Below you can read full-length character quotes from Drew's film/TV projects. Unless otherwise stated, all quotes have been transcribed by me. Thank you to everyone else who has transcribed for the site! I allow people to use my quotes on their own site, but there are some rules for their usage: I don't mind a person taking a few quotes to use on their page without crediting DFF.com, but it would be nice. What I don't want to see is someone taking every single quote to put on their site even if they are crediting the site. Thanks and enjoy all the quotes!

TUG Videoconference
Transcribed By: Kim [dlrgrl1]

Moderator: It's my extreme pleasure to welcome Jim Stovall, the author of The Ultimate Gift, entrepreneur, and actor in the Ultimate Gift. Mr. Stovall welcome back to our distant learning program.

Jim Stovall: Thank you very much and its great to be with everyone all across the country. I want to thank of course Polycom for making all this possible. I've gotten to do a lot of these over the past year or so and its been fun to talk to students all across the country about my book and today we get to expand it a little and talk to people about the book and the movie. So, I'm looking forward to your questions, and I am really glad to have my friend Drew Fuller and my colleague Cheryl McKay on with me today. In the past, I've had to carry this all myself, and today I am looking forward to sitting back, relaxing, and hearing what they have to say. TUG was the 5th book of the 12 I have written and it was the first book I wrote in fiction and I wrote the book in 5 days. It was the easiest book I've written in many ways and as a blind person, I don't read or write like you guys do. So, I dictated the book and there's a lady in my office I dictate all my books to and she types it out. This book, we didn't have to do any changes, edits, or rewrites and its just been a wonderful gift to me now that its sold more than 4 million copies in 15 languages all over the world and it gives me the opportunity to talk to wonderful people like you. When we decided to make the movie, I had been approached by a couple of movie studios before the movie we made now and frankly, they couldn't come up with a script I liked. They didn't keep the message and all the gifts intact and all the things I wanted to do so, I really rejected both of those and I was pretty much resolved that we weren't going to have a movie when Rick Eldridge, who is the producer of the film, and my friend and partner contacted me and said, why don't we make a movie and I said only if we can keep all the lessons and all the gifts intact. Rick was committed to that. Then he found Cheryl McKay, who your going to get to hear from, and working with Cheryl was a true joy because its got to be tough to take someone else's work and adapt to a movie like Cheryl does. But I got to work with her with that, and I got to have some input and she did a great job. And then to have Drew Fuller come in, and be the embodiment and turn into one of your lead characters was really fun for me. I remember the first day on the movie set and Drew came up to me and said, "I'm Jason" and that's really strange when Jason's always been a guy that you just kinda made up in your head, so its great to be here and I look forward to hearing from my colleagues Drew and Cheryl and answering your questions. Thank you.

Moderator: Thank you Mr. Stovall and we'll now turn it over to Cheryl McKay to say some opening remarks to our students.

Cheryl McKay: Hi. It's so awesome to be here today. Its such a neat system and thanks Polycom and Elaine and everybody for all your help setting this up. I have the extreme privilege of adapting Jim Stovall's wonderful novel into a screenplay and it has been one of the most meaningful experiences of my life. I cannot be more thankful for having this opportunity. I have always been writing. I have been writing since I was like 5 years old. I wrote my first play when I was 5 and my first book when I was 6 and none of those things will ever see the light of day of course but it was always a passion in my life to be writing. Then I switched to acting for awhile for about 7 years when I was a teenager. I was doing a lot of acting and I got to do a lot of plays with Ali Hillis, who when you see the movie, she plays Alexia, who is Emily's mom in the movie. But I realized I wasn't a very good actress and I needed to find something else to do with my life and that was when I was still writing on the side anyway and that was when I made the switch and I went to college and studied writing at film school at Regent University. I was fortunate to have someone in my life who was similar to Red who you hear in the movie and in the book who talks about the gift of dreams. My parents are the type of people who always encouraged me to follow my dreams no matter how crazy it was. I, even when I wanted to be an actress or whatever, they were always like if you wanna do it you can do it and I decided to become a screenwriter which is incredibly difficult thing to try to do. They were always behind me and pushing me to do whatever I had to do in order to make that dream come true. As Jim Stovall mentioned Rick Eldridge in Charlotte, I had moved with my family to North Carolina when I was a teenager and I ended up getting to meet Rick Eldridge's daughter when I was so bored with nothing to do in Charlotte, film wise, so I decided to make my own teen detective show and ended up meeting his daughter because she was an extra for me in it and that was how I got introduced to him. It was such a silly project at the time, but it really paid off, in that, I got to work with him on some other projects first and he brought me in for the TUG project. It was such a dream come true and I am so grateful to him for giving me the opportunity to help Jim see vision come to life. And the thing that attracted me most about Jim's project and hearing about him from Rick, was he just, the story Jim just told you and that he was working on the project with other people before Rick and he wasn't crazy about the content or it had R rated material, and I appreciated it a lot that Jim was preserving the project to be a family friendly type of movie and that is really the type of project I like to do so I thank both of them for the opportunity to do this and its so cool to be able to talk with you guys today.

Moderator: Thank you Miss McKay and we are gonna go back to Charleston to Drew Fuller who is the star of TUG.

Drew Fuller: Can you hear me? Oh... Hi. I am Drew Fuller and I play Jason Stevens and I'm just excited to be hear. I think this is kind of an amazing opportunity to get to answer some questions you all might have about the project and hi Jim hi Cheryl. Yeah, I basically got started with this movie, my manager sent me the script, just like any other script. I remember waking up, I read it in the morning, and I was still lying in bed and I was drinking some coffee and I was so moved by Jason and his journey and everything he had to overcome to become a better human being that I had to be a part of the project. I remember calling my manager going this is it, I have to do this thing, I don't know who was involved, I don't care, please let's just make it happen. A week later, I had a meeting with the director Michael Sajbel. It went extremely well, fantastic guy, just really witty and we hit it off and I just I felt like my hand was on the pulse of Jason and it just made sense and everything with Michael and everything he was saying made sense and I just... it was like one of those things where it was meant to be that you realize it pretty instantaneously that certain projects you are just meant to play and Jason is one of those characters for me. So, I don't know what else you want me to say.

