All posts by hecklerkane

Remember that guy in the famous Got Milk commercial in the 90s who couldn’t say Aaron Burr? How about the kid with no tongue in Wes Craven’s People Under the Stairs. That’s just two of the 116 acting credits for a guy who face you’d likely recognize before his name. Today we had a great talk with character actor Sean Whalen who gets mistaken for Steve Buscemi more often than himself.

Sean told us about his upcoming role as Satan in Harrison Smith’s Death House, how Drew Barrymore stuck up for him on the set of Never Been Kissed and rubbing elbows with other talented actors as the Comedy & Improv teacher at James Francos Acting School in Los Angeles. Plus, we got to hear about his latest feature film now crowdfunding on IndieGoGo called Crust.

We hope you enjoy our interview with That Guy Sean Whalen on How to Succeed as a Character Actor in Hollywood. Be sure to leave us a review on iTunes to help get the word out and

Watch How To Succeed as a Character Actor in Hollywood

Watch People Under the Stairs

Sean Whalen Interview Highlights

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Maryland right between Washington DC & Baltimore. It was kind of rural and I loved it there.

Were you a theater kid growing up?

I did a lot of plays but 5th grade was a turning point. They said I could do a class project so I directed and starred in Rumpelstiltskin. I’ll never forget doing it and then at the very end when I ran out on stage I slid across for my curtain call and got a huge round of applause from the whole school. Not only did I have fun doing the show but I also got huge accolades for it. In high school I was active in community and school theater.

When did you move to Hollywood?

I received a scholarship from my high school when I was accepted into the UCLA theater program. A lot of people have lived in different places. I basically grew up in Maryland for 18 years and then came out here. I didn’t get to do Chicago, New York and London like some other actors but I like it here.

I always tell actors, give it two years and 100% of your time and energy. If after two years you can say things are proceeding, that doesn’t even mean you’re getting a paid gig. It means you’re doing well in acting school or things are going well, then stick around. After two years things were going well for me. I was performing in the Groundlings and thought things were going okay. In the summer of 1987 I started to pursue things again and I recorded my first commercial in the fall of 1988. I just kept going and kept at it.

I had Alan Ruck (Cameron from Ferris Buller’s Day Off) in my acting class recently. He told me he had done Ferris Bueller and moved to LA and it wasn’t really going that well and was working in a factory. It goes to show you the ups and downs out here. I can’t imagine being in such a huge movie and then lugging boxes in a factory.

What was your first paid acting gig?

My first commercial was for Kaboodles that ran on MTV. It was a makeup fishing tackle box that you could keep makeup in. It got me my SAG (Screen Actors Guild) card and it got me my first car after driving around on a Vespa out here. After that I started doing a lot of Little Caesar’s commercials. Then I got People Under the Stairs in 1991.

Watch People Under Stairs on iTunes & Amazon Prime

What was it about the character Roach that stuck with audiences?

It took me a long time to figure out why. They used me in the publicity for People Under the Stairs with these weird pictures they took before we shot the movie. It was me with long spikey hair and I never really looked like that. Recently I was asked which character would you like to be in real life? I thought I don’t even know and then I thought Roach.

Now I understand why people like Roach so much. It’s because he was smart enough to leave the basement as a 15 year old kid and not be caught. Obviously if he was smart enough to get out and be behind the walls, he was smart enough to leave. He stuck around to not only give shit to the people that put him there but also to make sure that little girl was going to be okay. He was a martyr, dying to save Fool so he could help Alice get out of the house and have a new life. Roach did it all with an innocence.  I actually wasn’t that young. I was 27 playing a 15 year old.

What was working with Wes Craven like?

I always say he’s like the favorite uncle at the BBQ. Not the one that’s behind the thing grill screaming but the one who hands you the hot dog and takes it from the loud guy. Wes Craven is so mellow and nice and very nurturing. He wanted us to do good acting work and really cared about that. Wes was protective of that and it made you want to do a good job. You could tell he was so nice and wanted it to be good that you instinctively wanted it to be better. You just didn’t want to suck for him.

It’s a weird twisted movie but he made it so safe. I thought if I’m going to be in this movie I may as well play and give 100%. At the time I was very lucky to be with a coach, Mark Speigel and I was also at Playhouse West with Robert Carnegie and they taught me to act act. I had come out of the Groundlings with comedy. So I was at the right place to be able to say I want to create this character and play this real. Wes let me go for it.

When I had my death scene I sat in the corner for over an hour by myself and he kept everyone away and let me prepare for it. I said I’m going to be over there getting ready while you guys setup the lights. Wes Craven was very sweet, nurturing and mellow but obviously a very dark twisted imagination.

Recently I feel like Rob Zombie is the same way. Super nice, mellow and kind of dorky. If you sat down to talk to him you’d realize he’s a cinephile. Same with Guillermo Del Toro. He was giddy when I met him on the set of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He remembered me as Roach from People Under the Stairs. You realize those are the best kind of people because they are fans of good work and the genre.

How important was studying acting to your success?

Definitely. I feel like an acting teacher said it to me best. You don’t walk into a hospital and go, “I wanna do a brain surgery.” It doesn’t work that way. You put in hours and hours and become a doctor. You put in hours and hours and become a lawyer. And we put in hours and hours and you don’t even know if we’ll succeed. At least they know they’ll have a job when they finish school. Actors don’t.

My acting coach told us we better know plays and movies. I loved movies and entertainment anyways. When I was working with my class and said we need to do a film noir thing, they said what’s film noir? My students think being good and putting out some videos on YouTube, that’s not what it is. Every meeting you have someone will it’s just like Repo Man meets Edward Scissorhands and you better know what that means.

Not only do you study the craft but you have to study the industry and know movies. You don’t have to watch the shows but you can at least go on Wikipedia and read about it and watch a YouTube clip so you know. I’ve never watched all of Dexter but I know what it is. I met with a young set director for my new film Crust and I mentioned Repo Man and he was like oh yeah, not like an early Tim Burton movie.

What TV shows and movies influenced you?

I watched I love Lucy. That redefined comedy in the modern age. Desi Arnez was a pioneer, 3 cameras with the audience, it’s still done the same way because of him. I watched the Three Stooges and Warner Bros cartoons, Fantasy Island, 6 Million Dollar Man and Gilligan’s Island.
Saturday morning cartoons were the greatest thing ever. You’d get a huge preview on Friday for what’s coming on Saturday like HR PufnStuf.

How did the Aaron Burr Got Milk commercial boost your career?

People Under the Stairs was number 1 for six weeks and I thought my life was going to change and it didn’t which was interesting. All my guy friends that were character actors would all audition and we were all there for this one. They gave us bread and a big jar of peanut butter and said this is what’s going on, just go with it. The radio announcer lines were playing and I shoved a shit load of peanut butter in my mouth. What was told after I got the commercial was that they didn’t have an ending. Most actors were angry and throwing the phone and screaming. I was the only guy to just show he got screwed. I just did what I thought was funny at the time.

When I got there, Michael Bay, who directed the commercial said just do what you did in the audition. That was his last commercial before he broke into movies and got The Rock after that. The commercial blew up and won all kinds of awards and Michael Bay got a lot of accolades and a huge career. For me, I was in acting class and somebody said your life’s going to change. Steven Spieldberg saw that commercial and said he liked it. It’ll mean good things for you.

After that I got cast in Twister which Steven Spieldberg executive produced, Men in Black which he executive produced. His friend was Tom Hanks who put me in That Thing You Do and Drew Barrymore put me in Never Been Kissed.

I was working a ton in commercials, 5 or 6 per year and then it all ended. I think I’ve done 2 since then and that commercial is 20 years old. It was a huge campaign and I’m so associated with it. It started my theatrical career and ended my commercial career.

What are the similarities and differences of horror and comedy?

Comedy is just fun because when you say cut the crew laughs. If you can make the crew laugh you’re doing well. Horror is usually like drama, unless it’s a horror comedy which is rare. In drama, it’s more draining emotionally because of the intense circumstances. Usually in a horror, the circumstances are so intense that it’s exhausting to put yourself through it.

I did NYPD Blue with Dennis Franz in my face interrogating me thinking this is awesome but that was exhausting. I just like giving it 100% and getting a reaction.

How did you get involved with Death House?

My good friend Felissa Rose who’s a producer and I had worked with Harrison Smith before or we were trying to work together before. They wanted as many iconic horror people as possible. It was a fun part, playing Satan. I can’t talk about more than that but it was very cool. This is one they are trying to keep under wraps.

Check out our interview with Death House producer Harrison Smith

What actors have you worked with that were memorable?

One was Drew Barrymore, who fought for me because I wrote my part for Never Been Kissed. It was supposed to be one line and the director wanted to keep it that way. She thought what I created was funny and working and wanted to see it through. It was her first time as a producer and Drew wanted to let me do my thing because it was better and it was working.

The other that was Dennis Franz who stunned me. After we were done on NYPD Blue he said he was sorry. He had a bit of a cold and was worried he was giving as much as he should. I was like that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard in my life! He’s great, that’s how I want to be. I never forgot that and now on any set I try to introduce myself to the extras. He was so gracious and talented. I realized that you can be really good and still be super nice at the same time.

The biggest people I’ve worked with, Tim Burton, Tom Hanks, they were always the coolest people. It was the younger people who had attitudes. I never really understood that.

How important are relationships as an actor?

