MOVIES : Casting About for Authenticity in the ‘River’

The fishing had to be right.

Robert Redford sought the help of five fly-casting specialists for “A River Runs Through It,” among them George Croonenberghs and John Bailey. Croonenberghs was Norman Maclean’s lifelong fishing pal and tied flies for both Paul and Norman Maclean. His job was to ensure that Brad Pitt, who played Paul, and Craig Sheffer, who played Norman, “looked like” their characters as they moved about the river and also to furnish authentic Maclean-style flies. Bailey runs a fishing business in Livingston, Mont., and was sought out to stand hip-deep in the rushing Gallatin River to teach Pitt and Sheffer, non-fishermen, how to fly-cast.

Casting style was part of the characters’ statement of personality. Pitt needed to be the long, aggressive caster, as that’s how Paul did it. Tom Skerritt, who played his father, could get away with short “old-man” casts.

“Redford didn’t say much,” Bailey says. “It’s amazing how much trust he puts in people. He’d just come around and say to me: ‘Tell me if there’s something wrong. I want it correct.’ ”

In reviewing a piece of film footage, Bailey noted that one of Sheffer’s casts was stiff, unnatural. Bailey suggested that Redford reshoot with Sheffer walking into the scene, casting while on the move. The scene was reshot; it’s in the film. “Well, it’s not perfect, but it looks about right, more natural,” Bailey says.

Redford finally flew Bailey to Santa Monica to review a rough-cut version of the completed film. Bailey groaned at some of the casting scenes. Over dinner, Redford asked Bailey to go into the studio over the next two days to spot all flunkie casts. Bailey, at this point functioning as a film editor, was merciless--precisely what Redford wanted. “There’s not actually a lot of casting in the film now,” Bailey says. “What there is looks pretty good, though.”

Croonenberghs’ consultancy was more specific to the Macleans. For years he had a cabin alongside the Macleans’ at Seeley Lake.

Croonenberghs made sure the actors were fitted with bamboo creels, as the Macleans had used. That they fished with the chest strap unfastened. That they wore cotton pants (no hip boots) and felt hats. He made sure that whenever a fly appeared in the film--on Paul’s hat or in Norman’s box--they were authentic. For this purpose, Croonenberghs freshly tied a few sets of “generals,” the same few generic flies that served Paul well in most circumstances, from nymph to hatch, as well as his revered Bunyon Bug, which, in the film, helps Norman land a big one while Paul, fishless, stews.

Croonenberghs wonders if things would have gone differently had Norman Maclean been on hand to keep things “correct”:

“He would have given them some of his language--you know, it could be rough. You never knew which way he’d go. Norman was like the water when he spoke: the rapids, the deep holes, the smooth slicks.”