What can I say, One Night Stand was a blast. Early summer 2009, I had just finished up Latro and was feeling pretty good about myself. Then I catch an ad on Craigslist looking for cast for a feature length film. I check out the guy behind the film, Ryan Justice, and he's legit, so I send in my headshot and brand new (but sparse!) resume.
As best as I can figure, Ryan had become aware of me from The Source. He held an open casting for the various roles and I showed up to meet him. When we finally talked, he told me that he really wanted me to play the film's lead villain, Vinnie Valentino. No audition necessary - it doesn't get any better than that!
So I asked Ryan what films I should watch to get a glimpse into what he had in mind for Vinnie. He told me to watch Dustin Hoffman in Billy Bathgate. I did that right away, and I studied Dustin Hoffman. It looked like this was going to be a lot of fun. I was pretty stoked to play the lead bad guy, not just a goon this time. I'll have my own goons!
Ryan sends me the full script and it really bowls me over. It is a combination of Starsky & Hutch, The Godfather, and Rambo. I start to get really excited about the film and go to work developing my Vinnie Valentino.
Vinnie appears at the beginning and at the end of the film. The first scene, he and his henchmen have abducted his rival crime lord and 2 of his men. Vinnie's nemesis is played by Sean Collins, a veteran actor. We get the scene set up in an empty warehouse and begin rehearsing. Sean's character is understandably angry that he has been taken hostage, and the scene revolves around the power struggle between the two. Anyway, once we start rehearsing the scene I am blown away by Sean's intensity. Holy crap! I was thinking to myself "Oh shit! I really have to up my game here! This guy's a volcano!" But I was directed to play it cool, Vinnie was in control in the scene. So we did this scene take after take, with Sean reaching the same level of intensity all through the shooting, several hours. Very impressive, although eventually I started getting concerned for his health!
Ryan Justice has become a prolific and award winning director in his own right. He keeps me in his back pocket for other projects and I am happy to help whenever I can.
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