“We are so happy to be representing Dito. He is one of the rare, real character based story tellers in town. Big talent work with him because they know he will get the best out of them. He’s an amazing film maker”. – Trevor Engelson, Dito’s Manager, CEO Underground Films and Management (www.undergroundfilms.net)
Exclusive interview with Dito Montiel, award-winning director of A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints and the upcoming The Son of No One
HF: Growing up in Queens, did you relate at all to Saturday Night Fever’s depiction of kids from the boroughs traveling into the big city?
DM: You know, I used to love going to Manhattan, but in that movie, if I remember correctly, going to Manhattan is the journey, it was an accomplishment just to go; get your friends to say ‘yes’ to going on the train. I just used to like going. I mean, since I was little, really little, well me and my friend Antonio and the kids I grew up with, we used to hop the train and go to 42nd Street and watch karate movies because there was Bruce Lee almost all day long, so we loved that. And then going to play video games…then I’d always want to stay and they’d always want to go right back to Queens.
HF: What kind of trouble did you get yourselves into, kicking around New York in the 80’s?
DM: A lot. I got the scars to prove it.
HF: Did you have any idea what you wanted to be while you were growing up?
DM: No. Not at all. I mean, I wanted to play baseball for the Cincinnati Reds for some unknown reason. I did like the Mets a little bit, but the Reds used to win a lot so… The Mets never won.
HF: As far as discovering your own voice, how did you find music?
DM: Honestly, everything I’ve ever done – I’ve just fallen into everything. It’s sort of odd; it’s like Mr. Magoo lifestyle, you know? Music was – I mean, it’s a weird long story, but the quick of it is I was a messenger in Manhattan – a foot messenger – and we used to shave our heads all the time, and in my friend Antonio’s basement, we had one little record player, and we used to put everything on fast speed, and put the lights out and throw things at each other and I got hit with a weight. I had a black eye and a shaved head, and I went to work and my friend Joe said there was a club where people played records really fast, and they’d go nuts, and I said, “That sounds really fun,” and I ended up going to a club called Irving Plaza and then CBGB’s. And a guy – Billy – said, “Hey I’m making a band. I live in Queens,” and I was like, “I do too,” and he had a guitar. He lent me his guitar and I started playing one note at a time, and there was a club called the A7 club back then, on Avenue A and 7th Street, and everyone used to just play, so we just started playing. And getting on stage was really fun, and making noise… I knew a lot of guys in the neighborhood who were great, and they were practicing and practicing and practicing Led Zeppelin riffs until they were blue in the face, but I was already playing shows, so I always had this strange do-it-yourself attitude because of that. Probably I was like, ‘I’d rather play than practice, and I’d rather write than read, and I’d rather make a movie than see one.’ You know? It’s a weird way of thinking but…
HF: So when did you first decide to make a movie rather than see one?
DM: It’s very odd, that. I started writing because I always wrote songs, because I was not a good enough guitar player to play other people’s songs, so I just wrote my own. And then I started – I just like to write, so I started writing, just, weird stories. I don’t know, odd things. At one point I had like 20, and I remember being in bookstores, seeing books, and they were like 200 pages, and I was thinking, “Hey, if I could make 180 more pages, I could make a book.” And so I just kept going. And then this guy I used to work at Tower Records with in New York had a job as a publisher at this small publishing company, and I sent him my random weirdness and he said, “Oh, we’ll put it out.” And they put it out and zero people bought it, maybe ten. Then, you know, a few people read it and I – look the stories go on, but I was out here (Los Angeles) and I worked for a guy out here who was friends with Robert Downey, the actor, and I knew Robert from over the years, seeing him around and he’s always been super cool, like, you know, a nice guy, you know? And I made these really weird videos with my friends. We worked for a dub room out here, just a crappy job, not a crappy job, I actually worked for a pretty cool guy there. And my friend, who I worked in the dub room with, started making little weird videos that didn’t make any sense and we put them in iMovie, and he would start cutting them and it was really fun and it would be like a minute long, and I’d say “This is really fucking weird and cool,” you know, and it was the same as with writing, I was like “Well, this is four minutes. It was pretty good. If we can make it an hour and thirty minutes, it’s a movie,” you know? So we started having this odd fascination that we could possibly make a movie. We just started making odd three minute films, you know, anything. They were just thoughts. And then Robert was coming in and out – Downey – and I would say, “Hey check this out,” you know, every time he would come in, and he’d say “Ah!” I mean, he’s the only guy wacky enough, like me, that he would say, “We could make a movie!” And I would say, “I know!” (laughs) You know, it was crazy, you know, so he said, “Let’s do it!” So I said, “Fuck yeah,” and then I got really nervous because I was like, “Oh shit, now a real movie star wants to do this, so I have to actually know what I’m doing.” With just me and my friends I could just hold the camera and here we go. With Robert, I started getting nervous, but he’s pretty cool so… He was just weird enough to join the weird circus, and, you know, we ended up making the movie which is just… odd.
