Charlie (Adam Brody) is the suave young businessman who attracts the attentions of two of the women in the group. “Charlie is a man of strong ideals and opinions,” says Brody. “He’s extremely nostalgic for a bygone era of art and manners and civility in expression, of being chivalrous. He’s a really good guy, and yet at the same time he thinks that making it up and lying are different things, as long as his intentions are good.”
Says Stillman: “Charlie is a person with the gift of gab who has considerable imagination without much outlet for it at Seven Oaks. His creativity goes into developing an alternate identity which strangely complements Violet’s similar tendency. Like everyone else though he is initially, and for a long time, attracted to Lily who is a bit of a tabula rasa on which expectations can be projected. But Lily has her own nature that’s not a blank.” Charlie proved the hardest part to cast. “We had submissions for lots of wonderful actresses but no Charlies came close,” Stillman says.
Consulting Producer Cecilia Roque had worked with Adam on The Romantics and strongly recommended him. “Finally on an unexpected late trip to Los Angeles we could meet. Adam immediately had the part and carried it out with aplomb. Nothing could be faster and better than shooting with Adam Brody.”
Xavier (Hugo Becker) was originally conceived as an American character — “Tom,” a handsome grad student, attractive to women but otherwise quite conventional. His adherence to Cathar Love was to have been his “interesting” incongruity.
“We never found an America Tom,” Stillman says, “Maybe Cathar Love scared them off or our girl dominated story. We were in extremis when Paul Nelson of Mosaic submitted an audition of Hugo’s on tape. Hugo’s version combined attractiveness and charm with the strangeness of the character.”
It was a struggle getting Hugo a visa in time – he still had a slender resume in France and had not yet been crowned as the romantic “Prince Louis” of Gossip Girl. The nationality change also meant changing the character’s name and the script – the “Xavier as Xorro” debate came out of these last minute revisions.
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