Ford Austin Interview

Past WILDsound Film Festival attendee Ford Austin sat down with Jules Ross to talk about his film career. It’s no surprise that he had a lot to say, considering his endless IMBD resume; which includes directing credits for The Tiny Dancer and The Wright Stuff and acting credits for Pearl Harbour and Family Tree. Candid, confident and entertaining as hell, Ford Austin has been in through it all and he’s telling it from the trenches.

The last of his Wright Stuff series will be shown at the

How did a Texas/Oklahoma native like you end up at Wildcard Pictures?

I met Matt and Jen at a film festival in a small town in Oklahoma called Muskogee. It was one of those towns where you could buy Main Street. I was there pushing my films ‘Manstray’ and The Wright Stuff. We really hit it off. I connected with their work and they connected with mine. But because we were in the middle of nowhere I thought we’d never see each other again. Then they asked me to put ‘The Wright Stuff’ in the Wildsound festival. So I ended up in Toronto!

Being raised in Texas and having lived in LA, it’s rare that I’ll go to the smaller festivals; but I actually prefer them to the big ones. There’s very little corporate b.s. or politics involved. Big festivals are like a market place where studios drop by to see what they can pick up and distribute. For instance, to get into Sundance, you have to be represented by William Morris, or have Steve Buscemi signed onto your project. That’s why Wildsound is so cool. It’s so independent, even more so than Muskogee. It’s the only festival I’ve ever gone to with an audience-talk-back session. Also, I’ve never received a video clip of the talkback from a festival. So it makes for an appealing experience.

Directing vs. Acting … compare and contrast

Well, I got into the biz through acting. I graduated from high school with no idea of what I was going to do with my life. After backpacking through Europe for 3 months I came home and my Mom said, “You better go to college”. We were in Oklahoma at the time and I grabbed my high school transcript and went to Oklahoma University and told them I wanted to go to enrol in the theatre department. My grades were high… [clears throat] well…after the first two years. They were awful. I got kicked out of a Catholic school in my second year. But after that it was smooth sailing. I was on the dean’s list. They looked at my transcript and that was it. I was enrolled.

During the program, I went to my first audition and bombed. But I stuck with it. My first role on stage was in ‘The Hair and The Tortoise’. I wasn’t even an animal! I played farmer Black who yelled at animals in pig-Latin. But, I was so nervous that I messed up my lines and started yelling in gibberish. [Laughs] It was a good way to break my cherry.

In my last year, I auditioned for URTA (the University/Resident Theatre Association). The way it works is you perform two monologues for two people. They asked for a different Shakespeare monologue. I chose Romeo’s balcony scene which brought me to the final round. It was auditioning in front of 300 people, two from each university theatre company. They watched auditions all day. After the day, each applicant received an appointment sheet and we were to meet the representatives in their hotel rooms to discuss the offers in 15 minute time slots. I had 13 different offers.

I ended up choosing Temple University. They offered me a full ride for the Masters of Fine Arts in Acting. It’d be working from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. then having a quick bite followed by a show. And we’d teach in exchange for full tuition and full stipend. We studied Acting, stage combat, singing… the list goes on. I decided that I was going through this training so that I’d be so comfortable enough with acting to be able to direct. In third year we started to study film and I knew I wanted to move into the field.

When we graduated we performed a showcase in LA and New York. I performed my own material. It was sponsored by Tom Sizemore. Afterwards, Tom said to me, “You’re moving to LA right?” I wasn’t sure about it, but he argued, “You have to it’s where movies are made.”

I ended up moving to New York, because I wanted to be in shows. I was signed by Don Buchwald & Associates and was with them for two years. I landed Death of a Salesman and Arthur Miller. We played to a 4000 seat house. It was huge!

After that, I kind of took off. I got a part on another world, did a show called ‘Lawyers’ by Henry Miller. It starred Kevin Conway as an old lawyer litigating for a company that was disposing waste. Along with a colleague I uncovered what was going on. It ends up becoming a big issue for the law firm.

At the time, Keir Dullea, who starred in ‘2001 – A Space Odessy’ was turned to me and said, “I never thought anyone could pull off that role. I just wanted to say you did a great job!” [Thinks for a minute] That was the moment that all the hard work started paying off.

