While filming Blue Like Jazz, which opens Friday in limited release, Marshall Allman—who plays the Donald Miller character at the center of the story—was to ride an unsteady "tall bike" across Portland's Hawthorne Bridge. Director Steve Taylor, concerned that Allman might "plunge over the rail" into the Willamette River, considered a stunt double, but Allman declined. Says Taylor, "For Marshall, it's all just part of the work, and he approaches it with both a singular intensity and a great sense of play."
Allman, 28, has received thumbs-up for his acting—for Blue Like Jazz as well as recurring roles in TV's Prison Break and True Blood. He recently finished filming Jayne Mansfield's Car, a 1960s-era drama starring Robert DuVall, John Hurt, Kevin Bacon, and Billy Bob Thornton. Taylor believes Allman can go a long way: "He takes the craft of acting very seriously, and he wants to get the role right."
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