My daughters will laugh because I say it’s all about the hustle. Networking and then being really good when you get an opportunity is the most important thing. The more people you know, the bigger your funnel is and the more stuff that can come in. Relationships are key.

What is your latest film Crust about?

It’s about a former child star working in a laundry mat. All his co-stars have either killed themselves or are addicts. He collects the single socks from the dryers in the laundry machines and blows his nose in them, wipes his sweat off on them, bleeds on them and they are all in a little pile. One day he cries into the sock pile and it becomes Crust, the sock monster. It avenges and kills for him unbeknownst to him ala Little Shop of Horrors.

It’s fun, Felissa Rose is attached as my girlfriend and it’s on IndigeGoGo now: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/crust-movie-fun-horror. We are also taking meetings with other investors.

How long have you been an acting coach?

I started in August of 2016 but I’ve been teaching workshops for 3 or 4 years. We just had our new teacher meeting yesterday with James Caan. We spoke yesterday which was cool because I got a call from the supervisor at the school saying James Caan really likes what I’m doing and the way I think. Wow James Caan! I’m going to dinner with him next week which is cool. You come in and learn comedy and we put on shows regularly. I’m trying to build a comedy department that rivals the Groundlings or Upright Citizens Brigade. It’s every Tuesday night throughout the year.

I love teaching. It’s like giving back. All you want to do is teach them things I wish I knew.

Have more questions for Sean? Leave them in the comments below and we’ll make sure he gets them! Don’t forget to sign up for our weekly email and if you really love us, leave us a review on iTunes.

Tony Germinario is a writer and indie film director behind the award winning feature film Bad Frank. Born and raised in NJ. Tony went to school at Fairfield University where he initially began his screenwriting career. Since then, he has always been involved in creative outlets. At first, he focused on music and became one of the lead songwriters for a touring band called Jel, but then turned his writing skills from songs back to scripts roughly eight years ago.

Since focusing on film, Tony has written 9 feature scripts, several shorts, and has experienced increasing levels of success with his film-making. His first feature film “Wingman, Inc.”, starring Kristopher Turner, Erin Cahill, and Reid Ewing was picked up by Lion’s Gate/Grindstone and was released in April 2015.

Tony’s latest feature film Bad Frank, featuring Kevin Interdonato and Tom Sizemore has people talking. It’s won 11 awards on the film festival circuit and recently picked up a distribution deal with Gravitas Ventures. We learned a lot from Tony this week about transitioning from short films to creating feature films. The devil’s in the details and preparation can be the difference between success and failure. Surrounding yourself with a team you can trust is also the key to making big things happen on small budgets in the indie film world.

Keep up with Tony Germinario and Bad Frank

Twitter: @tonygerm & @badfrankmovie
Instagram: @tonygerm
Tony on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4894287/
Bad Frank on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3362238/

Watch Bad Frank

Director Tony Germinario Interview Highlights

Where are you from?

Born and raised in Bergen County New Jersey. We actually have a big New Jersey contingency on this film. Kevin Interdonato, Russ Russo, Lynn Mancinelli and about ¾ of the cast and crew were from New Jersey. Keeps down travel expenses.

How long have you been making independent films?

For about 6 years now. In my younger days I was a touring musician for a number of years in NYC and the northeast. You reach a certain age and have kids where you can’t drive to Maryland at 11pm on Wednesday anymore. I wound up transitioning out of that into film.

Probably about 8 or 9 years ago I wrote my first script and it was awful. Then I wrote my second script and it wasn’t as awful and it progressively got better each time I wrote one. I was hired by a gentleman, Choice Skinner to write a script for him. He had written an advertisement looking for a writer so I sent in a few samples and was hired. I was paid all of $100 and I was a professional screenwriter so I was thrilled. We hit it off. Choice is New York guy himself even though he lives in Los Angeles. The script is still sitting in development limbo on some executives desk.

We hit it off after that and I went to one of Choice’s acting classes. If you’ve never been to an acting class, go! It’s insane. I met a couple of people there and I wrote a couple of short scripts that they could use for class and he said why don’t we just make them ourselves. I had no idea what he was talking about, I had never produced anything. I just wanted to write.

We ended up raising a little bit of money and shot two short films over the course of a weekend. That was really the start of it. I made another short film after that. Then I wrote a feature film that we produced called Wingman Inc. A professional wingman falls in love with a professional cockblocker. That was more of a comedic film than Bad Frank.

I wrote Bad Frank and wanted to see if I could do it all myself with the feedback I had been getting from people like Choice Skinner. I had worked with Brandon and Kevin before so we decided to do something really low budget. We were very fortunate to get great performances from great people involved. I feel very lucky to work with all these people and am beholden to them. Whatever I do next, any success I have is due to the people I worked with. I’ll do anything I can to help them out as well.

What is your philosophy on working with the same team for your films?

It helps you get a cohesive set. Especially for Bad Frank, we shot the whole thing in 12 days. If we didn’t have a good working knowledge of how we all fit together, there is no way we could have pulled it off. As you work on projects you determine this is someone you can work with again so you keep them in the fold and there are other people that may not fit. You know pretty quickly who fits your model. I like to think I don’t have much of an ego. I don’t really care as long as it comes out good. As long as everyone is working hard and doing what they are supposed to they’re good with me. That’s why I like keeping these people close.

Look at Judd Apatow who uses the same guys or Kevin Smith who uses Ben Affleck even though he’s one of the biggest actors in the world now.  That’s who I aspire to be. I bring Kevin Smith up because we were lucky enough to work with Brian O’Halloran. That was surreal. Clerks was one of those movies growing up I was like how did he do this. Brian walked on set the first day and I probably came across as a little jerky but I was really just intimidated. Probably more intimidated by Brian than Tom Sizemore.

I said it recently to a friend of mine. My next project I do, I want to have him back to give him more time to do what he does. He had two great scenes in the film but it wasn’t very much screen time.

Why did you start with short films?

I’m a kid out of Jersey. I just had to figure out a way to make a calling card. There are  a lot of festivals out there and if you start winning some awards you start to get your name out there. Maybe now it’s a little easier if you get on a Vimeo channel or something like that and you might find a way to monetize it but you’re never going to make your money back. I didn’t go to film school. If I was going to learn, that’s how I was going to learn. Still money well spent.

How did your process change from making short films to a feature film?

For the first feature, Wingman Inc. I was just a writer and showed up on set to watch and learn. Choice was the director and I kinda sat on his shoulder and watched how he did things. What I learned is, if you hire the right people, the director doesn’t have to do much. It’s all in the preparation beforehand. You’re going to setup your shot lists and work with your director of photography to do that. That was a learning process too but fortunately my DP was great, Mike Heachanova.

It’s about figuring out how do you get the right people in the right spots and letting them do what they do. My process is typically I’ll do a couple of takes and not say anything. On the 3^rd take I might say here’s a little note to guide them. If you’re working with talented people which every single person on our set was, you don’t have to do that much. Make it an easy place to work and the rest takes care of itself.

What is Bad Frank about?

It’s a love story…just kidding. It’s about Frank who has impulse control disorder. In his younger days he ruined all of his relationships with his family and friends. Years later he has himself straightened out and he’s medicated and trying to repair his old relationships. Just as he’s going to do that he meets up with someone from his past who sucks him in to his old ways. That’s when “Bad Frank” is reborn.

This film is all about performances. There are no special effects, no crazy car chases, we’ve got a couple of fights we shot but it’s about performances.

If you notice, one of the cool things throughout the film is that there isn’t much music but there’s a lot of sound design. We mixed these eery creepy sounds as things start effecting Frank and it gets stronger and harder as things progress. That’s something a lot of people don’t think about as well in the post production world. If our sound guy didn’t do a good job on that part it wouldn’t have been as intense. As good as Kevin is, you have to have the audio with the video. If it’s not there it would have been more challenging to keep people interested in it.  It keeps the intensity going and its such an integral part of the film.

What are the details of the Bad Frank shoot?

We shot on a RED EPIC. It was a two camera shoot. We didn’t really have that many takes. If we got 3 or 4 takes that’s it. If got a good performance we don’t have time to mess around. We probably had 20 to 30 minutes of film we cut. We had very fortunate circumstances. It was a 12 day shoot, 6 days on 1 off then 6 more days of shooting. I still have a regular job. I took 4 days off to shoot and while everyone else had a day off I was still working at my regular job. It was a total of 8 work days for me but it was well worth.

When you can pull something like this together and see it on screen I was stoked.

What was the budget for Bad Frank and how did you get funding?

The budget for Bad Frank was $80,000. Myself and one of my other producers put up the money. Fortunately, I have a very understanding wife. We filmed at our house. Every single room in our houes the furniture was moved around. The final scene in the dining room where the big fight breaks out, we smashed everything in our dining room. If you want to do it cheap  you gotta use what you have.

What was it like being the writer and director on Bad Frank?

I had the original idea for the script and then Brandon and Russ added their input. It was a collaboration in the way we did. From a director’s standpoint it really helped. I knew the script inside and out. I knew the motivations of the characters in every scene. That’s one of the reasons Kevin and Russ were able to give such great performances. It’s all about the preparation.

I think I’d find it more challenging directing something I didn’t write. You then have to intrepret what the writers motivation was and you could be off the mark if you don’t have enough time or money. I’m planning to direct the next two or three projects of my own unless someone wants to give me $1 Million to pay for it. These are my babies at this point.