After that, I booked some commercials. [Laughs] You know, I got my SAG card for doing a Genital Herpes spot. Also there was ‘Another World’. I played the head of the army corps unit.

I bet I can guess what happened: someone died and someone had sex, right?

Yes – and I was there to help them out of both. [Smiles]

I was glad to do it. It gave me enough seed money to move out to LA and not have to get a day job. I made the transition to LA and enrolled in ‘The Groundlings’ improve and comedy classes. You go to these classes for two reasons. One is to learn and the other is to connect with people. There were a lot of people there, such as Lisa Kudrow, Chris Parnell, everyone from Mad TV… it was like the Improv Olympics. I went through the three levels and then through the writing level and thought to myself, “What am I doing?! I came out here to make movies!”

So, I bought a Canon XL1 camera and an editing system. I started with ‘Soirée’. It was about a guy who had cheated on his wife. When she found out she was so upset that went away to a resort for two weeks. Trying to make amends, her husband threw her a homecoming party, which she brought a new man to. She explained, “You cheated on me and I can’t get it out of my mind. So I’m going to fuck him every day, in our house, and our bed, so it will be in your brain until you die.” The husband ends up killing her. Suddenly, he wakes up in the middle of cheating on her. The whole movie was in his head. The film won a couple of awards, which was pretty good for a $1,000 budget project.

After that, I was cast in ‘Pearl Harbour’. I started as an extra and one day they were looking for 10 people to upgrade to a speaking part. I went up to speak to the director, Michael Bay, that day. He turned to me angrily and asked me what I wanted. I said, “I wanted to thank you and tell you what a great time I’ve been having on set.” He asked me my name and the next day I was upgraded. They flew me to Houston, Texas, California, Tuscany, then to a ship which was incredible. It even had a sushi bar! It was a wonderful experience. We ended up staying in touch.

I did a small part on ‘The Andy Dick Show’ and then I was on ‘Strong Medicine’. I shaved my full beard for them and had a cheesy moustache. Anyway, on Strong Medicine, I come in the hospital with something in my ass. At the same time the security guard stumbles in injured from a diamond heist. Anyway they think that it’s inside me! It turns out it was a party favour. [Giggles] Must have been some party!

I seems like your big secret is to stay friends with people.

If I have a good time working with people and they are talented, I make an effort to stick with them and acknowledge them. That’s what this is about. I did a string of plays where I was a serial killer. The guy who directed that just directed a documentary about pizza. He went on a year long tour on pizza and I gave him film advice.

Another example is that I did some films with the LA film school. That’s what opened up the world of digital filmmaking for me. I was friends with Todd Kirshner who was going through the program as a DP. When I worked on ‘Tiny Dancer’, a film about a ballerina, I couldn’t believe the talent that came together for this film. We had Scott Wheeler as a make up department head. He’s the one responsible for Star Trek Voyager. I asked him, “Why would you want to work for me?” He said, “Everyone likes to work someone whose work they admire.” It was a huge compliment for me. And I realized then that there is a certain list of people who I will work with for free.

Can you divulge that list?

No! I don’t want anyone to know that they are on the list! Alright, fine! De Niro is on that list.

Anyway back to the film. We had to have someone from the Balanchine’s estate review it and give it their blessing. Otherwise, we would be denied the rights to produce the plays. Zippora Karz choreographed it. We also got the right to shoot at Universal Studios for free on their back lot. We were there with our little production [Laughs] and the cameras that Panavision gave us. And we won the best short of the year award with Southern California Motion Picture Counsel. Academy award winner Margaret O’Brien gave us the award. So, it’s all in who you work with. Now, the film is winning awards all over the place, playing in different festivals: Cannes, Florida, and we’re waiting on another in Oklahoma, Texas.

Will we see you back in Toronto anytime soon?

I hope so.

What was it like working with Fred Savage?

Amazing. I met him in June 1999, when I was doing the world premiers of ‘Lawyers’. Fred was doing his first play which followed our show. I’m sure he was overwhelmed because he hadn’t done theatre. I wished him good luck and told him not to be nervous. I thought to myself, “I’ll never see this kid again.” Then, when I got to LA, I was cast in a Nickelodeon pilot, ‘Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide’ and he directed one of the episodes. All of the sudden he was the big director and I had a minor role. He’d been directing all the Nickelodeon shows and was definitely in his element. It was unbelievable. He was so charismatic and so good with the actors. When you’re working with him, he’ll give you a couple of notes, but unless you’re really off base, he’ll let you have your space. It’s because of his experience in front of the camera. That’s what the studios really want. A charismatic actor/director that is able to get the actors to open up. Also, he’s great with a live audience. He acknowledges them and includes them. He makes sure that everyone is a part of the experience. It’s not the Fred Savage show, it’s everyone’s show and he lets everyone enjoy it.

