"The Florida Project" A harmony of individuality brought about by unconventional casting, from child actors to famous actors with no acting experience

From Instagrammer to actress. A talented person who made a miraculous transformation

If the casting of the child actors was a case of being enchanted by angels, then the casting of the talented Bria Vinaite, who makes her debut as the mother in this film, is something that can only be described as a case of the movie gods smiling upon her.

Baker initially looked for the perfect talent for months, including young actresses and pop stars aged between 20 and 24. However, there are limitations to finding talent through such general methods. That's where Baker's independent casting techniques, which are different from Hollywood methods, came into play.

He had also used social media to recruit many unique talents without acting experience for his previous film, "Tangerine." So, once again, hoping to find some undiscovered talent, he was searching Instagram and finally came across Bria.

She wasn't an actress, but an Instagrammer who created and sells bikinis, caps, socks, T-shirts, etc. through her own fashion brand, Chronical Designs. The video that first captured Baker's attention was of her dancing and twirling in her backyard with a pink feather boa and yellow feathers on her head ( the video is still on her Instagram ).

She has a presence that is fleeting, cute, and indescribably real. Director Baker immediately felt that "This is the mother role we were looking for, Haley!" and tried to Contact her immediately, but Bria didn't know anything about the director and was treated as a suspicious person and left her alone. However, once she realized that it was a genuine invitation to a movie, she immediately watched all of Baker's previous works, and she left everything behind to fly from New York to Miami to audition, not wanting to miss this Being There. As a result of this determination and action, her life changed completely through the flow of fate as if all the planets were directly connected.

“The Florida Project” (C) 2017 Florida Project 2016, LLC.

In the preparation process before she stood in front of the camera, she received several weeks of acting instruction from Samantha Quan, who is also Baker's partner. However, rather than just drilling acting know-how into her, she gained a deep understanding of Haley's inner world and cultivated her emotional changes as her own The Natural. She also listened to the people living at the motel and absorbed their experiences. As a result, she succeeded in embodying the person of Haley without losing any of her own personality. Half acting, the other half being herself. The free and easy atmosphere that emanates from the screen is nothing other than what Bria was born and cultivated. This is how a character with a unique aura was created.

Willem Dafoe, a true driving force with a diverse personality