Fisher, Phillippe, Belkin Cast In Addiction Short 'The Call'
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- Frances Fisher, Ava Phillippe, and Jessica Belkin lead the cast of short film 'The Call,' an addiction drama shooting today in Los Angeles; supporting cast includes Katie Cassidy, Lisa Vidal, Kai Caster, Jasper Polish, and Cara Santana.
- Nancy Davis conceptualized the project and serves as executive producer alongside Brenda Richie, Melissa Zickler, Mellisa and Ron Silverman, Alexandra Lasky, Isabella Rickel, Courteney Semel, Eloise DeJoria, Laura Geller, and Elizabeth Peterson.
- Wild7Films (Kyle Stefanski, Tony Lugo) produces in collaboration with Davis, Lasky, and Rickel, with ATI Studios as production partner; Paris Dylan (Bling Empire) directs and Skye Peters co-directs from a Jesse Lasky script, with Gabe Kimpson as DP and Jen Rade leading wardrobe.
- The logline: an 'award show party spirals into overdose and betrayal' where 'a single dose of Narcan can only save one life,' forcing a fractured family to confront addiction's toll and a mother facing 'a harsh reality.'
- All proceeds benefit the 501(c)3 nonprofit Cure Addiction Now, and producers are 'weighing up scope for a feature based on the story,' per the announcement.
- Ava Phillippe (daughter of Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe) shoots her second short here playing Scarlet opposite Belkin as her sister Chloe and Fisher as their mother; her feature debut 'Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me' is in post-production.
- Fisher cited Nancy Davis's lived experience — 'getting "the call" is a mother's biggest fear' — as her reason for joining; Davis called addiction 'the leading killer of people under 45 years old in the US' and stressed the importance of everyone having Narcan.
Why it matters: The project pairs A-list casting with a public-health message about Narcan and addiction as a family disease, channeling every dollar to Cure Addiction Now. Ava Phillippe lands a dramatic showcase as Fisher's on-screen daughter, with the producers explicitly noting they may expand the short into a feature if the story resonates. Davis's personal stake as EP, anchored in her own loss, positions the film as awareness infrastructure rather than a standard festival play.
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