#dick malmgren | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

joneswilliam72 · 6 years ago

Text

Meet filmmaker James Cullen Bressack (2017's Bethany) and actor Mark Rolston (The Shawshank Redemption), of Blood Craft.

I caught up with filmmaker James Cullen Bressack (Bethany, Pernicious) and actor Mark Rolston (The Shawshank Redemption, Aliens, The Shield, The Departed) for two separate interviews on all things film and acting as they relate to their new horror piece, Blood Craft – available On Demand April 9.

Blood Craft is a revenge tale with one hell of a twist: what if you could bring back the spirit of a dead person who viciously wronged and violated you, and then exact your revenge? That is exactly the premise here when two sisters – played by Madeleine Wade (who wrote the picture and added a lot of heart to Blood Craft as a film, made even more extraordinary as it is her writing debut too) and Augie Duke – use witchcraft to resurrect the spirit of their abusive father.

Bressack's directorial approach to Blood Craft is psychologically-penetrating, beautifully-cerebral, highly-surreal, and sublimely-frenetic (as is all great horror) – it keeps you off balance in all the right ways. He is a very much a talent to watch out for when looking for great horror that is not just jump scares, but also highly intelligent. Bressack is at today's vanguard of these trends in the horror indie scene, especially considering what he has shown he can do with relatively small budgets.

Seeing someone with Bressack's filmic vision teamed with such a prolific veteran actor as Mark Rolston is pretty great too. Rolston has 175 credits to his name from 1982 to today on IMDb. He is no stranger to villain roles and the amorality of the associated characters either (something put to good use here in Blood Craft), having played Bogs Diamond in Stephen King's The Shawshank Redemption as but one example from his vast catalog – and one we talk about in the interview below.

James Cullen Bressack. Source:The Hollywood Reporter.

Mark Rolston as Sheriff Waters in BLOOD CRAFT.

Enjoy the interviews and check out Blood Craft On Demand now.

Mark Rolston

Hello Mark and welcome to The 405! To begin, what attracted you to Blood Craft and the role of Sheriff Waters?

Hi! I met James Cullen Bressack on the set of an indie film Gangster Land. He mentioned that he had something I might be interested in, and he sent over what was then called "Together". I thought the script was great, and had a relevance in light of the #MeToo movement.

I agree on both counts Mark. What was it like getting into the headspace necessary for the character?

As with all characters, they want something. With Sheriff Waters, he has ulterior motives. Money.

He really does. He reminded me a bit of Orson Welles's Captain Hank Quinlan in 1958's Touch of Evil. What were the challenges like?

Well, time on a indie is always a challenge, and the day we shot on the porch, we were fighting the traffic noise, but James is so clever, we add one line to my dialogue which justified it brilliantly.

[Laughs] that's great. Any funny or memorable moments from the behind the scenes process of filming that stick in your memory?

For me, the funniest moments revolved around James assigning points to crew members for working efficiently. Well, I assumed that actors got points too, so I wanted to be rewarded for takes that I did in one; "One Takes" in film parlance. I am good at that, but was disappointed to learn that actors didn't get points. I made a joke about it with James for my time on set.

[Laughs] interesting. I've never heard of a director using a system like that. Which is an interesting pivot as I have a few questions about some of your bigger roles.

Mark Rolston as Private Drake in 1986’s ALIENS. Source: The After Movie Diner.

I'd be remiss if I didn't ask, Lethal Weapon 2 is 30 this year, any reflections on it?

Wow! I have had a few of those landmarks arrive of late with Aliens, Shawshank, etc. That comes with getting older and having a body of work. The best memory I have of Lethal 2 is working with Director Dick Donner. I loved watching him work, hearing his booming voice, and feeling his enthusiasm and presence.

You have worked with a bunch of fantastic directors. Shawshank is 25 this year and undoubtedly a film that's justifiably cemented a major cultural legacy; and is helmed by another great director: Frank Darabont. What was your experience like playing Bogs Diamond in Darabont's film?

Certainly one of the best of my life. The script by Frank Darabont is quite simply a masterpiece. Bringing Bogs to life was thrilling; it's always good to play the antagonist. I am especially grateful to Frank for including quite a few of my improvisations during rehearsal into the shooting script. Some of my most quoted lines like: "Anyone get to you yet?", "I could be a friend to you", are my creations, and Frank was very kind to credit me in his book of the making of Shawshank.

That's awesome Mark. Speaks to your caliber as an actor and really also of the entire production, in my opinion.

The fact that we rehearsed at all, is one of the reasons the film is so good. Usually, there is very little rehearsal on films, but on Shawshank we rehearsed for nearly three weeks.

Wow. You've also been directed by other big names like James Cameron and Martin Scorsese over your incredible career as an actor. What do you consider the greatest lesson you've learned from them, whether about film or about life more generally?

My favourite director was John Frankenhiemer. He directed me in [George] Wallace starring Gary Sinise and Angelina Jolie. He loved actors and gave us space to do our work. I recall how he would silence the crew with his booming voice, commanding "Quiet! There are actors working here!" Old school and brilliant.

Wow. Absolutely brilliant. Love that.

The greatest lessons were learned long before I made films. The lessons were learned as I trained at The Drama Centre London for three solid years with mentors like John Blatchley, Yat Malmgren, Doreen Cannon and Christopher Fettes. The training I received there is the foundation of my work. The Drama Centre has produced the likes of Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Michael Fassbender, and Pierce Brosnan.

