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Presents
JACK GOES BOATING Production Notes
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JACK GOES BOATING
SYNOPSIS
Jack Goes Boating is a tale of love, betrayal, friendship and grace centered
around two working-class New York City couples. The film stars John Ortiz (American
Gangster), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Broadway’s “Rent”), Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) and
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote), with Hoffman making his feature directorial debut.
Bob Glaudini (“A View From 151st Street”) adapted his acclaimed Off Broadway play for
the screen.
Jack (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Connie (Amy Ryan) are two single people
who on their own might continue to recede into the anonymous background of the city,
but in each other begin to find the courage and desire to pursue their budding
relationship. In contrast, the couple that introduced them, Clyde (John Ortiz) and Lucy
(Daphne Rubin-Vega), are confronting unresolved issues in their marriage.
Jack is a limo driver with vague dreams of landing a job with the MTA and an
obsession with reggae that has prompted him to begin a half-hearted attempt at growing
dreadlocks. He spends most of his time hanging out with his best friend and fellow driver
Clyde and Clyde’s wife Lucy.
The couple set Jack up with Connie, Lucy’s co-worker at a Brooklyn funeral
home. Being with Connie inspires Jack to learn to cook, pursue a new career and take
swimming lessons from Clyde so he can give Connie the romantic boat ride she dreams
of. But as Jack and Connie cautiously circle commitment, Clyde and Lucy’s marriage
begins to disintegrate. From there, we watch as each couple comes face to face with the
inevitable path of their relationship.
Jack Goes Boating was co-financed by Overture Films and Big Beach (Little
Miss Sunshine, Sunshine Cleaning), with Peter Saraf and Marc Turtletaub of Big Beach
producing; Beth O’Neil of Olfactory Productions producing; Philip Seymour Hoffman
executive producing and Emily Ziff producing through their company Cooper’s Town
Productions (Capote). John Ortiz is an executive producer and George Paaswell
(Notorious) co-produces. Sara Murphy of Cooper’s Town is an associate producer.
Director of photography is Mott Hupfel (The Savages). Editor is Brian A. Kates (Nights in
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Rodanthe). Production designer is Thérèse Deprez (Phoebe In Wonderland). Art director
is Matteo de Cosmo (Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire). Costume designer is Mimi
O’Donnell.
The stage version of Jack Goes Boating was originally produced by LAByrinth
Theater Company in New York City, where Hoffman and Ortiz were co-artistic directors
for over ten years.
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FROM PAGE TO SCREEN
Jack Goes Boating began its life as a play produced by LAByrinth Theater
Company. The creative home of former co-artistic directors Philip Seymour Hoffman and
John Ortiz, the group includes some of New York’s most respected theater artists.
Written by LAByrinth company member Bob Glaudini and directed by Peter DuBois
(current artistic director of the Huntington Theatre Company), the play started with a
critically and commercially acclaimed Off Broadway production starring Hoffman, Ortiz,
Rubin-Vega and Beth Cole. Glaudini says the idea for the story originated in what he calls a personal
catastrophe. “At first, it was about a relationship between two of the characters that was
one of the most hateful, ugly, awful things I could imagine,” he says. “Fortunately, as I
wrote, the characters wouldn’t let me do that. But one of the themes that has remained
throughout is that even if you are able to forgive a betrayal, you may still not be able to
reconcile it.”
The playwright asked his colleagues at LAByrinth to take a look at his script. “I
remember thinking it must be special because he had this sparkle in his eye,” says John
Ortiz. “We workshopped it at the Summer Intensive, a retreat the company does every
year. Everybody flipped over it and we decided to mount it as a production. All the stars
were aligned in a perfect way.”
Even before the production opened, producer Beth O’Neil saw the play’s
potential to become a feature film. “I read it in 2005 just after I produced another play by
Bob Glaudini called ‘The Claiming Race,’” she remembers. “When he told me he had a
new play, of course I wanted to read it. It was amazing. I would describe it as an
unconventional romantic comedy about ordinary working-class New Yorkers, people we
don’t usually get to see in films or plays. The characters were so vibrant.” O’Neil urged Glaudini to adapt his work for the screen and took an early draft of
the play’s script to Peter Saraf of Big Beach Films, believing that its quirky sensibility and
emotional resonance would appeal to the producer of Little Miss Sunshine and Away We
Go.
After reading the first draft of Bob’s screenplay, Saraf had the opportunity to see
LAByrinth’s production of the play and this further ignited Saraf’s interest in the project.
“Big Beach likes to make movies that get to the heart of the human experience,” says
Saraf. “We like movies that are entertaining, but that are really about the ways in which
people connect.”
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Producer Marc Turtletaub adds, “Jack Goes Boating is an unusual love story in
that it’s about three couples: a marriage that is reaching its end, a new romance that is
blossoming and also the friendship between the two male characters in the film, Clyde
and Jack, and what it means to them. The writing was already incredibly cinematic and it
was easy to see how it could be opened up.”
O’Neil, Ortiz, Glaudini, Hoffman and Hoffman’s business partner Emily Ziff met
with Saraf and his partners, and Bob and Phil agreed to begin the hard work of creating
a film from the play, with Hoffman signing on to direct his first feature film. Involving
LAByrinth in the workshopping of the screenplay was a natural and productive step in
the development process. O’Neil recalls, “They workshopped the screenplay two years
in a row at LAB’s Summer Intensive in Vermont.”
