Clancy and Max Have a Conversation with The Perfect Stranger

An interview with Jefferson Moore and Christina Dawn Fougnie of the films Clancy and The Perfect Gift.

Jefferson Moore's first film The Perfect Stranger was an adaptation of a book called Dinner with a Perfect Stranger, by David Gregory. It was so well received that he made a sequel called Another Perfect Stranger and developed a series for television called the Stranger Series. This year he wraps up the trilogy with a Christmas-themed film called The Perfect Gift. His co-star in this film is Christina Dawn Fougnie, who also co-starred in Clancy with him. Together the pair talked about their experiences working together and what it was like to give and receive lessons in being snotty.

Christina, what grade are you in now, and what grade were you in when y'all filmed Clancy?

Christina:    I'm in eighth grade. We did some filming during school, but it was mainly during the weekends and spring break. I was 11 when we started Clancy, and 12 by the time we finished.

You had a lot of work to do in that film. Not only did you have lines to prepare for, but you also played a girl whose home life was really messed up. How did you prepare for that?

Christina:    I just had to be Clancy and not Christina. I studied my script to get into the character and what she would do. She was really humble and she never thought of herself. She was this great Christian and always went to God for everything.

In some of the early scenes of the film, you were really the parent figure because your mom wasn't doing anything for you or herself. How did you get into that mindset?

Christina:    Well, I got a lot of direction on how to do it, and I also had to think about how she was pretty much the mom. I do help my mom clean and cook. I don't do a lot of laundry, but I help some.

How did you meet Jefferson and start working with him?

Christina:    I was this little dead girl in this play and he was Jesus.

Jefferson:    It was a Passion Play.

Christina:    He told me that when he saw me, he saw Clancy. So he gave me a tryout. I did horribly, but he gave me a second chance. Then we did a screen test and he cast me, so I guess he saw the potential in me.

Jefferson:    She thought it was a second chance, but she had it right away.

Jefferson, what was it that you saw in someone playing a dead girl that made you think she'd be right for the role of Clancy?

Jefferson:    She was about nine years old when we did the show together. She was this little brown-haired, brown-eyed girl. We knew we were going to be getting into production on Clancy in a fairly short amount of time. We had taken some backstage photos of Christina and about six or seven other girls who had played the same role as her in previous years, so they were really close in age.

When I got these photos back, these girls were all lined up sitting on a little bench in different poses. My eyes were just drawn to Christina. Even though every one of these girls had brown eyes and brown hair, my eyes were just naturally drawn to Christina. I said, "My goodness, she has so much effervescence, and this is a flat picture." Something really stood out.

When I would imagine what Clancy looked like in my mind, it really was her. My eyes were just drawn to her, and that's something that makes a movie star. Like Julia Roberts was. We followed up from there, and I said, "Please, God, let her be able to act." And she could.

It was amazing. She blew us away with her screen test.

Christina, when he told you that you had the role, what was your first response?

Christina:    I was so excited, I couldn't believe it. Since I was a little kid, I've always wanted to act or be in show business.

Can you tell me about your first impression of walking onto a movie set?

Christina:    I always thought that everyone would be so serious on the set. But we had so much fun. When we're working, we are serious, but we have so much fun doing it that it doesn't feel like work.

You had some very intense scenes where you needed to have some very intense reactions. Where did that come from, and how did you return to normal after them?

Christina:    I put myself into Clancy's shoes, and after the scene was over, I would just put myself back into my life and go on.

Jefferson:    She literally flips a switch. She'll get up with fake blood on her lip and she'll smile and head for the fudge round table. She literally does that.

That's a great compliment. Is that something that comes naturally to you?

Christina:    It really does come naturally.

Jefferson:    She didn’t have any acting experience. We both went to the same one: none.

How much rehearsal did you do beforehand? Once you got the script, did you run through it a few times?

Christina:    We did, but after I started to get the hang of everything, we just stopped and showed up to set to film. We ran lines back and forth, but didn't do a whole lot.

Jefferson:    I hate rehearsing, so we just practiced some of the stunts, but anything past that, we didn't do a whole lot, did we.

What was it like working with so many adults?

Christina:    It was so much fun because they didn't really act like adults, but acted like a kid like me. They went to my level. But I also feel I've matured too because I've been with so many adults.

What is your own family like? Do you have siblings?

Christina:    I am an only child, but all of my family are loving and supportive of me. They're nothing like the family in Clancy. My parents always know where I am. In Clancy, my mom didn't know where I was most of the time.

Let's talk about The Perfect Gift. Your parents are divorced and your mom is a busy professional woman in this film.

Christina:    It's a little bit different than my own family. My mom does work and she's very busy but she does make time for me. My dad and my mom are not divorced. They're always there for me.

When you finished Clancy, did Jefferson ask you right away to be part of The Perfect Gift?

Christina:    Not right away. It was later.

