's Jim's script. It's so funny because our sensibilities, from the very beginning, were so in tune that we never had any issues. Our collaboration would be like, What if there was a different flavor to that scene? or something like that. We just played around.
Tribeca: Was Jim able to be on set?
JG: He was, which I loved. He had some great ideas on set that we were able to incorporate, and he was able to troubleshoot things that weren't working from a writer's standpoint. When we were making Free Samples, it very much felt like a team sport.
I thought coming out of film school that you could go from film school to getting a studio picture. Not so, and it is important to be realistic.
Tribeca: Can you give us a sense of your timeline? How long have you been working on Free Samples?
JG: Jim wrote the script in the spring of 2008, and then we started the process of finding the right production team that could bring in investors/financing. We did it outside the traditional system, but attracting interest from Jesse and Jess gave us confidence that all of this would be possible. Having Joe McKelheer and Eben Kostbar from Film Harvest come on was just great. The whole process was an incredible journey.
There were so many times we'd almost go into production and it just didn't happen. There were times when I was going to give up. Then Joe texted me one day, I think I'm going to have good news for you this weekend. I thought, Yeah, right. But that was the weekend that we got the green light and our investors really got behind us. I would have survived if Free Samples hadn't happened, but I'm so glad it did.
Tribeca: How long was the actual shooting process?
JG: We shot for 13 days. We would be on the set for 12-hour days, from sun rise on. We would wait for the first beams of light to hit and then start shooting straight through to the sunset.
Tribeca: You have an exceptional cast: an Oscar nominee, several television stars, a couple of indie darlings and a bona fide Hollywood legend. Can you tell us about the casting process?
JG: We were so fortunate. I'm still pinching myself. If my memory serves, Jesse Eisenberg was involved in another project at the time, but it didn't end up working out, so when we got him the script, he could respond and attached himself to the project. As for Jess Weixler, who plays Jillian, she was always the actress that Jim and I saw for the role. The story I hear is that Jesse ran into her one day at an audition in New York back in 2008. She responded to the script, which was great. As for the rest of the cast, I knew that I wanted to work with Jason Ritter and Halley Feiffer in the roles that they played. There was a great sense of camaraderie among the cast when we went into pre-production and production.
As for Tippi Hedren, it was so unreal for me at the time and still is. The role that she plays, this tired B-actress from old Hollywood, was difficult to cast. I originally thought that I wanted somebody who embodied the essence of the character, and Tippi is not that. She is a movie legend. However, her current work and past work makes her perfect for the role. She understood the character.
When we hadn't cast the role and one o
