Landis Intent on Hiring Children, Witness Says

“Twilight Zone” film director John Landis gruffly replied, “The hell with you guys . . . we’ll get them off the streets ourselves,” when told that it would be illegal to hire children for nighttime filming, a casting director testified Wednesday.

The witness, Marci Liroff, also swore that after Landis “very vividly” described the Vietnam battle scene in which the children would act, she “mentioned it sounded kind of dangerous to me.”

The two children subsequently hired by Landis with the assistance of associate producer George Folsey Jr.--Renee Chen, 6, and Myca Dinh Lee, 7--were killed along with actor Vic Morrow, 53, in a helicopter crash on the set in July, 1982. Landis, Folsey and three associates are on trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter as a result of the deaths.

Liroff, speaking calmly, said the exchange with Landis took place at a casting session in Landis’ office about five weeks before the tragedy and that both her boss, Mike Fenton, and Folsey were in attendance.

Liroff, who has cast about 30 movies, including “E.T.” and “Footloose,” said she explained that the use of children would be illegal since the state does not allow children to work on scenes shot late at night. Fenton, she added, then said that if the children had no speaking parts, they would not be hired by his firm anyway since they would be considered extras.

Landis, who acted “a little gruff,” proceeded to discuss with Folsey the hiring of the children secretly themselves, Liroff testified.

In cross-examination, defense attorney James Sanders sought to attack Liroff’s credibility by questioning whether her recollections were colored by news reports she read after the tragedy and by the length of time--more than a year--between the casting meeting and her first interview with a sheriff’s investigator.

During the investigator’s interview, Liroff conceded, she may have stated that Landis had told her the children would be acting in a scene with Vic Morrow. Yet at the time of the casting meeting, Sanders said, Morrow was still being considered along with Glen Campbell and Peter Coyote for the part.