Jefferson:    We didn't know we were shooting it. We didn't even have the script for it, and were going to be starting on a movie about cancer called The One Message. We were in pre-production on that and someone suggested to us that it would be a good time to do a Christmas movie. So I started thinking what we could do.

We finished Clancy in May and in October or November I came to Christina and told her we had another movie. It was only about five or six months between the two. When we wrapped on Clancy we had no idea we'd do The Perfect Gift, but once we decided to do it, there was no doubt in my mind that Christina would be in it.

That's a really quick turnaround for a script.

Jefferson:    I've really been blessed with that. Once I lock onto a story, it all kind of seems to fall into place. I get my main message, and for someone who's not very bright and talented, it comes together.

I liked the idea, and the cast was a little bit like Miracle on 34th Street, where a young girl is really the main non-believer. I kind of built it from there, but everything was really energized with Christina at that point and I was dying to work with her again.

I've been doing this for a long time, and having chemistry with another actor is really so hit or miss that when you hit upon it, it's something special and you want to make the most out of it. Since Christina hadn't moved off to Los Angeles yet, I thought I'd do another picture with her while I could.

Christina, do you see moving to Los Angeles in your future?

Christina:    That's what I really hope for. I'm fine staying here, but I really want to move out there and try to do something.

Did you start taking acting classes after Clancy?

Jefferson:    I forbade her to take classes, and told her not to let anyone touch her.

What was it like going back to school after doing a film? Was it hard to go back to homework?

Christina:    It wasn't really a hard adjustment, because while we were doing Clancy I was in school during the week and filming on the weekend so it was pretty busy then. It wasn't that big of a difference, but I had more free time.

Jefferson:    She did have to give up her spring break because we shot eight days straight through on Clancy. And she never lets me forget it.

Christina:    I do not.

What was the schedule like for filming The Perfect Gift? When did you start shooting that?

Christina:    January.

Jefferson:     We started pre-production in November and all the cities in America were decorated for Christmas then so we started shooting B-roll in December. Then we had to get some outdoor shots in January while some of the cities still had their Christmas decorations up. But Christina was first on set the week before New Year's.

What was your location?

Jefferson:    Louisville, Kentucky, is our backdrop. The city is our backlot.

How is your role in The Perfect Gift different from your role in Clancy?

Christina:    Max is real bratty. She's totally opposite from Clancy and isn't humble at all. She just thinks of herself. It was really different for me to play her, so I had to spend more time getting into the script than I did for Clancy.

Jefferson:    If you can imagine, we had to have "snotty" lessons. We had to get together for a whole snotty workshop. Kelly, Christina and I got together and did different reads on how to be snotty, so it was called "snotty training."

Christina:    They would hold up some lines for me to read and if I didn't do it right, they'd tell me how to say it in a snotty way. I'd keep going over and over it.

That's good because it means you're not a naturally snotty person.

Jefferson:    She learned so well she can't turn it off now.

Christina:    You're so mean!

What do your friends at school think about your film career?

Christina:    All of them think it's so cool and they're really excited for me. A few of them have been on set with me and been in some of the scenes. They think it's so cool because they got to see what goes on and how things are done.

Can you describe what life is like for you now? Does life feel different since you've been in these films?

Christina:    I don't feel any different at all because I still do all the regular stuff I did before the films. And people don't treat me any differently.

Pretend that Jefferson can't hear you. How is he as a co-worker and director?

Christina:    He's very good to work with. He's very loving and he always takes care of me. If I needed something, he'd notice it and come take care of it.

Jefferson:    That's called being a valet!

Jefferson, can you talk about how you turned production around so quickly?

Jefferson:    We basically have worked with the same crew, with a few exceptions, since 2004. When you do that, you can really gauge each other's movements. And we work so efficiently because we know when we get done working, we can start playing.

It's a matter of casting well, too. With Christina, Matt Wallace, Amy Hess and Tom Luce, you've got these actors who just hit it. We don't do 40 takes. We're usually five takes or less, and that makes you move so efficiently. And the cast and crew know each other very well. That's one of the good things about shooting out here in the sticks, as opposed to Los Angeles, where you've got someone different coming in every day. Having the right cast and crew makes all the difference.

I really enjoyed the music in this film. It's very different.

Jefferson:    We really stepped up this production and Clancy. With Clancy, we brought in a full-time composer that took the entire thing and scored the entire movie except for a couple of cuts. That's a really nice luxury.

Before, we couldn't spend the money on a full composer because we needed to spend the money somewhere else. With Clancy, it was so much my baby, I didn't want to compromise. It was one of the first scripts I wrote. So we got BJ Davis, who lives here in Louisville. He had just finished the music for Fireproof and did the music on Facing the Giants. He really wanted to work with us, and was just amazing.

He'd shoot me songs in the middle of the night. He has so much creativity, he really just ran with it. He did a great job with the Christmas music, and having him right here made it great. We're going to work with him as much as we can.

The whole film has a very different feel than the others you've done, even though it's in the tradition of the other Stranger movies. It's lighter.