Moderator: Thank you very much Mr. Fuller. We'll go to questions. I am sure the students will have a lot of questions for our guests today. So we are gonna start with Sturgis Middle School in North Dakota if you wanna open your mic.

Sturgis Middle School: Hi my name is Annie and this question is for Drew Fuller. Did you find it difficult to play the part of Jason as described in the book?

Drew Fuller: Um, you know, can I talk now? OK... um originally I was instructed by my team and its kind of a good idea when an actor when your playing a character out of a novel, sometimes they say don't read the book because then all of sudden there is gonna be times when your like why did that make the movie and ya know why is this in here and this isn't and so I when I read the script, Cheryl's script, I was, I instantly knew (pauses) hold on. I'm sorry. I'm like, I see you, someone else walked in the frame, it's the whole thing. Uh, it wasn't difficult I mean obviously Jason wasn't me so to kind of find these... I look at Jason as an islander and any character as an island and where I start, I need to build a bridge to get to that island and so I find some similarities between Jason and myself. I grew up in Newport Beach, California which is a really ya know privileged area. I wasn't necessarily obviously as rich or as wealthy as the Stevens family but I grew up in a very nice place and I was able to go to high school with and I would see these kids, most people were driving BMW's and Mercedes and I think even a kid had an Aston Martin at my high school which is absurd so I was able to base my character on people like that originally. I don't know if that answers your question. You wanna ask it again? Or anything? You sure? You sure? OK... I ramble...

Sturgis Middle School: I'm Ian and my question is for Mr. Stovall. What impact has this movie had on your life?

Jim Stovall: Well, I, ya know its interesting I like to tell people that books can change peoples ideas but movies could change a whole culture. When Jason was a character in my head and I dictated him into the manuscript that became my book , it was one thing. 4 million people have read that book around the world, but thanks to passing Jason off to Cheryl and her work and then letting Drew turn into Jason, it has really changed a lot. There are a lot of people who read my books and newspaper columns, that know me through that. But a lot of those people won't go to the movies and then there's a lot of people that go to the movies that don't read many books and they certainly don't read books that are personal development books like mine which is why I try to keep this over in the novel category so that we can really get the message through to people and help people. But its really made a big difference to me and its, working with people like Cheryl and Drew has made me see my work bigger and there are things I can do with sequels and other books and other movies and other things I am working on now so its wonderful to work with people that kind of expand your vision.

Drew Fuller: That was a very thorough answer my friend.

Sturgis Middle School: My name is Kayla and my question is for Miss McKay. There are so many good books and authors out there, why did you chose to write a movie about TUG?

Cheryl McKay: Well thankfully, the opportunity came up for this book to get made. The producers already had the rights to this project um... the one we mentioned earlier Rick Eldridge, he had the project with Jim Stovall and they needed to hire a writer for it. I didn't start the project. So they came to me and said they were gonna be making this movie and asked me if I would be interested in adapting this book and of course as soon as I read the book I was like yes, yes, yes, yes. I would love to adapt this into a movie because it was an amazing experience that first time that I read that book and followed Jason's journey and the people in his life that as you guys read in the book. I was just like, I could totally see this as a movie there wasn't any other choices to make of course because it was just awesome and you could tell it was a book that was meant to be a film.

Moderator: Great questions. We will go to Jean Pike Middle School for there questions.

Jean Pike Middle School: Good morning this is JPMS and I am Hailey and our first question is for Jim Stovall. What was it like for you to be in the movie?

Jim Stovall: Well, thank you for your question. To say I was in the movie is a bit of an overstatement. I have 1 scene with a couple lines and it was a fun experience for me. I spend a lot of my time on stage in arenas talking to huge groups of people 10, 12, 14,000 people at a time and that was a fun experience for me to get to perform in that way, to speak to conventions and things like that. Working on the movie was quite interesting for me. I own and run a television business and I do that kind of work but getting to hang around with people like Drew and watching them work or little Abigail Breslin or Mr. James Garner, it's a different experience. You realize how good these people are and one thing they do when you watch TV or a movie, they make it seem very, very easy. A great actor makes it seem like they are not even acting, it seems like your watching in like your looking through a window at this scene that's going on but when you stand there behind the scenes, you realize how many people make that possible. As a blind person, the director Michael Sajbel and the producer Rick Eldridge, were really committed to me getting to play this little part. And it was an experience I wanted to have. I want to do that hopefully in other movies I am involved with, but the one thing I learned from spending 8 days on the set, is that I have no desire to be an actor. It is a difficult thing to do and I have a great deal of respect for people like Drew to do that.

Jean Pike Middle School: I'm Cara and my question is for Drew Fuller. What movies have you played in and how many?

Drew Fuller: Oh god is this like a trick question? Uh... Ok... Uh let me see here. Uh 1-2... wait ya know the best thing to do because I'll probably mess it up and then someone will quote me later as saying he said 12 and he was only in 4, is go on IMDB.com, international movie database, and you can type in any actor you like they give basically their whole resume, everything that I have ever done from any television appearances like as me Drew to any guest appearances on television shows to television shows to movies. I think movies are at 1-2-3... maybe 6 or 7... 7? 7's nice... 7.

Jean Pike Middle School: I'm Brian and this question is for Cheryl McKay... did you change parts in this story? And why or why not?