For Glaudini, returning to the script provided a new kind of satisfaction. “I got to
revisit the work,” he says. “The experience of the play was overwhelmingly positive, but
re-imagining it as a film gave me an opportunity to sharpen and focus it even more.”
Working with notes from the producers, Glaudini reshaped the original material
into his first screenplay. “I was fortunate enough to work alongside Phil while I was doing
it,” he says. “As the director, he processed the notes in ways that worked for him, and
we continued the draft based on that. I don’t think writers often have the opportunity to
shape the scenario with the person who is forming the artistic vision for the film. It was a
kind of a rare collaboration.”
“Bob is an incredibly adept and collaborative writer who is very good at thinking
in different mediums,” says Saraf.
“It was a natural choice to have Bob write the screenplay,” agrees Ziff. “Who
better to see this through? The characters and story began with him, and he knows it all
better than anyone. I can’t imagine how anybody else could have realized it so fully as a
film.”
Jack Goes Boating is Philip Seymour Hoffman’s first foray into feature film
directing, but he is an accomplished stage director and brought those skills to the
project. “Phil did something I’ve never experienced on a film,” says Saraf. “He had a very
long rehearsal process, not just with the actors, but with the director of photography, the
script supervisor and the first assistant director. They not only worked on the
performances and the script before they got to set, they also worked on the blocking and
where the camera would be. The core team arrived incredibly well prepared and aware
of what the task ahead would be.”
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Hoffman had been interested in directing a film for some time, but taking on the
dual roles of actor and director proved daunting. “As a director, I had to be available to
the other people,” he says. “As an actor, it’s a small movie with four main characters. In
a lot of scenes, there are just two actors, so you’re half the acting. That was tricky. No
one should be thinking about themselves that much through any given day. It’s just not
healthy.”
Fortunately, says Hoffman, he had plenty of help from his co-creators. “Our
producers Peter Saraf and George Paaswell were on the set to provide support the
whole way,” he says. “Bob Glaudini was there every day to support us and to be a
watchful eye if we needed to do any changes in the writing. I wanted him to be aware of
what had to happen and make sure he was part of it. Everyone on the film was
personally involved, which made shooting it really satisfying. It wasn’t just another job.”
Saraf adds: “Bob and Phil have a working relationship already from LAByrinth, so
they have a kind of shorthand. It was fascinating to see what a collaborative process it
was.
“Working with Phil has been an incredible experience overall,” continues the
producer. “It was a joy to watch him take the unparalleled instincts he has honed as an
actor and translate that into directing. It’s not an easy feat, but Phil is a natural
filmmaker, passionate and practical at the same time. And he’s incredibly well prepared.”
“Jack Goes Boating is funny, but the humor comes from real situations, not
jokes,” adds Turtletaub. “It’s about real people, all of them very sympathetic in their own
way, who are struggling with what it means to be in love, what it means to be committed
to a relationship. Audiences can expect to come to the movie theater and see incredible
acting by a cast that could not be more perfect in a story that will make them laugh.
“And it will give them the opportunity to incorporate their own story into what
they’re seeing on the screen,” says Saraf. “I think that the best thing we can hope for
when we go to the movies is to be able to identify with what we’re seeing up there and
take something of it away with us.”
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THE CAST
Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Jack, a lonely limo driver in search of a soul mate.
“Jack is a guy who’s probably had a few relationships in his life, but nothing really
substantial,” Hoffman says. “Fear has dictated his comings and goings during the first
half of his life. He’s not stunted or anything; it’s all fear. He actually is kind of a cool guy.”
Like the other characters, the part of Jack changed during the evolution from play
to movie. “I’m glad I played the part before even though it was much different,” says
Hoffman. “I think if I hadn’t it would have been a lot harder. Jack’s not like me in a lot of
ways, so there was some serious work that needed to be done, specific work to make
this guy come off the way he does.”
Comparing the two experiences, the actor says, “When you’re working on a play,
you try to explore the things that might only be implied and fill in the blanks. In the movie,
we got to literally explore a lot of different environments and interactions that couldn’t be
seen in the play. That made our performances in the film more subtle. We started to see
other things as we explored. I was really able to go back in there and look at the part in a
different way, a way I ultimately thought was better. “Actors are responsible to the people we play,” says Hoffman. “I don’t label or
judge my characters. I just play them as honestly and expressively as I can in the hope
that people who ordinarily turn their heads in disgust might think, ‘What I thought I’d feel
about that guy, I don’t totally feel right now.’”
Reprising their roles from the stage, John Ortiz and Daphne Rubin-Vega, play
Clyde and Lucy, Jack’s best friends in the movie, “They’re essential. They’re amazing
actors and they’re quite stunning in this film.” says Hoffman
John Ortiz has appeared in feature films including American Gangster and Public
Enemies, but is well known in the New York theater community for his eclectic stage
resume, including the recent Public Theater production of “Othello” in which he played
the title role opposite Hoffman as Iago. “Working with Phil for the past 15 years has been
truly inspiring,” says Ortiz. “If I have an artistic brother, it’s him. Playing opposite him
allows me to go to amazing places as an actor, and the give and take between us is
really special. It goes beyond any expectations.”
Clyde, who works with Jack as a limo driver, and his wife Lucy are trying to give
Jack a jumpstart romantically. “Jack’s one of those lonely guys whose friends always
wish had someone special in his life,” says Ortiz. “He’s a great guy and it’s always a
mystery to Clyde why he’s alone.”
