Me and Orson Welles Character Card: Gretta Adler (Zoe Kazan)

Zoe Kazan was delighted to be cast by Richard Linklater. "I had known a lot of people who had worked with him and all of them had had nothing but the kindest things to say and they all turned out to be true. He's very easy-going and he's really hands-on as a director. He doesn't hold your hand or baby you, he let's you do the interpretation on your own and tells you what he needs and he's a lot of fun to work with.

"Gretta seemed very clear to me. Often when I'm reading a script I can tell right away whether or not it will be a character that I can play and I just sort of understood where she was coming from, being young and precocious and excited about the world. She loves to read and she's just very intelligent and interesting. I also liked her because she doesn't seem like a person of substance the first time you meet her, she's the way that very young people can be. She's a little in awe of everyone around her and in awe of her own ambitions and then she actually turns out to be an artist."

As an accomplished stage actress and a self-confessed history buff, she would have loved to have seen Welles' "Caesar" – "that kind of ambition and charisma and balls – quite a package. My hope is that the film will educate a younger audience about Orson Welles and about what the 1930s in New York were like. It's a very accessible and entertaining story."

Newcomer Zoe Kazan received high praises for her breakout role as Maureen Grube in Sam Mendes' "Revolutionary Road" opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. An acclaimed theater actress and 2005 graduate of Yale University, Zoe made her New York stage debut in 2006 in the Off-Broadway revival of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" opposite Cynthia Nixon. Kazan continued to shine on stage in 2007, starring in Jonathan Marc Sherman's Things We Want, directed by Ethan Hawke and Playwrights Horizons' production of 100 Saints You Should Know, for which she received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play, as well as the Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress. In January 2008, Kazan made her Broadway debut opposite S. Epatha Merkerson and Kevin Anderson in a revival of William Inge's "Come Back, Little Sheb". Following this role, Zoe was named the recipient of the 2008 Derwent Award. Zoe is the only actor to be awarded the Derwent Award for three roles in one year: "Come Back, Little Sheba, 100 Saints You Should Know and Things We Want". In the Fall of 2009, Zoe returned to Broadway in the New York adaptation of the critically acclaimed, London hit "The Seagull." She starred as Masha, opposite Kristin Scott Thomas and Peter Sarsgaard. Zoe is also a talented playwright who's family drama, Absalom, was produced at the 2009 Humana Festival at the Actor's Theater of Louisville. A second play has been commissioned by Manhattan Theater Club. In 2007 she was featured in Paul Haggis' thriller, In the Valley of Elah and Fracture and most recently appeared in Rebecca Miller's The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and I Hate Valentine's Day. Zoe recently wrapped picture on two new films: Josh Radnor's directorial debut, "HappyThankYouMorePlease," with Radnor, Malin Akerman, Kate Mara, and Pablo Schrieber; and Kelly Reichardt's latest movie, "Meek's Cutoff," which also stars Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, and Shirley Henderson. Up next you can see Zoe in Bradley Rust Gray's "The Exploding Girl," for which she was awarded Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film by the Tribeca Film Festival; and Nancy Meyers' new film "It's Complicated" with Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.

Based in real theatrical history, Me and Orson Welles is a romantic coming-of-age story about a teenage actor who lucks into a role in Julius Caesar as it's being re-imagined by a brilliant, impetuous young director named Orson Welles at his newly-founded Mercury Theater in NYC, 1937. The rollercoaster week leading up to opening night has the charismatic-but-sometimes-cruel Welles (impressive newcomer ChristIan McKay) staking his career on this risky production while Richard (Zac Efron) mixes with everyone from starlets to stagehands in behind-the-scenes adventures bound to change him. Claire Danes co-stars as Sonja Jones, the unapologetically ambitious assistant to Welles whom Richard tries to woo. Ben Chaplin plays Mercury Theater regular George Coulouris. Zoe Kazan, Eddie Marsan, Kelly Reilly and James Tupper are among the talented ensemble cast.

The fast-moving screenplay by Holly Gent Palmo and Vince Palmo is based on Robert Kaplow's meticulously researched novel of the same name. Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater is at the helm of the CinemaNX and Detour Film production, opening nationally in select cities November 25, 2009.

Photos by Liam Daniel, Copyright CinemaNX Films One Ltd.