Cheryl McKay: Yes, anytime you go to take a novel to translate it to a screen, some things have to change just by nature that sometimes novels can be more internal and explore the internal thoughts of what a character is thinking and those are the sorts of things on screen that you can only show an audience what they're gonna see and hear so some of the things we did in taking Jim's great novel trying to translate it into the screen was like we started by looking at the point of view of the story because the novel is written from the point of view of the lawyer and we thought the movie going audience my relate better to Jason , which by the way was awesomely played by Drew Fuller and its good to see you today, and it was... uh... we decided to use a character like him so that the movie could use someone as amazing as Drew and so that was the first decision we made. We also decided to change the relationship from the grand nephew and great uncle to the grandfather and grandson just to make it a little simpler to understand the relationship especially because we added some back story for Jason's father and so it just made it easier to explain in the film that you go from the grandfather to the father to the grandson and also we added a love story of course. Because I am a girl, we went and expanded all the girl story lines like I added a ex-girlfriend Caitlin as well as the love story with Alexia and then Emily was a character in the book who I just fell in love with immediately on the page and I'm like she needs to be a major character in this film and so that was part of the story I had added to this was Emily's whole journey through Leukemia and the mom and everything like that and of course that was great because we got Abigail Breslin to play the part which she just comes to life and she adds so much to the story and to Jason. It's just really the scenes between the two of them are amazing, you guys are gonna love it when you get to see them together. So those are basically some of the main changes we made in translating the novel into film.

Moderator: Well thank you. We are moving onto Doby Jr. High.

Doby Jr. High: After reading on the movie website that Fox Faith Films are donating $1 for every movie ticket for a charity of your choice, my classmates and I would like to know, what charity would each of you donate your $1 to and why?

Drew Fuller: Really? I didn't know that. Unmute me, unmute me. I didn't know that. Jim go ahead.

Jim Stovall: Thank you Drew. It's amazing that we have gotten through about a dozen of these without Drew helping us and its so good to get to work with him today. Um, we actually... one of the deals we put together with Fox, and I'll just speak briefly to it... um, my partners and I in the movie were very committed to having the movie live up to its message so we've done somewhere between 300-400 charitable screenings of the movie already before it even opens and all that money went to charity and it is well into the multi millions of dollars, we have raised for local charities all across the country and I'm very, very proud of that. One of things me and Fox came to terms on was people could go to TUG website and they can order tickets for that opening weekend and $1 of every ticket will go to the charity of their choice. Any charity they won't. And one of the things I am proud of and my charity choice to answer your question would be the American Foundation for the Blind because next week, in fact a week from today, in New York City at the Empire theater, the largest grossing movie theater in North America, there will be a special narrated screening of TUG, which is my main business. We narrate movies and television shows for the 13 million blind and visually impaired people. Well next week, a group of blind and visually impaired people will come together and they'll actually because we've added another sound track, they'll get to enjoy TUG movie 3 days before it opens to the general public. I'm really proud of that and the charity I am supporting is the American Foundation for the Blind that is making more of those narrated screenings available so that the 13 million blind and visually impaired people that we serve in narrative television will be able to do that. Great question and I look forward to hearing from Cheryl and Drew on that.

Cheryl McKay: Um, the one that I actually helped set one of these up yesterday because I did read about it on the website about the Fox Film Fund which is an amazing opportunity and it was really exciting to see, I have been a part of an organization called Act 1 Writing for Hollywood and they are a non-profit organization that invests in people like me, who really want to learn more about what we do. But for the purpose of telling stories for the family audience or for faith based going audience, its... that is one of the causes that I am very passionate about because I feel very strongly that we need more movies like this type that Jim's book allowed us to make so that there are good messages getting out there and its like Jim mentioned earlier, movies can shape culture and I feel its really important what messages are getting out there and I want to help there be more people out there who wanted to write movies like this and be able to take good projects and spread good messages and I'm also passionate about any causes that would help kids like our character Emily's in, like St. Jude's Hospital. Any of the places that help kids or especially their families that are going through this really difficult time and to be able to financially support any of those would be very meaningful to me.

Drew Fuller: Um... I am kinda split. I think its really important to take the environment into consideration and I know that's a very actor thing to do like if everyone watched the Oscars 2 nights ago, this is the first official green telecast where they took the necessary steps to help save and conserve energy. I'm a hybrid driver. I love it. So I think any environmental charity but also if that wasn't something that spoke to anyone or they weren't feeling that another would Save the Four Coalition, the genocide that's going on, the atrocities against mankind that is happening over in Africa still to this day. You see films like Last King of Scotland and Hotel Rawanda, it kinda gives you just a little... anytime you pop on the BBC or History Channel and look up anything on the Four, Rawanda, places like that, Uganda, and see what genocide really is and exactly what its doing and how its displacing these people's... these families from each other and their homes... its hard to watch. I... I've left the theater on 3 different occasions during those 3 movies... 2 movies and just... obviously... listening to the news about the Four... it makes your stomach cringe. It's unbelievable what they are doing and that no one has been able to step in and stop it so it would be either one of those two things.

Moderator: Thank you, that was a great question. We are going to move on to Vesa Verde for our next round of questions.

Vesa Verde Middle School: I'm Caitlin and I'm from VVMS, my question is for Cheryl McKay, Did you find that you emphasize some gifts more than others?

Cheryl McKay: Definitely, when you have 12 to deal with, especially in order to put it on film, you have to kind of condense, or add, or sometimes combine 2 of them together or try to get so that you can emphasize some of the others because in the movie, Jason doesn't accept this quest until probably 20-25 minutes into the film where he finally starts to get unbored with yes I will finally accept this quest for my grandfather and start doing all these assignments, but that really, because you only have an hour and a half of the movie left after that point, that would only leave you maybe 7 minutes for each of the 12 gifts if we tried to do all 12 of them fully. So, I definitely picked a few that I really wanted to emphasize and they tend to be the ones that are most important to me as well. I would say number 1 of that would be the gift of a day and I think that gift is told through the story of Emily who is one of my favorite characters in the film. That would such an important storyline to me because right before I got the job writing the movie, my father had to have open heart surgery and nothing was more important than his life and just seeing that I got a chance to be with him one whole day before the surgery, which was such an incredibly meaningful day to me, and thankfully he made it through the surgery and he got to visit the set with me. But for me, that was a very emotional experience I went through right before I started writing the movie and that's why that was one of the gifts that kind of emerged as one of the most important to me out of all of them as one of the main messages in the movie. As well as I would say the gift of problems. And its almost like the whole movie, with each adventure that Red sends his grandson through, its all about getting him to go through all of these problems because a lot of times as much as we don't like problems, problems are sometimes a vehicle to help us become better people and you can see that in Jason... like every time, he keeps getting thrown through all of these experiences that are really difficult and hard... but its almost like he hasn't been through enough in his life until this point to really shape him into a better person and he is able ultimately to embrace these problems and use them for his good and for the good of being able to help other people deal with their problems. So I would say those are the two that were the biggest emphasized but they're all important and they're all amazing and wonderful and you've got the giving and its so amazing to play with so many interesting gifts that Jim has set up in the book.