Mark Rolston as Bogs Diamond in 1994’s THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. Source: CNN.

Quite the mentors list there Mark. You've also been in a lot of TV shows of various stripes since 1980's Ekkusu Bonbâ, '97's Calamity Jane and Zorro, The Shield, TURN: Washington's Spies (TURN is a favorite of mine, being a history nerd), Bosch, and many others. What are the challenges like in playing and developing a film character versus a series character? Do you prefer one over the other?

I like to think of myself as a film guy, but the creative process is the same no matter the medium. Although each has its own challenge; in theatre, the challenge is to be "on" at every moment, in TV the pace of the work is a challenge and you don't have endless takes and time, which is why I prefer film, because it affords you the time to shoot until you get in perfect… one hopes.

Interesting. Time is the most valuable resource, indeed. A question I ask everyone: what makes a great film?

Serendipity. The confluence of a writer's brilliance, the director's guidance, and the actor's creativity.

What other films, directors, and performances have really stuck with and molded you as an artist over the years?

It was my audition for Shawshank that cemented the idea in my head that "just talking", "being in the moment" was the most important thing in film acting. That notion is parallel to being able to bring Shakespeare to life by, as Hamlet implored the players to: "Speak the speech, I pray you, trippingly on the tongue. But if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had life the town crier spoke my lines."

Well said. Final question: what's next for you?

I will be returning for Season 6 of Bosch as Lt. Thorne. I love working with Amy Aquino. And most importantly, I will be appearing as Admiral Ernest J. King in what should be this year’s blockbuster masterpiece by Roland Emmerich: Midway. The script was amazing, and working with Roland and Woody Harrelson was a complete joy.

Follow Mark on Twitter and like his on Facebook.

youtube

ALIENS (1986) trailer.

youtube

LETHAL WEAPON 2 (1989) trailer.

youtube

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994) trailer.

youtube

THE DEPARTED (2006) trailer.

youtube

BOSCH Season 5 trailer.

__________________________________________________________________________

James Cullen Bressack

Hello and welcome James! Getting right into it. The first question I had, what was it that initially inspired the movie?

So the script was actually originally written by Madeleine. She wrote the first draft and then she had approached me to see if I wanted to direct it. And I was like, "oh well we'd have to change this, this, this, in the script." Because it was a bit more graphic and crazy actually originally, and I just wanted to streamline it and make it a little bit more accessible to moviegoers and audiences. And I think we accomplished that with the story.

Interesting. What were the challenges like?

So the challenge for me was shooting a movie inside of pretty much predominantly one location. Because for me, I wanted to make sure the audience would get bored being in the same place. So I tried to make each room feel and sound different and look different. We have a lot of the time where we spend in the living room, like foyer area. I was trying to make sure that we shot it and lit it a different way, while still keeping the story intact.

So that's why we have a couple hallucinogenic moments. And I think we have some stuff where I tried to really put the audience in the place of what the character was going through mentally through this journey and had the camera work and storytelling kind of evolve with the character's emotional space.

That was another part I really liked was that lighting. It had almost a surreal feel to a lot of it.

Yeah. Which not to give away any spoilers, but I think it ties into the movie.

Madeleine Wade and Augie Duke in this still from BLOOD CRAFT.

Oh, I would say so. But yeah, that and the editing, I thought. It was paced really well and it flowed really well.

Thank you. Yeah, this was the second movie I did with Bobby Richardson, the editor. The movie he did before that with me was Bethany, and I think it had similar themes of childhood trauma and people going in and out of the mind of our main character. And I think we established that with flashbacks as well as really it's driven by this sole performance, surrounded by an ensemble cast. But the story is driven specifically by the emotional state of our lead character.

I need to watch that one yet. Are there any memorable or funny moments that stick out from that process of filming Blood Craft?

Yeah, one of the things that was really funny for us is because it was such like an intense environment when we were filming we joked around a lot between takes. So I think it was just funny because we were being very silly when not filming, like at lunch and stuff like that. Because we all had to kind of shake off some of the stuff that was going on in front of the camera.

That's definitely understandable considering those heavy topics that inform the film's story and really its trajectory. Shifting gears a little bit to a question I like to ask everybody. What directors and films would you consider most influential on you as an artist?

I've always enjoyed this storytelling of Akira Kurosawa. I'm a huge fan of Orson Welles as well as some of these other older filmmakers. But for me it's Park Chan-wook, Quentin Tarantino, and Robert Rodriguez were all idols and heroes of mine.

Fantastic list. The next question is kind of a big one too. What makes a great film and because you've done a lot with horror, what makes great horror?

So a great horror movie, I think, is taking the familiar and turning it on its head. So what we take is what people expect, and then we flip it on them.

You absolutely did. Great definition too. For the last question that I had, what's next for you?

I'm gearing up to do a new movie. I can't really give details on it, but I like to keep busy and I'm trying to do something different with this new one. It's more of like a neo-noir type film.

Follow James on Twitter, Instagram, and like his page on Facebook.

youtube

BETHANY (2017) trailer.

youtube

MY PURE JOY (2012) trailer.

from The 405 http://bit.ly/2OXnt41

0 notes