The workers were so amazing, so realistic

They really were good. I'm from a similar background and pretty much know or have known these guys.

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Indeed. Very well done.

Yeah they were wonderful, I was thinking to myself those are the type of people I'd like to work with or hang out with

FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!

Their performance was awesome.

I felt the same. I'm not sure whether they had worked with trees before or not but most of them definitely weren't actors. Green the director often hires locals for his movies.
The character Shorty and the Wino that is murdered are actually father and son. And of course G-Daawg was an alcoholic homeless man who had been a background extra on thirtysomething in the 80's.

On the Dvd's special features David Gordon Green states, a lot of the cast of the movie were day laborers that they picked up and "put them into a Nicholas Cage movie".