Next Gen 2011: Hollywood's Fastest-Rising Stars
Though Doremus, 28, attended AFI and learned a "more structured style of filmmaking," it's his improv roots -- he taught at the Orange County Crazies after studying at the Groundlings, where his mother was a founding member -- that are leading him to fame. When making his third film, the Sundance-winning Like Crazy, Doremus eschewed a script, opting instead for a 50-page outline that supplied direction for his actors (Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones), who, in turn, supplied the film's dialogue. It's a method he employed in 2010's Douchebag, which also made it to Sundance. "Once Anton and Felicity were in the moment, they would just lose themselves and the words would come to them," Doremus says. "You just go in the editing room and steal these little moments of romance." Doremus, who is single, hopes to make a movie a year; he's now working on a bigger improv drama with Jones, Guy Pearce, Amy Ryan and Kyle MacLachlan. "We had 600 extras on set, improvising every second," he says of the project, now in the editing phase. "It was kind of crazy."
