Russell Smith is one of the producers of the now Oscar-nominated film JUNO. He is also a founder of the production company, Mr. Mudd, along with Lianne Halfon and John Malkovich. The extensive list of productions Smith worked on starts from such theatre pieces like True West and goes on to films like Of Mice and Men, Terry Zwigoff’s Ghost World, and The Libertine.

We asked him about how his theatre background influenced his skills as a film producer and what went into the making of this young, witty, and sincere film, Juno.


F.A: How did your theatre background influence your skills as a producer for motion pictures?

R.S: My theatre background formed my love of good actors and an ability to work under pressure. Film allows the producer to be involved after the project is shot, in such fields such as editing, campaigns, and music.

F.A: Juno seems to have a very young and energetic team behind it from the director and writer to the actors. Can you tell us a little bit about working with this young, talented group of people and how this quality affected the formation of a now Oscar-nominee picture?

R.S: What we tried to do on this film is create a bubble of comfort for the director. We had very little time to shoot [30 days] and not much money, so finding the comfort zone was important. We made sure that we all knew what we wanted the film to be well in advance. We had no idea we were making an “Oscar quality film.” We just tried to make this film as well as possible.

For more information on Mr. Mudd Productions, please visit www.mrmudd.com.

Interview by Eren Gulfidan - www.filmannex.com/Eren%20Gulfidan