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Meanwhile, Clyde has come to a point in his life where he is trying to decide what
comes next for him. “Clyde’s a complicated fellow,” says Ortiz. “He’s a guy who
unfortunately is not in the place in his life that he aspires to be. He’s hitting 40, he’s
having some marital problems and being a limo driver is not the career he envisioned. In
the course of the movie, he is actively trying to deal with all of that in as constructive a
way as possible. I call it a coming-of-age story for people in their 40s.”
No one was better suited to lead the actors through the film than Hoffman, says
Ortiz. “As a director, Phil is tough, which I think is an extension of him as an actor. What
makes him tough is his quest for truth. He’s smart and insightful, and extremely specific.
He’s also not afraid to try many different things even if he may not exactly know what it is
that he’s going after.”
Daphne Rubin-Vega, who originated the role Mimi in the Broadway musical
“Rent,” plays Lucy, Clyde’s ambitious wife. “Lucy is a hardworking person,” says the two-
time Tony Award® nominee. “She’s blunt, straightforward and she gets things done.
Right now, she’s really frustrated. I don’t think that the other characters know the huge
changes that are about to happen in their lives, but Lucy does.”
Clyde and Lucy are Jack’s best friends, almost his family. They set him up on a
date with Connie, a co-worker of Lucy’s. “It’s a story about relationships,” says Rubin-
Vega. “Clyde and Lucy have made Connie and Jack a bit of a pet project as a way to get
outside their own problems and frustrations with their relationship.”
The actress says having worked on the play gave her a huge advantage in the
film role. “I came to the table with so much information, even though Lucy has changed a
lot from the play. This need to change, to make something happen, has become much
more urgent. There were a lot of new things that we discovered working on the film.”
When asked how it was to work with Hoffman as a director, she points out, “Phil
the actor and Phil the director are not two different people. Phil is a high voltage
individual and I adore working with him, because he’s very clear, he’s very specific and
he gives a lot of guidance. He never stops rolling up his sleeves and working so it’s
really exciting to try and keep up with that. He sets the bar high and we all try to keep it
there.”
Lucy introduces Jack to Connie, a single woman she has just started working
with at Thomas Mortuary, where they sell grief seminars to funeral directors across the
country. Amy Ryan, who plays Connie, is a new addition to the foursome.
“Connie is not very good at her job,” says Ryan, an Oscar nominee for her
searing performance as a drug-addled, neglectful mother in Gone Baby Gone. “With luck
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and perseverance, she’s getting through it. Connie’s the type of person who
misconstrues a lot of situations. But she’s working through that, trying to look at things
more positively.”
Ryan came into the mix already knowing Hoffman, Ortiz and Rubin-Vega socially
and having worked with Hoffman on Capote. “It was intimidating to join such a well-
established group,” she admits. “But they didn’t beat me up the first day of school or
anything like that.
“Since we had the luxury of rehearsing extensively, I had time to get to know
them better,” the actress says. “We blocked it all out and talked about the scenes. I think
even John and Daphne and Phil were rediscovering themselves. Many things had
shifted in the script and they had as many questions as I had.”
Ryan marvels at Hoffman’s ability to balance his duties as actor and director.
“There’s such great precision to what Phil does,” she says. “He stayed in character,
while he was keeping an eye on everything else.
Actor and director Tom McCarthy (The Visitor, The Station Agent) took on the
role of Dr. Bob, the owner of a funeral parlor with a side business offering self-help tapes
to other morticians. “A telemarketing business run out of the basement is his get-rich-
quick scheme,” says McCarthy. “There’s something very humorous about his
earnestness. He takes it very seriously.”
The fact that the film tackles themes that are prominent in McCarthy’s own
directorial efforts, made the project very attractive to him. “The stories that I’m drawn to
are about despairing people who meet in an unusual way in an unusual place and form
an unexpected bond that helps them work through some things together,” he says. “And
I really appreciate the dark, wry humor that this piece is full of. I found it to be a really
original and compelling script.”
McCarthy has long known many of the actors and relished the opportunity to
work with them. “The process feels intimate because the people feel connected and
invested,” he says. “That raised the bar for everyone. I had to find a way to fit into a
family that was already set up, but it was a really warm and supportive environment. Our
director had a way of eliciting the best from everyone in a subtle but direct way.
“I go to the movies to see original characters and original stories,” McCarthy
says. “I don’t care how big or how small the movie is. I want to see people connect and I
think this movie provides that in a very original, very funny and, at times, very dramatic
way.”
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Salvatore Inzerillo, a LAByrinth company member who has appeared on “Law &
Order,” had the opportunity to create another character, The Cannoli, Clyde’s rival for
Lucy’s affections. “I had seen the play and there were a lot of jokes about The Cannoli,
but he never appeared,” remembers Inzerillo. “Being able to bring this guy to life was
pretty exciting stuff.
“He’s head pastry chef at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Hence ‘The Cannoli.’ Like
Clyde and Jack, he comes from a blue-collar background, but he’s achieved more. It
plays nicely off the struggles both Clyde and Jack are having in their lives.”
Of his fellow cast members Inzerillo says, “Bob has a wonderful gift for painting
everyday characters with very real eccentricities and weaving in some very dark humor.
And if Phil says jump off this cliff, I don’t need to look down. I’m just going do it. I have
absolute trust in him.”
Ziff believes the filmmakers could not have assembled a better cast. “We were
completely blessed,” she says. “The camaraderie of the actors working together to make
the film was palpable throughout.”