HF: This was the beginning of A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints?
DM: Yes. Yes, it was.
HF: Having never written a screenplay before, what drove you to adapt A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints yourself?
DM: Fear. It was simply out of fear. You know? I thought, “Oh, this could be fun,” and I didn’t want anyone to take my fun away, you know? When Robert brought in a woman named Trudie Styler, who is Sting’s wife, she said, “You know, we’ll get someone to adapt your book as a script,” and I said “I think I can do it,” and she said, “Well listen, I’ve got this great writer, who wrote the movie with Ben Kingsley.” Sexy Beast. And the writers from it said that they’d write my movie, and I said “Oh no, then I’m never gonna get a chance,” and she said, “Well they’re busy for a month and as soon as they’re done, they’re gonna write it and if you don’t like it – if we don’t like it – you’ll get your shot.” And I thought, “Well I’m never gonna get my shot,” so I wrote a really fast script, 150 pages of insanity.
Trudie read it, and to her and Robert’s severe credit, they saw through the madness of no order or anything. They said, “Hey, there’s something here; we’re gonna give it a shot.” And then somebody passed that script on to the Sundance writers lab and they accepted it. They called up, and I really thought it was like a Learning Annex thing, and I thought that it was gonna cost money, and I said, “How much is this?” And Michelle Satter, who’s the best, said “It’s free.” And I said, “Whaddya mean free? What about getting to Utah?” And she said, “We’ll fly you there,” and I’m like, “What?” And I didn’t believe it, but it was real, and next thing you know, you’re in Utah. I’m a big fan of Sundance labs for any actor, director, writer.
HF: How did you end up also directing the movie?
DM: Well, at the labs we got to a point where we were ready to make it and then Robert was on board with the idea of me directing, which, was another hurdle and the quick of it was Trudie, once again, took a crazy risk and said, “Go shoot a short with Robert and if we like it, you can direct the movie,” and I was like, “Robert, we gotta go shoot something,” and he said “Okay,” and we went over here in West Hollywood – my friend has a music rehearsal studio called Smashbox – and we went over there and I said “Phillip, can we rent a room for two hours? Like 15 dollars an hour? 30 bucks?” And Robert went in there and I put a camera in there and we filmed him and he was unbelievable that day, just unbelievable. I just wrote this random nuttiness; he sat there and he read it – it was the most beautiful acting I’d ever seen. And then I shot some kids that never acted before and we made a short and then, luckily, they liked it enough and then we made a movie. That’s the weird story.
HF: When it came time for casting, was it difficult to cast actors as real people from your life?
DM: Well a really good learning process for me, once again, was Sundance Labs. I was also, actually, in the directors lab. They picked me when they saw these weird shorts, and you could bring in three actors, which is great for actors to go to. But they cast the rest of your ideas with locals, and they cast this guy named Charlie – he’s a big guy, HUGE – to play this role to shoot a scene which, in the movie, was between Robert Downey and Eric Roberts, where they see each other in prison, right?
