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Summer Bishil on Towelhead
By Fred Topel | Image property of Warner Independent
 Towelhead
Summer Bishil Talks Towelhead
"I had to do some digging definitely because Jasira's 13 wasn't mine," Bishil said. "I don't want to say I was more mature because I wasn't in some areas and everybody's different, but I definitely was different. She was more like what I would have been at 11 so I had to trail back to then. By the time I was 13 I was pretty like 'Hey, what's up, what are we doing today?' I was lucky. I had parents who stimulated me and put me in activities and I had friends. I wasn't uprooted yet so that was the difference in development."
Bishil defined Jasira with her physicality. "I changed my body posture. I made the choice that she was uncomfortable with her body hair, that she had a little more than girls at school. That was something that I was uncomfortable with. I developed earlier than some of my peers. There is that scene where she's shaving because the girls at the pool made fun of her because they didn't have that. She does already. That's really humiliating at that age and it can really mess with your head. I was conscious of that and sometimes I would cover her arms. I would slouch her because she was self-conscious about her breasts. I brought her voice up a couple octaves. Little things like that. I had a nervous tic that I had for her. She'd tap her index finger three times. I don't know if that was in the movie but I did that when she was really worried."
As the film's lead character, the unknown Bishil is Towelhead's big discovery, in an ensemble filled with veterans. "The audition process was pretty arduous for me and I knew. I was like, 'God, I haven't done anything.' Then I'm like, 'Well, who would play this role?' Me and my friend went through it and we're like, 'Who could play this role?' I had no attachment to it. I didn't really think I'd ever get it. I live in a tiny little apartment. I remember getting the call and a couple of my friends were over. They're all like, 'Alan Ball just signed off on you' and we're like, 'Really? No way!' I couldn't believe it. I was sitting on the couch like oh my God, trying to grasp it. I still have trouble grasping it. I had three auditions, two callbacks. The amount of auditions was small compared to what I had done. Sometimes I had auditioned eight times, flew out to different states and heard no."
Ball tested Bishil's mettle with the film's most difficult scene in early readings. "The big scene I remember she did where she tells everybody what's happened to her. I couldn't remember my lines. Usually when you can't remember your lines, sometimes actors will choose to be divas and really exercise their power. Peter didn't do that at all. I felt totally comfortable. I didn't have the role and he could've been a little rude or irritated. Alan and him were like, 'It's okay, let's start over again.' It was weird. It was the biggest audition that I'd ever been on for the biggest role. It was with Alan Ball and he was the nicest. It was really strange. That was the warmest experience I had ever had auditioning and it was the biggest one."
Towelhead is out in theaters now.
For the trailers, posters, stills, review and more movie info, go to the Towelhead Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of Warner Independent
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