A Hollywood Homecoming
Jason Wiles directs a star cast in movie based on his Lenexa adolescence
By ROBERT W. BUTLER
The Kansas City Star
Sun, Jun. 12, 2005

Physicists tell us that a perpetual motion machine is impossible.

They haven't met Jason Wiles.

The 35-year-old former Lenexan left for Hollywood 15 years ago to break into movies. He found a six-year gig portraying Officer Maurice "Bosco" Boscorelli on NBC's "Third Watch" and then came home this spring to direct his first movie.

It's called "Lenexa 1 Mile," and it's based on the experiences of Wiles and his boyhood pals.

Today the production has taken over Kelly's Westport Inn for a scene in which five Lenexa teens go partying. The film company has rented the saloon for two days. Black tarps cover the front windows so nighttime scenes can be filmed during daylight, and a rent-a-cop advises customers to drink elsewhere.

Inside the old building, production designer Loren Weeks and his crew have built a bandstand at the north end of the big barroom. There Austin singer/songwriter/guitarist Gary Clark Jr. (who's also composing the movie's score) and his trio are playing a killer instrumental version of Jimi Hendrix's "Third Stone From the Sun.

"Kelly's interior has been plastered with posters advertising imaginary blues concerts. Plastic beer cups are filled with nonalcoholic suds; a prop man makes sure old cigarette butts fill the ashtrays. No actual smoking is allowed ... a fog machine provides the thick atmosphere creating an eerie green and blue haze illuminated by the dozens of lights hung on pipes rigged to the barroom's ceiling.

In the middle of all this, the 35-year-old Wiles prowls, his wiry form often doubled over in a crouch as he moves through the room, his hands providing a frame so he can imagine the next shot.

He's been awake for two hours after watching dailies until 3 a.m. Between lining up shots and consulting with crew and cast members, he manages to sneak in a bite of burger and a handful of fries.

Today's call is for 2 p.m., and the day won't end for at least 12 hours. It may be the most complicated scene in the film, involving live music, dozens of dancing extras (right now next door being outfitted with '80's-style big hair and Madonna wannabe fashions), smoke effects and a brawl. Over a girl, naturally. Shem Bitterman, the New Yorker who is Wiles' producing and writing partner, said that the film's premise came straight from Wiles. "Jason came up with this basic concept of boyhood friends spending their last summer together ... that was about a year ago. And now here we are. This project came together so fast {hellip} it never happens this quickly."

A big reason is that a couple of Wiles' high school buddies have done so well in business that they underwrote the production.

Wiles recalled saying goodbye to his friend Mark Koetting in 1990: "Mark said, 'You go be a movie star. I'll become Donald Trump. Come back and we'll make movies together.' "

Living his dream

At 8 p.m., with six hours of filming, Wiles finally sits down under a big party tent in a Westport parking lot for dinner. Other cast and crew members have already eaten and returned to Kelly's to prep the next shot.

Does he consider the pace exhausting? He grins and shakes his head.

"Are you kidding? I'm living my dream. Fifteen years after leaving Kansas City, it's happening."

His childhood did not suggest he would become an actor, writer and director in the movies. The Shawnee Mission West grad was into football and wrestling, not theater.

"But I was always a clown," he recalled. "In the eighth grade I won a city speech contest by doing an Eddie Murphy routine. I'm no good at public speaking, but if I can assume a role and speak as that person, then I'm fine. When I had to give a book report, I always did it in character."

After seeing a friend's sister in a high school production of "South Pacific," Wiles said, he became a theater fan. But it wasn't until after high school graduation and stints on the sets of several films shot here in the late '80s that he realized what he wanted.

Wiles was an extra in "Mr. & Mrs. Bridge," appeared in a trimmed scene of "Article 99" and briefly played a schoolboy in the made-for-TV "Sometimes They Come Back."

"Those experiences were enough to convince me that I wanted to spend the rest of my life on sets," he said. So, without any real acting training or experience, he moved to Los Angeles."

In the beginning, I sucked. I had no patience for rude people, so I couldn't wait tables. Instead I valet parked in Beverly Hills."

Little by little, roles came his way. He made his debut as a sexually molested teen in "Big Boys Don't Cry," a CBS show aimed at the after-school crowd. Later he appeared in Robert Rodriguez's made-for-TV "Roadracers," then in "Windrunner" and "Higher Learning." He was one of three finalists (along with Chris O'Donnell and Matt Damon) for the role of Robin in the "Batman" franchise and played a drug dealer on "Beverly Hills, 90210."

"But after every job it was back to square one. After '90210' I couldn't get hired for two years. I made a couple of pilots that didn't get picked up. Every time I thought things were turning up, they went down."

