Famed Santa Monica Acting Coach Directs a Film About the Unthinkable

Melonie Magruder
Lookout Staff

June 9, 2011 – Before acclaimed acting coach and Santa Monica resident Michelle Danner plunged into her latest project -- directing a film adaptation of John Buffalo Mailer's disturbing novella about explosive and unfathomable teen violence in American society -- she was already known for taking on challenging work.

Michelle Danner works with Garrett Backstrom and Norman Reedus. Photo by Peter Azisas

She has coached A-list actors worldwide, both privately and on set, including Academy Award winners and nominees like Penelope Cruz, James Franco, Salma Hayek, Gerard Butler and Christian Slater.

In 2000, she tapped Hollywood royalty such as Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Neil Simon to fund Santa Monica's famed Edgemar Center, which houses two theaters, an art gallery and a rotating panel of world-class performers and teachers like funnyman Brad Garrett.

And in 2006, she produced and directed the indie comedy film "How to Go Out On a Date in Queens," starring Jason Alexander.

So how did she come to take on something as dark and tragic as "Hello Herman," the story of a teenager who instigates a Columbine-like murder rampage and then manipulates a journalist into telling his side of the horror?

"Because Mailer's script was brilliant," Danner told The Lookout. "We had staged another play of his and he offered me 'Hello Herman.' It doesn't sensationalize the tragedy of the story but it also doesn't offer any solutions.

“I think it puts up a mirror to society and hopefully, will launch a national conversation about why these things are happening, why kids suddenly snap and kill lots of innocent people. And maybe some not so innocent," said Danner.

In April, 1999, high schoolers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting rampage at their Colorado school, killing 15 (including themselves) and injuring another 24.

The event sparked films – notably Michael Moore's documentary "Bowling for Columbine" and Gus Van Sant's film "Elephant" – news reports and a shocked national examination of the source of such mindless carnage, but did little to stem a seeming rising tide of violence from youngsters.

Nearly eight years later to the day, a Virginia Polytechnic University student killed 32 and wounded 25 before killing himself.

In January of this year, student Jared Loughner killed six people and injured 14 others, including Arizona Representative Gabby Giffords at one of the congresswoman's district meetings. After the tragedy, it was learned that Loughner had evinced plenty of signs of mental illness in the preceding year.

Danner, the mother of a young son, was in pre-production for "Hello Herman" at the time and said she was deeply shaken.

"I think what is happening is a lack of connection," Danner said. "We live in a world that moves so fast. Kids grow up so fast these days, even in the most nurturing of schools and families.

“Video games are violent, society is violent,” she said. “We need to start having conversations with our children earlier about feelings that spur a kid to become alienated. And then, we need to examine how complicit the media is in all this.

“We are all the protagonist in this and we are all responsible."

Mailer, the son of American literary lion Norman Mailer, was just a few years older than Harris and Klebold when they went on their rampage. He takes issue with media's role in this social phenomenon.

"When Columbine happened, I personally wanted answers," Mailer said from his home in New York. "I disagreed with the media coverage at the time. 'Hello Herman' was a way to explore this thing that can't be explained. Rich white kids from the suburbs attacking us with machine guns. Where was this coming from?"

Mailer said that he feels the technology revolution has played a strong part in reshaping youth's relationship with society, noting that "People are starting to spend more and more time with machines."

But Mailer was also struck by a certain "iconification" of the perpetrators, whose faces and histories are ubiquitous following such events.

"There is an element of 'Natural Born Killers,' in it," he said, referring to Oliver Stone's film that features mindless killers who are made into cultural anti-heroes. "The media can't get enough of
them. So how much do they compromise their own integrity with constant sensationalism?"

Danner is hoping their film, which she is now editing and will be taking to film festivals around the country, sparks some frank dialogue between parents, their children, their schools and society at
large. Everyone, she says, is accountable.

Meanwhile, Danner is on her way to teach some acting workshops in Dubai - a society infamously closed to much of Western understanding. But she's looking forward to it.

"They are very repressed in Dubai," Danner said. "I think they look forward to the emotional outlet of good acting technique."