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Your new movie Lamb Feed
- in a few words, what is it about, and what can you tell us about your
character in it?
Lamb Feed
is about a
tightly knit community of people who like to sink their teeth into the
filth of society. It’s about executing a plan with a precise detail that
involves a beginning and an end. The beginning being the laying down of
the piece of wood covered in nails, the ending being the devouring of the
blood of the chosen sinner, and everything in between. I play the
character by the name of Wicker. Wicker is the leader of the community.
Wicker is the first and last voice that the sinner will hear. Wicker comes
off as some crazy backwoods lunatic but underneath that image is an
intelligent and powerful force that has the power to get people to do what
they are supposed to do in order for a plan to be executed with
perfection. Wicker likes to toy with his victims much like a cat toys with
a mouse before the cat kills it. What did you draw upon to bring your
character to life, and honestly, how much of Michael Wainwright can we
find in Rev. Wicker? I spent a lot of time
in preparation. I had about 2 & ½
months to figure out how I was going to bring this character to
life in a way that made sense and was also believable. I would just go
into character wherever I was at and do whatever it was I was doing as
Wicker might do it. I remember being at Best Buy with my brother and we
were getting my dad an IPod for his birthday and we needed help from one
of the clerks and so when the clerk came to help us she had to deal with
the personality of Wicker. The look on her face was priceless, she was so
uncomfortable and that’s exactly what I wanted. The look on my
brother’s face was priceless too because he had no idea I was going to
transform into some backwoods psychopath looking for an IPod at Best Buy.
So I guess you can say that you can find quite a lot of Michael Wainwright
inside of Rev. Wicker because the personality was created by me without
any suggestions or input from anyone. Michael S. Rodriguez [Michael
S. Rodriguez interview - click here] gave me that
freedom to develop Wicker on my own and I am extremely grateful for that
trust he had in me.
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How did you get hooked up with Lamb
Feed in the first place, and honestly what were your first
thoughts when you read the script? I
got hooked up with Lamb
Feed and Michael S. Rodriguez through something
that is called the internet, on a website people refer to as Facebook
(lol). I was a friend of Robert Mukes,
Huey the Butcher, and he was going to be in this movie and he suggested to
me that I self-record a few lines from the character of Wicker and post it
on the wall of Michael S. Rodriguez. Well I remember that day like it was
yesterday, and when Michael hit the “like” button about ten minutes
later I was like, “YES, YES, YES”. Then it took about 1-2 months for
Michael to make a final decision and when he told me he was going to go
with me for the role of Wicker, you would have thought I signed a multi-million dollar contract. The first time I read through the script I
thought that this would be an awesome project to be a part of. A family of
creepy killers, and my role was the leader of this creepy pack, I mean it
was a no brainer, I loved it the first time I read it.
What can you tell us
about your director Michael S. Rodriguez [Michael
S. Rodriguez interview - click here], and what was your
collaboration like? Michael S. Rodriguez
is like a father, brother, and best friend. We clicked right off the bat
and we are still clicking today. He believes in me and he has complete
trust in the choices I make. He is very easy to work with. You can tell
him anything, and believe me I have, and he doesn’t bat an eye, he just
lets you know that he loves you and that he will always be there for you.
That goes a long way with me. The really cool thing about Michael is the
freedom he gives you once those cameras start rolling. Yes there is a
script that has dialogue on it, but don’t be afraid to go where the
character takes you, as a matter of fact that’s what Michael wants, he
wants you to go into the story and become a creator. I love that freedom
because it allows things to happen that probably wouldn’t happen. It
creates stories within the story. Michael is an awesome human being and I
am fortunate to have met him and I know we will be friends for the rest of
our lives. A few words about the shoot as such,
and the on-set atmosphere?