I had an actor named Michael Wright, who I love, and he’s playing the role that Robert played, and Michael is just one of my favorite actors, I love Michael. And the prison role, they cast him locally, so I don’t know who it is, and this huge guy walks in, big white guy in overalls. It was the worst idea I’d ever heard in my life. I said, “You’ve gotta be kidding me.” So this guy, Charlie, comes in and he’s doing it at the most monotone lull. I’m like, “Charlie, you have to talk loud.” “Okay.” He’s trying to do it. He can’t. We do it five times. I go to the other side of the room, “You have to talk loud enough for me to hear!” He’s quiet. So finally, I go over to Michael, the other actor, and he says, “You know, he’s a big guy Dito, why don’t you just let him talk? That’s his way.” I said, “All right,” and then he did it…And he did it so incredible, I can never let go of it. As much as I love Eric Roberts’ performance, Charlie’s still haunts me.
Ever since then, I’ve let go of what I think actors are supposed to look like and everything. I think if I write a role for a man and a woman wants to do it in the movie – I just did, Juliette Binoche plays a role I wrote for Roger Guenveur Smith – a man, a woman, any race. I’m not trying to be politically correct, but if you write a good role, everybody understands it, should understand it to some degree. Human is human. That really has been the most fun thing for me about movies.
HF: Tell us about your next movie The Son of No One
DM: The Son Of No One was an idea from an incident that happened many years ago…a notion. I was at my friend White Vinny’s apartment in the Ravenswood projects where we use to rehearse in apartment 1c in our teenage hardcore band. Junkies used to constantly come in to smoke dust and terrorize little White Vinny. One day, one we really hated and were afraid of, named Hanky, was found dead in the hallway. When the cops took him away they were all smoking, laughing and one was even eating a sandwich. My other friend, Black Vinny, who later ended up in the psychiatric ward of Elmhurst hospital looked at me and said (regarding the cops), “No one cares. No one cares about any of us.”
As a kid it didn’t affect me because I knew what he meant. We were all disposable. The junkies, the parents… us. Everyone. It’s an awful way to exist, knowing no one cares. A theme that never left me. All my movies, in one way or another, center around a character that often can be overlooked or simply… thrown away. In Saints there were a few, Frank The Dog Walker, Antonio; in Fighting there was Harvey; and in The Son of No One it was all of us, particularly Black Vinny, beautifully portrayed by Tracy Morgan. I don’t pretend to be any kind of activist or any of that. I write what I know or what I was or am affected by. And this theme, about throw away people, particularly this very personal one in this movie, has haunted me since I was a kid. So in many ways this is a movie about ghosts.
HF: What was it like to work with someone like Al Pacino?
DM: Al Pacino is fuckin’ the man! I mean, I just love him to death. I mean, I love everything about that guy. He’s the real deal. The first day – we shot this pretty fast – he had a five-page scene where he’s the only one talking. That’s it. A little boy’s listening, just him talking, five pages, we had half a day of shooting – not even – and I remember saying to the 1st AD, “Listen, we can’t do this. I have no rehearsal with him,” you know, this is Al Pacino! I’m flipping out and he shows up, he’s like, “Let’s just rehearse it once,” and I was like, “Okay,” and he does it, and I don’t care about perfection, but he literally missed two words. Like two words in five pages! And it ends and he goes, “I think I missed two words, right?” That’s even crazier, that he knows he missed two words, you know? Then I was like, “Why am I shocked that Jordan just showed up and dunked on me.”
HF: As an artist, you seem to be in your New York Period. Any other periods on the horizon?