What’s your most memorable piece of writing?

It’d have to be ‘Celebrity Death Match’. I wrote it on a plane on the way to LA. I was on my way to the Directors Guild of America auditions and I was going to do a stupid monologue that I had done a million times before. I was sick of it. So I wrote a 12 page piece after having a couple of drinks. It ended up being a death match fight between Elvis Priestley, Captain Kirk, Marlon Brando and Charlton Heston. They’re toe to toe and then Elvis and Marlon have a picnic in the middle of the ring. I’ve never gotten more of a response. Tom Sizemore came in. I had meetings for the rest of the week.

That’s very bold of you.

Thank you, but it wasn’t about that. It’s about doing something that comes from you. In a way it was better that it was a last minute thing. It’s the same tone as The Wright Stuff. The fact that I performed it live at the last minute with impersonations, it made it like a baptism by fire. Afterwards I cried. [Laughs] Everyone asked me what I’d be working on next, as though I’d been writing for years. It was the first time I’d written anything. I did go back to NY and performed it at comedy clubs. Eventually though I wanted to move in another direction.

What are you getting into now?

I’m looking to do features. I got in bed with a low budget straight to DVD producer because I wanted to break out of shorts. I directed ‘The Curse of Lizzie Borden’ which, when you watch it, you think, “I didn’t realize that they make movies like this for $6,000”. I just finished shooting another short, ‘Appetite for Destruction’, about a guy who kills a lead singer of group and the singer’s girlfriend brings him back with black magic to kill them off one by one. The drummer get’s stubbed in the eye, there’s a midget and nudity…

A midget and nudity! You’re set!

[Laughs] Yeah. And now, because the movies have been doing well, I’ve been asked by another company to do a horror-western where the sheriff ends up killing everybody and offers their souls to the devil in exchange for immortality. It’s called, ‘Devil’s Perdition’. The movie has a sequence that takes place in the old West, and flashes to modern day where kids are going to a zoological retreat in exchange for college credits. There are real lions and tigers and bears. [pause] Go on, say it… say the line ‘oh my!’

Aye yi captain!

Randy Miller, our stunt person, is working on Semi-Pro right now, staring Will Ferrell. Anyway, he is choreographing a bear fight in a boxing ring. If you go to You Tube you can see the test shots of him fighting a bear. The climax is a bear fighting not one but two people. A two person bear fight has never been done before. Randy did all of the tiger stuff in the Gladiator.

Are you planning on pulling a Quentin Tarantino and putting him in the film?

[Laughs] Well – he is incredible. We start shooting in the second week of May.

Whenever I get into a movie, because I’ve gotten so comfortable working with actors, I commit to everything, so they do to and it takes the scene to another level. Because you never give your best performance in a stressful situation. Just look at what happens to so many actors when they’re in auditions. Even Shirley Maclaine says “I’ve never been cast out of an audition.” I work with the actors and because the producers see the work I do, they end up coming up to me and saying, “we were really impressed with you” and I get into situations where I get asked to act in movies that I am directing. But I tell them that I want to focus on directing the current project and that I’d love to act for them in their next movie.

Is that because you like to maintain a singular focus?

It’s because this business is all about relationships. When I first came to LA I was getting bitter about not getting work and all my New York friends were saying “Fuck LA. It’s not about what you know it’s about who you know!” But I trained for so long. So I knew felt confident that I was knowledgeable. So, I figured, on a certain level, you just have to suck it up and meet everybody. If that’s what it’s about then I’m going to go out and meet everybody and in 5 years I’ll get the work I want.” I didn’t mean to be smarmy about it. I didn’t mean I’d do it in 20 days, I knew it would take time to develop. I wasn’t as focused on myself as much as I wanted to make an impact on others. That’s the thing I tell actors. They think it’s all about them. It’s not about you; it’s about the other person.

You can learn more about Jules Ross at her website www.julessite.com