It took two days of 16
hours to get the footage that we got for the scenes I was in. Those
two days came and went, and the next thing you know I’m waking up Monday
morning and heading on back to Los Angeles. The cool thing about playing
on the crazy and wild side of the street is that most scenes are fun to
be a part of, whether there is a killing in the scene or an opportunity to
dive into that twisted and dark state of mental euphoria, time flies and
with each take the potential for a new level of darkness to be achieved
becomes addicting, at least for me. Any future projects you'd
like to share? I have at the moment
been offered the opportunity to be a part of two different feature films.
They both would potentially shoot next fall. The first project is a movie
titled Krampus 2, and the second movie, which definitely has begun beating
a pretty big beat lately is titled Rhonda Goes to Hell. The awesome thing
about both of these movies is that my connection to the evil and dark side
has been given a bigger stage to play on, an opportunity to advance to the
next level, an experience that allows me to see as necessary that I’m
participating in the work that is required for a person’s dreams to
become realities. What got you into acting in the
first place, and did you get any education on the subject? I’ve had this inner
desire to be an actor all throughout my life. I remember being in little
productions that were pretty impressive when you consider the amount of
effort and commitment it took from everyone involved to have a variety of
7-12 year olds performing plays such as The Sound of Music, Annie,
Oklahoma, and a lot of Charlie Brown plays. I was removed from that school
in the 4th grade and went to a school that had no acting
opportunities at any time throughout my
stay in the Catholic school system, so instead, I had to become the class
clown, and I was a good one that provided a level of entertainment that
made my efforts go all the way to the peak of Mount Disruption as I was
the 1989 Class Clown at my alma mater. I lost the awareness of the
importance of acting in my life until in the spring of 2010 I took an
elective scene study class. I became hooked instantly and realized this is
the one thing that burns a fire in my heart and an excitement in my soul
that I’ve never felt with anything else. I ended up participating in all
the plays at Harbor College that I could and I became extremely close to
my dear friends Larry Heimgartner and Juan Baez who were both faculty
members that basically were the face of the Harbor College Theater
Department. The belief in me sparked that flame and now I’m all in.
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What
can you tell us about your filmwork prior to Lamb
Feed? I
had no filmwork experience prior to Lamb
Feed. Michael took a huge risk on
an unproven and unknown actor to bring to life a very important piece to
this movie. All my work up to that point had been in live theater, but
there was a lot of live theater under my belt. Live theater can pretty
much prepare you for anything if the effort is put in to the extra unseen
hours that are required to develop believable characters or personalities.
Besides
making movies, you also did quite a bit of theatre - so how does
performing on stage compare to acting in front of a camera, and which do
you prefer, actually? I
love to do both. They are both challenging in their own ways but they are
so much fun to do. On stage you get to play with a live audience and guide
them on a journey in person which can feel extremely powerful. In film the
audience is nowhere around, at least physically, which allows the actors
to participate in various cuts in order to bring to life the energy that
is needed for the audience that will connect to this at a later date. I
love and respect both film and stage. How would you describe yourself as
an actor, and some of your techniques to bring your characters to life?
If I were to describe
myself as an actor, it would be the kind of actor that believes being
prepared when that curtain rises or when that word “ACTION” is
shouted, is the most important quality of a successful actor. I am totally
prepared and committed to my character whether it has a fiction or
non-fiction feel to it. I do not use any specific techniques that are
described in books or anything, I just have my own method of madness that
I implore and I give myself to it completely. I love helping people get
over their personal fears of performing for the first time. Actors
(and indeed actresses) who inspire you? Actors
who inspire me are Woody Harrelson, Christian Bale, Michael Douglas and
Denzel Washington.
Your favourite
movies?
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Goodfellas,
Colors, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Casino, Out
of the Furnace, Cheech and Chong Up in Smoke, The Departed,
The Devil’s Rejects, Lamb
Feed, House of a 1000 Corpses
. ... and of course, films you really deplore?
I
really don’t deplore any films, I give them all a chance but when it
dies on me, I remove it from the player and smash it to pieces with a
sledgehammer!!!!!!
Thanks
for the interview!
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