DM: Well I’ve got a book that’s coming out. It’s out here [Los Angeles]. It’s about this guy who’s a clapper. A guy named Eddie. He sits on Gower. It’s about a guy named Eddie who takes the bus back and forth from the Valley and he claps in the audience. 50 bucks a show. It says “applause,” he claps, it says “laugh,” he laughs. It’s a very simple life. A love story happening there, too; in love with a girl named Judie who works in the all-night gas station, trapped in the box, there’s a little weird turn… We’ll see what happens with that one. It’s not the easiest movie to make. But none of them are.
EXCLUSIVE IMAGES FOR THE HF MAGAZINE
COLOR STUDIO IMAGES AND COVER: MITCHELL NGUYEN MCCORMACK
B&W LOCATION COVER: YANN BEAN
INTERVIEW: OLIVER SINGER
SHOT IN HOLLYWOOD CALIFORNIA
Exclusive interview with Austin Stowell
HF: What and who inspires you?
AS: My family has always been my major source of inspiration. My grandparents and parents gave me and my brothers the tools needed to succeed and the confidence to believe we could.
HF: What are your favorite moments in your career or life?
AS: After I hung up the phone with my friend who had just convinced me to leave the East coast for LA, life rushed into me like I had rarely felt before. Everything felt so fresh and invigorating. I knew I was ready for the next chapter of my life.
HF: Any future projects you can tell us about?
AS: Promoting Dolphin Tale has kept me busy as of late, but I’m like 99% of other actors out there right now. Just trying to lock down the next job. I love auditioning though. Acting is acting whether it’s up on the screen or in a casting office with just one other person.
HF: Can you name an actor that you would love to work with?
AS: Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The guy has such a wide range of talent and never fails to impress. He can be funny, solemn, enraged, and anywhere in between. I dare you to tell me a poor PSH performance.
HF: What is the best life lesson you have learned from a fellow actor?
AS: While working on Dolphin Tale, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Harry Connick, Jr. off the set. I’ll never forget when he told me, “All you need in life is your family, friends, and your wits.” Harry’s a pretty happy guy, so it’s hard to argue with that. Keep it simple. Don’t get lost in the BS is what I think he means.
HF: What is the best acting lesson you have learned from a non-actor?
AS: My mother taught me to go live my life the way I want to. Whatever I want to do when I wake up in the morning, I should just go do it. Live everyday like it’s your last, because one day, it will be.
HF: Do you feel you grow more as an actor when you work alongside longtime household names, like in Dolphin Tale, or when you are working with other young, emerging artists, like in AWOL?
AS: It would be impossible working with folks like Morgan, Harry, Ashley, and Kris to not learn from them. They are true professionals and lead by example. They’ve taught me how to make it in the long run. On the other hand, working with a group of up and comers like Liam, Aimee, and Teresa is an education to say the least. We’re all figuring out this industry day by day and learning from each other’s accomplishments and mistakes. The combination and application of knowledge from those two worlds is what has helped me grow so much over the past year.
HF: If you could be anything but an actor, what would you choose to be?
AS: I’ve always wanted to be a camp director. I love kids and would be so thrilled to be a part of their developmental stage in becoming self sufficient, productive adults. There were so many people in my journey to becoming a young man that I would love to thank. I believe the best way to do that is to return the favor to children looking for their guide along the way.
HF: Is there a performance that you have seen, either from your childhood or more recently, that has stuck with you more than any other?
AS: Unless it’s a one-man show, great performances are always about the cast around an actor. One of my favorite ensemble pieces is The Big Lebowski. As zany and out-of-this-world as those characters and the situations they’re in are, the actors are all so alive and real in them. Bridges, Goodman, Buscemi, Moore, Huddleston, Reid, and, of course, PSH. God, those guys are so good, but only because of one another.
HF: Where would you like to find yourself in 5 years? In 15 years?
AS: To be really honest, I’ve never liked this kind of question. I want to be happy. I’m happiest when I’m surrounded by my friends. As long as I’ve got them, everything else will work itself out.