How did Tom Sizemore get involved with Bad Frank?

Tom Sizemore was great. We knew someone who knew him and him the script. He loved it and wanted to be a part of it. The great thing about Tom is, he’s just a regular guy when he’s on set. In one of the scenes where we’re throwing him around in the mud, asking if needs a mat or anything. He just said fuck it, lets just do it it’s gotta be real. You don’t expect it from guys like that.

When we originally started the schedule, Tom Sizemore was going to show up for filming on the 3^rd day. I was going to have 2 days to get my legs because I never directed anything before. I wanted a couple days before we bring in Academy Award Nominee Tom Sizemore directed by Steven Spielberg and Oliver Stone and then this schmuck Tony Germinario. Schedules changed and there we are day 1 of shooting with Tom Sizemore.

After some travel complications, Tom actually admitted he was nervous about showing up on set. He said he didn’t know any of us. Tom just wanted it to work out good and put on a good performance for us. He did everything we asked of him, rolling around in the dirt and mud. When we were done he actually could have taken off but he stuck around for another day just to hang out and have dinner with us. You can’t say no to having dinner with Tom Sizemore. He’s a legend.

With Tom we could give him the framework and he just says whatever he wants. I don’t know if you caught it but he talks about something that happened in real life based on some research he did for a film. He actually brings it up saying someone else did it but he tied it to a true person.

What is the distribution strategy for Bad Frank?

After winning 11 film festival awards we just signed our distribution deal. We are getting the dates set but in early July it looks like we are going to have full domestic distribution through Gravitas Ventures. Bad Frank will be available on Amazon, iTunes, DVD and probably Netflix 6 months later. We also work with Lotus Entertainment who’s our sales agent and international distributor. We have already sold to the Middle East, Turkey and Japan.

Kevin knew them and they had liked the script from the onset. They were pretty much onboard before we made the film as long as we didn’t fuck it up. We’ve been very fortunate at festivals and with the backing of Lotus Entertainment and now Gravitas Ventures I think it’s really going to help launch this film. Even though it’s a small it doesn’t look like a small film in my opinion. The proudest thing for me is to get the performers recognition. They all did it for peanuts and I know the reason they do it, just to work but I want to see them succeed and not have to worry about taking the $100 job.

What did you learn from the making of Bad Frank?

Number 1 is preparation. The preparation is going to guide the end result. I spent months working on locations and shot lists. You can’t just show up and hope the magic is going to happen. You gotta be prepared for any contingency, sun to rain, lighting goes out. What do you do when things go wrong? As a director you can never show fear. You always have to be calm and be able to pivot.

Next I’d say, think smart. Know what your capabilities are and how you can handle them. Work with your team. Find people you can trust that you work well with. I’m extremely loyal to the people I work with and if I didn’t treat them well they wouldn’t by loyal to me as well.

Talking with actress Chanel Ryan we learned that being an actor is like being self-employed. That means you need to treat acting like a business. As an actor or actress have you asked yourself, should I take acting classes? It’s no secret that to make it Hollywood it takes guts and a whole lot of work. By taking classes you’ll get a solid foundation that will translate into confidence for yourself and the potential casting directors and other actors you’ll be working with.

Chanel Ryan is an American actress who has successfully navigated the acting and modeling industry over the past decade. Descriptions of Chanel are as varied as the roles she plays which you’ll see in our interview. A ball of energy with captivating eyes in a pretty blonde package. She’s a chameleon with strength, vulnerability, and great comedic timing in equal amounts. She shines in the lighter, bubbly types and specializes in darker material, playing edgy and troubled young women.

In 2011, she shifted her attention to acting full time. Her recent roles include a guest appearance on THE LATE LATE SHOW opposite James Corden and John Stamos; Starring roles in two independent films, horror film CIRCUS OF THE DEAD alongside genre legend Bill Oberst Jr., and the psychological thriller HOUSE ON RODEO GULCH. She can also be seen in the upcoming release of the comedy HYPNOTIZED starring Vinnie Jones and Kevin Pollak, as well as the drama BIGGER THAN THE BEATLES.

This past year, Chanel believed in getting a solid foundation for her career so much that she took time off to do just that. She’s been working on her craft daily to make sure she can lands the type of parts that will make her proud. We hope you learn as much as we did from Chanel Ryan.

Keep up with Chanel Ryan:

Web Site: http://www.chanelryan.com
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0752457
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chanel-Ryan
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ChanelRyan
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/therealchanelryan

Watch The Complete Interview

Read The Highlights of Why Actors Should Take Acting Classes:

Are you a Los Angeles native?

No I grew up on the east coast in Pennsylvania but we moved a lot. From Pennsylvania, to New Jersey to Northern California to Southern California. I feel very fortunate to have had the best of both worlds. We had a pond so in the summer you swim in the pond and in the winter we would skate on the pond. Then when we moved to California there was the beach and we had a pool. I got to experience the country as well as the beach.

When did you catch the acting bug?

When I was little I wanted to do one of three things. I loved art and was always drawing and painting. A lot of the grocery stores where I grew had contests. Around Easter who ever colored the egg the best and Christmas it would Santa or a tree and Halloween it’s a witch or a cat. I would win every holiday. I’m a vegetarian but I would win my family a turkey or a ham. A couple of times a store manager thought I was cheating and had an adult do it so I had to go in there with my little art box and color for them.

I had an illustrated children’s book published when I was little and my stuff appeared at the festivals in Laguna Beach. That’s what I always wanted to do.

I always liked the thought of acting but it seemed so far away. I don’t have any friends or family in the industry. I’m not from LA or New York and I had no idea how to get into it. I laugh now because I thought it would be a very glamorous and easy job. There are parts of it that are glamorous but 95% of it is not glamorous.

How did you transition to acting?

I was fortunate. In junior high I was living in Southern California I was approached on the beach to model for a swimwear campaign. From there a few other jobs came in. Around the same time I was at a park with my girlfriend and someone approached us to audition for commercials and I got that as well. It was a series of events like that. A friend was doing wardrobe on a film and I went for dinner at her house and the director was there. He thought we were all cute and asked if we want to be in a movie and that’s how I got my first part.

I was planning to go to art school because I really wanted to be a fashion designer or an interior designer. I started working so much, modeling first and acting equally with a lot of success modeling in other countries.  It’s really hard to turn down a paid job in an exotic location rather than stay in town in hopes that you’ll get an audition and then from that audition hope that you’ll get a call back and then hope that you’ll get a job.

Does acting account for more of your career than modeling now?

It does. I still model a little bit. They are both really full time jobs. You can only do so much. A few years ago I decided if I didn’t want to be one of those girls who used to have a career. I kept saying I wanted to be an actress so I needed to switch my focus, stay in town and buckle down.

The first few acting jobs I had were huge studio productions and I no clue what a big deal that was. When I worked with John Frankenheimer I auditioned on the set and he offered me a part. I worked on the film for about 2 weeks and you barely see me.  He had said to me I’m going to put you in all of my movies, I’m going to make you a star. His assistant would call my home to try and book me for stuff and I would come to messages on my answering after I was off modeling wherever I was.

The first movie I did regardless of what IMDB says is called Waitin for the Rocket. I was about 16 years old and I had switched my ID to say I was older so I could work. It was Disney style family comedy and I was one of the lead roles I had no idea what a big deal that was to book the lead in any film. Shortly after I worked with Frankenheimer. I did an Easter special with Andy Williams for the BBC with 60s themed skits. I did a pilot with Bill Murray called The Sweet Spot. I did a lot of big things when I was very young and unfocused.

When did you start taking your acting career more seriously?

I had done a lot of commercials so a lot of agents were interested in me because I could make them money. I’ve studied with some of the biggest acting teachers in Los Angeles and each one of them I took something away from them. I had really been looking for a more solid foundation so about a year ago I started studying the Meisner technique with Alex Taylor. I recommend any actors in Los Angeles study with him. It’s a big time commitment but it’s worth it. With the intensive program you go the first 4 months 4 days a week.  It’s like condensing 1 year into 4 months.

I’ve been turning down a lot of jobs so I can focus on class. A lot of films I had been in I felt like some I was good in and some I was terrible. When I did something that was good I didn’t necessarily know how to do it again. This is why I was searching for a solid foundation and he’s given me that. I feel like I can handle anything now. Every Monday we would do a different accent and every Thursday we would do a different impediment. It’s a full on drama school. I’ve given myself a gift and taken some time off to grow as an actress so I can always deliver good work and feel confident about it.

Whats the difference between indie films and studio work?

I go back and forth between studio and indie. Comedy is actually my first love. On the indie films it’s hard for me because I know what it’s like to be on a studio set. I know how its run, what the rehearsals are like, everyone’s fully trained and memorized their lines. It’s really easy to do good work under those circumstances. I love the indie world and I’m booked for indie roles coming up but one of the problems I was having and really wanted to study was a lot of times you only get one take. There aren’t many rehearsals. Sometimes the people you are working with are trained sometimes not. Sometimes they’ve memorized their lines and other times not. It’s challenging to good work.

I was on a film recently and the other actor hadn’t memorized his lines. He said he had the gist of it.  I had to explain that each character has an arc with a beginning middle and end. If we don’t by the script we will never get to those. Depending on the director there may be room for improv but if you don’t have everything down there is no room for improv.

