By Leila Fadel

Bunim-Murray productions was at The Rack on Wednesday, Jan. 30 looking for “real” talent. Bunim-Murray Productions is working with New Line Cinema to film 12 college students in Cancun for nine days of total Spring Break action. The movie, “The Real Spring Break,” will be released in theaters in early summer of 2003.

Casting calls brought college students from across Massachusetts; Salem State, Boston University and University of Massachusetts to name a few. Dropouts came too and recent nostalgic graduates took a stab at being “real,” for the free trip to Mexico.

Casting directors arrived in Boston after moving across the United States. They interviewed candidates in groups and played the season-appropriate drinking game, “I never,” minus the alcohol.

One potential male spring breaker raised his hand and said, “I never ran around naked in public.” Some guilty hands crept up and prouder hands shot up. The casting director looked at a couple of the anxious faces and asked for details. “Well, one night, my friends and I were at a bar dancing and we got up on the bar and all of a sudden I was doing a strip tease.”

That set the stage. One guy talked about his severe obsessive-compulsive disorder; his hands were raw from washing them 80 times a day and he used his sleeves to push doors open. As the session broke up a few of the cool, bubbly, quirky and just plain weird candidates were discreetly tagged to stay behind and fill out an 11-page application that asked questions about their most embarrassing moments and other quality queries, and they had their Polaroid’s taken.

So, what do casting directors look for in a spring breakers other than the generic “being real?” “For something like this, they have to be party animals,” said Damon Furberg, casting director for Bunim-Murray Productions. “It’s kind of like a teen movie, but with real people, so it helps to be good-looking, but maybe we want the nerdy guy and his friend who wants to get him a date.”

Furberg did some of the casting for this season’s “The Real World: Las Vegas,” a show he said he didn’t even expect to get that wild. But, this movie is about groups of people that hang out to get to know each other better in the atmosphere of overflowing booze and all night parties. “We’re looking for specific relationships: a father and son, an older brother and a younger brother, sorority sisters, fraternity brothers,” Furberg said.

Stephen Blackehart, another casting director, looks for the “emotionally articulate” when he casts. One story he particularly likes was about a girl who posed in Playboy and indulged in all-night parties. Her dad is a pious man who loves his daughter, but doesn’t agree with her lifestyle. Blackehart said that is a dynamic they want on the show; a religious man and his wild daughter bonding in Cancun, Mexico.

The candidates ranged from valley girls, party girls, jocks, trendsetters and even the wallflowers eyed the spotlight. Jamie Chambers calls herself “a freak in the closet.” She is from a strict Pentecostal home and made up for lost time since she was 20 going to clubs and living up to her party girl name. She’s 22 now and wants to break out of her closet.

“I’m skeptical, I don’t want to hurt my mother but I’m definitely a party girl behind closed doors,” Chambers said.

A lot of applicants saw this opportunity as a chance to spring themselves into the acting world like other reality show stars who have tried to break into singing and acting none that anyone can remember, though.

“This will be a lot of good acting experience,” Angela Noesi, an applicant to Boston University and UMass-Boston said.

She hopes it will expose her talents.

Alyssa Smith, a soft-spoken Salem State student, applied with her eccentric boyfriend who totes horn rimmed glasses. She wants to prove that she isn’t a shy girl anymore.

“I like to be shocking,” Smith said. “I want to show everyone I’m crazy.”