Did you know I have an imdb page? I daresay I'm quite proud of it, particularly because I just kind of fell into a string of short films. It was around 2008, and I'd just met my wife (she obviously wasn't my wife at the time). She was heavily involved with the Birmingham film scene; which was arguably more active then than it is now, although I may just be out of the loop. I wound up going to several auditions with her and managed to work my way into quite a few short films, and the occasional full length feature.
One of my favorite acting gigs was Mr. Failure, a student film directed by the very talented Christian Sutton. My wife (who actually was my wife by that point) plays my wife. I, on the other hand play my wife's husband. My unnamed character is at his breaking point in the overbearing marriage and tries to murder his wife but proves to be completely ineffective at it. Imagine if Charlie Brown married Lucy and finally lost it. It was a fun shoot, even if I was running a fever in a few scenes.
I recently had the joy of watching The Ogre, a short film in which I played the title character. And now you can watch it too! Go on. Click the link. It's fifteen measly minutes out of your uneventful life. Yeesh! You really got something better to do?
I forget how long ago it was when I went in for my two days of filming, but I have to say the experience really was something special. The Ogre is a silent film, equal parts love letter to the genre and standalone story. As an actor, I felt like I had a taste of genuine history by being a part of the project. And now as a viewer with a globally read blog (According to the traffic stats. Big thank you to my 78 hits from Poland!) I'm in kind of a unique position to review a film that I was in.
Ignoring my own performance for the moment, I have to say there really is an inherent beauty in the film. My friends Ben and Nadia Robertson and Kyle Fortenberry were the artistic force behind The Ogre (with Jonathan Barry handling my makeup). In watching the film you can feel how much love they have for the classics. When you revisit the past it's very easy to start doing tongue-in-cheek references from a modern eye that makes the product lapse into parody. They didn't do that. The Ogre was carefully crafted to look like a silent film that really did exist back in the days of Lon Chaney, which in turn has had the same sort of missing frames and degradation of celluloid over time.
Like most classic stories, The Ogre is a cautionary fable. You have a devout family in a small village, with a pastor patriarch, who collectively kind of miss the point of Christianity when they 'Satan' in a deformed newborn. The pastor decides that the baby should be left in the woods alone to die, and gets no real objection. Yep. That's not going to come back to haunt him. So the child grows up alone in the woods, essentially as a feral animal.
The pastor's daughter frequently visits a creek near the now full-grown ogre, and some still human part of him feels an aesthetic attraction to her. But she screams when she sees him and his heart is broken. Then at an emotional junction, a hapless hunter happens upon the ogre and fires an arrow at him. The ogre finds himself shot through the heart, the hunter is to blame; and giving love a bad name really is the last straw.
He hobbles into town to register a complaint. In lieu of the proper forms, he resorts to beating the pastor's daughter to death, and then the pastor. Probably for no reason other than he happens to be there at the time, making the pastor's death more of a poetic justice than a calculated choice. The ogre then recognizes his mother, but by that point he has fully embraced his role as the monster of the story and kills her as well. He then retires to his home in the woods to die alone, sharing one final connection with a wild dog who wasn't in the script (scene stealing bitch) before perishing.
One of the things I absolutely love about the film is how real it feels to its source material. I got to watch it with a full audience, and more than one person mentioned how much it reminded them of the 1923 Hunchback of Notre Dame, and you can't get a more historical comparison than that. I'm not an authority on silent films but I'm familiar with the iconic moments from The Phantom of the Opera and Frankenstein, and I unconsciously made the connections in specific beats.
The actors are spot on. Bradley Foster quite effectively conveys a multi-layered pastor during his minimal screen time. Nadia plays the damsel to a tee, she clearly did some actor's research on how to scream, how to run, and precisely which pauses to take for the silent medium. And everybody else really finds the sweet spot between over and underacting, two very easy slopes to slip off of when you're in unfamiliar territory.