Do you have any audition war stories to share?

I’m sure I do but I tend to block out the traumatic stuff. We’re all busy. There are times you run into an audition and you’re not prepared, looking it over in the car. That can never be good. There are a few instances where you just have the right look and you get the character but for the most part it’s never good if you’re not prepared. I’ve done some terrible auditions I’m sure.

Which actors did you work with that inspired you?

All of them. I feel so fortunate that I’ve been cast so often among people that are way more talented and successful than myself. You’re only as good as the person you’re working with. Each person I worked with I learned different thing. Bill Oberst Jr. and I had a great time shooting Circus of the Dead. We were laughing and joking between takes and then I’m crying and running and screaming. I’m a vegetarian and at one point he licks my face after he had just eaten meat for dinner. It actually helped me because it smelled like meat. Bill is the nicest guy and would apologize in advance.

Judd Nelson was great to work with in Bad Kids Go To Hell. It’s interesting to see actors who are seasoned veterans how they come to the set. He was much more experienced than anyone else on the set in front or behind the camera. Judd was offering his advice to everyone about the scenes and stood up and fought for what he believed was right.

What was working with John Stamos like?

So nice, such a professional. Everyone was jealous and I’m a huge James Corden fan and watch his show every night. I heard about the audition while out of town and I had to put something on tape. It was me being a complete fan girl. The guy that taped me was like, “Are you sure you want to send this in?” I was like yes and I got it. I never watched Full House if you can believe that. John Stamos is ridiculously good looking. His comedic timing is amazing and a consummate professional.

When you work with people who have that sort of status it can be intimidating. I’ve been lucky that everyone I’ve worked with has been super nice.

Is establishing relationships important for getting more work?

I have a lot of the same people that hire me over and over since I was a teenager, especially commercially. I probably have 8 to 10 producers that book me. If I just worked for them, everything would be great and I have the same thing with a lot of theatrical directors which is great. Don Richardson I did a fun comedy called Attack of the Bimbos and we are about to do called Busted Reality. It’s about 3 girls who wanted to be famous by getting reality shows.

When I had first auditioned for him he was interested in me for a role but I was leaving for Canada. He really wanted to have rehearsals but I couldn’t be there. I was in Canada at a convention hosting different events and I get a call from Don offering me the lead role because he was having issues. Long story short I ended up cancelling some things in Canada and learned the script on the flight and started shooting.

What advice do you have for actors & actresses looking to break into Hollywood?

Don’t do it! There’s so many amazing things about it but I think a lot of teenagers are so influenced by reality television and think you can become famous by doing something stupid. What a lot of people don’t understand and only see the glamorous side. You’re basically self-employed and there are not enough hours in the day. You have to treat it like a business.

If you wanted to be an interior designer you would go to school for that, study for that, get an internship, start working under someone to learn the ropes before you go off on your own. It’s the same with acting. It’s a job. Every day you should be taking a serious class and working towards your goal. Whether it’s working on an accent, memorizing, researching casting directors or scripts. That way when you get an audition with one of these casting directors you understand how they operate.

My first jobs were offered to me but I was always prepared. If I was asked to bring wardrobe, I brought the best wardrobe I could. I always gave 110% and took advantage of every opportunity that came my way. I get to work with creative people in ridiculously exotic locations I might not otherwise see.

Have more questions for Chanel Ryan? Ask us here and we’ll make sure she gets em!

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An accomplished actress and stunt woman, Melanie Wise has been acting professionally for over a decade. As lead actress of the award-winning horror-action film, Hanah’s Gift,  Melanie won best actress at the IndieFest Film Festival. She is also an accomplished producer, video and sound editor with skills in sound effects, graphic design, 2D motion graphics, and specializes in polishing troubled projects.

Melanie is the founder of the Artemis Film Festival. Now in its 3rd, it’s more than your typical indie film festival. It not only celebrates women, but women who kick ass.  From female action heroes and stunt women to female activists and business women, the Artemis Film Festival features 3 days of action packed content in Santa Monica, CA.

Talking with Melanie we learn what it takes to run a film festival, what being a female stunt woman is like in Hollywood and why women kick so much ass!

Support The Artemis Film Festival:

Crowd Funding page:  http://www.WomenKickAss.com
Artemis Film Festival:  http://www.ArtemisFilmFestival.com
Artemis Motion Pictures: https://www.artemismotionpictures.com

Every Wednesday at 7pm PST join Melanie for the #WomenKickAss Twitter chat

Twitter Handle(s):
Melanie Wise, Founder @IamMelanieWise
Artemis Motion Pictures:  @ArtemisPics
Artemis Film Festival:  @Artemis_FF

Team Members:
Sean Newcombe, Co-Founder: @therealnewk
Megan Hubbell, Social Media Goddess: @MeganHubbell
Indus Alelia, PR & Outreach Mgr: @IndusAlelia

Watch The Entire Melanie Wise Interview

Read The Melanie Wise Interview Highlights

How did you get involved in the film industry?

I started out modeling and that was a non-starter which doesn’t make sense at my height. They say models have to be tall but in Los Angeles it was the bathing suit industry and all the models are 5ft tall. I eventually ventured into acting and I’ve always been physically inclined so stunts were a no-brainer. One of the first jobs I worked was a Sunkist commercial. They only hired me because I was big enough to tackle a guy.

It was a non-union with just a day rate, no residuals and no bumps for stunt hits and I was dumb enough to not know to ask for it. There were a pile of people jumping into this one thing and I would end up at the bottom every time we did a take. I was covered in bruises from one end to the other but it was fun. At the end of the day, I got paid for a day on the beach to tackle a guy.

Was that your first professional job?

It wasn’t the most professional, but yeah. Some people consider low budget film making, not very professional and I’m not sure I align well with that sentiment. Anytime you have less resources, the thing that you need to excel at is creative problem solving. I think that’s where the professionalism does show up.

How did you make the jump to film and stunt work?

I’ve done all of my own fight scenes and I love fight stunts. I don’t get into things like fire burns and high falls. I consider the stunts that I do to be the simplest version. When people call me a stunt woman it’s kind of a lie because there isn’t much an “oops” factor to it. If I screw up I might break a bone but in some stunts if you screw up you might be dead. I have a long athletic history so doing a fight scene is a long athletic dance.

Have you had any formal martial arts or fight training?

I do have some martial arts training, some boxing training and some stunt training. I want to start training on wire work.

What’s the craziest stunt you’ve ever done?

It wasn’t crazy, just difficult. The film Hanah’s Gift was shot from the point of view from one of the characters and in real time. The whole movie looks like a 90 minute cut. There is a fight scene in it that’s kind of short but the actual take was 9 minutes long. In most fight scenes you setup angles and takes and directions. For what we shot there were not cut-to’s. You had to nail it. We wound up taking that 9 times and when it was all said and done I had broken two bones.

I don’t know if I could live with myself if I was careless and actually hurt somebody. There was a fight scene I did with a guy and we choreographed and rehearsed. We know it was going to be dark on set going in. I’m supposed to swing a flashlight at him and for whatever reason he stepped into it and I rotated my hand and I actually clocked him in the head. It was just an extraordinary error. Looking back I’m just glad nothing serious happened. Simple simple things can cause big big problems.

What goes into choreographing and prepping a fight scene?

It depends on the difficulty level of it. Punches and kicks and basic throws aren’t bad to do. When we shot our crowdfunding video we shot 4 short action sequences. I think our entire shooting time for choreography and shooting was probably 12 hours. We choreographed and rehearsed on one day and shot on another.

When you choreograph you’re not necessarily doing it on location so you have to make some adjustments on the day of. It depends on the skill level and strengths of the people you have. You wouldn’t ask someone who’s not good at kicks to do a head kick.  Part of doing stunts is getting bumps and bruises.

Where did you get the idea for the Artemis Film Festival?

There’s a team of us. I’m called the founder but I prefer my title “Fucking Professional Picky Bitch.” I want to put Melanie Wise, FPPB but you know. All of us have known each other for a lot of years and love content that was action oriented with female leads. We struggled with putting that type of content into the world so we started our own festival. It’s a great thing and I’m honored we can do it every year but it’s a lot to do.

Our first year I thought we were going to get laughed out of the park but we actually got over 200 submissions from 25 different countries in 2 months. You get content that doesn’t fit but the majority was content with badass women in it including narratives, documentaries. Things about history that aren’t known from shorts to feature length films. We block together shorts that are similarly themed.

The regulation for the festival is that the film needs to feature a female in a leading or co-leading role in a physical action role or some type of activism. We don’t have distinctions that women need to produce or direct. On screen we just need to see empowered images of women.

What is your selection process like?

What’s interesting is, if you look at most film festivals, unless it’s a genre festival like horror or action, there’s not a huge number of festivals these films can play at. Most film festivals program documentaries, dramas and comedies. A lot of these films don’t have a good home and they should.

How many years have you been running the Artemis Film Festival?

We are in our 3^rd year. We are still very young and have been fan backed every year. I think it’s fair to say our fans like us. It’s been an amazing ride. I’ve had the belief for years that women in action is something that popular audiences are into. That’s true the world over because we are getting films from all over. Our first year we got a film from Iran about female empowerment.

What films standout as a favorite of yours?