Seven years ago he got a script for an upcoming series about New York City police, firefighters and paramedics working the 4 p.m.-to-midnight shift.

The script described the character of Bosco, as "6 feet 4 and 250 pounds of muscle, frustration and attitude.

"Wiles is 5-feet-9 and 160 pounds. So he decided to make up in belligerence what he lacked in bulk. It worked. His display of New York aggressiveness at the auditions won him the role.

For the last six years Wiles has been bicoastal. "Third Watch" (which just ended its long run) was filmed in New York. Wiles' wife, literary agent Joanne Roberts, and their two children stayed in Los Angeles.

On one level the separation was beneficial. Wiles had the time on his hands to study how a TV show was made. He watched and listened and asked questions. He made lasting friends among the crew members, many of whom are now working on "Lenexa 1 Mile."

A personal story

Many elements of "Lenexa" are plucked from his own past, Wiles said.

"I grew up with an incredibly close-knit group of friends. There were 10 of us and we were inseparable, like brothers. Some of us had money. Others had none at all. Most of us were from broken homes."

Back then it was lots of fights, fake IDs, field parties, beer ... we thought we were invincible." Within years of leaving high school, though, two of the 10 had died behind the wheel in drunken driving accidents.

That became the kernel for Wiles and Bitterman's screenplay: five friends. One of them - the young man everyone else looks up to - dies, and his surviving pals discover a dark secret about the guy they so admired. They decide to set things right.

Wiles and Bitterman say they envision a film with a mood similar to "Breaking Away," with influences from "Badlands," "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" and "Tender Mercies."

That they're aiming high may explain how they've put together a prime rib cast and crew on a hamburger budget.

Among the veteran actors on board are William Baldwin, Michael Rooker and Michael Beach. The five young men are being played by Jason Ritter (son of the late John Ritter), Josh Stewart ("Third Watch"), Austin Nichols ("The Day After Tomorrow," "Wimbledon"), Paul Wesley (TV's "Wolf Lake") and Wiles' own half-brother, Tim Hensel.

The cast is rounded out by Chris Klein ("American Pie") and Jennifer Hall (star of TV's "Legally Blonde").

Wiles said he was floored when 60 of Hollywood's best young actors showed up for auditions.

"That's when I realized that really good actors were gravitating toward this story."

William Baldwin, whose film credits include "Internal Affairs," "Backdraft" and "Bulworth," calls the film "a high school senior version of 'Stand by Me.' It's a really great coming-of-age drama. And it gave me an opportunity to work in the Midwest, which for most actors is a place you fly over between New York and L.A. I've shot in a lot of exotic places, but too often actors don't get the chance to experience life the way everybody else does."

If he had any qualms about working with a first-time director, Baldwin said, they were quickly put to rest.

"Jason's been very cool, calm and collected. Really confident. And a lot of that is that he really knows the material, he knows Lenexa and Kansas City. It's his story."

Jason Ritter, 25, who just ended a two-season run on TV's "Joan of Arcadia," said he knew Wiles had the right stuff with their first meeting.

"I was really dreading the audition because it was a real physical scene where two guys end up wrestling each other to the ground. But Jason played the other guy, and he gave me something to work with. He fake punched me, got me down on the floor. Because he knows that an actor wants to play the physicality of that."

Wiles and Bitterman's script, Ritter said, was far more complex than its subject matter - teenagers - would suggest.

"What grabbed me was that there were several times when I was sure I knew what would happen next ... and then it went in another direction. It was surprising and thoughtful and largely character-driven. That's what actors look for."

And Jason's given us so much creative leeway. We're not just marionettes. He's an actor, too, so he really appreciates and understands what actors can add to the creative process."

And not just actors. Wiles' crew has its share of heavyweights, such as director of photography David Boyd (TV's "Without a Trace" and "Deadwood") and film editor Steve Mark ("X Files," "Deadwood").

"Really, there is no money," Bitterman explained. "They're all doing it because they respond to the script. People in film want the opportunity to do something out of the ordinary. And this is a lot more interesting than the usual stuff they're offered."

Wiles said he hasn't had time to be nervous or scared.

"My biggest challenge is articulating what I want. I don't play a character here. But I believe if the cast and crew can feel my excitement and passion, they'll return it." That's why everyone on the shoot - not just actors but also truck drivers and the caterers - was given a copy of the screenplay. Wiles wanted them to feel they had a personal stake in the project.

"You know, up to now I've always had a hard time going to bed before midnight," Wiles said. "Until this movie, that is.

"Of course, I do wake up at 4 a.m. thinking, 'I forgot to get that one shot. What am I going to do?' Then the panic passes and I say to myself, 'Ah, take it easy. It'll work out.' "