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A NEW YORK STATE OF MIND
Jack Goes Boating was filmed in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, at New
York landmarks including the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Grand Central Station, Bethesda
Fountain and the Lake in Central Park, Hunter College and Greenwich Village, as well
as many less famous locations. “It is a classic New York film,” says Hoffman. “There are
certain films that belong in certain places. It’s shot quite beautifully and it’s shot like New
York should be shot, which I credit completely to Mott Hupfel, the director of
photography. I can’t imagine working with anyone else if I direct again.”
Producer Saraf believed strongly that shooting in New York was essential to
film’s success. “I loathe the idea of having one place to double for another,” he says.
“You’re constantly fighting the reality of the world you’re in, which adds a burden to
filmmaking that’s unnecessary. These characters are absolutely true New Yorkers and
don’t belong anywhere else.”
Production designer Thérèse DePrez, a longtime New York resident, took the
task of creating this view of her hometown very seriously. “I always strive to find
locations that nobody’s ever shot in before,” she says. “I try to find the really obscure
locations, the best places for these characters that also work within the needs of
production.”
DePrez drew inspiration from a collection of snapshots of the city, which she put
together into a presentation for the director and producers to give them a taste of her
personal New York. “I am constantly taking pictures of things like random signage,
people and what they are holding,” she explains. “I’ve been collecting those photos for at
least 15 years now and they’ve yielded some really great details, some of which I
wouldn’t believe were real if I didn’t have the picture. For this movie, I pulled out some of
my favorite New York moments.”
The images included pictures of people who reminded her of the characters,
different New York locations, winter scenes and the palette she envisioned using. “I
wanted to show Philip my ideas for the visual tone of the movie to make sure we were
on the same page,” she says. “It wasn’t simply a look; it was the feeling I think the movie
evokes. Some of the pictures are comical, some of them are very realistic, and they all
represented ideas about how to shoot New York in a singular way.”
Because shooting in New York presents it own set of challenges, from over-
exposed locations to daily transportation, the producers decided to bring in Deprez and
location manager Jeff Caron early in pre-production “We were able to power scout,” she
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says. “We hit the street running, with a hardcore agenda to find all the different hubs for
the movie, especially in Hell’s Kitchen. I found a great deal of inspiration on those initial
scouts from the people in the neighborhoods and how they live.”
Producer Ziff says the decision paid off. “Jeff and Thérèse did an amazing job of
sourcing places that we haven’t seen before on film. It’s going to challenge audiences to
see New York in a new way. I don’t know how you could tell the story anywhere else. So
much of who these characters are and how they see themselves is a reflection of what it
is like to live in this city. It’s a city built on the constant interplay between different
classes and different cultures, and that is part of what drives these characters and
complicates things for them.”
Tom McCarthy, who set his 2007 film, The Visitor, in New York City was
impressed by the way the filmmakers captured the unique texture of New York. “For my
office, they found an amazing old funeral parlor,” he says. ”It used to be a mansion that
sat on farmland. I think it was built in 1840. New York has all these hidden gems that
create such a rich palette of place.”
That particular setting presented a situation the production designer had never
encountered before, one that required quite a bit of resourcefulness to resolve. “The
house was perfect in terms of the space,” says DePrez. But the basement, which we
needed to use, was full of vintage horse-drawn carriages that had been stored down
there for years. They had to be disassembled before they were removed, but who knows
how to do that? We finally found an Amish group who knew how to dismantle and move
horse carriages. It’s the only way we could figure to clear out that location.”
As a New York resident, DePrez says one of her pet peeves about films set in
the city is the unrealistic way in which characters’ apartments are often portrayed. “The
apartments always seem huge!” she says. “It would make no sense for our characters
with their economic backgrounds. I used to live in Hell’s Kitchen, like Clyde and Lucy, so
I know the layout of a railroad apartment. I know all the details, the molding, the layers of
paint and the airshaft out the window. Those kinds of details are what I’m most proud of
in this film.”
Because so much of the movie’s action takes place in Clyde and Lucy’s
apartment, the filmmakers decided to construct that location on a soundstage. The
couple lives in a typical New York railroad flat, where each room leads directly into the
next, all of them lined up like cars on a train. Walls designed to be removed or “fly out”
gave the director and cinematographer the freedom to shoot the action as the actors
moved from room to room, coming in and out of frame as they went.
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“The way Mott and Philip shot it is still very realistic, but the point of view they
could get through, say, taking the medicine cabinet off the bathroom wall and shooting
through that mirror is something you could never do on a location,” says DePrez.
The specific sense of place created by shooting in the city was appreciated by
the cast and crew, many of them native New Yorkers. Born and bred in Brooklyn, John
Ortiz says, “There’s just nothing that makes me madder than a movie that takes place in
New York and then all of a sudden you see snow capped mountains in the background,”
says Ortiz. “It’s almost a cliché about how beautiful it is to shoot something in New York,
but it’s true. This is a truly magical city and when it’s captured on film there’s just nothing
else like it.”
One of the movie’s central metaphors presented itself to the filmmakers in a
moment of New York serendipity. “When we were scouting Central Park and the pond
was completely frozen over,” Deprez remembers. “It was a sea of white snow and I
stood there with Philip and said, ‘Imagine the rowboat sitting out there in that sea of
white snow and how lonely it would look.’ It was a beautiful image of loneliness in this
great environment and in this great city, how people live in New York City and how the
city affects them.”
