Casting Dynamics: Finding the Right Fit for the Film

Directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen discusses their new film, Novocaine, with fellow Director Drew Hancock in a Q&A at the DGA theater in Los Angeles. In the conversation, they discuss taking notes from 80s and 90s action movies to straddle the tonal line between comedy and action, their inspirations for casting Actors Jack Quaid and Amber Midthunder in the lead roles, and finding a fighting style for a character not of your typical action hero makeup.

The film tells the story of Nathan Caine, a man born with the rare condition where he is physically incapable of feeling pain. When the girl of his dreams is kidnapped by gun-wielding bank robbers, he turns his rare condition into an unexpected advantage in the fight to rescue her.

See photos and a summary of this event below:

https://dga.org/Events/2025/May2025/Novocaine_QnA_0325