There's a sadness to The Ogre. And what is art's primary function if not to convey emotion? And it leaves you with a potential discussion about the nature of monsters. At what point could the story have turned around for the well-being of everyone? Where is the dividing line between evil and mere instinct? The same year I filmed this, my wife and I had the honor of sitting down with Brad Dourif at Dragon Con. He was explaining how the vital element to the overcoming the monster (or not) template was that the monster does not negotiate or compromise. Perhaps the return to a simplistic formula explains why the horror genre continues to fascinate us.
Okay, so what did I think about my performance? First off, let me say that I'm just narcissistic enough to love seeing myself on film or video. But I almost always have a negative reaction to the result. "Oh GOD! Why did I make that expression?" Well, I'm pleased to say that I don't look like a dumbass. A lot of the credit goes to Ben's camera work and editing. I don't think there's a single shot of me that's gratuitously "Look at the creature we made!" Every bit of footage serves a purpose. It's a disciplined approach and the result is all the stronger for it. I also have to credit Jonathan for the makeup. He and Kyle did the design work but Jonathan took the three hours both mornings to get me ready, and his hard work really is amazing (although that's my real hair by the way).
The funny thing is, I didn't intentionally pursue a specific role. I just went to the audition and played with the pantomime. When I found out I was cast as the Ogre I was perplexed. I have a smaller frame than most monster actors (have you seen Kane Hodder?), so I had the actor's task of figuring out how the hell I was going to be believably intimidating. So I came to work one afternoon, and a hornet kind of hovered around me for a few seconds before losing interest and flying off. And I thought, okay that's who the Ogre is. He's a hornet. You leave him alone, he's not going to be a problem, but if you swat at him he's going to react with an all-or-nothing mentality.
My most memorable moment came from the scene where the Ogre kills his mother. Emma and I did two takes. The first one I just came in and killed her because she was there. The second take we slowed it down. I played it where I recognized her by scent and she knew I was her son and we almost have that connection before I decide I'm just too far gone. It was a sad moment, and that wound up being the take they used.
A couple of other recollections: I forget the dog's name and she really wasn't supposed to be in the film, but after she kept ad-libbing her way into frame they decided to add her in at the end. Bradley and I also had a bizarre conversation (while I was killing him) about our characters actually seeing each other's points and reconciling. I'm secretly hoping for the sound version of the film to get a release someday.
If you've never acted for a film project, the trick is you have to be ready to go when the crew is ready for you. There are quite a few elements they have to contend with: equipment failure, natural lighting, the occasional dog on set. As such, you never know when you're going to have to be 'on', which means when you're 'off' you're not entirely. It's more like on standby power. And if you're not used to it, you can drain yourself without realizing it. The day we filmed in the woods, I was so excited. Up before dawn, driving to Trussville, in the makeup chair, roaming around, feeling Ogre-y. And then I felt- "Okay, starting to crash now." And then I thought- "Oh shit, I haven't actually filmed anything yet!" You kind of have to learn on the spot how to keep your brain active.
Well, I'll tell you what I did to stay focused. I started writing a blues song from the Ogre's perspective, with which I'll share with you now to close this blog out. If 1931 Productions ever remakes The Ogre as a musical, I'm more than ready to dust this little number off.
I should have been a dentist with an office on the street.
I should have been an astronaut with aliens to greet.
I should have been in politics, and work my way to King.
And I'm certain I could do it, if it weren't for one small thing...
I am soooooooooooo ugly!
My mom adopted fish.
I am soooooooooooo ugly!
The waitress dropped the dish.
I am soooooooooooo ugly!
The blind don't want to see.
I am just so thoroughly-
Ug-ly.
I went to see a therapist and only brought her down.
The crows won't steal my vegetables until I'm out of town.
My plastic surgeon shot himself. My driver's license lies.
When I look into the mirror, my reflection hides his eyes.
I am soooooooooooo ugly!
The subway never stops.
I am soooooooooooo ugly!
My banker called the cops.
I am soooooooooooo ugly!
My Facebook has a fee.
I am just so totally, sullenly, purposely,
Frights of fancy! I am ug-ly.
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