Costume designer Mimi O’Donnell found her inspiration in the city. “The
information I needed was all around me,” she says. “I just had to go out and look for it. I
was literally riding the subway, taking pictures on my cell-phone of what New Yorkers
look like.”
O’Donnell is a LAByrinth company member and designed costumes for the play
as well. “It was an enormous help,” she says. “Coming into the film, a lot of my work was
well underway, because I had already had the opportunity to sort things out with the
actors in the play. Phil as a director was a joy because he knew the characters so well.
He gave me so much specific information and it was all so rich. For me, it was as if in the
movie the characters were all two years older and Lucy had a different haircut.”
As a company member, O’Donnell takes special pride in the final outcome of
what was a lengthy process. “It has been a unique experience going from working on the
play to working on this as a film,” she says. “Having the theater company be involved on
so many different levels has been wonderful. The actors from our company playing the
smaller parts show up with as much enthusiasm as if they were starring in the movie.
They’ve come with costumes, they’ve come with ideas, they’ve come with just wanting to
support everyone, and that’s always refreshing and thrilling.”
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Thérèse DePrez says audiences should expect the unexpected from Jack Goes
Boating. “It’s an unusual script with a great combination of drama and comedy. It has a
very unusual pacing and there are some very beautiful romantic moments mixed with
some very, very funny moments.
Producer Beth O’Neil sums up the creation of the film by saying, “From day one,
Jack Goes Boating has been an unusually easy and wonderful collaboration among
artists. I think it’s extraordinary to have such a great group of people working together for
the same goal and we were really lucky to all have each other. I hope audiences find the
end result equally gratifying.”
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ABOUT THE CAST
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN (Director/Executive Producer/Jack) See Filmmaker’s section.
JOHN ORTIZ (Executive Producer/Clyde) is an award-winning actor who
honed his craft on the theatrical stages of New York. He won an Obie Award for Best
Actor in the Off Broadway production of “References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot.” He
is equally at home on stage, in feature films or on television.
Ortiz is a co-founder of LAByrinth Theater Company. He has produced and
performed in many of the company’s productions, including “Jesus Iscariot,” directed by
Hoffman; “Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train,” for which he was awarded a Drama Desk
nomination; “Guinea Pig Solo” and “Jack Goes Boating,” all at the Public Theater.
Other New York theater credits include the Broadway production of “Anna in the
Tropics”; “The Skin of our Teeth” with John Goodman, at the Public Theater; “Cloud
Tectonics,” at Playwrights Horizons; and “The Persian” and “Merchant of Venice,” both
directed by Peter Sellars and performed in such cities as Paris, London, Berlin and
Edinburgh. Regionally, Ortiz has performed at the Mark Taper Forum, The Goodman,
Hartford Stage, Arena Stage, Yale Repertory, South Coast Repertory and Cincinnati
Playhouse.
On the big screen, his film credits include Ridley Scott’s American Gangster, with
Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington; Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, opposite
Johnny Depp and Christian Bale; Michael Mann’s Miami Vice, opposite Colin Farrell and
Jamie Foxx; the biopic El Cantante, with Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony; Pride and
Glory, with Edward Norton and Colin Farrell; Carlito’s Way, opposite Al Pacino and Sean
Penn; and Narc, opposite Jason Patric and Ray Liotta.
Other film credits include Fast & Furious, Alien vs. Predator 2, Amistad, Ransom,
Riot, Side Streets, Sgt. Bilko, Before Night Falls, The Opportunists and The Last
Marshal.
On television, Ortiz played the lead on the CBS series “Clubhouse.” He spent two
seasons playing Ruben Somarriba in the ABC series “The Job,” with Denis Leary. He
was also a series regular on FOX’s “Lush Life” and had a recurring role on CBS’s “The
Handler.” He also appeared in the HBO pilot “Hope Against Hope,” written and directed
by J.J. Abrams.
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Ortiz was born, raised and still resides in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and
son. He is a self-described “huge sports fan” who follows the Yankees and the Knicks
avidly.
AMY RYAN (Connie) is an Academy Award nominee who has made her mark
working with some of today’s most prolific directors, writers and actors. Whether in film,
television or on stage, Ryan continues to turn heads with chameleon-like character turns
and compelling performances.
In 2007, Ryan impressed audiences and critics alike with her performance in
Gone Baby Gone as Helene McCready, a drug-addict mother from Boston’s working
class Dorchester neighborhood whose child is kidnapped. Directed by Ben Affleck, Ryan
co-starred with Casey Affleck, Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris. Her sympathetic
portrayal of an otherwise despicable character was recognized with Academy Award,
Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations in the Best Supporting Actress category.
Additionally, Ryan won Best Supporting Actress awards from the National Board of
Review, the Broadcast Film Critics Association (Critics Choice Awards), the New York
Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics, and the film critics’ societies of Boston,
Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, among others.
That same year, Ryan starred opposite Ethan Hawke in the crime-drama Before
the Devil Knows You’re Dead, directed by Sidney Lumet. The film received Best
Ensemble Cast awards from the Gotham Awards, the New York Online Film Critics and
the Boston Society of Film Critics.
As a follow-up to these two profoundly dramatic performances, Ryan opted for a
lighter turn by guest starring in the Season Four finale of NBC’s “The Office.” Showing
off her comedic chops, Ryan was introduced to the Dunder Mifflin gang as Holly, the
new head of human resources. Applauded by New York Magazine and TV Guide, she
returned for several more episodes.