Vesa Verde Middle School: My name is (indistinguishable) and my question is for Jim Stovall. Did you get any say in which actors get to be in the movie?

Jim Stovall: I got to read part of Cheryl's screenplay as it got to be written and I signed off and that and then uh... yeah, I approved all the actors as they were selected. It was one of the things I was happy to have in my contract and ya know it was really important to me as a partial owner of the movie, to be able to control those things because you guys have probably had the experience of reading a book and then watching the movie and sometimes its amazingly disappointing. Cheryl did a great job even though she had to pick and choose certain gifts and all the gifts were still in there and it was really fun for me to get to meet people like Drew and Brian Dennehy because they both changed the way the next book came together. It will be out this fall, its called the Ultimate Life, and because I've met Drew and Drew and I have been to dinner and hung around a little, he becomes, particularly as a blind person, he becomes a real person for me and Brian Dennehy who plays Gus Caldwell on the ranch, was not even gonna be in the second book but once I met Brian and experienced what he did with that character, I had to put him in the second book. So, for me, it's a lot of fun to get to visualize those people in my mind because I've actually met them and then to put them into the next book. So great question, thank you.

Vesa Verde Middle School: My name is Alyssa and my question is for Drew Fuller. What was the most difficult scene to act?

Drew Fuller: Um, I think the most difficult scene in acting was the scene that... when I find that Abby had died... um... the character of Emily. I was in the middle of giving this big presentation and ya know... my girlfriend Alexia, she runs off, and I kinda finish up there, and I chase her down and I'm running to the hospital and when I get there, there's this scene where Michael Sajbel, how he set it up, I was like... in films where everything is not on the page everything's not on the screen... its this moment where it leaves the audience wondering what... what... what we're looking at... and I'm running down the hallway and I get to the door and Emily's passed and she's there on the bed and to be there at that moment at the hospital... it was a veteran's hospital... uh... it was so tough to do, to be present, to allow myself to open up and to feel loss of that scale. I have been very fortunate in my life that I haven't had anyone pass away, any close family or friends. So... it was... uh... it was so tough to be able to... to put myself in such a vulnerable state and to make it real because acting is acting. But I think great acting is completely becoming a character and allowing that to consume you and in that moment, grief was the only thing I could feel. And uh... it was emotionally exhausting , I didn't even have to say anything and I... I don't think I slept any better than I did that night... I was just... I was so drained and I... it was an unbelievable experience and extremely difficult and extremely gratifying at the end.

Moderator: Thank you. We are going to move onto Jenks High School.

Jenks High School: Yes, I have a question for Cheryl. As transitioning from a book to the movie, especially with a book this short, was it hard to incorporate new scenes and also in the movie were Jason experiences more portrayed also his emotions of it?

Cheryl McKay: Um... it wasn't hard at all because Jim gave us such a great foundation to start with as it was. The part that made it easy for me was knowing how much I wanted there to be a love story for him as well as making Emily a bigger character. It was... to me that was the scenes that were easiest for me to write because I am a female... it's a little harder for me to get into the heads of guy characters and so... but because we did get the chance to expand that part of the story line, it was easy for me to add those types of scenes. And ya know, as far as the emotional journey with Jason, for me... like I felt like Emily's character was such an instrument of change for him and that we really care about him a lot partly because we care about her and what he's going through with her and you can see that he hasn't really, similar to what Drew was just saying, is like that loss and not really been through a whole lot of loss, he doesn't even really feel the loss of his grandfather right away either because of the way they didn't have a really good relationship and so it was really neat to watch Jason's journey as he actually even starts to love his grandfather along the way, but its after he's dead, and you can just see that frustration in him, once he cares about him, that he can't have a relationship with him in the way that he could have had he still been alive. I remember one of the days, I was trying to get into Jason's emotions and in his head and because I used to be an actress and it's a little bit of fun to sometimes act out the part as I am writing them. I actually took a walk one day to a cemetery, as if I were Jason. Um... hopefully no one was watching me because they would think I was crazy but I was trying to just act like I was... what it would be like to be Jason and go visit the grave of Red after he's gone and after he's starting to get this... and starting to having feelings for his grandfather that are no longer hatred... and what its like to feel like you really want to communicate with somebody who really isn't here anymore and that was one of the things I did as an exercise before I wrote some of Jason's scenes. It was really neat... and the scene that Drew was just describing, that was most meaningful to him, I thankfully, was on set the day he shot that scene and he was just so amazing to watch that day. The way that he got into that, and we were all crying, sitting there watching it around the monitor as he was doing all the takes and he just worked tirelessly to make sure that he could bring an authentic emotion to that character and especially at that moment which is just gut wrenching with Emily.

Jenks High School: My name is Will and I have a question for Jim Stovall. I was wondering if any of the characters in your book was based on real life experiences?