EXCLUSIVE IMAGES FOR THE HF MAGAZINE
PHOTOGRAPHER: MITCHELL NGUYEN MCCORMACK
STYLIST: ASHLEY PHAN-WESTON
AUSTIN WEARS EMPORIO ARMANI SUIT AND SHIRT
SWEATER AND SHIRTS THROUGHOUT: AMERICAN APPAREL
GROOMER: ERICA SAUER @ EXCLUSIVE ARTISTS MANAGEMENT
SHOT IN HOLLYWOOD CALIFORNIA
“Working with Mark and Adam has been one of the most fulfilling creative experiences of my life. Their unflappable internal barometer of quality story telling gives a freedom and security I’ve rarely found on film sets.” – Chris Evans
Exclusive interview with Puncture’s brothers Adam and Mark Kassen and Chris Lopata
HF: What do art and commerce mean to you?
AK: When making a film you always have to keep commerce in mind, as long as you want more people to see your movie than your mom.
MK: Necessary balance and mutual respect.
CL: I never really think about the two together or separately. I do what I do as honestly as I can. Art is expression and commerce is getting paid to do it.
HF: What and who inspires you?
AK: People who are able to stay positive in the most difficult of circumstances.
MK: Bold, honest creativity.
CL: Risk takers and bold thinkers. And outlaws.
HF: What are your favorite moments in your career or life?
AK: Showing our film Puncture to my Dad and his friends, in the hospital, a few days before he passed away.
MK: The night that Little Willy, a play I wrote and starred in, opened off-Broadway.
CL: My favorite moments in my career are ones that have yet to happen. I’m always looking to grow. In life, it’s hands down spending a Sunday morning with my family eating bacon.
HF: Any future projects you can tell us about?
AK: I’m currently posting a film I produced called Big Sur, directed by Michael Polish, starring Kate Bosworth, Josh Lucus, Rhada Mitchell and Jean Marc Barr. Based on the Jack Kerouac novel.
MK: I’m working on a few things. Not sure which one will go first so I’ll keep my mouth shut for now…
CL: I recently finished an original screenplay that Michael Keaton is set to direct.
HF: Can you name a person that you would love to work with?
AK: Love to work with Aaron Sorkin.
MK: I’d love to work with Baz Lurhman. From everything I’ve read, his process of exploring the material seems fantastic.
CL: Jack Nicholson.
HF: Who in life do you have the utmost respect for?
AK: Our Nurses.
MK: In the “real world” outside of the business, the person I have the most respect for is my Dad. He was a great person.
CL: My wife. We have three great kids and if it were left up to me they’d eat pizza and gummi bears every meal. She’s the glue that keeps all of our lives together, and that’s not an easy job.
HF: Aside from writing/directing what is your preferred method of artistic expression, if anything?
AK: I doodle.
MK: Playing Piano
CL: Drawing and painting with my kids.
HF: What is the best life lesson you have learned from a fellow writer/director?
AK: To listen.
MK: Don’t be afraid of other people’s ideas. You never know where the magical, great stuff will come from, so if you’re lucky enough to have a great community of artists around you, use them.
CL: Never say no to a great idea.
HF: What is the best lesson in directing/writing you have learned from a non writer/director?
AK: Prepare everything to a tee, and then when you get to set, be ready to throw it all away.
MK: Same thing basically. Every smart person has something dumb to say and every dumb person has something smart to say.
CL: Don’t forget to brush your teeth.
HF: If you could be anything but a writer/director, what would you choose to be?
AK: Psychologist.
MK: Yoga instructor. If I was a yoga instructor, I’m sure my back would feel a lot better right now. Maybe I would go into politics and teach yoga on the side… or start a cult. That’s sort of the same as yoga and politics combined anyway.
CL: Competing in the World Beard and Moustache Championship – Full beard freestyle category.
HF: Is there a performance that you have seen, either from your childhood or more recently, that has stuck with you more than any other?
AK: Alec Baldwin – Glen Gary Glen Ross… He was such a fantastic dick. It was awesome.