In 2008, Ryan returned to the big screen in Clint Eastwood’s Changeling,
appearing as a prostitute wrongly confined to a mental institution. In 2010, she will be
seen in director Paul Greengrass’s war drama Green Zone. As the female lead opposite
Matt Damon, Ryan plays a New York Times reporter investigating the U.S. government’s
claims of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
In 2005, Ryan garnered attention for her work in Capote, directed by Bennett
Miller. Her other film work includes Dan in Real Life, directed by Peter Hedges; War of
the Worlds, directed by Steven Spielberg; Keane, directed by Lodge Kerrigan; and You
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Can Count on Me, directed by Kenneth Lonergan. Ryan has also completed two
independent films, Bob Funk and The Missing Person.
In addition to her film credits, Ryan has achieved major success on the
Broadway stage. She was nominated for her first Tony Award in 2000 (Best Featured
Actress in a Play) for her performance in “Uncle Vanya.” In 2005, she astounded critics
with her moving portrayal of Stella in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Directed by Edward
Hall, and starring opposite John C. Reilly, Ryan was nominated for her second Tony
Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She also starred in Neil LaBute’s “The
Distance From Here,” staged in London’s West End.
Ryan’s television credits are extensive, with more than 30 guest star
appearances and eight series regular or recurring roles on primetime television shows.
Most notably, she starred for five seasons as Officer Beatrice “Beadie” Russell in HBO’s
critically acclaimed series “The Wire.”
Ryan was raised in Queens, New York, and attended the High School of the
Performing Arts. She resides in New York City to this day.
DAPHNE RUBIN-VEGA (Lucy) is a two-time Tony and Drama Desk nominee
(1996/2003) and recipient of the Theater World, Obie (1996) and Blockbuster (1998)
awards. She has been a member of the LAByrinth Theater Company since 1992. Ms.
Rubin-Vega is best known for the roles she originated in theater, including Mimi in “Rent”
and Conchita in “Anna in the Tropics”; both Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway shows. Ms.
Rubin-Vega has also originated the roles of Canary Mary in Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Fucking
A” (Lucille Lortel nomination) and Lucy in “Jack Goes Boating” at the Public theater, as
well as starred in the revivals of “The Rocky Horror Show” (Magenta) and “Les
Miserables” (Fantine) on Broadway. Her film credits include the role of detective Gloria
Perez in Wild Things, starring Kevin Bacon and Matt Dillon (Blockbuster Award for Best
Supporting Actress) and Tia, opposite Robert De Niro (and Hoffman) in Flawless. Other
films include, Skeleton Woman (New York Independent Film award), Virgin, Sex and
The City, Rachel Getting Married, and I like it Like That. Daphne Rubin-Vega is
recognized for her singing as much as her acting. She was a member of the girl group
Pajama Party, with whom she made two albums on Atlantic Records before writing and
recording solo singles for the indie dance label Maxi. In 1997, Rubin-Vega cut her first
album of original music “Souvenirs” on the Mercury label and in 2006; she produced,
performed and primarily wrote “Redemption Songs” released by Sh-K-Boom. In
between, Daphne has contributed to various musical projects, including her notorious
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version of “Feliz Navidad” for Broadway Cares and her club smash cover of
“Rocketman”
In 2005, she received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Kean University.
“Dr.” Rubin-Vega was born in Panama and raised in New York City where she lives with
her husband and son.
TOM McCARTHY (Dr. Bob) has amassed numerous feature credits, including
such films as Duplicity; Flags of Our Fathers; Syriana; Good Night, and Good Luck; Year
of the Dog and Meet the Parents.
McCarthy was a series regular in the final season of HBO's critically acclaimed
drama “The Wire.” In 2009, McCarthy logged roles in Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones,
Lukas Moodysson's Mammoth and Roland Emmerich’s 2012. He recently completed
Fair Game for director Doug Liman, appearing alongside Sean Penn, and the Meet the
Fockers sequel with Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro.
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ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN (Director/Executive Producer/Jack) was last
seen in Richard Curtis’ latest project Pirate Radio. Prior to that, he starred in Charlie
Kaufman’s Synecdoche, NY and John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt. Hoffman also starred in
the independent film The Savages, Mike Nichols’ Charlie Wilson’s War and Sidney
Lumet’s Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. Previously, Hoffman starred in Capote,
which he executive produced through his company, Cooper’s Town Productions. In
addition to winning the Academy Award for Best Actor, Hoffman earned a Golden Globe
and SAG Award for his performance. Other film credits include Mission Impossible: III, Along Came Polly, Cold
Mountain, The Party’s Over, Owning Mahowny, 25th Hour, Red Dragon, Punch-Drunk
Love, Love Liza, Almost Famous, State and Main, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Magnolia,
Flawless, Patch Adams, Happiness, The Big Lebowski, Boogie Nights, Twister,
Nobody’s Fool, Scent of a Woman and HBO’s Empire Falls.
As an actor, Hoffman's theater credits include Jack Goes Boating (The Public
Theater), Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Broadway), The Seagull (The Public
Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival), True West (Broadway), Defying Gravity
(American Place Theatre), The Merchant of Venice (directed by Peter Sellars), Shopping
and F*cking (New York Theatre Workshop) and The Author’s Voice (Drama
Department).
