With a plethora of experience in documentaries for the youth market, the docu-drama “A Girl Like Her” was a natural progression for filmmaker Amy S. Weber. Weber used the film’s singular style to give a well-rounded, realistic view of the challenges teenagers face. The film centers on three teens, Avery Keller (Hunter King), Brian Slater (Jimmy Bennett), and Jessica Burns (Lexi Ainsworth), whose lives are forever changed by bullying.
The idea started as a pitch for an undercover investigative documentary TV series for A&E, where bullying would be captured as it happened. Weber felt the only way to tell the story in a relatable way for teens was to let it unfold in front of them. “We’re watching these nightmares of what kids are going through on a daily basis. It had to feel real. It had to be real.”
To create this realism, Weber didn’t write any dialogue. “This forced my actors to dive deep,” says Weber; she provided a paragraph or two on the mission of each scene, but no script and no rehearsal. To prepare them, Weber talked to the actors about their lives - “about experiences that we could pull to create the scene, the mission of the scene, and how we get that raw emotion.”
The casting process was as organic as the script. “It was a great opportunity for an actor,” says Weber of the improv aspect. “Some actors, that would scare them to death! But these actors…knew the challenge this was going to be [and] they were excited about it.” Weber started casting locally in Michigan. High school teacher Christy Engle, who plays Avery’s mother Cassie Keller, was one of the first to audition. She came to the open call excited about the possibility and immediately became one of Weber’s first selects. Besides the leads and a few adult roles, the majority of the cast was nonunion. “They were real people, or this was a first or second acting gig for them.”
But the demands of the main roles required professionals. “Avery Keller’s character and the actress playing her carry the entire success of the film. If that journey did not come across as genuine or authentic…if I didn’t feel it and believe it myself as a viewer, the movie would have bombed. That’s a lot of pressure to put on someone who has not acted before or has not acted at this level.” For the challenging role of Avery, she had the actors use the final scene of the film. “Because I needed to see…them transform right before my eyes. And Hunter…blew my mind.”
Weber’s role in the film was also an organic progression. As a documentarian it made sense for her to play Amy Gallagher, the documentarian in the film. Initially, Weber went out to some A-list actors, but in the end it was more important that the focus remain on the kids. In fact, after the film went through post, Weber is never seen onscreen. “The filmmaker is the voice who helps keep the story flowing…But she was not someone that I ever wanted to take away from the story.” Having Weber in the role also helped keep the actors on track, since there wasn’t a script for them to follow. “I knew exactly the direction the story had to go in and it was one less person for me to direct.”
Pictured: Hunter King, Jimmy Bennett, and Lexi Ainsworth in "A Girl Like Her."
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