Introducing: JAMES

[JAMES (LEAD)] 30 to 40 years old, all ethnicities male. James is five year tired. He has fled another city pursued by a bear. This will be his first day clean and clear what madness he left behind. The home he returns to is grief stricken and in shock in the wake of the young man’s crime. On a long walk he surveys the new old land scape as he makes his way to Chris’ house- his childhood home with his sister Rose.

For as long as we have talked about casting “Strange Kindness”, beginning back in 2019, there has been one friend who has been our measuring stick we have held other actors to. It might be said that this character was in part inspired by this friend or at least written in the voice of. And at some point, it became unclear as to why this friend wouldn’t be the person to play James. 

Similarly to our experience casting THE YOUNG MAN, we had a lot of submissions for JAMES. “A lot” meaning over 1,000. And we followed our same steps: going through each submission, watching their reels, checking out their websites or instagrams. We even reached out to a few people to read for JAMES.

The further we got into the process, the more we talked about our friend and wondered with more and more seriousness, if they could be in “Strange Kindness”. 

So we asked this friend and we talked it over and we came up with a plan. And pretty quickly after that, we booked him a flight and sent him a script and began rehearsing via Zoom prior to filming. 

Kristofor Giordano became JAMES in September of 2022.

Kris is a close friend of ours and to have him continue to be a bigger and bigger part of “Strange Kindness” is one of the greatest gifts we have received. Joseph has been talking to Kris about the script since that first summer when he was writing it. Kris was here to help us film in 2019. And he was here last fall. 

And for me as ROSE, I cannot imagine anyone else playing my brother. 

Someone once told me how they saw JAMES as the encapsulation of all of the sadness of Cape Cod and I’ve held onto that because I think its true. I think some people are melancholic and JAMES definitely is. And to have him played by someone who has that same depth is invaluable.