His directing credits include the world premieres of The Little Flower of East
Orange, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Our Lady of 121st Street, Jesus Hopped the
‘A’ Train and In Arabia, We’d All Be Kings, all written by Stephen Adly Guirgis and
produced by LAByrinth. Additionally, Hoffman directed Rebecca Gilman’s The Glory of
Living at MCC Theater. He traveled to Australia to direct Andrew Upton’s Riflemind at
the famed Sydney Theater Company and also mounted the play later in London. “
Jack Goes Boating marks the second production from Cooper’s Town and
Hoffman’s feature film directorial debut.
BOB GLAUDINI (Screenwriter) directed the world premiere of Sam Shepard’s
“Mad Dog Blues” at Theater Genesis and the premiere of “Cowboy Mouth,” written by
and starring Shepard and his co-author, rock-poet Patti Smith, at The American Place
Theater. Theater Genesis also produced Glaudini’s plays “On Borrowed Time” and
“Against the Sun.”
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After relocating to Los Angeles to work in television, movies, and theatre, he
wrote for the long-running ABC series “NYPD Blue.” Glaudini’s “The Claiming Race,”
“Sickness of Youth” and “The Poison Tree” were presented in the Mark Taper Forum's
New Works Festival. “The Poison Tree” was produced on the Taper’s main stage.
When Glaudini returned to New York, the LAByrinth Theater Company
inaugurated its residency at the Public Theater with his play “Dutch Heart of Man.” “The
Identical Same Temptation” (2004) and “The Claiming Race” (2005) were produced at
Theater for a New City. For the end of its 15th season, LAByrinth produced his play “Jack
Goes Boating” at the Public Theater and kicked off its 16th season with “A View from
151st Street” in 2007.
PETER SARAF (Producer) co-founded Big Beach with Marc Turtletaub in 2004.
Since the company’s founding, Saraf has produced Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’
Academy Award-winning Little Miss Sunshine, Liev Schreiber’s Everything is Illuminated,
Laurie Collyer’s SherryBaby and Matt Mulhern’s Duane Hopwood. He also executive
produced Ramin Bahrani’s Chop Shop. Saraf’s recent credits include Christine Jeffs’
Sunshine Cleaning, starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt; John Crowley’s Is Anybody
There? starring Michael Caine; and Sam Mendes’ Away We Go, starring Maya Rudolph
and John Krasinski.
Before Big Beach, Saraf was an independent producer and the long-time partner
of director Jonathan Demme and Edward Saxon at the production company Clinica
Estetico. His feature credits include the award-winning Ulee’s Gold, directed by Victor
Nunez and starring Peter Fonda (a Golden Globe winner for Best Actor and Academy
Award nominee); The Truth About Charlie, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring
Mark Wahlberg, Thandie Newton and Tim Robbins; and Adaptation, directed by Spike
Jonze, written by Charlie Kaufman and starring Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Chris
Cooper.
Saraf has also produced a number of successful documentaries, including
Jonathan Demme’s The Agronomist, which won the IFP Gotham Award for Best
Documentary, the Academy Award nominated Mandela: Son of a Nation and One Foot
on a Banana Peel, the Other Foot in the Grave, a portrait of the AIDS crisis.
MARC TURTLETAUB (Producer) has been a producer for eight years through
two production companies. In 2004, Turtletaub founded Big Beach with Peter Saraf to
produce and finance independent films.
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Since founding Big Beach, Turtletaub has served as a producer on all of the
company's films, including the Academy Award-winning Little Miss Sunshine, directed by
Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Turtletaub was also a producer on Liev Schreiber's
Everything is Illuminated, adapted from the bestselling novel by Jonathan Safran Foer
and starring Elijah Wood; Matt Mulhern's Duane Hopwood, starring David Schwimmer
and Janeane Garofolo, which debuted at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival; Laurie
Collyer's SherryBaby, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal; Ramin Bahrani’s Chop Shop, which
premiered at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival; Christine Jeffs’ Sunshine Cleaning, starring
Amy Adams and Emily Blunt; John Crowley’s Is Anybody There? starring Michael Caine;
and Sam Mendes’ Away We Go, starring Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski.
Prior to founding Big Beach, Turtletaub started Deep River Productions in 2000
with David Friendly.
BETH O’NEIL (Producer) founded Olfactory Productions in 2004 to develop and
produce plays and films that tell character-driven stories. Olfactory’s first production was
“Savior,” a stage play produced at the Manhattan Ensemble Theatre in 2004. Also in
2004, Olfactory produced “The Claiming Race,” a play written by Bob Glaudini.
O’Neil has several film projects in development, including The Wonga Coup, in
association with Miramax Films; The Rescue Artist, with Palm Star Entertainment; Hetty,
with Edward R. Pressman Films and Palm Star Entertainment; and Higher, with Wayfare
Entertainment.
O’Neil, a graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, lives with her
husband in New York City.
EMILY ZIFF (Producer) co-founded Cooper’s Town Productions with Philip
Seymour Hoffman in 2003. Cooper’s Town’s first feature was Capote which was
nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture. While with Hoffman, Ziff has
worked on several films including Along Came Polly, Cold Mountain, and 25th Hour. Her
other film credits include Wet Hot American Summer, World Traveler, Jump Tomorrow
and The Party's Over. Ziff serves on the Advisory Board of the Bronx Academy of Letters
and holds a degree in art-semiotics from Brown University.