I’m not a festival goer, I think it’s a yawn to me. We program exciting stuff. It’s not like you’re going to walk in and fall asleep. This year amongst our submissions we have a film that won Student Academy Award. It’s a period piece that features a female racecar driver. We’ve got a documentary from Tazmania of all places. The lady that actually brought the piece together and actually told her story through the events that happened. They took down a billion dollar logging company. Those kinds of stories are ones we really need to see.

When are submissions open for the Artemis Film Festival?

Submissions closed on December 15, 2016. For our 2018 festival we are getting ready to announce the submission schedule which we probably open in August. The festival takes place Thursday April 20 – Sunday April 23. Our red carpet will be in Beverly Hills and the last 3 days of the festival will be in Santa Monica.

What film makers inspire you?

One of my favorites is Joss Whedon. He does amazing action. From what I’ve read for Avengers is that he wrote so many female roles and fought tooth and nail and ended up with one female character. He tells amazing and brilliant stories and casts equal distribution of men and women roles.

Are women in film making headway in Hollywood?

I definitely think things are changing. I can’t look at it and say wow we’ve accomplished so much. The cool thing is TV is way ahead of film. We have a snobbery between the small screen and the big screen. The bottom line of it is cable is turning out some badass female characters. We still have a lot of room to make up in film and we aren’t anywhere we need to be.

I just participated in article discussing sexism in Hollywood. They included some quotes of mine and I read the stories from the others that were included. One lady talked about she was physically intimidated for saying something she didn’t say and tracked down to her by 4 men.

What’s in store for you in the future?

I’m trying to get a better sense of balance and either get my energy back to content making or something else. I really would like to see our whole team focus on making content. We’ve been working really hard behind the scenes. We have more honoree announcements to make for this year but I have so much on my plate I’m trying not to plan too much. Honorees this year include Tom Cruise and Nichelle Nichols, the original Lieutenant Uhura. The stunt people we have every year are legendary.

Herding film makers is like herding cats. The amount of people that make a film and don’t make cover art. When I start asking for deliverables like high res files and I don’t get what I need. We need Blu-Ray to be able to showcase their films or they come in with region 0 and don’t play in a region 1 DVD player. It’s a lot of work but it’s worth it but film makers need to start mastering the business side of things.

This week we interview actress Tami Stronach who made her acting debut as The Childlike Empress in the Neverending Story in 1984. The Neverending Story, which catapulted Stronach to stardom, has been a huge inspiration in pop culture and is just as popular today as it was when it was first released. She was studying acting in California, when she was chosen for her role as the Childlike Empress in the iconic 80s movie and the rest is history.

Tami Stronach’s Company: www.papercanoecompany.com
Follow Tami Stronach on Twitter @NeverendingTami

After a couple of decades of making dance and theater in NYC, Tami has now turned her attention to laying the foundation for a content shop that makes ‘family friendly’ work – not unlike “Neverending Story”. The brand is called Paper Canoe Company, which she founded with husband, Greg.

Tami made one album “Faerie Queen” that nostalgia buffs will remember was a sleeper hit in the ‘80s. This new project is the first in a series of collaborations with a notable crew of indie folk rock artists in Williamsburg. In the coming months she’ll be choreographing and performing in videos for the album and doing promo concerts in preparation for launching a full live theatrical experience later in the year, that will be built to tour nationally and internationally in theatrical concert venues with video projections, puppets, and Tami performing the role of Harmony, the Giant’s Rock Star Daughter.

Watch the Entire Tami Stronach Interview

Read The Tami Stronach Interview Highlights

Where were you born?

I was born in Teheran Iran. My Father is a Scottish archaeologist and my mother is an Israeli archaeologist. They met on a dig site and I grew up in Iran on excavations looking for artifacts. It was much more boring than it sounds. After the revolution of 79 we bounced around the globe a bit until we found home in the US and we settled in the San Francisco Bay area.

Were you taking acting classes in California?

I was dancing and acting throughout my childhood. In California there’s a wonderful acting school in San Francisco. I used to take singing classes and acting classes and I was also in ballet recitals. That was my world as a kid. I came out of the crib hamming it up. I would actually carpool to San Francisco to those acting classes on my own. I was super determined to get to those acting classes.

How did the opportunity for The Neverending Story come about?

It was a happy accident. I was in an acting class and a casting agent, her name is Anna Gross, was in San Francisco looking to cast somebody for the roll and she was friends with my acting teacher. She wanted to have lunch and came to Fort Mason where the school is and happened to be a little bit early and saw the tail end of class and thought that I might be a good person to audition and she invited me to audition.

I had no idea what she was asking me to audition for. I still have an issue with taking on too much. At the time I was in a traveling troupe that performed at local schools. The morning of the audition I had a show and I arrived really disheveled. I was playing Piglet in a Winnie-the-Pooh show so I had makeup smeared all over my face.

Did you enjoy auditioning as a child?

I think as a child you have less fear. I really love to be inside stories and figured if I didn’t get chosen I would just do another one. I think I just got really lucky and the material really resonated with me. I really identified with the character, I fell in love with her. By the third audition in Germany I was like I really want this. It got progressively more nerve racking.

Did you understand the gravity of the Neverending Story at that age?

I don’t think I totally understood the gravity of the Neverending Story and don’t think my parents understood the gravity of the movie. Partly it was filmed in Germany over the summer. It was sort of like, let’s go take this family vacation in Europe and you’ll do this little European release and we’ll come home and no one will ever see it and you can do your next dance recital. We didn’t really understand what we were doing. Maybe I was blessed to not know it really because I just didn’t have any expectations for it to be seen or to become iconic in that way.

What was your favorite character in the Neverending Story?

I didn’t spend a lot of time with Falcor. The Empress and Falcor don’t have a lot of scenes together, any in fact. I saw Falcor once as a head with a green screen behind but I never saw the whole thing, he was in pieces whenever I saw him. For me the Bat, the rock biter and that little enclave of puppets, I was able to watch their scenes get filmed, and I was able to watch the people move the levers on the side. I loved the fact that it was a person and a puppet that they sort of mixed together. I also sat in on the swamps of sadness scenes which was completely amazing. I’m so happy wasn’t around for the scene with the horse.

What was it like working with the puppets and animatronics?

That’s a really interesting question. I know there is a difference between acting for film and acting for stage in the sense that you want to make your gestures larger for stage, body language is more important for stage and you want to be more subtle on film. But at the same time it was much more a kin to theater than a lot of films are today. The set was real in the same way you would have it like a set onstage. Everything was physically there and touchable.

I’ve been on sets with green screens where you’re imagining the whole thing and the director promises you that there’s going to be a lot of people. I had a really good acting teacher who always said that acting is 99% listening. It’s not how you’re delivering the line it’s how you are responding to the line you were given. I think that with a puppet you’re able to do that listening part where as if the thing gets filled in later it’s all your choices and not so many reacting to other choices.

What’s happening now is really cool because they are combining animatronics with CGI and there’s a better sense of when to use what aspect and why.

You might also like our interview about the short fantasy film The Lookouts

What was it like working with all the young actors on set?

We got along which is good. They were boys and I was a girl at age ten. I was all business “Does anyone want to go over their lines. Let’s go over the scene” and Barret would have his little GI Joes and be like let’s play with these. But I really liked them both, they were wonderful. I have fond memories, we definitely got along.

I have a funny story with Noah. We were at a German outdoor pub, there were these train tracks next to the pub. We spent all of our time off set at pubs. That’s where the camera people and the makeup people were. There was a train really really far off and he was sort of playing this hero. So out of nowhere he suddenly grabbed me and flung me across the railroad tracks into the bushes. I was like what’s going on and he was like a train is coming. And we sort had to wait for the train to sort of come for a long time. Then I had to be like thank you for saving me.

What is life like for you today?

Mostly theater work these days. I founded a company called Paper Canoe Company with my husband actually. After the birth of my daughter I wanted to start making family theater again. The Never Ending Story was sort of family oriented. For me, trying to bring all of my passions under one umbrella seemed really important. I was a mom and I wanted the stuff that I was making to relate to my kid and to my community and all of those things to exist together.

We created two live shows in New York. The theater show was a light and dark comedy my husband wrote. It was a story where a scientist with good intentions steals the sun. We were speaking about how everything’s faster and everyone knows too much. In this world people stop dreaming, stop sleeping, the lights always on and everyone’s trying to be super productive. People lost the ability to dream and relax. The scientist creates a slumber yard and took away the sun so everyone could relax and over time everyone forgot there were lights. All the actors wore self-cranking machines with head lamps and we generated all of our own light in the production.

My vision is to turn the story into a graphic novel and possibly a feature film. The story would come alive on a graphic novel page even more so than the theater. I’m a creature of the theater, live theater is my medium. As we developed Paper Canoe we are finding that we are more and more curious about diving into digital content. Our third project is a digital project and that’s Beanstalk Jack which is a folk rock album.

Watch The Neverending Story Streaming

Robert Craighead has been a notable character actor in Hollywood for over 30 years, with roles in over 40 feature films, hundreds of television appearances, performed in over 100 stage productions across the U.S. and recently seen success as a country music singer.

Being called an overnight success is not something Robert buys into. He’s currently a series regular as Sheriff Mobley on Tyler Perry’s new hit drama for TLC, “TOO CLOSE TO HOME” and has been a recurring Guest Star for the last two seasons as Sergeant Clarke on the Fox Comedy sensation, “NEW GIRL”.

