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So how do you go from that, thinking this is not really something I want to do necessarily,
actively or passively, to auditioning for Rushmore? Well, what happened was I was making
a record, I was in a band at the time called Phantom Planet and we were making our first
album and we had been together since 1994 so this was 1997 and I had just entered my
senior year of high school and my grandfather Carmine Coppola he's a composer and my uncle
Francis was having a celebration, he had scored a film and they were having a celebration,
my grandfather was dead at this time, having a celebration, an orchestra come play these
pieces of music for a charity-type event and this was in up in Northern California and
I wasn't supposed to go but my mom last minute was able to get us all tickets to go up so
we went up on a Friday and I was at this party and there was a casting director. I guess
Rushmore had casting directors in different cities, as is very typical of movies. One
of the casting directors for the San Francisco agency or whatever was at this party, she
knew my family some how and she was talking to my cousin Sofia and asked her Sofia said
what are you working on and she said oh we're casting this movie called Rushmore and we're
auditioning kids and she said what's it about and she said it's about an eccentric teenager
who is in love with an older woman who writes plays and things. And she said that sounds
kind of like my cousin. And I had written a play like a year before and I was in love
with this older woman (laughter). A lot of things added up. So I met the woman and she
said are you, hi are you an actor? And I said no, I'm not an actor I'm a drummer and she
said well I'm casting this movie in Los Angeles and you know if you'd like to go in and audition
we're seeing, we're having these open auditions, you should go. And I said well, it would be
a real waste of your time. And I'm not an actor and she said you should try, you should
go, you should read the script I think you'd really, I mean from what I think you could
do it. And I think I was wearing because I was socially awkward and a little bit of a
clown I was wearing a tuxedo with tails and I had like a top hat on I think. I had gone
like oh, orchestra party? great! let's, you know, so I really was like going for it. And
so I mean she was like you seem maybe like this. So, anyway, I gave her my, and also,
and no offense but if you're, I guess me, as a drummer in a band, you're not used to
getting that kind of attention. You know, like someone saying you should audition for
something. That's like typically the guitar player and the singers get that. And so I
wasn't used to someone talking to me and so in my mind I'm going you know there's four
other guys you should talk to in my band that are pretty cool. So, they sent the script
to my house the next day, I went home, I read it and I remember going Oh my god, this is
everything I find funny and I also thought man, who ever gets to be in this is so lucky
and I can't wait to see this movie. And really that was my attitude.