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the characters are entirely wrong. It‘s not a movie everyone will view in the same way. It‘s a film that
allows the viewer to participate and connect in their own way.‖
THE KING FAMILY
“I’m the back-up parent. The understudy.”
-- Matt King
When Kaui Hart Hemmings was first creating the character of Matt King – shell-shocked
husband, inexpert father and reluctant Hawaiian land baron – she dared to dream of who might play
him on the screen. The person that came to her back then was George Clooney, the Academy Award®
winning actor and filmmaker renowned for performances that are often as darkly funny as they are
palpably human.
Clooney has established himself as one of today‘s leading men, but the chance to play a
husband and father in THE DESCENDANTS is a notable departure from his usual roles. He was the
smooth-talking convict in the Coen Brothers‘ screwball musical comedy O BROTHER, WHERE ART
THOU? , the heist pro in the blockbuster OCEAN‘S ELEVEN series, the CIA agent in an Oscarwinning
performance in Stephen Gaghan‘s SYRIANA. He was also nominated for an Academy Award
for his performances as the law firm ―fixer‖ in Tony Gilroy‘s thriller MICHAEL CLAYTON and the
workaholic, airline miles collector in Jason Reitman‘s UP IN THE AIR. He has also made his mark as
a writer/director, garnering Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay for
GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK., and directing and co-writing this fall‘s THE IDES OF
MARCH.
Co-producer George Parra notes that the pairing of Payne and Clooney for the first time on this
project was an intriguing match. ―They‘re both incredibly talented and, after this movie, I think they
will forever be friends. They got along from day one. Alexander is the ultimate professional, very
serious and polite and can be fun at times. But he‘s very serious when he‘s at work. George, on the
other hand, is the ultimate prankster. He loves to laugh a lot and he‘s hysterical, so between their two
personalities, the set had terrific energy. They were both open to great creativity and just letting the
film happen.‖
Once Clooney was cast in the central role, the challenge was to build the rest of the King family
around him. Payne soon began an exhaustive series of auditions to find that tricky family chemistry
made up of equal parts love, fury and miscomprehension, working closely with casting director John
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