Based off of Argentine journalist Adriana Rubio’s sensationalist, amateurish and poorly-received biography of the same name – which was originally titled “Angry Chair,” before she revised it after his death – the author’s remora-eel-like approach to writing the book was spent interviewing a brutally withering Stayley three months before his 2002 death and shamelessly getting the pathetic drug addict to admit all his dying wishes and commit them to print.
“I know I’m dying,” he rasped through missing teeth. “I’m not doing well. Don’t try to talk about this to my sister Liz. She will know it sooner or later.” read just one melodramatic quote in the wretched book {just take a look at the cheaply produced book jacket to see how tossed off this thing was}.
A music writer friend of ours who read and reported on the book when it was released in 2003 called it, “One of the worst biographies I ever read. I almost fell over when I read the story that someone wanted to turn this into a movie.”
“I know I made a big mistake when I started using this sh–. It’s a very difficult thing to explain. My liver is not functioning and I’m throwing up all the time and sh—ing my pants. The pain is more than you can handle. It’s the worst pain in the world. Dope sick hurts the entire body,” read another Stayley quote in Rubio’s miserablist book.
The 30-year-old actor has apparently met with Rubio to help develop the character he will play. Mckay has also been training and playing with U.S. rockers Motherweiser in order to familiarize himself with the 90s grunge rockers’ music.
The film’s myspace page has images of McKay in character with Motherweiser and other test shots. Rubio released a statement about the actor on the page’s blog, writing that she had met McKay in 2007 and that they “shared passions regarding Layne. Lathan has a tremendous understanding of Staley’s work and the utmost respect for He and Jerry Cantrell’s music. Lathan is very passionate about portraying Layne as the beautiful, talented soul that he was. He is determined to give Layne the respect he deserves, and is definitely the man for the part. This was shown during ten unforgettable days of meetings and rehearsals.”
McKay began his acting career a few years ago landing one of the lead roles in a coming of age story “Levelland“, which premiered at 2003 Tribeca Film Festival. He has also been cast as Cop #2 in the 2008 film, “Harold.”
Staley died in April 2002 of a drug overdose.