Entertainment Magazine

THE PACIFIER

MOVIE PRODUCTION NOTES

Operation Nanny: The Search Begins for Kids Who Can Take on Vin Diesel

At the heart of THE PACIFIER’s comic action are the outrageous situations that develop when Navy S.E.A.L.

Shane Wolfe is assigned to protect an otherwise unsupervised family of children ranging from a bawling infant to a brash high school teen. In one fell swoop, Wolfe goes from the ultimate in military discipline to total suburban chaos.

His stamina and cunning are tested to their limits as he faces situations ranging from diving for lost diapers to decommissioning school bullies. Yet, as S.E.A.L. meets suburbia, Shane Wolfe finds that he is changing the Plummer family just as much as they are changing him.

As dysfunctional as they seem to be, when push comes to shove, the Plummers soon learn they truly need one another. To surround Diesel with just the right mix of mayhem and unexpected affection, the filmmakers set out on a search to cast a unique group of kids with comic chops to play the Plummer family offspring.

“Casting the Plummers was of paramount importance,” says director Adam Shankman, “and we not only wanted cute, smart, funny kids, but a quintet that would actually look like real brothers and sisters.”

Shankman began by casting Brittany Snow of television’s “American Dreams” in the key role of teenaged Zoe, then matched the rest of the family to her stunningly big, bright, blue eyes.

Ultimately, Shankman cast twins Bo and Luke Vink (they celebrated their first birthdays during production) in the role of infant Tyler—whose diaper calls for Shane Wolfe to summon the ultimate courage—and 3-year-old twins Logan and Keegan Hoover as toddler Peter, as well as up-and-coming young actors Max Thieriot (“Catch That Kid”) and Morgan York (“Cheaper by the Dozen”) as middle children Seth and Lulu.

Brittany Snow immediately won over Shankman with her rebellious energy, which the director thought would make the perfect comic foil for Diesel’s stickler-for-the-rules character.

“Brittany plays a goody-goody on ‘American Dreams,’but with Zoe she took the chance to show off her ‘bad girl’side and really went to town with it,” says Shankman.

“Zoe is truly the voice of the Plummer kids, and not only is Brittany incredibly experienced with comedy, but she proved she had the personality to really stand up to Vin. She just attacked the character in her audition.”

Snow had a blast playing a teen so fearless and full of attitude she’s willing to misbehave even in the midst of a discipline-happy Navy S.E.A.L.. “Zoe was just so much fun for me,” she says.

“She’s someone who’s desperately looking for attention, so she does all these things just so people will notice her. A lot of the humor and laughs come from the fact that Zoe is definitely not military material, and Shane can’t deal at all with her rebellion. But, ultimately, we learn that Zoe and Shane are really very much alike, and when they get past all that, they become friends and even help each other to do great things. I love that in between all the hilarious slapstick and cool stunts, there’s also a very sweet story about family.”

To cast Seth, the Plummer family’s doom-laden adolescent, Shankman was looking for someone who could reveal flashes of comic light in the distinctively dark character. “In the midst of this Disney family comedy, here is this kid who is really struggling through a very tough time emotionally. We wanted to stay true to the character’s struggle, but we also needed to find the humor in Seth,” explains the director.

“I totally credit Max Thieriot’s extraordinary talent and grace with making it work. He’s a very gifted actor, and not a bad singer and dancer as well!”

Max put all of these skills to work as Seth takes on the lead in a very unusual musical theater production, complete with male nuns, ethnic Nazis and haphazard costuming—only to have Shane Wolfe step in to save the day as the unlikely director. Vin Diesel was one of those impressed with the teenaged actor’s ability to shift between comedy and pathos while still coming across as an authentically troubled young man.

“I can’t say enough about Max,” says Diesel. “I told him, whether he likes it or not, he could very well be the next big thing. He’s a great kid and a fine young actor.”

Says Thieriot: “Seth is a very sad character in the beginning. He’s just really depressed and he doesn’t like to talk and he’s always wearing dark clothes that reflect how he’s feeling. But through his relationship with Shane, he starts to see that everything is going to be okay. It’s funny, but Shane, even though he’s this tough-guy soldier, is the one person who lets Seth know it’s okay to be an actor and that he can just be who he really is inside. He does something similar for each of the kids in the Plummer family, which is a pretty cool part of the movie.”

For Thieriot, the chance to work with screen idol Diesel was a major thrill. “I was definitely intimidated by Vin in the beginning,” he admits.

“But he couldn’t have been nicer to us and he let us play video games with him and all kinds of stuff like that and he just broke the ice. In the end, we not only became friends but I learned a lot about acting from Vin. He was always helping me to think about what my character was feeling, which in Seth’s case is a lot of confusing stuff!”

Finally, in the role of Lulu, who finds her troop being led through rough-and-ready combat drills and karate moves by their new “den mother,” Shane Wolfe, Shankman cast Morgan York. He did so on the recommendation of Steve Martin, who starred with the young actress in “Cheaper by the Dozen.”

Recalls Shankman: “Steve said, ‘Oh my God, you get to work with Morgan? She’s the best.’ So that was good enough for me and we hired her.”

York especially liked playing a grade-school kid who, despite her age, is already a heroine-in-training. “Lulu is really athletic, smart and energetic, and she’s very into combat video games and ninjas and all that stuff because she wants to be a hero, too,” she says.

“She’s into the same things as Shane Wolfe, but unfortunately, when he first meets her, he mainly just thinks she’s annoying. It isn’t until she invites him to be her troop’s den mother that their relationship really turns around. It’s a really hilarious story and I think it will be a lot of fun for people to see a bunch of little kids drive this tough military guy like Vin Diesel insane!”

NEXT: The Cast