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When Character Actors Direct!
September 19th, 2007
In a special bonus edition, The Scanner interviews a pair of character
actors-turned-first-time-filmmakers and checks out three super-powered DVDs.
The Q&A: I Want Someone to Eat A Dog’s Breakfast With
So how did A Dog’s Breakfast come about? Were you hanging around the
Atlantis set one day and just decided “Hey, I want to make a movie!”
I’m a big fan of actors who have
made the leap to directing like Zach Braff. In fact, that’s one of the
reasons we decided to make this film—we saw Garden State. My feeling is, if
you’ve got a TV series or established movie career and you have the time and
money to pursue your own projects, why the hell aren’t you? The great thing
about being on a show like Stargate is that you have this chunk of time when
you’re not working, so I took advantage of that. I wrote three completely
different scripts before I got to this one. One was a horror and another was
a thriller. Generally the trend with first films is to make something edgy
and dark and I started off that way but then I decided that I wanted to make
something silly. We’re in peril every week on Atlantis, but there’s always a
certain sense of humor to the show, which I think is the key to its success.
So basically I removed the sci-fi part and went with a comedy!
You say you wanted to avoid being dark and edgy but the film’s premise—a
guy accidentally kills his sister’s new fiancé—isn’t exactly the set-up for
a light-hearted romp.
Yeah, it’s kind of a nice clean family murder. [Laughs] You know, I just
can’t go too far away from the Evil Dead world. I grew up on that sort of
stuff, so any comedy I do is going to be fairly dark. In fact, the next
thing I’m writing is called Design of the Dead—a zombie horror movie with a
good dose of home and garden television in there. Basically a home
renovation team goes into a house to try and bring it back to life and they
end up bringing back the dead.
You’re the star of the film as well as the director. Was it difficult
juggling both jobs?
I continually forgot that I had to act. Eventually I gave up on saying
“action” and “cut” because I’d say “action” and forget my lines or forget to
say “action” and remember my lines. My biggest frustration was not being
able to see the scenes as a whole when I was in them. I don’t think I’ll put
myself in so much of my films again in the future.
It sounds like you’re a big fan of the technical side of filmmaking.
To me, that’s the fun of it. I don’t think there’s anything geekier than
directing a film. You get to read every tech manual known to man! I loved
researching the different cameras and stuff. Originally we were going to buy
one of those prosumer cameras, because for twenty grand, you can get a whole
camera package. But my wife, Jane Loughman, who also produced the movie,
wisely brought in Stargate producer John Lenic, who got a deal for us at
Panavision. We were able to get an entire HD camera set for the price of one
of those prosumer cameras. We got a lot of amazing deals thanks to the
Stargate connection. And I never would have gotten that cast if they weren’t
getting paid on the show!
Speaking of that, you did opt to populate the movie entirely with actors
from Stargate. That obviously made sense from an economic standpoint, but by
using your friends and co-workers are you afraid that viewers might regard
the movie as nothing more than a stunt?
When we started doing this, I assumed I’d be printing my own DVDs and
handing them out at conventions, so I really hadn’t thought of it that way.
I went the actors I see on a daily basis and who I enjoy dealing with and
who are going to be kind to a first-time director. This was a labor of love
so you can fall back on impassioned pleas to people to help you out. Of
course, once you start doing this as a career, it’ll be interesting to see
what happens. I’ll have to start putting checks into the thank you letters!
[Laughs]
Having the Stargate fanbase is a big advantage—you’ve already got a
built-in audience eager to see the film.
Yeah, everyone knows what kind of audience Stargate has and there’s no point
in making a film that doesn’t appeal to your core audience. The eye-opening
thing for me was all of a sudden I had a marketing department and I didn’t
know half of their names. They were just people on the Internet who are fans
of Stargate and wanted to see A Dog’s Breakfast and help get it out there.
They even designed T-shirts and posters. I would get e-mails saying, “Do you
mind if we make a 100 T-shirts and give them to our friends?” And I’m like,
“Do I mind? You go ahead! I can’t afford to make a hundred T-shirts! And
sure I’ll sign your Stargate jacket.” It sounds opportunistic and it is to a
certain extent, but they seem to enjoy being part of it. The fans were a big
part of the reason why MGM picked the film up.
We should probably close on an obligatory Atlantis question—what’s in
store for McKay in the fourth season?
I’ve got what is McKay’s dream episode in that I’m trapped with Amanda
Tapping and Jewel Staite in a cave. I’m in geek heaven because I’m stuck
underground with the two female icons of sci-fi! I’m convinced the writers
are out to make my life miserable. Whenever they get bored, I get stuck in a
box! [Laughs] But really, McKay is a dream role. He’s the guy who says
everything you want to say how dull the party is and how ugly the hostess
looks. He’s one of those dream characters who comes along so rarely.
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