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How did Teri Hatcher get involved in ?The Chester Story??
At that point, we had worked with a couple of casting agents - one in New York and one in L.A. - and as a result started forming some strong relationships with the agencies. We were down to a couple of weeks before shooting and we got a list from ICM just saying, "Here are the actors that we have available that perhaps would do the project." We looked at the list and both the producer Courtney Williams and I, as soon as we saw Teri's name, I?d never seen "Lois and Clark" but I love ?2 Days in the Valley? so to me, that's what Teri Hatcher represented.

I was like, "I love that film. This would be so interesting; it would be so different. People would probably be eager to see her again.? Courtney felt the same way.
I think there is a lack of female roles that actresses get really excited about. That?s what Teri saw in it. She saw an opportunity to be onscreen quite a bit and to bring in both her comedy and her drama. She's got a lot of comedy, more than you would realize. She?s got comic timing down pretty good and I think she got excited about being able to explore that a little bit.

I give her so much credit because she and I only had one phone conversation and she was pretty much on a plane to North Carolina within 2 weeks. [She didn?t] know yet who the rest of the cast was, because we were still casting. We had to go through the typical trailer? No trailer. Wardrobe? No wardrobe. All these things that are going to come with an independent film and [we had to] work through all these different issues. At the end of it, we didn?t have a heck of a lot to offer.

I give her a lot of credit for just getting on a plane and heading down to North Carolina with her daughter. It?s a real step of courage each time they get involved with an independent film. That was something I was proud of for her.

Did you have much rehearsal time?
We didn?t have any rehearsal time. Teri and I had one afternoon for about three hours. Teri didn?t meet Rob , the guy who plays Ray, until the day he showed up for their first scene, which bless their hearts, they way it worked out - as the way it always does it seems - was we shot the last scene of the film for them the first day. They'd never met, they'd never run lines, and they?d never even talked about each other's relationship. And here we had to redesign our schedule for them to do this kissing scene the first day. I remember there was a lot of anxiety on the set. We were like, "We don?t even know what their chemistry is like. How are we going to get them to this place where they?re kissing after this found love and this whole film?" I felt bad for him, too. He showed up and he and I hadn?t even had a conversation about his character and it was his first day on the set.

It's difficult with an independent film because every day that you run rehearsals or every day you bring your actors in, you are paying. So when you have very little money, you really don?t have the flexibility of that because none of these people were local. For us to get them in other than the day players, to get them in for a day with me, we had to tack it on to wardrobe day because we couldn't afford it any other way.

That's differently the downside, although some actors will tell you that rehearsals are redundant. It?s not true because you're not on set, you?re not on location and everything's going to change. But for some people it works. It was definitely intimidating not knowing how they are going to respond to one another but at the end of the day, you trust that they are professionals. They have to trust that you?re a professional and even if it?s difficult, you are going to make it work because that?s your job. They were all so fantastically professional and patient. I have a lot of love in my heart because, as any independent filmmaker will tell you, your patience is tried just about every other second of the day.

NEXT PAGE: An Uplifting Message and Finding the Perfect Location