This year will also see the release of a couple of new feature films he will be starring in, including the western “THE MUSTANGER AND THE LADY”, where he will play one of the most despicable characters he’s ever portrayed, and “THE TIGER HUNTER” a new comedy co-starring with starring Danny Pudi, Jon Heder and Kevin Pollack.

Watch the entire Robert Craighead Interview

Read the Robert Craighead Interview Highlights

What brought you from Texas to Los Angeles?

I turned 18 and graduated from high school and went to college briefly. I spoke to a counselor and they were telling me about all these classes I had to take and mostly I wanted to do theater classes. They said I had to do math and science and I was like why?! I said want to be an actor so they recommended I go to a professional acting school.

I auditioned for Juilliard and American Academy of National­ Arts and was accepted to both but I didn’t want to move to New York. Being a Texas boy I need a little bit more open space around me. Plus I’m a big fan of the movie industry and I just wanted to get out to Los Angeles and start working as an actor.

I came out in 1980 but left for a while. After being gone for 11 years raising my daughter I came back 5 or 6 years ago. I was on the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful for 3 years. When that gig ran out I lost my manager and agent because they retired. I thought I had to start all over so I decided to take a break and spend some time with my daughter.

What was your relationship like with your agents?

Actually I’m on my 4^th agent since I came back into the business 5 years ago. The one that I’m with right now is one that I courted for 2 years. Her and I were together 20 years ago, Gloria Hinojosa. She represents Danny Trejo and helped mold his career as well as a lot of other wonderful actors. Gloria talked me through how to build my career and eventually the agency signed me on.

How do you view the differences between acting in theater & film?

My background is theater and I still do theater whenever I can. Unfortunately the problem is that theater does not pay very well in Los Angeles. As you know the cost of living here is quite high just like in New York. Theater for me is more about the love of performing in front of a live audience and getting that immediate reaction. Being able to experiment and expand myself as an actor in roles that I wouldn’t be given the opportunity to portray in TV & film.

Do you prefer acting in comedy or drama?

I really don’t but I guess if I was put on the spot I’d prefer a dramatic role because in either drama or comedy you bring elements from the other. Some of my favorite characters in film, like Jack Nicholson in The Departed, was the biggest asshole you’d ever seen in your life. Yet there are times you’re laughing about what he’s saying or doing. He’s the guy you love to hate. I try to find those comedic elements in all of my characters. Also in my comedic roles, like in New Girl a lot of the comedy comes from the drama you bring to it. It’s like the Naked Gun where they are being really serious and saying the most absurd thing imaginable.

Is Jack Nicholson a big influence on you?

I know you’re going to say I look like him and sound like him. I love Jack Nicholson he’s one of my idols. I don’t even realize how people compare my vocal qualities or demeanor because I grew up in Texas and Jack grew up in New York. I guess it’s just my demeanor that makes people compare and think that way. I never think of Jack Nicholson that way when I’m playing a role though.

Do you consider yourself an overnight success?

I’ve achieved more success in the last few years definitely. Early on in my career, because I had this deep voice whenever I was a young man it didn’t really match. People always told me, “When you’re older, you’re going to work, a lot.” I worked as a young man just not as much as I am now. When I came back to the business I was older, wiser, more secure financially so I think I’m having more fun with what I’m doing and that shows in my work. Everything is not do or die like some of the younger actors. If there’s any advice I would give to a young actor its have more fun with what you’re doing. Be in it for the long run. It’s a marathon. That’s what the business is. It’s about the longevity, it’s not about a flash in the pan.

How did you get the role of Sheriff Mobley in Too Close to Home?

It all happened quickly. I live in Los Angeles and they were auditioning people in New York and Atlanta. I was one of the last roles cast. My agent called me up on a Friday evening and I know this is unusual but can you go in Saturday morning and read for this role. I went in and the role felt very comfortable to me coming from a small town in Texas and I was playing a sheriff in a small town in Alabama. I kind of had a kindred spirit with the character. They said they wanted me to come back on Monday to meet with Tyler Perry.

On Monday we met at a hotel on Sunset Blvd along with a lot of other actors there to do a reading. I was one of the last actors to read and he had me do one little scene as opposed to the long scenes I had prepared. He was looking at resume and pointed out I sing country music and asked me to sing. So I start singing him a country song. Fortunately I had been doing a play about a country western singer. He said thank you and I was in my car on my way home and I got a call from my agent saying, “They want to hire you for Too Close to Home.” That was on a Monday and by Thursday I was in Atlanta.

What’s working with Tyler Perry like?

Tyler Perry is probably one of the most talented, brilliant, generous men I’ve ever met in my life. He treats his people like first class in every aspect. He does however expect you to give 150% all the time. That goes for every crew member to the biggest star on the show because he’s giving his 150%. I remember when I first got to the studio I noticed that everyone smiled all the time and I thought this isn’t normal. I began to realize everyone was generally happy. If you’re being treated well, having fun with what you’re doing and you’re doing what you do well, why not be happy. Everyone smiles constantly on the set. We work really hard, really fast and I have so much admiration for the man.

What other projects do you have coming up?

I’ve written a screenplay that I’ve got some people interested in producing. It’s about a country western singer and it’s a cross between Crazy Heart and The Crossing Guard. It’s a weird combination but unique. I have Paul Overstreet who’s a multiple CMA & Grammy award winning singer and songwriter. He’s agreed to write the music for the film and I’ve already been to Nashville to record some songs together. Brad Benedict who plays JB on Too Close to Home is in love with the script and going to be playing my son. I’m hoping we get it into production by the end of the year.

How long have you been a country music singer?

I always joked around singing country music but people always said you should do country music comparing me to Johnny Cash or Waylon Jennings. I wound up getting involved in this world premiere country musical and this movie I had in my mind for 15 years so I sat down and wrote it. The musical I did was based on 17 of Paul Overstreet’s hit songs like Forever and Ever Amen, Seeing My Father and Me. He and I became really close.

I had actually recorded two songs and put them out on iTunes before I met Paul. It’s a new experience for me and I’m having a lot of fun. A show is coming up in a few weeks in Santa Monica with Brad Benedict and a live country band. I’m trying to get the experience for my upcoming role, singing in bars and singing country music in front of live audiences.  I’ve performed in front of audiences and done live shows thousands of times. Last Saturday night my guitar teacher was doing a show and asked me to come sing. I was never more nervous. When you’re singing in a bar, people aren’t necessarily paying attention to you. You don’t know if they are yelling at you or people are laughing trying to struggle and get through the songs.

What advice do you have for young actors?

I would say one of the most important things is to get a solid foundation for your work. In today’s day and age there’s a lot of social media stars and that’s great but I strongly encourage everyone to get training whether you want to be an actor or singer. Get a solid background because the opportunities when they present themselves to you, you have to be able to get the job done and make sure people want to keep hiring you.

That’s what I did when I came out here to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. You weren’t allowed to work professionally while you were going to school there. For 3 years that’s all I did. Do you remember the show Fame? I was doing vocal lessons, acting lessons, dancing lessons from the classics to productions of plays. It’s all you do 8 hours a day is classes like that. I continue to train.

I’m invited to speak to young actors and the one thing I tell them is acting is like a baseball player. You can’t hit homeruns during the game if you don’t go to batting practice. You’ve got to continue to sharpen your tools. Stay on top of your craft is probably the soundest I could give.

Gene Blalock is the founder of Seraph Films and an award-winning Los Angeles-based Director. Gene is known for his touching, heart-warming films as much as his eccentric short horror vignettes. Bringing a decidedly human perspective to each of his projects, Gene’s works reflect our common humanity—as if from a mirror of compassion for us to examine and consider. Regardless of genre, Gene’s work rings true in a thought-provoking way.

We had a great conversation with Gene about his production company Seraph Films. They have a number of projects on the horizon including The Art of Murder featuring actress and most dangerous woman in Hollywood, Tonya Kay. Seven Days In Mexico is a documentary about finding something that’s impossible to lose. It tells the story about musician, singer songwriter Johnny Indovina of the band Human Drama.

Keep up with Seraph Films and Gene Blalock at http://seraphfilms.net

Watch Seraph Films Short Horror Film Among The Shadows

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Watch The Complete Gene Blalok Interview

How long have you been making films in Los Angeles?

It’s been about 5 years now. I came out to LA as a musician. I’m originally a musician from Chicago. My band got picked up by a label out here. The first few years I was doing music and now film.

How did you make the transition from music to film?

I went to film school in Chicago. My initial goal was doing film but sidetracked having a band and doing music and then jumped back into film about 5 years ago. It’s fulltime film making these days.

What was the first film you worked on professionally?

It was a film called Unlucky Girl, a zombie film that my friend James and I tried to make a few years ago. I was taking a break from music and decided to try and make some films. My friend James had this cool idea for a zombie film that he wanted to do. It’s almost like a music video for one of his songs. We do a lot of horror films but it’s not exclusive to what we do.

Watch Unlucky Girl – A Short Zombie Film

What was your motivation to go to film school and make movies?

I’ve always been the emotional drama kid I guess. My desire to be in front of the camera these is not something I have. I’ve always been interested in how you make films. How they come to life.

What’s the film making process like at Seraph Films?

It started out with me writing and doing everything on my own. Now I have various partners I team up with that do scripts. These days I lean towards directing more than anything else. Coming up through the indie film community you have do a little bit of everything. I’ve certainly done everything from writing to directing to cinematography.

