A few weeks ago the first trailer for Michael Cera’s new movie Youth in Revolt debuted and was well received if not exactly lusted after. At first glance it seemed like a fairly standard teaser for a potentially funny movie. Except it’s more than that. Something truly bizarre lurks beneath the surface.
Whether by design as the result of an utterly unbelievable coincidence, the trailer appears to be mocking the real life suicide of one of the film’s actors. His name was Randall Godwin, a well known Michigan resident and character actor who landed a small part when in late 2008, Youth in Revolt shot on location in Ann Arbor. It was several week later, in December, that Randy would take his own life. Randy was apparently well known locally and well liked. His suicide hit people hard in Ann Arbor and it’s probably something they’d like to ignore, in favor of remembering the life he lived. Unfortunately, Dimension Films has done something to make sure that his family and friends will never forget the manner in which he died.
Randy appears in the recently released trailer for Youth in Revolt. He played a cop in the film and you’ll see him in for a brief moment in the trailer with four other police officers. He’s the second cop from the left. But there’s something horribly wrong. Less then a second before Randy Godwin appears on screen, Michael Cera utters this phrase: “It seems to me you’ve got two options. Fake your own death or commit suicide.” Immediately after the word "suicide", Randy appears for the first and only time in the trailer.
See it for yourself at around 2:09 in the embed of the Youth in Revolt trailer below:
Could this be just some incredible, unfortunate coincidence? Is it possible that no on involved knew of Randy’s suicide? That seems a little hard to swallow, but the alternative is that someone at Dimension Films has a monumentally sick sense of humor. It’s not exactly a fitting tribute and should they release a second trailer, hopefully they’ll the good sense to leave the suicide snark out.
