Anton Yelchin (who’ll next be seen as Pavel Chekov in J.J Abram’s Star Trek), first-time director Jon Poll, and producer Jay Roach proved to be a formidable tag team at the Los Angeles press conference in support of Charlie Bartlett. Poll’s making his feature film directorial debut with Charlie Bartlett, but has been working in the entertainment industry as an editor for the past 20 years. Editor Poll previously collaborated with Roach on Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers and made the leap to directing with the help of Roach who at one point was attached to direct Charlie Bartlett himself.
Poll is a newcomer to the casting process but thought Yelchin would be perfect in the lead role after watching two of the young actor's earlier films, Hearts in Atlantis and House of D.

“Anton and I met for dinner and I asked him what he liked about Charlie Bartlett. The first words out were how honest and optimistic the character was,” explained Poll. “I said, ‘That’s great. That’s just how [writer Gustin] Nash and I feel about it.’ At the end of the dinner I said, ‘Great. You get to be Charlie Bartlett.’ That was also very naive because I ended up seeing 82 other young actors. I can say in all honesty there was never any doubt that Anton was going to play Charlie Bartlett. And I don’t know how we could have made the movie without him.”

Yelchin plays 17-year-old Charlie, a smart kid who’s been kicked out of boarding school after boarding school. His last stop finds him in a public high school where he figures out his place in the high school student food chain is as the guy everyone turns to with their problems. And if that means dispensing a few prescription drugs along the way, then that’s what Charlie is prepared to do.

Charlie Bartlett Press Conference

Anton, what was it about this character that you really liked?

Anton Yelchin: “It really was the optimism. It was the honesty of him. Although I am honest I am not optimistic all the time. He reminds me of like Michael Corleone meets the character from Nights of Cabiria. I just thought it was a great way to explore life. Whether I could approach life similar was a different question. I thought it would be really interesting to look into that, explore that. He really is sort of an incredible person to get into his head.”

The script’s been around for a while yet there’s a real timeliness to the story.

Jon Poll: “There is no question in colleges everywhere there is a huge black market in all prescription drugs. Prescription drugs are the new recreational drugs. In all honesty, the film is not saying there is anything wrong with these drugs. We just want to point out that some people are given those drugs too easily, especially at young ages. I know we kind of play fast and loose with it for humor’s sake. But there are a lot of 7-year-olds being given Ritalin. And I personally have to wonder if you have a boy who is eating sugar all day and playing videogames, maybe there is a reason for them being hyped up.”

Could you talk about casting Robert Downey Jr. who, 20 years ago, probably could have played Charlie Bartlett?

Jon Poll: “The first thing I said to Robert on the phone, we were already up in Toronto, we heard Robert liked the script, ‘Okay, you have never made a movie. Get on the phone and talk Robert Downey Jr. into being in this film.’ That was the first thing I said. ‘Do you realize that 20 years ago this would have been you?’ And he just laughed and said, ‘Yes, very much.’”

“One of the first things he said on that phone call was that I know this film is about another character and I am here to support that character. I know how I fit into the movie. He was very brave about dealing with issues of his own and how they are reflected back through the film. It was actually great having him on set and being able to talk to him about kind of stuff. I think every actor on the set, of every age, truly enjoyed being around him.”

Anton Yelchin: “It was really just incredible to work with him. It was really one of the first experiences that I have had where I would consciously sit and learn from someone. When I was young I would work with people, and I would obviously be learning from them, but it would be sort of an afterthought once I had finished I would realize what I had gotten. With Robert I would sit and watch him in such utter amazement because his range, and his understanding of the freedom he has as an actor, is so eye opening to the amount of things you can do and just the freedom you have within the confines of the story and the scene.”

“Watching him just experiment with what he wanted to do and then finding the right thing to do was so incredible. It really was an amazing experience. I loved being off camera and just watching him work because he is so… I think he is like no other actor out there. Robert is in his own sort of categories of actors with the way he approaches the character that he does, the way he uses his body. It is just incredible to watch and learn from.”

Jay Roach: “I think one of the most amazing thing about casting him, it is not the obvious choice to have Robert Downey Jr. play the principal, but he is clearly a principal with issues and is struggling, trying to cope. He’s trying to cope with being a principal but, more importantly, he is trying to cope with being a father.”

“It is one of the things I like about the film. Although I do think it is one of those kinds of films that depicts a great teen character. I hope kids see someone speaking with an authentic version of that voice and how kids cope. But it is also about how parents cope with kids when they don’t really understand them. How they try to cope. How they fail at understanding. It is a cautionary tale in a way of, ‘Be careful. It is so quick and easy to become distanced from what kids are going through.’”

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