As students enter college, many opportunities await them such as partying, joining a loving community or making close-knit friends. Those moments can be immortalized through stories, photos or even for an audience to see for years to come.
The film “The Line,” directed by Ethan Berger, seeks to show what fraternity life is like through the eyes of Tom Backster, played by Alex Wolff, as he works his way through college and learns what it means to be a member of the fictional fraternity KNA.
USC alumnus Zack Purdo, the film’s co-writer and executive producer, said the original script for the film was written 12 years ago after Berger asked him to help create a movie about southern American fraternity life. The duo wrote a script mixing comedy with controversial aspects of fraternity life to spark a conversation, Purdo said.
Purdo said to ensure the film’s realism, he shared bits of his own story from his time at USC and as a member of the fraternity Sigma Alpa Epsilon to the film. Purdo shared photos from his years in his fraternity with wardrobe and set designers to ensure the environment was convincing so the audience can feel like they are stepping into the film's world, he said.
“I really worked to try to make sure that the wardrobes were authentic,” Purdo said. “I think that (what) was important was trying to create the authenticity throughout, even with the screenwriting.”
The cast was sent to South Carolina to learn the aspects of fraternity life and how to deepen their characters after Purdo was able to contact Sigma Alpha Epsilon, he said.
One of the movie’s actors, Bo Mitchell, said the experience at USC and traveling to South Carolina brought him closer to his character, Mitch Miller, while also bringing him back to his adventurous younger years as a spectator at various fraternity events.
Mitchell said he has been invited to fraternity parties when he was in college and no matter how many he attended, the parties always seemed to surprise him. What truly helped Mitchell build his character was a close friend of his named Michael, Mitchell said.
“(His experiences in college) just blew my mind," Michell said. "That just helped me really formulate some of the (behaviors) of the character.”
Mitchell's friend, Michael, was a part of a fraternity and told him about his experiences that helped Mitchell make his character more realistic he said.
Nick Basile, a graduate finance student, and Mason Roberts, a graduate English student, were involved in USC fraternity life before graduating in 2022 and helped develop the cast's characters. Together with the rest of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Roberts and Basile gave the actors a “speedrun” of their experience. They took the actors to a football game, tailgate and a tour around Five Points that fall semester of 2021. In the following spring, the cast flew out to Oklahoma to begin filming.
When filming began, Berger and Purdo brought in a select number of Sigma Alpha Epsilon members to verify the accuracy of the characters to fraternities Roberts said.
Roberts said he viewed the experience as a foot in the door into the world of film since he wanted to be a screenwriter.
Basile said he saw the visit as something fun to be a part of.
"I had a little bit of acting experience, but not much, I had an art credit," Basile said. "Then it went from meeting the director and Alex Wolff, showing them my fraternity for the weekend ... and it snowballed into them asking if I wanted to be background."
The background characters Basile and Roberts were given were not fully fleshed out. Both of them said they had more creative freedom while acting because Purdo provided fewer tips about their characters.
Roberts' character, Oliver Stevenson, is the class president who undergoes hazing in the film. Due to the open-ended script for his character, Roberts said he was able to continuously improvise scenes.
"In the scenes my character did speak, I was able to write those on the spot," Roberts said. "And it worked ... because Austin (Abrams) got kind of mad at me as an actor because I have no experience ... and his anger reflected really well for his character."
Basile played Frank Vitti and said his favorite moment during filming was an unscripted improv scene when he was in the car with the leading actor, Wolff. In the first scene of the film he got to act in, he said he was faced with an emotionally charged, experienced actor while he himself was learning the ropes.
“I pretty much just got thrown in (this) car … and it's this emotional scene, Alex yelling at me and it’s all improvised," Basile said. "It was this crazy trial by fire experience that was really special."
Basile said the more experienced cast took the two under their wing and provided tips when they could. Angus Cloud was the biggest mentor for both Roberts and Basile before his passing at the end of production. Cloud had previously acted in "Euphoria" in 2019 Basile said.
“Before Euphoria, (Hollywood) plucked (Angus) off the street, and he knew that I, in a way, was similarly been plucked off the street,” Basile said, “In a lot of moments where I got nervous ... he was super helpful, pulling me aside and be like, ‘You’re doing good.'”
Roberts said COVID-19 made shoots for “The Line” a challenge; there were daily tests, masks were off when cameras were rolling and immediately placed back on after the cameras stopped rolling, and after shooting that day, actors were restricted in where they could go. Through the strict COVID-19 protocols, the cast managed to find time to bond with each other when together in their designated locations, Roberts said.
“We were all locked in a hotel," Roberts said. "It made us all very close ... we still are KNA."
“The Line”, Purdo said, wanted to give people the message that it is important to stay true to yourself.
"It's a good caution tale," Purdo said. "But I also do love my fraternity brothers and my experience with the fraternity. It's like life, it's a double-edged sword. I think that's really what I wanted to show, life's not always black and white ... and its not an easy path."
"The Line" is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.