Spread
Short description
Spread is a 2009 American comedy romance about Nikki, a young man in Los Angeles who trades on his looks to avoid working. He lives rent-free in a Hollywood Hills house belonging to Samantha, a successful middle-aged lawyer, in exchange for sex and companionship, and uses the place for other encounters while she is away. His arrangement is shaken when he meets Heather, a waitress he finds himself genuinely drawn to, and discovers that she pursues men for money and comfort just as he does. The two enter a contest of one-upmanship involving expensive restaurants, parties and sex, which eventually forces each of them to weigh money against love.
David Mackenzie directed the film, the fourth in a run that began with Young Adam and continued through Asylum and Hallam Foe before later titles such as Perfect Sense, Starred Up and Hell or High Water. Paul Kolsby and Jason Dean Hall, credited as Jason Hall, wrote the screenplay. Ashton Kutcher plays Nikki and produced alongside Peter Morgan and Jason Goldberg. Anne Heche plays Samantha, Margarita Levieva plays Heather, and Sebastian Stan, Ashley Johnson and Sonia Rockwell appear among a credited cast of 46.
The film took about 12 million dollars worldwide, a modest return for a Hollywood production. On IMDb it holds 5.8 out of 10 from more than 41,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.6 out of 10 from around 970 votes, placing audience feeling in the middle. A critics' rating of 4.2 out of 10 from 60 reviews is lower than those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was released under the title L.A. Gigolo in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, as Toy Boy in France, and American Playboy in Spain.
- To get into character, Ashton Kutcher spent a lot of time talking to Warren Beatty, who played a similar character in Hal Ashby's drama "Shampoo" (1975). In addition, the actor read Neil Strauss’s book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists (2005) about gigolos and seduction techniques.
- The party scene at the very beginning, where Samantha, played by Ann Heche, appears for the first time in the film, lasts for over three and a half minutes. The scene was directed to be shot "in one take" – without subsequent editing.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