How has the indie film industry changed over the last 5 years?

It’s never been a better time to be an independent film maker. We’ve done it all from having to funding, to crowdfunding. You get to write, create and fund it from top to bottom.

How are you distributing your indie films?

YouTube has been our single biggest outlet so far. The Nightmare Gallery is a feature we are working on that we are going to shoot in May or June. We are not sure how distribution is going to go yet. Distribber is definitely one that we are thinking about. https://www.distribber.com/

How did you connect with Tonya Kay on the Art of Murder?

When we started Horror Haiku there was this one character, The Artist that’s continued through multiple series of Horror Haiku. There was another vegan film maker that said you need to meet this person and she became The Artist through 4 seasons of Horror Haiku. Art of Murder is an idea we have for a feature length film based off Tonya Kay’s character in Horror Haiku. It hasn’t come to fruition yet but hopefully one day we’ll get to make it.

What exactly is Horror Haiku?

We had just finished a web series for a production company that hired us to do a weekly anthology series. When we wrapped production I remember thinking we should do something for YouTube and that we can make this happen for our own channel. James Boring came up with this idea to do a horror anthology and people will submit different haikus and will turn them into separate episodes. It went on hiatus for a little while because of other work but we are going to bring it back for 10 more episodes this year.

How important is social media marketing for finding your audiences?

We try to use all of the social media platforms but YouTube has been the main platform for growing audiences.

What are your top 3 horror films?

I have to go back to when I was very young. The original Nightmare on Elm Street scared the crap out of me because I wasn’t even supposed to watch it. I don’t I slept for 3 days straight because I was so young. If you go back and watch it now, it’s very dated and it doesn’t work very well. The Exorcist is another one that to do this day still bothers me for some reason.

What was the inspiration for the documentary Seven Days In Mexico?

I met Johnny Indovina while I was still living in Chicago. He’s a musician that I had a lot of respect for and was a fan of his music before I even knew who he was. When I moved to LA, he was always there just to go grab coffee or discuss relationships. He and I obviously developed a friendship. One day he said he wasn’t sure if he was going to ever write another song. Johnny thought if he’s done writing music why should he be on this planet anymore? That really struck me and two weeks Johnny said he had the money and was going to Mexico try and write new songs and find his love of music again.

How do you plan to release Seven Days In Mexico?

In Mexico distribution is all set but here in the US I’m not sure yet. We’ll probably do some film festivals and screenings here in the US.

What other work should we look out for?

We are about to begin our first narrative feature here in LA called Nightmare Gallery. Shooting will start sometime in April.

Geoffrey Cantor is best know for his role as Daredevil’s Mitchell Ellison on Netflix. As a trained actor with a background in theater as well as an acting coach himself, Geoffrey brings a unique style to his role on Daredevil. Geoffrey received his degree in theater from Amherst College and also attended the National Theater Institute Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Conn. He continued his training at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, in London, England. As we found out in our interview he has a love of British Theater and can mimic a British accent quite well.

We had the pleasure of meeting Geoffrey Cantor in person at the MixKnowledgy event here in New York where he participated in the actors panel along with Christian Frazier and Tanya Wright. In this interview we dive deep on Geoffrey’s acting philosophy, how an actor with an affinity for British Theater ended up in the Marvel Universe and does his beard help him land roles.

Geoffrey’s film credits include the Coen Brothers’ Hail, Ceasar!, Men in Black 3, Pascal Farran’s Bird People, Thanks for Sharing, The Longest Week, Man on a Ledge, Fair Game, Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, When in Rome, The Notorious Betty Page, One Last Thing, the short film 411 with F. Murray Abraham, and the title role of Karl Manhair in the short Karl Manhair, Postal Inpsector.  Geoffrey Cantor has been featured in over 200 television and radio commercials, including two award-winning campaigns: Let It Out (Kleenex–the Good Listener), and FAIR ENOUGH (part of the Truth campaign). He also has five audio books to his credit, including the award winning The Family, by David Laskin.

Where did you grow up?

I was born on an Air Force base in California and lived there for about 4 years. My dad is a doctor but he joined the Air Force. Then we were in Philadelphia for a year, Cherry Hill New Jersey for a while and then Bergen County from about 3rd grade on. We’ve been in the New York area since I was in 3rd grade.

Moving around definitely impacted me. I remember thinking I didn’t really need to have a house. My little family unit was my home. We were moving every two or three years. I never felt like I was the person that had that family home to go back to.

I also lived in England over a 6 year period and 4.5 years I was in London.

When did you figure out you wanted to be an actor?

I was brought up in a household where there was always music and my parents liked the arts. My mom is a painter and my dad did Community Theater. We listened to musical theater and folk music. We were sort of progressive, liberal, Jewish people growing up in a time when were weren’t at the cutting edge of that. I was in choir in grade school and did some plays but I thought I was going to be a doctor or a lawyer.

Certainly by the time I got to high school I thought I was going to be a lawyer because I was a nice Jewish boy from Bergen County, NJ. I was doing a lot of theater and when I got into college I did West Side Story. I played Action and the head of the drama department wrote me a handwritten letter about my work and described it in ways I had never really considered. That’s when I understood that what I was doing was more than just recreation.

I would say it chose me, more than I chose it. I didn’t want to be an actor. I still don’t think it’s a great way to live a life logistically but it’s an amazing art form. It chose me in college, it grabbed me by the balls in college and it hasn’t let go.

What actors have inspired you through your career?

My favorite actors tend to have come out of British theater. Anthony Hopkins is one of my favorite actors. Ian McKellen as well. As I’ve gotten older I’ve met some of these actors who I remember seeing. Roger Rees, I saw Nicholas Nickleby back in the early 1980s. The royal Shakespeare company brought Nicholas Nickleby over and it was the first time the tickets were over $100. It was an 8 and a half hour play and you could see it all in one piece and I got to see it. It was a birthday present from my parents.

I remember, there was a very long interval for people to get a meal and some of the actors were strolling around and I remember seeing Roger Rees. He was just brilliant. Many years later I saw him at auditions because my English accent is pretty good and we would audition against each other for British voice overs. I remember finally getting the guts to tell him how much he meant to me and what that play meant to me. He was extremely gracious but also taken aback because here we were colleagues and yet at the time I was this kid watching him on stage.

As I’ve gotten older I’ve gotten to work with some the actors who at one point were so untouchable to me and now we’re doing a scene together. I’ve worked with Glenn Close, Rober DeNiro, Judd Hirsch and a lot of these people I’ve put on pedestals when I was younger. I actually respect them a bit more cause now they’ve looked at me in the eye and said lines with me. We’ve done scenes together.

How does an actor inspired by British theater end up in the Marvel Universe?

That’s a really good question. I had meniscus surgery and then slipped two weeks later because I didn’t rehab it. Then I ended up dislocating my shoulder and broke two bones. With a broken shoulder I remember having an audition for both Daredevil and The Blacklist within days. I was also asked by Warren Leight to do a play. So with a broken shoulder I was doing a play and was also doing two TV shows.

The overall lesson is, there is no real difference even though that’s not the question you asked.
Daredevil happened while I was about to do a play. For me there is no real difference between the core of the work. The real difference is the end experience. When you get to do a play, whether it’s a 20 minute or a 3 hour play you’re there for that entire period of time and you get to live a longer event. You have rehearsal time before hand to figure stuff out.

When you do film and television there’s much less left to the imagination for the actor and the audience. You go on to a set for Daredevil, everything is there. They’ll put a bottle in a box and you know if you open that bottle it won’t be real alcohol but it will be the right color. There’s something that takes away the burden of having to imagine so you can really focus on what’s going on in the moment. That’s true of television and film.

What you don’t get is you don’t have the time to spend with your colleagues discovering the same way you do on stage. The doorway in is exactly the same. You have words that tell you what the character is thinking, what the character is doing, what his relationship with the other characters may be and that’s exactly the same. So the process pretty similar. It’s a bit intuitive, it’s a bit analytical, its thoughtful.

When I have the opportunity to work, especially in Daredevil Season 2, Deborah Ann Woll spent a lot of time talking on the phone and even in person to dissect what’s going on. It allows for greater freedom when you’re in front of the camera and you can actually discover in the middle of it. Daredevil has been very unique in that regard. I don’t know that I could say that about other shows that I’ve done where there’s been the amount of time and energy spent by the directors and the writers with the actors. Certainly with a supporting level actor. I’m certainly not the star of the show and they spend time with me and we get to figure stuff out.

Is there a difference in the work because its not a network TV show?

I don’t know if it’s budget. I can’t talk to budget. Actors are the low end of that totem pole. No matter how much you’re getting paid less money is spent on actors than anything else. That said, I think what makes Netflix so different and I think it may be true of Amazon and Hulu, is that they are not bound by the same time restrictions that network television is bound by. You’re filming everything and then you’re editing as your filming and you’re not showing it next week. They have a longer editing window and creative process that you don’t have on network television.

With Daredevil it’s a 13 hour movie. They allow relationships to develop. They allow these moments to happen. I don’t think it’s a financial thing but they aren’t bound by the restrictions of making sure you have the beginning, the middle and the end of every episode. You look at any Law & Order, there are very few long through lines. You have the same actors so they started to do that. I’ve done 12 Law & Orders and I can tell you they have a beginning middle and end.