GEORGE PAASWELL (Co-Producer) is an always-working member of the New
York City film community. He has been a part of the production team on more than 20
feature films. Five of the films he has co-produced have premiered at the Sundance Film
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Festival, including the acclaimed Joshua, starring Sam Rockwell and Vera Farmiga, and
Phoebe in Wonderland, with Elle Fanning, Felicity Huffman and Bill Pullman.
Another film Paaswell co-produced, Notorious, broke a studio record for biggest
opening weekend.
Paaswell currently lives in New York City with his wife and two children.
MOTT HUPFEL (Director of Photography) is a darling of the Independent
Spirit Awards and Sunday Film Festival who favors Hollywood’s most buzz-worthy
projects. The cinematographer’s previous feature credits include The Savages, directed
by Tamara Jenkins (The Slums of Beverly Hills), which earned him an Independent
Spirit Award nomination in 2009. Hupful also developed the look for Showtime’s 2009
hit “Nurse Jackie” when he filmed the show’s pilot episode.
In 2005, Hupfel created the lush look of The Notorious Bettie Page which was
widely praised for its evocative black and white photography. Hupfel’s lensing on The
American Astronaut earned him his first Independent Spirit Award Nomination in 2002
and in 1998 his full-length documentary The Frat House won the Sundance Audience
Award.
Hupfel grew up in Wilmington, Delaware and studied film at NYU’s Tisch
School of the Arts. He went on to work as a camera assistant shooting more than 75
music videos, dozens of films and several documentaries, including Todd Phillips’ Frat
House and Aiyana Elliot’s The Ballad of Ramblin’ Jack, both Sundance Film Festival
award winners.
He shot two seasons of the TV series “The Upright Citizens Brigade” for
Comedy Central and has lensed numerous eye-catching television commercials,
shooting with directors including Dante Ariola, Stacy Wall, Noam Murro and Phil
Morrison.
Hupfel lives in New York with his wife.
THÉRÈSE DePREZ (Production Designer) has spent over a decade
contributing her production design talents to a diverse list of award-winning feature films,
shorts, commercials, theatre and music videos.
Her film work includes both studio and independent projects, with more than 10
films screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Among her most recognizable credits are
John Cameron Mitchell’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Spike Lee’s Summer of Sam, Mark
Pellington’s Arlington Road and Going All the Way, Tom DiCillio’s Living in Oblivion and
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Box of Moonlight, Todd Solondz’s Happiness, Stephen Frears’ High Fidelity, Walter
Salles’ Dark Water, Kip Williams’ Door in the Floor and the Oscar nominated American
Splendor, which also received the Grand Jury Prize at the 2003 Sundance Festival.
DePrez also designed such popular films as I Shot Andy Warhol, The Return,
Stonewall, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, No Looking Back, Marc IX, Doom Generation,
Postcards from America and Swoon.
DePrez has also designed films and videos for such artists as Laurie Anderson,
John Leguizamo, Bob Dylan and David Bowie.
Most recently, DePrez completed Zach Helm’s Mr. Magorium’s Wonder
Emporium, with Dustin Hoffman and Natalie Portman; Phoebe in Wonderland, by writer
and director Daniel Barnz with Felicity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson, Bill Pullman and Elle
Fanning; Dito Montiel’s Fighting, with Terrance Howard; and Antoine Fuqua’s Brooklyn’s
Finest, with Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes and Richard Gere.
DePrez has been recognized for her talent by such prestigious organizations as
the Sundance Film Festival, which awarded her a special Jury Award for Production
Design in 1997; the Gijon International Film Festival, which honored her for Best Art
Direction on I Shot Andy Warhol in 1998; and Theater Crafts International, which
honored her for Outstanding Achievement in Production Design in 1996.
BRIAN A. KATES, A.C.E. (Editor) previously worked with Philip Seymour
Hoffman on the Oscar nominated drama The Savages, directed by Tamara Jenkins. He
collaborated with director George C. Wolfe on the Emmy®-winning “Lackawanna Blues”
and the feature Nights in Rodanthe. He also edited Shortbus, directed by John Cameron
Mitchell; The Woodsman, directed by Nicole Kassell; the Emmy nominated “The Laramie
Project,” directed by Moisés Kaufman; Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop, directed by Danny
Hoch and Mark Benjamin; and Trick, directed by Jim Fall.
Kates was Jonathan Caouette's co-editor on the groundbreaking documentary
Tarnation, which was named Best Nonfiction Film by the National Society of Film Critics.
His most recent works are the HBO telefilm “Taking Chances,” directed by Ross Katz,
and the NBC drama series “Kings,” created by Michael Green.
Kates grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey and now lives in New York City. He
studied film production and Judaic studies at New York University.
MIMI O'DONNELL (Costume Designer) designed costumes for the original
stage production of “Jack Goes Boating” with LAByrinth Theater Company. Other credits
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with LAB include “The Little Flower of East Orange,” directed by Philip Seymour
Hoffman; “Unconditional,” by Brett C. Leonard; “A View From 151st Street,” by Bob
Glaudini; and “Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train,” by Stephen Adly Gurgis, which transferred to
the Donmar Warehouse and The Arts Theatre on the West End.
O’Donnell’s other theatre credits include “Fifty Words,” by Michael Weller; “Fat
Pig” and “Some Girls...” by Neil LaBute at MCC; “Pumpgirl,” at MTC; “subUrbia,” by Eric
Bogosian, at Second Stage; “100 Saints You Should Know,” at Playwrights Horizons;
and “Two Thousand Years,” by Mike Leigh, at New Group.
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