Jim Stovall: the question was are any of the chapters in the book based on real experiences in my life or are they all fictitious? Ya know, I think any time you write, you pull on things from your past. Uh... none of the things happened to me exactly the way they happened in the book. But there was a guy in my life much like Red Stevens, people like Hamilton and the other characters that I wrote about and like Drew was talking about earlier, you just don't pull these emotions or these thoughts out of no where. You kind of have this file cabinet in your mind of things, places, and people and then you pull them up when you need to. That's how it worked for me... and one of the things I was proud that Michael really did was, the director, at the end of the movie was while the credits are rolling, sit through the credits because at the end, you see each of the vignettes, you'll see each of the 12 gifts there as they were lined out in the book and you'll see how the movie did really address all of them even though Cheryl had to move quickly through some things and had to emphasize other things... it really worked out well that way. And when you sit through the credits, you get to hear some amazing music from my friend and colleague who is here with me today, Kelly Morrison, who wrote the legacy song which I think is just an amazing piece of music. It goes along with Bob Dylan and B.B. King and Patsy Kline and Willie Nelson and so many other amazing people did for the sound track. I'm really proud of that. Very good question... thank you.

Jenks High School: My question is for Cheryl. What made you want to add extra characters in the movie that were not in the book?

Cheryl McKay: Well what I was looking for in adding some of those characters just had to do with appealing to not only to the male audience which we had really well with, like a male lawyer, with Red, with Jason... um I wanted to make sure that we could also get a female audience as well and uh by nature because I am a female writer, I am gonna gravitate more toward writing female characters as well and I really thought they would help me with that whole emotional journey that I was talking about earlier in being able to just get... I guess... because like I said when you look at Jason, I really care about him in all the scenes but mostly when he's dealing with that little girl and so I really felt like adding that... and the love story would really helped us in terms of... helping us to care about his emotional journey because... you know how in the book the big theme is, you know, the difference is like money, or love or can you really buy everything... the one thing that he has to deal with in this is you just can't buy another day to live... and that was the story line that allowed me to really explore that theme.

Moderator: Thank you, we had some great questions. Now we are going back to Sturgis Middle School for their next questions.

Sturgis Middle School: Hi my name is Tanner and my question is for Drew Fuller. What or who inspired you to be an actor at such a young age?

Drew Fuller: Wow... uh... um... (laughs)... It's changed. It started originally, I was in a... I really... uh... I remember going to see a movie... I went to go see Interview with a Vampire and it was sold out in Newport and Newport, at the time, it boasted the largest screen in the entire western US or whatever... and it was a sold out theater... packed, packed, packed... line wrapped around the block and then some, and I'm sitting in the back, opening night and there is a preview for this other movie that comes on and everyone gets so elated, and the started screaming at the screen... it was like being at a music... like being at a concert and I'm... I can't sing as much as I want to... I wanna be a rock star but that's just not in the cards for me but like that feeling... that rush I got of being in the audience and seeing everyone was just... the energy was going there... and I just instantly knew that was something I really wanted to pursue and... that... and ya know to get paid to kiss girls sounded like a really good idea. Ya know, I've gotten older... um... things have changed and its... its so much more than that now... how it felt, how its my source of release... my, its my everything. I can't live I can't breathe without performing without acting. And so what started as this childhood, like easy, energy, kiss the girls, sounds like fun... look he gets to fire the gun and blah, blah, blah... has now turned into something that like feeds my soul and like I can't breathe or live without... so hopefully that answers it... no? yeah?... again your paused? (laughs)

Sturgis Middle School: Hi I'm Melanie and my question is for Mr. Stovall. Since your blind, do you find it difficult not having the opportunity to see the movie?

Jim Stovall: That's a really good question... and uh... yes, I have to trust a lot of really good people like Cheryl and Drew and Michael Sajbel to get the ideas, the thoughts, the emotions, the expressions onto the screen. One of the things that has been really exciting for me and going to a lot of these charitable premieres we've done across the country, is just to sit there in the back by myself and listen to the reaction of other people. So... uh... yeah it's a different experience but this book... has... is much more alive to me than the others I've written because I do know Drew Fuller and now in my mind, Jason is Drew Fuller. And I know Bill Cobbs and I know Miss Hastings and I know all these actors and these people and their characters, so its been a lot of fun for me and it was fun to write the next book, The Ultimate Life, and take the character Cheryl wrote for Drew and the character I wrote for the book and put the two back together and take the changes Cheryl made and the signature Drew put on it and put that back with the book I wrote when I wrote TUG, I did write the next book and carry Jason on to the next stage of his life... so great question... thank you.

Sturgis Middle School: My name is John and my question is for Miss McKay. Did you like to write when you were in school and is it important to have good writing skills to succeed in your line of business?

Cheryl McKay: What a great question. These are all awesome. Yes, I actually did like... because like I said before that I started writing when I was 5 years old. I never didn't want to write. I was always interested in especially playing my own characters, not that I would really wanna be in any of my own movies... although I am in a bus scene in this film, but in general, in school I always wanted to be writing things that were like plays or like screenplays or stories and it was something I just studied a lot and both in high school... there was one year I... in 10th grade... I had 2 study halls back to back and I wrote about 10 plays that year and I just write them all out in notebooks and just getting all my practice. Now none of those would ever be useful to anyone in the world but at least it was a good way for me to just get the practice and then when I decided I really wanted to pursue a career in this, I decided to take it in college as well as grad school to learn the craft of it and then even today I will still take classes. I will take classes for the rest of my life because I can never learn enough, I'll never know everything and I will always be able to improve... um which I would suggest to any of you if your interested in this area is to, ya know, be willing to take classes no matter what... whether you like to do the kind of writing Jim does... the novels or for screenplays either, there's so many different ways you can take classes especially online now... to continue to learn to do better. So, thanks for asking.

Moderator: Well thank you and we are moving on to Jean Pike for their next set of questions.

Jean Pike Middle School: Hello my name is (indistinguishable) and my question is for Drew Fuller. What was the most fun about making this movie?

Drew Fuller: Um... oh god... good questions, good questions... they're stumping me... uh... most fun about making the film... I... I can't pinpoint one thing. I... just the journey... like on an acting front... dream job because I start off one way and by the end of the movie I'm a completely different person... a person who has matured with relationships and everything else so that process of being able to go through ya know each step... and be away from home... like I was born and raised in LA so to be able to leave Los Angeles... the whole movie was shot in North and South Carolina... and uh... ya know to just get away to see... to envelop in my work there and to work with... to work with James Garner, Brian Dennehy, Abby Breslin, Abby was just nominated for an Oscar... Garner, he's a legend... and Dennehy... I mean that's another legend. He just got off the stage in London doing Death of a Salesman for over a year and he won an Olivia... I got to surround myself with some legends and so to be able to do that... to work with them every single day... I mean that was the most fun... hands down.

