Milling About with Sunlight Jr. Director Laurie Collyer

Sunlight Jr. writer/director Laurie Collyer joins host Robin Milling to discuss working with her stellar cast which includes Naomi Watts, Matt Dillon and Norman Reedus. Laurie tells Robin how Matt went through rigorous wheelchair training to portray his paraplegic character who is married to Watts in the film. She says he was so convincing in the chair and the way he finessed getting in and out of it that she was surprised when he actually got up to walk in-between takes! Matt also had to practice wheeling Watts around on his lap. That playfulness was captured by an on-set photographer. Laurie says, “They had a lot of fun. One of our publicity stills wasn't shot as that but they were just having fun playing around 10 feet away from the craft service table with Matt wheeling her around on his lap and it's actually the photo that's now our poster.”

And then there's Reedus, red hot from The Walking Dead who contributed his own idea to the look of his character; Watt's risky and wild ex who still has a thing for her. Already inked up and wearing a wife beater, he suggested he come in sporting a new tattoo covered by a bandage. Laurie remembers one fun day on the set. “You never actually see that little Dennis The Menace urinating (tattoo) but we all knew it was there so one day our make-up artist put a sharpee tattoo of that on lots of members of the crew so people were walking around with that guy on the side of their neck, on their arm, on their hand.”