Luckily I only cast the model, Kelly Mittendorf and someone else was responsible for finding Ellen the dancing monkey that Ellen wanted…

I’d been out of the UK almost 8 years when I cast this job, and I’d never worked with Design Studio before, so I remember anxiously waiting for them outside my home in Silverlake – hoping that they weren’t going to be ‘hard work’.

I was relieved, then, when I heard a lot of giggling and a big cloud of cigarette smoke making it’s way up the steps to my front door – I’d almost forgotten how wonderful us Brits and our sense of humour are!

For example: when a powercut plunged our casting for callbacks on Venice Beach into total darkness – the photographer, producer, creative director continued undeterred, using cigarette lighters and their mobile phone screens to carry on!!!

Produced by the very talented Annabel Schofield, at Bella*Bene, and shot by the master of strong, sunshine colors, Tony Kelly – our job was to cast a combination of models and streetcast a group of ‘real people’ to populate the world that Tony wanted for the shoot.

This was a very big production, shooting all round Hollywood, with loads of extras and massive props, including an apple tree covered in plastic red apples!

The wonderful Mote Sinabel is both a fantastic photographer and a great friend.

He chose to use Mark Lebon’s studio in West London for the location and the three models; Charlie, Atticus and Frankie, are all good friends and great boys!