Kumars Salehi spent the summer of 2003 starting his movie career

By Matthew Freeman
Gargoyle senior editor
Posted Tuesday, March 14, 2006, The OG, features

[Note: This story was originally published in the Oct. 16, 2003, issue of the Gargoyle when Matthew Freeman was a sophomore staff reporter and Kumars Salehi was a subfreshman. We are republishing the article on the occasion of Wednesday's Midwest premiere of the film “Crab Orchard.”]

To act in a movie is a dream of many, and for most kids living in the Midwest it is a dream that will never be realized.

Yet Uni High subfreshman Kumars Salehi never had aspirations of acting, and still landed a supporting role in a feature film shot this past summer in Monticello. Salehi first heard about auditions for “Crab Orchard” from the local newspaper.

“My mom found this advertisement in The News-Gazette that called for an actor of Middle Eastern, Arab origin, so I decided that I should give it a shot,” said Salehi.

Salehi also said while he didn't feel he did very well in his first audition, he was still called back for a second audition by writer/producer Robin Peters (who is credited under the name “Robin Christian”). After two weeks or so, he finally got the phone call that told him he had been cast in the film.

“I thought maybe it would start something in my life that would be exciting,” Salehi said about his reaction to getting the part. “I knew it would be fun.”

The movie, a family drama, was shot over the summer in local areas.

“We didn't have a broad range of locations,” said Salehi. “We filmed mostly in Monticello and surrounding areas.”

Monticello was chosen as the location because Peters lives there with his family.

The premise of the movie is that a mother and her son, Clay, move from New York City to a rural Midwestern town called Crab Orchard after the events of Sept. 11.

In the movie, Salehi plays the part of Amir, an Arab boy who lives in the small town. Amir comes into the plot when the main character, Clay, moves into the town and also finds himself an outcast there.
Salehi said about his character, “He likes to be shut off from the world.”

Peters explained that Amir is an outcast because he appears different from the other kids in the town.

“The bottom line is Clay, he thinks he's got it bad, and Amir kind of opens his eyes,” Peters said in a phone interview.

Salehi, who is of Iranian descent, said that he didn't think someone of Indian, Greek, or European origin could have pulled off the part as well as someone of Middle Eastern origin.

“I understand where he's coming from, Amir, and I understand his problems,” Salehi said.

Although Salehi plays a significant role in the movie, he doesn't think of it as very important.

“I have a supporting role. It's not very large,” Salehi said.

Peters also thinks of Amir as a slightly lesser role, and expects him to show in about a dozen out of 125 scenes.

Despite being chosen from about 12 aspiring actors to play the part, Salehi didn't have any previous acting experience.

Acting coach Greg Wolf, who helped coach Salehi and many of the other actors on the set of “Crab Orchard,” told the Gargoyle that it was apparent in the beginning that Salehi lacked experience, especially in the way that he was shy and a bit uncomfortable around the camera.

Nevertheless, Wolf said that Salehi fit the part well because “he is a stereotypical American kid, but he doesn't look like a stereotypical American kid.”

Director Michael Jacobs, who had the final say on who was cast, said he chose the actor for the part of Amir out of a small local audition pool, largely because of a low budget. Jacobs, who lives in Southern California, came to Illinois and chose from videos of the auditions.

Jacobs told the Gargoyle he chose Salehi initially because “he fit the role visually.” Jacobs also said that Salehi was inexperienced, which caused problems at times, but that he showed he was willing to improve.

“I didn't find that I had to do a whole lot of work,” Salehi said, “because we had this great, great acting coach, Greg Wolf.”

“I was just trying to get him to be believable and honest in front of the camera,” Wolf said about Salehi. “[He] did a good job of coming to the set prepared, often more so than his acting colleagues.”

Although the movie is low budget and was filmed locally, the crew of “Crab Orchard” managed to draw such big-name actors as Judge Reinhold and Ed Asner.

Asner's credits include “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and the starring role in “The Lou Grant Show.” Reinhold has appeared in many films, including the “Beverly Hills Cop” series, “The Santa Clause,” “Beethoven,” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”

“Ed really took my breath away,” Salehi said of Asner. “He was an amazing guy.”

Salehi also mentioned that Reinhold seemed to have a lot of experience, and said of the two actors, “I think they both did excellent jobs.”

Although Salehi didn't find the work hard, he thought it became tedious at times.

“Sometimes we'd have to do a scene over, maybe 20 times, and some of the times I was doing it just right,” he said.

Salehi also mentioned that the movie was filmed at some odd times.

“We had all-night shoots where we went home around 6 o'clock in the morning,” Salehi said. “Those were exhausting.”

Some of the shoots done in the country were especially difficult as well.

“For about four or five hours we were standing outside in such mud that it would go down to your knees if you stepped in the wrong spot,” Salehi said. “So, we had a lot of trouble with that, but it was really funny because wherever we walked we'd just fall down.”

That spot was chosen because the crew chose to burn down a shack in that location for the film.

Despite the effort put into the movie, Salehi doesn't anticipate that it will be very popular or well-known.

“I personally expect it to come and go, but it was an experience for all of us,” he said.

While the movie is expected to come out next year, it is impossible to tell, especially since it is still in post-production and has not yet found a distributor. Peters speculated that the movie may be released in the summer of 2004.

Peters thinks the movie will carry interest because it is about a family influenced by the attacks of Sept. 11, and he believes it to be the first feature film to build around that theme. Salehi expects it to have relevance because it discusses getting past the exterior of people and finding who they really are.

Salehi doesn't expect everyone to find interest in the movie but thinks that it will depend on the tastes of the viewers.

“It's not an exciting movie,” Salehi said. “It's got a lot of depth, and I like that.”

Salehi feels that being in the movie has affected his career goals.

“I'm actually considering a job in screenwriting or directing,” he said. “I didn't have any interest in acting beforehand, but this showed me how fun it could really be.”