MK: Mark Rylance, in the Broadway play Jerusalem. It was one of the most amazing acting feats I have ever seen.
CL: When I was a kid I was staying with my father one summer. I was younger than my brother and stepbrother and stepsister so I couldn’t go out with them. I ended up staying home alone and watching a VHS tape of The Warriors 48 times over 2 months. Huge impact on me.
HF: Where would you like to find yourself in 5 years? In 15 years?
AK: Directing and producing movies and television, and other media, that have some social impact…. all with my own iPad app.
MK: Doing what I’m doing now… but getting paid more and taking the occasional exotic vacation.
CL: Writing and directing movies.
EXCLUSIVE IMAGES FOR THE HF MAGAZINE
PHOTOGRAPHER: MITCHELL NGUYEN MCCORMACK (COLOR)
PHOTOGRAPHER: YANN BEAN (B&W)
COPY EDITOR: MURIELLE ZUKER
SHOT IN HOLLYWOOD CALIFORNIA
Exclusive interview with Martijn Lakemeier
HF: What do art and commerce mean to you?
ML: For me there is a clear difference between them. Although I prefer to make a lot of art house work, I haven’t decided yet which of the two I prefer looking at.
HF: What and who inspires you?
ML: Everything I see, everything I do, everything I experience is what helps me get better in what I love to do. I consciously remember those little things in life that make you a better actor.
HF: What are your favorite moments in your career or life?
ML: Winning a Golden Calf for best actor in 2009 is definitely a favorite moment in my career. And another smaller production I did this year, Dagen Van Gras, was also a very important experience for me where I learned a lot, which makes it one of my favorite (long) moments in my career as well.
HF: Any future projects you can update us on?
ML: In the spring of 2012, three different Dutch TV series are coming out.
HF: Can you name a person that you would love to work with? Who in life do you have the utmost respect for?
ML: I would love to work with Cees Geel. And actually, rather for a play than in a film. Because I believe acting is so much more pure on a stage in front of a great audience than on a film set with a huge camera as your audience.
And I have the utmost respect for Yorick van Wageningen. He’s been a great friend to me since 2008, when I did my first movie Winter in Wartime with him. He has taught me a lot about this world and his friendship means a lot.
HF: Aside from acting, what is your preferred method of artistic expression, if anything?
ML: Music, of course. But for a more artistic one I’d choose painting/drawing or dancing/movement without any vocals. Expressions can be very clear and pretty in these ‘methods’. But for all three, me being the audience, not the performer. You don’t want to see my drawings. There isn’t any expression in it at all.
HF: What is the best life lesson you have learned from a fellow actor?
ML: Be honest and grateful. It’s not what she literally told me, but that’s what I learned from working with and knowing Gaite Jansen. She is just always honest and grateful and that makes her an amazing person.
HF: What is the best acting lesson you have learned from a non-actor?
ML: That you must never imitate. Because imitation is very easily done when you’re playing a stereotype character.
HF: If you could be anything but an actor, what would you choose to be?
ML: An extra. Definitely. They’re great.
HF: Is there a performance that you have seen, either from your childhood or more recently, that has stuck with you more than any other?
ML: Yes, that’s the new film 170 Hz with Gaite Jansen in it. I saw it recently and it’s about 2 deaf teenagers falling in deep love with each other. Absolutely beautiful and so well performed.
HF: Where would you like to find yourself in 5 years? In 15 years?
ML: In 5 years, as an ex student from the academy of dramatic arts. In 15 years, I hope to have seen a lot from the world, and I hope to be able to perform in any method of artistic expression on an international level. In Dutch we’d say: Where there’s a will, there’s a way. An ability to make it happen.
EXCLUSIVE IMAGES FOR THE HF MAGAZINE
PHOTOGRAPHER: PIETER HENKET
PRODUCTION: ROGER INNISS FOR BOOM PRODUCTIONS INC
SHOT IN NETHERLANDS