Jean Pike Middle School: My name is Doris and my question is for Jim Stovall. I heard you mention earlier, you were involved in other movies, which movies did you mean by that?

Jim Stovall: Well I think the movies we work with on the narrative television network, we do about 1000 hours a year of movies and television that are adapted for both blind and visually impaired people and then we put them on all the major networks... NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, Turner... and we service this special audience... and then uh... that's been a great experience for me and then uh... we're working on the new book will be out in October and obviously I have thoughts of what it would look like on the big screen and that's fun for me as well and looking at my other writings and things so ya know... to me its an opportunity to talk to people in new ways... just... uh... same message. I'm not in the book business, the speaking business or the movie business, I'm in the message business. I have a message I feel I need to deliver and these are all just different channels, different ways to get from here to there... so uh... thank you.

Jean Pike Middle School: This question is for Cheryl... did you and Jim Stovall have disagreements about the script and how did you resolve them?

Cheryl McKay: Not really... um... when I was brought on board to do the project... the first thing that I did was write what they call a treatment first which is sort of like a story form of the movie and my first draft that they never saw was like ridiculous... it was like 45 pages long... I had so much material in there... and the script was only 120 but I had turned in... I cut it down and gave them 30 or 33 pages or so to look at and from there it was really so neat because I got a really wonderful email from him and he ya know, just told me how glad he was to have me on the project and that it felt like the right direction... and I was able to go from that treatment to the first draft of the screenplay and they basically told me to make sure its not too expensive and make sure there is humor and yes... they gave me a lot of freedom in writing the story and no I don't remember there ever being a time where he and I had any discussions about anything we disagreed with. There was all really... this totally was my dream job and I had a great time the entire time and it also helped that he gave us such a great foundation to work with anyway within... um... starting with his novel because it made my job so much easier to have that to start with. Thanks for asking.

Moderator: Thank you. Doby Jr. High if you want to open your mic and ask your questions.

Doby Jr. High: Hello, my name is Miguel and this question is for Mr. Stovall and Miss McKay, What parts do you wish you had left in the movie and which parts were changed for the best?

Jim Stovall: I realize that when you take a book like mine and you want to turn it into a movie, there are changes we are gonna have to make and uh... ya know in a book I could blow up the universe for absolutely free... its just ink on paper... but when you start to make a movie... everything costs a million dollars. Every time you turn around its another million dollars. So you have to think about that... and you also have to have a commercially viable movie to be able to get your message out. Uh... Drew's gonna have to have a girlfriend... so we wrote Jason a girlfriend... actually wrote him too... and uh... then he's gotta be in some danger so we got Drew kidnapped at one point and we don't know whether he is gonna get out of that or not but I think Cheryl did an amazing job keeping the message intact but keeping it a commercial movie because I could of kept all 12 gifts exactly as they were and it would be... the message would be totally there and no one would go see the movie... on the other hand, some of the other studios that wanted the project, they wanted to make it a totally commercial film and they didn't care that you got any of the gifts or lessons at all so and I'll let Cheryl wrap that up...

Cheryl McKay: yeah... I would say... one part of the book that I really miss and we did originally have it in the script was the... Jason's journey to the group home to meet all of those kids who didn't have families because I really felt like that was something Jason related to because you see in the film and the book... his family is just a mess and he doesn't really have anyone around to be a really... he didn't have anyone around to be a really good mentor until after of course Red ties... but that was one area I was really sad to see go that we didn't have time for because I liked seeing him connect with these kids who didn't have parents because he could see himself in those characters... And then one of the things I think that helped was when I was translating it into the movie was just that... like in the book Jason would encounter ya know... say he had to give money away to 6 people, instead in the movie you just do it with 1 or 2 just for the sake of simplicity because when you're a movie going audience... its gonna be hard for you follow... um... if you have to continuously meet too many new people so that was one of the choices we had to make just to make it easier on the audience... thanks.

Doby Jr. High: This question is for Mr. Fuller. What was it like playing the role of Jason and how do you relate to the character?

Drew Fuller: Uh... well... like I said... the role, the opportunity has been nothing short of amazing and how I related to the character, like I said in the very beginning, I was... its tough because he's not me. And I don't know what its like to inherit over a billion dollars... I can't relate to that... that seems absurd. So you have to find things in the character that you can relate to and one of the things in Jason that I could relate to... I almost don't want to share that (laughs)... its like one of those things that I wanna keep to myself but there were definitely some... they were similarities like I said... where I grew up, how I saw how people acted and where we were raised and like what they were given and kind of how their parents dealt with them. I... My parents and my family has always been really hands on with me... my dad was always my little league coach and ya know when I was playing tennis... they drove me to all my tennis tournaments. They've been nothing but there for me and Jason's family... how they dealt with him... was they just gave him money and hopefully he wouldn't bother them. And so... it was really tough... the approach was extremely difficult... but like I said... I based it on some people I knew and ya know... when you start acting opposite these people... like I said Garner, Dennehy, Breslin... it becomes... like when everyone's taking on their characters... it takes on a life of its own and you just go with it... and uh.yeah... they made it extremely easy for me because when you act opposite people like of that caliber... your job is done... all you have to do is listen and react in an honest way. So hopefully that answers it for you dude.

Moderator: Thank you and in order for us to get in our last 6 questions from our last 2 schools, we're going to go just a little bit over. I hope that's ok with our guests. I'd like to go on to Mesa Verde Middle School for our next questions.

Mesa Verde Middle School: My name is Miranda and my question is for Jim Stovall. In the movie, did they include any of the quotes from the book?

