In DIVINE SOULS, actress Jeffie Legend played a character dying of AIDS. In real life, at the same time, she was dying of Cancer. She told no one about this until the very end. She died in October of 2006, a few months shy of the film's premiere at the AFI Dallas International Film Festival.
Jeffie Legend had been booked to star in A West Texas Children's Story (2007) alongside Val Kilmer, Lara Flynn Boyle and Heather Graham. She was scheduled to start shooting on October 17th at 11am but sadly, she died that very same morning at 9am from a long battle with Cancer.
The three main characters, Kerri, Stacy and Lisa were originally to be played by three different actors: Gidget Anthony, Barbara Bratton and Kathleen Griffith, respectively. Each actor had appeared in director James McDonald's last film, The Photograph (2003) but as filming approached, Gidget became pregnant and had to back out, Barbara moved out to L.A. and also had to drop out and Kathleen dropped out of the acting scene for about a year while she got married and opened up her own business. The three characters were eventually played by Nancy Chartier, Kelley West and the late Jeffie Legend, respectively.
Nancy Chartier was cast in Divine Souls (2007) as Kerri and shortly after, her real life husband, co-star Rocky Muether, was cast as her love interest, Gavin. Halfway through filming though, Nancy informed the film's director, James McDonald, that they were getting a divorce. James was worried that it would interfere with the remainder of the film that still had to be shot but Nancy reassured him that they remained good friends and on good terms and there was no problem completing the film.
During one particular scene, actress Andrea Cohen was portraying a junkie and had a real syringe in her hand. Director James McDonald gave very little direction to the actors involved because he shot most of the scene with one camera, hand held and wanted the actors to improvise the scene as it went along. During the scene, Andrea started freaking out and threatening the other actors with said syringe (as she was supposed to do) and at one point the elevator doors opened and people inside didn't know what was going on and called security. Armed security guards showed up and James had to explain that they were shooting a movie.