James Allodi Interview"The best direction I ever had was in a play that Daniel Brooks was directing. He said, “Let the audience work on you”. I didn’t know what that meant for a while, but ultimately it meant to have faith that you’re enough. Let them come to you." What can I say about James Allodi a.k.a. Jim? First off, he’s a triple threat. I’m not referring to the typical actor/singer/dancer. Rather, this chameleon has successful careers in acting, writing and directing. Jim can single handedly see a project through from pre-production through to post. And he has. Also, the man is an unintended tabloid star. For some reason, his bios always list him as having been married to Kari Matchett and then divorced. He couldn’t find this more hilarious, as they were never married in real life, only cast that way on a project! For all this, you’d think that he’d have a lot to say. But Jim is actually more curious about others. He even started the interview by asking me a question. Meet the inquisitive Jim below… Jim: So why did you start interviewing people? Jules: Matt and Jen (the creators of Wildsound) were looking for someone to interview one of their hosts and write an article about it. My first experience was so positive that I wanted to keep going. I pitched a column concept: interviewing people who are living their dreams successfully. Matt and Jen liked the idea. So here we are. Hmm. It depends on your definition of successful. What is your definition? Do you consider yourself a success? Well, I haven’t had a day job in 10 years. So in that sense – yes. But it’s a double edge sword. At some point you realize that you’re not qualified to do a day job. Something tells me that you’d get hired with your skill set. Temperamentally, I mean. There is no way I could sit behind a desk. How did you start out? My first job was as assistant editor to a guy who was cutting a kung fu film. This was during high school. After that, I was hooked. I ended up going to film school in New York. My love of film survived in spite of NYU. You’re not an advocate of film school? I’m an advocate of making films. Film school can’t teach you a sensibility for that, although they do teach you the technical aspects. While I didn’t have a great time at NYU, I was lucky enough that my father encouraged me to go to New York. I did a minor in art history. My mother was an art historian and had studied at NYU in the 1950s. The city was the school for me. There were so many rep cinemas, you got to see so many projections of the classics, stuff that a 19 year old today has to search out and watch on a 4x3 monitor and would probably lose patience. What was New York like in the 1980s? It was great! I find it’s like a mall now. When I was there, I got to be part of the gritty scene. That’s where I learned the most. Not from the teachers in the program. When I grew up, we had a darkroom in our house and my father worked as a psychiatrist. He was really a frustrated artist. All his friends were painters. We took pictures, shot films and I wrote plays for school. I went to Jarvis Collegiate. And I thought filmmaking was great because it encompassed everything. When I came back from NYU, I worked as an assistant editor on a film. Do you feel that it’s a creative portion of film making? Absolutely, but I was working more as an assistant, which was a good way to study the technical aspects of the film. After working in production for a couple of years I wanted to do my own films. By then I realized that actors got paid more per day than crew did. So, I took some classes. I think trained actors are good actors, but I don’t have any particular technique. I consider myself a working non-actor. As opposed to a non-working actor? [Laughs] Exactly. When did you start getting noticed? I wrote and directed my first short film. And I was too embarrassed to show it Can I see it? No! Come on… Everyone has to have a before to match their after. You should submit it to Wildsound! That would be a showing! [Laughs]. After that I wrote a feature and got it funded by Telefilm. As a first time director? Well, I made a short at the Canadian Film Centre and then they had a feature film program. So I wrote a script and got a good break. The rest is history. Maybe you should screen that film at Wildsound instead? I never thought of it. I should! Is there a difference between film and television directing? The most important aspect of television is writing and casting and they’re complete when you step in as a director on the project. So you can raise the level of material and make sure the stronger parts shine. But you never can turn a dog into a …. [searches for a word] deer and you hope that you don’t turn a deer into a dog. I was there for the second and third year of ‘Naked Josh’. It was interesting because it was produced by a predominately Francophone production company located in Quebec. This was their only English show. Their style was different. They expected more from a director and wanted me to participate with the editor and composer. That doesn’t happen in Toronto. Did you prefer it that way? They encourage more involvement, which I like. Is there a show on air now that you’d like to be a part of? There’s a show I haven’t seen yet called ‘Durham County’. It’s a mini-series. I’m interested in that format. Two hours is restrictive and two years can turn good programming into a production line. The quality has to go. So a mini-series is ideal. I would have loved to have worked on ‘Six Feet Under’. I found that show special because it took it’s time. Most television shows try to speed up the pacing to cover the faults of the show. Shows that have more interesting material, like a ‘Sopranos’ do not need pacing. Watching Tony decide whether to have an affair with someone is inherently interesting because it might mean that someone gets killed. The stakes are higher. These types of shows prove that you don’t need Baz Luhrmann style cutting to make something interesting. Looking at people in a room is enough to hold the frame. The best direction I ever had was in a play that Daniel Brooks was directing. He said, “Let the audience work on you”. I didn’t know what that meant for a while, but ultimately it meant to have faith that you’re enough. Let them come to you. On some level I’m thinking that this conversation should be about acting. I was unable to act in high school because I was obsessed with thinking about whether I was great. My biggest question was, “Am I Marlon Brando?” Well the answer is ‘NO’. When I learned to relax, I could just be and then people naturally wanted to see what happened. I think that if someone isn’t interesting over coffee they will not be a great actor. [Thinks for a moment] Although there’s a great role for everyone. There’s a great role for my mom. What’s the great role for your mom? [Giggles] Well she had a stroke this year. She’s making the great comeback. She’s a furtive comedian. The frustrating thing is to find your great role. Even great actors will only get the chance to do that 2 or 3 times in their career if they’re lucky. It’s difficult to find the right combination of script, cast and director. It can help when the director is also an actor. People always want to ask me what I like most. The truth is that all of it [acting, directing and writing] are tools for storytelling. I like them all. I wouldn’t be able to spend my whole life acting and waiting for the right role to come along. Too many actors are driven mad by that. I don’t have the temperament for it. If I wrote all the time, it’d be too solitary. And directing, well I just spent 3 months doing a project. It’s a huge undertaking and can get exhausting. But I love it. Are you a producer as well? [Laughs] A good producer is rarer than a good director. Rarest of all is a good writer. Would you ever go to the United States or do you prefer to work here? I have more control over my work here. There is a market-driven model in the States that makes it difficult for directors to make the decisions. I think we now know that we can’t just make movies for ourselves, but they shouldn’t be completely market-driven either. My dream is to make a co-production with Europe. What are your top 5 movie suggestions? Butch Cassidy and the Sundance KidCaché Mulholland DriveLoulouThe Lives of Others Really? I was upset by the ending in ‘The Lives of Others’; the poor guy ending up as a mailman. What would you have him be? I’m not sure. This is why I have trouble writing endings. [Gently] It’s not your fault, Hollywood has seeped in. You can learn more about Jules Ross at her website www.julessite.com.
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