Jim Stovall: Uh... thank you... good question Miranda. Yes they did. It was fun when Cheryl actually used words I had written and put those into the conversations of the characters because some of those were pretty sacred to me. I didn't want anyone messing with these lines because that's what the character would say and there were other times I could tell Cheryl really had a feel for the character and was taking it... not in a different direction... but expanding where we were going with those characters but she really understood it. It's fun to watch your characters grow and develop and at one point, Jason was just a thought in my mind and a character in Cheryl's script, but then he became alive and became a part of Drew and there's parts of Jason I can't separate from Drew anymore. So when I write the remaining 3 books from the Ultimate Series, Drew will always be a part of Jason. It's impossible to get him out of there. So yeah, I was really excited to see a lot of that language stay there and even when Cheryl had to change some of the dialogue, I could tell she really understood the characters and felt good about them.

Mesa Verde Middle School: Hi my name is Alaina and my question is for Cheryl McKay. How long did it take to do the screenplay and did you have any stumbling blocks along the way?

Cheryl McKay: I got the job in October of 2004 and I started with that treatment that I mentioned earlier and then turned that in about 3 weeks after I got the job... and then it took about maybe 6 weeks to write the first draft and then from there I was probably done by July of the next year. That for a movie job is really fast to work from October to July and I had some time off in between there in between drafts and waiting for notes and I did 3 different drafts of the screenplay and in taking notes and everything. I think normally... on normal movie jobs... there would probably be a whole bunch of stumbling blocks but I really don't remember this project like that at all... it really honestly was a dream job for me. It was really fun the entire time and getting to stay home everyday and write and for those of you who want to be writers, sometimes you get to sit in your pajamas and sit at home and write. It was really, the whole thing was pleasant. I can't think of any part during the time that I was actually writing the project that I would call it difficult at all. The whole thing was so pleasant and all of the people I got to work with from the producers to the director to all the actors was just... everybody was so amazing and being able to see it all come to life then... after the fact because I did get to spend two weeks on set watching it be filmed was just really awesome and seeing those actors embody these characters you just started off on a page... ya know... it was really cool.

Mesa Verde Middle School: My name is Tyler and my question is for Drew Fuller. If you were in Jason's position, what would you do with the billion dollars given to you?

Drew Fuller: Wow... uh... (laughs)... ok... me... as Drew or as Jason?

Mesa Verde Middle School: As Drew...

Drew Fuller: Ok... as Drew... ok... probably... I can't stand it. It's my least favorite thing to do and unfortunately for my job, I have to do it constantly. I feel like I'm always in airports and on planes. If I had a billion dollars, I'd probably have my own private plane just to kind of eliminate all that airport security terrorist kind of nonsense that we're having to deal with in this day and age. Um... a lot of it would go to charities because obviously like I said... Save the Four... I would... ya know a lot to do with the environment. Um... I'd make sure my family, everyone would be taken care of for the rest of their life. You know, that... a billion dollars is so much money and it has the potential to do so much so good so of course I would spend some of it on me and toys and motorcycles and what not but a lot of it would have to go to... ya know helping make this world a better place because if you learn anything from this story... with great wealth comes great responsibility and ya know that's a lesson that I've taken away from this film and ya know the project in general. So I owe it to myself to make the world a better place if I was in that position to do so.

Moderator: We're going back to Jenks High School for our last round of questions.

Jenks High School: This is for Drew Fuller. By doing the movie and playing Jason, do you feel you've benefited from the 12 gifts and been changed in any way?

Drew Fuller: I mean... (laughs)... c'mon... um... do I feel like I've changed? Yeah I feel like , oh... where'd she go? Ok... (everyone laughs)... I'm staring at like this empty... like... ok... don't yeah... have I changed? Yeah... I think every time you... thank you... hi... every time you do a project, no matter what it is, you change and this one happened... like I said there's so much change from the start of the character to the end of the character that yeah... I couldn't help but be affected personally as Drew... by it. Ya know, I think specifically there was a growth in grace and how you handle situations and how grateful you can be, you know, in times of real hardship because as we all know, life is not easy. It throws you curve balls daily and there's so much competition and negative energy and people talking trash... yeah... that... it kind of makes you reevaluate who you are and the thoughts that are kind of entering in your mind... how you choose to live your life and how much energy you choose to give out to other people so yeah I learned a lot and um... there's not really a day that goes by that I don't think about TUG in general. It was such a phenomenal experience. It was life changing. It kind of put me on a path, as an actor, far different from the one I was on before. Before I was on Charmed and I was slaying dragons and conjuring up witches and warlocks and that's fun... but this was something real... this was something people can identify with. I was able to identify with it. Hopefully, you guys are going to be able to identify with it um... and like I said... it just kind of put me on a completely different path and what I want and what I'm looking forward to doing as an actor and as an artist. Cool? I'm boring you. You guys are all going to bed... cool... (everyone laughs)... look I'm talking... I can get self indulgent... the camera's on me... sorry...

Jenks High School: My question's for Jim. What motivated you when you become blind?

Jim Stovall: It's a great question... when I became blind... I mean my goal in life had nothing to do with what I do now. I was on course to become a professional football player and that's what I wanted to do. Then I was diagnosed with the condition that resulted in my blindness and I realized as strange as it may seem to you guys, there's never been a blind guy in the NFL, so I realized that's not gonna work real well for me. So out of that, I had a chance to become an Olympic weight lifter and really reevaluate what I can do with my life but its been an interesting transition and ya know... getting to do the movie has been really fascinating for a blind guy because this is a decidedly visual medium. So for me, being my normal business person control freak guy, to turn my baby over to Cheryl and to have Cheryl turn it over to Drew and to trust those wonderful people to get it out there on the screen and still have the colonel of my message and my heart in it, has been a wonderful experience. So being a blind person, ya know, I like to tell people and kids like you all across the country, that frankly being a blind person is a challenge but its no bigger than the challenges you face... I mean tough times at school, tough times at home, and trying to figure out what you're going to do and we're only as big as the smallest thing it takes to stop us from where we know we ought to be. So, ya know, look at your challenges and things like that as the gift of problems. So many opportunities opened for me because a few closed so very good question... thank you.

