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Director Edward Berger told the BBC last year that while the conclave was thought of as "an ancient spiritual ritual", he wanted to bring the participants "into modernity".

There was one person who had caught Burke’s attention: Burt Berger, a late-60s-ish musician he’d seen playing guitar table-to-table at the Old Place restaurant in Malibu.

Burke was a brunch regular there, and he was taken with Berger’s folksy tunes and warm, quirky presence.

Coincidentally, Cooper also had met Berger separately at an open mic at the Cahuenga General Store.

It became obvious they’d happened upon a real Los Angeles character in Berger, and they wanted to cast him in something.