Your new movie Dry Spell
- in a few words, what is it about, and what can you tell us about your
character in it?
Dry Spell
is about a a woman named Sasha (Suzi Lorraine) and a man
named Kyle (that would be me), who are in the middle of their state
required separation before they finalize their divorce. Sasha decides
that it is time to get her groove back but when she brings home a hook-up she discovers she has lost the ability to
perform... basically she’s
all dried up. She is mortified by this and decides that this problem
is psychosomatic, that her subconscious is punishing her body out of
guilt for moving on before Kyle does. To fix this she goes on a
mission to get Kyle laid. You could accurately describe what happens
after that as hilarity ensuing.
My character, Kyle, is a smart ass with a heart of gold who is doing
his best to make his ex-wife happy but has some problems taking care
of his own needs. What were your inspirations when
writing Dry Spell -
and was any of this based on personal experience? I tried
to keep the honesty of High Fidelity and the soul of Chasing
Amy in mind. I loved both of those movies and as far as romantic
comedies go they are definitely the kind of ones I’d rather see. And
Travis and I tried to stay as far away from Say Anything as we
could. I love me some John Cusack and even though Lloyd Dobler ruined
an entire generation of women for men everywhere I dig that movie - but
Travis and I both agreed that we didn’t want to write a movie about
two co-dependents who needed someone else to be whole.
The over-reaching theme of divorce was based on personal experience. I
got married very young and got divorced about four years ago and at
least some of this was me exorcising some demons in regards to that.
One of the reasons I wanted to work on this is I feel that there are a
lot of 20 something divorcees out there, it is a story worth telling
and I don’t see anyone telling it. It’s a fact of the country and
culture we live in now and I really want there to be a voice that
makes light of that instead of treating it like a dirty little secret. What
can you tell us about your collaboration with your co-writer and director
Travis Legge [Travis Legge interview
- click here]? And how did you two first hook up to begin with?
Kyle with Travis Legge |
Working
with Travis was an absolute blast. I have acted under his
direction before but I’ve never written with him (or anyone else for
that matter) before and the experience was definitely one I would like
to recreate at some point. I think we have starkly contrasted voices
but our motivators and our sense of humor are very similar which made
the entire process a pleasure rather than a labor. I met Travis
when he was casting for Skeet Shooting. A mutual friend
of ours suggested I audition. He cast me, we made that movie and we
became fast friends. He has been one of my closest and dearest friends
ever since. (Cue violins and soft lighting.)
Kyle with Rachael Robbins |
What
did you draw upon to bring your character to life, and to what extent can
you identify with your role? When Travis and I ran one of
the drafts past our mutual friend Alex he
said “So... Kyle is basically the uber you.” Which isn’t far from the
truth. I figured I was working on a story about something that kind of
happened to me, why not? Also, one of the reasons I write screenplays
at all is to make more work for myself as an actor so why not write a
role I know I’d fit well in? When we actually started filming the
character evolved into something very different, now I think Kyle is a
guy I would definitely hang out with but we are very different people. You just have to talk about
your co-stars for a bit, and considering you're also writer and executive
producer of the film, did you have any say when it came to casting? Because
we wanted to make this in New York on an indie budget we
wanted to make as much of the cast New York-based as possible. Seeing
as Travis lives in Illinois I was in charge of setting up auditions.
As far as actual casting goes, I was consulted and we both had to
agree on someone before a final say was made but all of the final
decisions came down to Travis.
Kyle with Suzi Lorraine |
We struck gold with our cast.
Suzi Lorraine is an absolute dream [Suzi
Lorraine interview - click here]. She
is gorgeous, incredibly talented and hilarious. I was intimidated to
work with her because of the respect I have for her work but she is
really one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. We had
someone else in mind when we were writing the part of Lacey but
she couldn’t commit to the project which turned out to be a blessing
in disguise because Lizbeth Sawyers [Lizbeth
Sawyers interview - click] is one of the most
talented actors I know. Also it works that she was playing the role of
my sister because we are very close in real life, she actually is like
a sister to me and after Travis saw her audition there was no question
that she was the woman for the job. Steven Lee Edwards is
absolutely brilliant and I was so excited I had
the chance to work with him again. We made Raymond Did It together and
it was great to have him on set again, that man is going places.