Jefferson:    It is lighter than the other films, and it's not based on a book but an original screenplay. The others are so apologetic. We were really thinking more Capra-esque with strong characters, where the other Stranger films were basically two people. Here we wanted to expand the characters and see these people's lives.

The Jess character keeps everybody tied together and we get to see the changes in everybody's lives. Again, it goes back to having such a strong cast we could do so much with. And the lighter tone is important to Christmas. I really wanted to make a big statement with this movie.

Christina, your relationship with your mom Amy was very believable.

Christina:    Again, from the start, we all just clicked. We all felt like family pretty much. It didn't feel like we were acting, but felt like we were family.

Jefferson:    I enjoyed the character building too because I got to put all these strong-willed women together. At first, she and Amy were very mother-daughter like, but I asked them to give me more catfight reactions. I really wanted to have two strong-willed women fighting it out, and that's what we ended up with. Christina's a miniature version of her corporate mother.

Christina, after doing those films, do you find yourself carrying forward any of the characteristics from Clancy or Max?

Christina:    I do a little bit. I have found that I am a little bit stronger willed, but not to the extreme like Max was.

Can you describe your own family's Christmas?

Christina:    We wake up and go over to my grandma's house for breakfast and to open presents. Then we go over to my other family's house and have dinner together and hang out and talk. It's a lot of family stuff.

This film and Clancy are both being released by EMI Distribution. How has that affected things for you?

Jefferson:    They're kind of following the lead of Provident, which was also a music company and then got into film with Sherwood Baptist. EMI is really getting aggressive in starting a film division, and the first film they started with is Clancy. They were looking for a studio that had a pretty good track record, which we did.

We have a rep in Los Angeles who brought EMI to us and said they were really interested in Clancy. She thought they were interested in a lot of our stuff. That's really helped because the business side of distribution was taking up a lot of time we could have devoted to production, so it's really freed up a lot of hands around here.

Even working with sub-distributors, it's a lot of staffing we'd rather put into scouting locations and holding casting sessions. Plus it's also going to help us grow the general market side of things with all our films. They'll handle the Christian retail stores, and we can address the other side, which has really been underserved.

All of our films are really seeker films. They're a non-preachy way for the nonbeliever to hear these messages. So it's not just a financial thing, but we think seekers are being underserved. Your average person that doesn't go to church on Sundays probably doesn't walk into Family Christian Bookstores and probably doesn't go to ChristianCinema.com to buy films.

That's something else we're ready to try. We've had great success, but we want some nonbelievers to see Nikki in The Perfect Stranger and Clancy and Nick and to see Max and Tony and start thinking about Christmas.

You mentioned construction. Are you building a studio?

Jefferson:    Our home is our work compound. We live on a little farm outside of Louisville, and it seems that every year we've taken another room away from our house and turned it into a studio room, so basically Kelly and I have been sleeping backstage.

We added on 1100 square feet of editing space and we're expanding a few other things. We call it the compound because it's where we live and work. That's what Robert Rodriguez does in Austin. I'd love to go down there and tour his place.

We think the Christmas movie has a really far-reaching message. We didn't make a political movie, but we made one that addresses an issue that's right at the forefront right now. Bill O'Reilly dedicated an entire month to culture vs. Christmas, and that's what's going on right now.

That's the one thing that surprised me in the script. You've not gone that direction before.

Jefferson:    I don't believe we can separate the two. We are a Christian nation, and it's getting away from that. When we deny that, it causes controversy and many now are being told that it isn't a Christian nation.

But when you read the Declaration of Independence and look at the lives of the founding fathers, you see it was started that way. Christmas is really just one cog in the controversy, but it's when it seems to come to a head every year.

You made the point well without being overly strident.

Jefferson:    That's something else that really came through in the Max character. When you work with an actor like Christina, you can do that because all of her energy isn't dedicated to just remembering her lines.  She can do something more with it.

So we just didn't get that sledgehammer evangelism thing out of Max so that she turns all holy all at once. She came at from a very analytical point of view, and was looking at all these facts about why we're celebrating Christmas here. Nobody ever said, "Happy holidays" at St. Patrick's Day, but for some reason they're saying it at Christmas.

She was almost like a little Sarah Palin type character. She's really rooted in faith and logic and common sense, which is what the whole Christmas controversy is lacking.

Anything else that y'all think people should know about each other?

Jefferson:    When we wrapped Clancy, Christina cried a little bit because we'd been working together for the better part of the year. Then we went through our screenings and theatrical release. When we shot The Perfect Gift, on the last night when we wrapped, we had a little bit to eat and then left.

She called me on her cell phone on the way home and asked me, "What's our next project?" I thought, "Great. Someone's really comfy." I'm glad that she feels it's a good family atmosphere, and our crew does as well.

She already said I was wonderful, so what more needs to be said?

Good. Christina, as soon as he tells you what your next project is, call me and we'll let everyone know.

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