Daredevil has taken the long view. It’s a 13 hour movie and that’s how you can binge watch it. I think House of Cards did the same thing. I remember seeing the first season of House of Cards and I thought it was the best thing I’d ever seen. You have stories that go through the entire season, West Wing did it too but each episode has that episodic formula too. Network television is starting to pick up on how people are going to watch their shows. I watched the first season of Madame Secretary on Netflix. I would binge watch 3 or 4 episodes at a time.

I thought the 4 minute webisode was going to be the end of my career but also what it was going to be. Everyone was banking on the fact that nobody had any attention span and Netflix proved that wrong. Netflix also proved that reality television is a short lived fad. People want character driven content, story driven content and they want to be able to engage. Marvel is even more unique. Marvel has this audience that’s been waiting for this.

Did your knowledge of Daredevil help you land the role?

I actually was a fan. I was more of a Marvel fan than a DC fan. I’m not sure looking back I could explain why that was. What made Daredevil cool was that he was Batman like except wasn’t quite as rich. He had his own challenges. I think that’s one of the things that makes Daredevil even among other Marvel shows so unique. You’re looking at a guy who has enhanced normal physical ability. You don’t need much suspension of belief. You don’t have to go where someone is from another planet. That’s what drew me in even back then.

I didn’t go nuts doing a ton of research but I did a little bit. I wasn’t going to play my character like other Marvel or DC Daily Planet or Daily Bugle editors. It wasn’t written that way. My knowledge of Daredevil was enough. I didn’t go back and watch Spiderman or Batman because that wasn’t the tone they were setting. Knowing about it intrigued me. Knowing the importance of Urich intrigued me. What they’ve done for me is made me more Urich like than editor like and I appreciate that.

It’s not all the TV show is being derived from the comic book. You’re seeing this give and take. You’re seeing this dialogue between how the comics are being written. Comics are now showing a different sensibility because people can see it on television. In a way, comics have always been the storyboards of movies.

My first introduction to the graphic novel was The Watchmen. I remember reading those individually and then getting them all combined. That for me, was when I got it. Daredevil feels like its talking that language.

What is your philosophy as an acting coach?

The approach I have in my teaching is very similar to the approach I have in my acting. I’m a product of training. What I focus on as an actor, therefore what I focus on when I’m coaching, teaching or directing is really what the text is. What is the playwright or the screenwriter, what’s the story they are telling? Basically all dialogue is a revealing of thought. That’s you’re only clue, what are you thinking, what are you doing. I don’t care what the medium is really. I don’t differentiate in terms of my approach and that’s what I tell my actors.

A director will tell you to “stand here” or “I need this bigger or smaller” but your job as an actor is to define the truth of the text. Writers who have much more experience than I do tend to hear conversations and are observers of life and are sharing that observation. But screenwriters don’t go deep with each character to define the motivation for the behavior that they are describing on the page. That’s your job as an actor. That’s what makes it a collaborative art form.

Your job as an actor is to dive down deep into what that person is doing, what’s motivating that person and what justifies the behavior and the thought process. Not to judge them, at all but to justify that behavior. That’s what I’ve spent 99% of my time doing with my actors. We look at text, scene or monologue and try to figure out what are you doing and what’s the motivation.

Whatever my approach is you can apply to every medium because three directors will tell you three different things in the room. Your job isn’t to please everybody or make people like you, it’s to figure out what’s going on.

How secretive are the Marvel scripts?

I’m not allowed to talk about any script information that I have ahead of time obviously or they will break my knees. My first season I was getting sides very later. I’m the newspaper editor and I found myself not knowing what I was supposed to know. I didn’t even know what was going on in Ellison’s world. What did Ellison know? What’s blown up recently? They heard that and I would get calls from the showrunners and I only need to know what I need to know.

I don’t need to what’s going on in the prison or things in a place that Ellison wouldn’t know. In fact, that’s useless data for me. It’s curious and interesting but it doesn’t help me as an actor. What helps me as an actor is what does Ellison know? If you saw Daredevil Season 1, what Urich thought Ellison was doing and what he really was doing were two very different things. I needed to know what I had done and what I knew and I had to ask for that. That wasn’t an automatic gimme.

Is your beard helping you get work as an actor?

I don’t know if helps me get roles or not. It certainly helps define the roles that I get to some extent. If you walk into a room with a beard you’re going to get different roles than without it. I auditioned for Hail Caesar with the beard and we ended shaving it because it wasn’t right for the time period. The Coen brothers could luckily see through the mass that I have on my face. The job defines my facial hair more than the other way around.

Because I hurt myself I auditioned for The Blacklist and Daredevil with the beard. I just couldn’t shave. I grow a beard quickly, within 2 weeks it looks like I have a beard. By the time it came to shooting, they said to keep the beard. Now if I’m shooting with the beard I’m also auditioning with the beard. Work has dictated my facial hair more than the other way around.
So now I can’t shave it until Marvel tells me I can shave it. If my role in Daredevil continues and we are hopeful it will. I guess it’s, likely because nothing bad happened to me in Season 2. I know they like it and I will honor that. I don’t know that I’m legally bound. But do I want the job? Yeah! It’s more of a gentleman’s agreement.

Any possibility Ellison’s character will show up in other parts of the Marvel Universe?

I don’t know and if I did know I wouldn’t be at liberty to say. There have always been hints, even in Season 1 that Ellison could show up in somebody else’s show. As the only newspaper editor in all of the Marvel Universe on Netflix I’m hopeful and it’s always possible.

I do know that after Season 1 there was some debate as to what Karen was going to do. Was she going to go into the law practice or was she going to work for Ellison. I’m grateful and happy that they decided that the window of the newspaper into the world of Daredevil is something that is better for the audience. Hopefully that can be translated into some of the other shows.

Certainly from a career standpoint it would be great but I also think it’s a very good convention to have a newspaper access, especially now. What an interesting thing to take what we are seeing with our own government and press translated into the Marvel Universe. Lies in the press and who’s telling the truth especially when the truth is already a bit funky in Marvel. That might be an interesting thing for them to address.

If you could play any superhero in Marvel or DC who would it be?

The Editor of course! I could see it now, people coming to Comic Con in their suits and ties and beards. At one point I liked The Flash but I feel a little old to play a super hero now. Who was The Watchmen with the ink blots? Warshak? As an actor that’s who I’d want to play. If someone were to cast me I think it would be the little overweight owl with all the contraptions. I liked Warshak though, he was a very troubled individual.

What advice do you have actors trying to break in the industry?

If there is something else you would rather do, I would advise you to do that. The good news is there’s more work than ever before. It pays less, but there’s more work and its better than before. That said, there’s also more people doing this than ever before. More people with less training are doing this than ever before. I still think you have to get trained. I think you need a liberal arts education cause you need to have knowledge about a lot of topics. Then go to drama school or get training afterwards.

You need to take the tools you have intuitively and get the skill to apply them to those intuitive, artistic, sensibilities that you have so that you have a lasting career. You have to realize you are a student all the time. Lastly you can’t do this please other people or become famous. You might become famous and you might please people but your job is to do neither. You have to be driven to be a discoverer, to love that process beyond anything else. Then you’ll find that even auditions and rehearsals are fun and that the art itself is what drives. If that’s not what interests you then please do something else.

In this Hollywood Know How we teach you how to make a cheap homemade version of a blood squib. Film makers use a blood squib to create gunshot effects and blood splatter. In case you weren’t sure, a squib is a miniature explosive device used in a wide range of industries, from special effects to military applications. Add the blood and you have a blood squib that mimics what it would be like to get shot. The good news is our version doesn’t require any explosives and costs less than $1.

Blood spatter and gunshot special effects are as old as Hollywood. Blockbuster films use the latest technology to make it all seem real but there are plenty of ways for an indie film maker to pull of blood splatter and gunshot special effects on the cheap.

The best part about making your own effects and props is that you’re only limited by your imagination. If you film yourself using this tip, leave us a note in the comments with a link to your work! We’d love to see what you create.

To make your blood squib you’ll need a few items:

• 1 Ziploc Sandwich Bag
• String or fishing line
• Duct tape
• Fake Blood

Steps to making your cheap blood squib

1. Lay a strip of tape flat and then put a smaller piece of tape sticky side together in the middle
2. Attach the tape to your stomach and add extra pieces of tape for strength along the sides
   • This creates a guide for the string to slide through
3. Attach one end of the string to the zipper on your sandwich bag
   • Make sure the zipper still functions after the string is attached
4. Duct the empty bag to your body and make sure the bag is secure
   • Make sure the top of the bag is positioned at a downward angle
5. Run the string through the guide you made in Step 2
6. With the string on the floor, pin one side down with your foot
7. Sliding your other foot will now open the zipper on the bag
8. Fill the bag with blood and then….

This week on the Imperfect Podcast we are talking to actor and comedian Christian Frazier. He’s best known for his work as Henry Weaver on FOX’s Gotham. Having had the opportunity to meet Christian face to face at the MixKnowledgy event in New York, we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to find out more about his acting career.

Christian gives us insights on what it’s like day to day as a working actor. With 21 credits to his name including Gotham, Blue Bloods and Law & Order to name a few. A former military veteran and real estate agent, acting was not his first career. Listen to the full episode to hear his story about how he broke into the industry and landed one of his dream roles.

Keep up with Christian at his web site: http://christianfrazier.com

Watch Gotham on Amazon Prime

Download the Interview with Actor Christian Frazier