Jenks High School: Mr. Stovall, did any event or observation in particular inspire you to write this novel?

Jim Stovall: Did any event or observation inspire me... ya know when I think about that, I'd written 4 or 5 books before and one thing that inspires you is the publishers keep calling and they want more books so you know you better come up with something there... but when I started narrative television and my work for blind people, I had a young lady who worked for me. She was a single mom and a beautiful daughter and she was diagnosed with terminal cancer... and she made me guardian of this 11 year old girl and then... I had no experience in raising children... and she told me, she said when Jessica gets to be 14 make sure she knows this and when she starts driving and dating and when she thinks about going to college, make sure she knows this stuff. So, that whole concept of passing on the things you know to someone after your not there... and then I realize we all do that. It's just that we don't know when our last day is going to be. The obituaries in the papers of all our hometowns are full of people that thought they had 30 or 40 more years of life or more and they're gone. So this concept of living every day as the gift of a day as if it were our only day left and then at the same time realizing by the way we live and move our being, we're passing on our legacy our Ultimate Gift because when its all said and done, people may listen to what you've said, but they'll always watch what you've done. That's why I'm excited to take these words on a page and turn them into a movie. Great question. Thank you.

Moderator: Thank you to all the teachers and students. Great questions today and now I'd like to turn it back to our guests to say any last words they'd like to say to our students and will start with Miss McKay for any words she'd like to say.

Cheryl McKay: First of all, thank you so much for all your amazing and wonderful questions and for being so vested in this story and novel and I'm sure you'll all be excited to see the movie when it comes out March 9th. And I just wanted to say that its... this book really does have so many amazing and different messages and I know it means something different to every person but if I could impart one thing about the story that means the most... its very similar to what Jim just said which is that gift of a day. Right after I started writing this movie, or for the script... I went to... I wanted to talk to a friend of mine who had leukemia as a kid because I wanted to use him as a resource for Emily. When I sent him an email and asked him if he was willing to do this for me, I found out the next day that he had died the night before. He got cancer back again caused by the radiation that he got as a kid when he had leukemia and he was only in his early 30's and it was just heart breaking to me and it really drove home the point to me of that gift of a day. In my case, I was one day too late in talking to him. I talked to him a month earlier and I knew he was sick but it really drove that point home to me of how important it is to live each day to the fullest and to not waste time because we never know how much time we're gonna have on this earth. Also, another thing that was very meaningful to me that was very difficult, related to the gift of problems I mentioned earlier was in the midst of writing this movie and we have in the movie where Jason comes home and everything's gone, they take his car away, he suddenly doesn't have anything and for awhile he's even sitting on a park bench like a homeless person because he gets stripped away of everything. In the middle of writing this movie, I actually almost lost everything I owned very unexpectedly and it really... it was probably oddly enough one of my favorite trials in life and I didn't much like it at the time but it really showed me how trials can be used for good and it showed me how much I shouldn't be materialistic and I also think that is a journey that Jason is going through and just not care so much about things and because the bottom line is, people matter and I still have my health and my situation didn't harm my health in any way and so those are the types of things I was going through in the midst of writing the film that are exactly the stories and the themes the film is trying to say. Lastly, I would just say... if this is something you want to do, to make sure you study and read alot... read things that are the types of things you think you might like to write like within the right genre like right now I am writing a script for a company that I have to make the character a poet, and I am not a poet at all so I've had to go research people who know how to do it like Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost and E.E. Cummings and best of all, I spend a lot of time reading so I can become a better writer so that would be something I would suggest you do and I thank you guys for your passion and your interest in this project, and just appreciate it a lot and I appreciate the support when you guys go to see the movie. Thank you.

Moderator: Well thank you Miss McKay for joining us today. Now we'll turn it over to Mr. Fuller for any words he would like to say.

Drew Fuller: Words of enlightenment and what have you. Uh... no I just want to say thank you to everyone for participating. Obviously, it beats sitting in school and doing homework or whatever. Yeah... look... it's a pleasure... its an honor to be a part of this project... its an honor working with people like Cheryl... Jim, I love you so much, thank you for giving a story and giving it a life and I'm just... I'm grateful... I feel blessed and grateful to be a part of something like this and yeah... it comes out March 9th so please go see it and tell me... well not you won't be able to tell me... but go see it and reflect... I'm sure you'll be able to... with some journey some gift some obstacle... we'll all be able to relate and that's exactly why I was drawn to it in the first place and hopefully it will affect you as it affected me and that's all I can say... so (waves goodbye)...

Moderator: Thank you Mr. Fuller for joining us today and we'd like to turn it over to Mr. Stovall for his last remarks.

Jim Stovall: Well as always, I want to thank Polycom and everyone for putting this together all across the country. It's really fun for me to get to do this. One of the difficult things about being a writer is that millions of people get to read what you write but rarely do you get to talk to them. So thanks to Polycom, every month or so I get to come visit with people across the country who've read the book and I want to thank you and of course Polycom. I wanna thank Cheryl and Drew for joining me today because usually I have to carry the ball all by myself and Cheryl as you would expect brings a lot of depth and Drew as always brings a ton of energy to everything he does... and there's no one you'd rather write for then someone like Drew Fuller and no one I would rather share the process with then Cheryl so I wanna thank them and as was mentioned, it opens March 9th and if you would like to buy tickets and have $1 go to your school or your band or whatever your doing for a charity, please go to TUG.com and there's study guides there and other things you can look at to help this be more than a movie. I mean, at the end of 2 hours, I want to make sure you had fun at the movies but I also want to make sure you have an amazing life and if we can all do that then we have reached our goal which is delivering The Ultimate Gift. Thanks a lot.

Moderator: Well thank you Mr. Stovall and if our classes would like to open up there microphones and give Mr. Fuller, Miss McKay, and Mr. Stovall a nice round of applause, I'm sure they'd appreciate it... (lots of applause).