Kyle with Heather Dorff |
Heather
Dorff [Heather Dorff
interview - click here] deserves a special thank you from me because watching
her work, be as daring and open as she was, really encouraged me to
open up my performance. I’m sure my space here is limited but
if I could I would dote on every
single one of these cast members for pages. It sounds like I’m just up
selling my peers but I’m not kidding when I say this movie is
absolutely star studded and no one knows it. I expect greatness in the
future for every one of them.
With
Dry Spell being a
romantic comedy - is that a genre you can at all otherwise relate to? Yes
and No. Like I said if you show me a High Fidelity or a Chasing
Amy then yes. Most romantic comedies I can’t relate to but I can
enjoy. I usually check my snobbery at the door when it comes to my
movie taste and I am not too proud to cry like a baby gorilla at a
Nicholas Sparks flick... except for Walk To Remember.. .kill it...
kill
it with fire.
What
got you into writing and what got you into acting to begin with, and did
you receive any kind of formal education on either subject? I’ve
been writing short stories since I was in second grade. I had to
write a story for class and it made me really happy, which was in
short supply in those days, so my mother saved up and brought home a
word processor. I’ve been in love with it since. Acting was a very
similar deal, I did a play in fourth grade, I really enjoyed it, I
thought I was pretty good and ever since then that is the path I have
chosen. My mother really encouraged anything that made me happy, she
is directly responsible for anything of worth I have or will create. I
haven’t really had any formal training no. My theater teacher in high school had us on some really advanced curriculum (as I would
later find when I dropped out of the college course I was taking
because I realized half way through that it was redundant) but other
than that nothing. How
would you describe your approach to both writing and to acting? Honesty.
I mean, there is a lot of work involved and that work needs
to be managed and stylized and one needs to figure out how to do that
for themselves, and that learning process is never ending. However, if
you put “figuring it out” down for a second (and forgive me for
sounding like a pretentious hipster for a second) I try my hardest to
approach anything artistic with as much honesty as I can. Readers and
watchers alike can smell a lie from a mile away, and that aside if I’m
honest then I have created something that is a part of me and there is
nothing in the world quiet like that feeling. What
can you tell us about your filmwork prior to Dry
Spell?
Before this I portrayed Raymond in Travis’ Raymond Did It. Before
that I was in his zombie short Kept and my first real screen role
was Travis’ short Skeet Shooting. I’ve worked on a few things
since
I’ve moved to New York, like a bit part in a web series called NightWing, but I’ve been focusing more on writing these days. Also
once you work with/for Travis you are spoiled for all other directors.
He is just the ideal person to work with and doing a project that
doesn’t involve him is something I’ll certainly do but I won't
necessarily be as excited about it. Any future projects you'd like to share? At
the moment I’ve been putting a lot of energy into a website called
flatbrokepoets.com as well as that Facebook page because spoken word
poetry has kind of re-surfaced in my life. Other than that though
nothing pressing. I have things in the works but nothing that will be
relevant to share for a while.
Actors,
writers, filmmakers, whatever else who inspire you? Anthony
Hopkins, John Goodman, John Candy, Edward Norton, Cuba Gooding
Jr (pre-Sled Dogs or whatever that garbage Disney has him doing is)
- what people don’t realize when they watch these people in movies is
that they are getting the best acting class money can buy. Your
favourite movies? Instinct is a favorite of mine,
that is one of those movies that
spurns an actor on to keep acting, same for Fracture, and Fallen with
Denzel Washington is a must see. ... and of course, films you really
deplore?
Lord Of The Rings is a franchise everyone thinks I
should love that I
just cannot get into... we get it Peter Jackson... shit's intense... do we
have to build the moment for half an hour before you get to some
dialogue?
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And if anyone makes me watch Never Been Kissed again I will
smack
their baby, if they don’t have a baby I will wait... I have time... I
will MAKE time. Your/your movie's website, Facebook, whatever
else? You can buy a copy of Dry Spell
right now at our IndieGoGo page
http://www.indiegogo.com/watchdryspell
- you can get a digital download for 10 bucks but I would spring for the
DVD because the bloopers and commentary tracks are going to be
hilarious. Also we are damning the man, saving the empire and
distributing this
entirely independently. At the moment we are using IndieGoGo for that
platform so if you want to support indie film it doesn’t get more
indie than this.
Anything else you are dying to mention and I have
merely forgotten to ask? Yes actually, Ann Hathaway if you
are reading this, I love you...Marry me. Thanks for the interview!
No sir, thank YOU. I really dig your site and the support
you’ve shown
us means a lot.
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