Who's playing Joseph Cotton in ME AND ORSON WELLES?
James Tupper to play Welles' great friend and long time cinematic collaborator in Richard Linklater's unique biopic.
40's and 50's leading man Joseph Cotton is inevitably brought up whenever anyone talks about the great Orson Welles. They were of course great pals, the Matt Damon & Ben Affleck of their day... and when they challenged each other on screen with their performances they usually brought out the best in each other.
Cotton is one of my favourite actors of all time. The moral backbone of Citizen Kane. The tragic lead and hack writer in The Third Man, his amazing performance often over-looked for Welles' five minutes of fame. The sick psychopath serial killer in Shadow of a Doubt. The Magnificent Ambersons - Gaslight - Soylent Green - Journey into Fear. So many great performances. His name is so synonymous with Welles, that you really can't do any kind of biopic on the man without bringing his name up. 42 year old actor American actor James Tupper (pictured above, with a clear face resemblance to Cotton), best known for his recurring role on Men in Trees has been cast as Joseph Cotton in Me and Orson Welles. The movie stars Zac Efron as a high school student who gets noticed by Mercury Theatre founder Orson Welles who gives him a bit part in his production of Julius Caesar the show that made Welles a star. The film will chronicles the kids week working on the production learning lessons about life and love. As we've already spoken about, Christian McKay who has played Welles extensively on the stage will play the great man himself, Ben Chaplin will play the great stage actor George Coulouris and the often irritating Claire Danes has also been cast in an unknown role. The movie is being cooked up by Richard Linklater, a director I've admired for quite some time and whose unique voice in the industry is certainly a great benefit to Hollywood. This has so much potential but I can imagine myself probably being more interested in the side events of the film than what is going on with Danes and Efron as the two leads. The movie is filming right now! source - aicn, the hollywood reporter