Tony Reames and Haley Leary Return (Lethalogica, Spookt)
AFC Episode 353
Link to the podcast episode. Listen on Apple Music, Spotify, or wherever you pod.
Intro:
Hey and welcome to episode 353 of the AFC Indie Filmmaking Podcast. This episode sees the return of Tony Reames and Haley Leary. They talk about the short film Lethalogica in the upcoming feature film Spookt. Hope you enjoy it. And I'll see you in the intermission.
Chuck:
All right, you guys, welcome back to the show. I'm bummed I don't get to see your faces, but that's the way it's been for the past almost two years now.
Haley:
I can't believe it. I wish we were in Tony's basement.
Chuck:
Yeah, I know. And the Scooby Doo Mystery wall and all that stuff. That's not fair that I don't get to do that again. But hopefully we can do that again soon. Hopefully soon. Yes. There's so many people I got to meet over covet because of this Zencaster I'm using, but it's just not the same as getting to hang out with people. So hopefully that changes soon. But you guys have gotten to go have fun at Nightmares Film Festival. How was that?
Tony:
It was amazing. Go ahead, Haley. That was your first time?
Haley:
Yeah, I had a blast. Honestly. I have social anxiety, but so I wasn't super gung Ho on going and being around people, but Tony was like, now these people are really cool. And Jason and Chris, who run the festival, were just super welcoming. And Stacey, who is one of the main judges for the shorts category, she was really nice. And I think everyone you meet is just, like, happy to be there and happy to be creating. And it's like one of the only festivals you go to where even if you don't get an award, you're just like, no, this was really awesome. That's cool. They told me you've been there several times.
Tony:
I guess this was my second time. Okay. I went up two years ago for Playtime Is Over, and I took my mom and my aunt, my cousins and my son. I'm the same in terms of social anxiety. So I don't know, I get sort of riddled with panic. But the first person I met when I walked in the first time was Jason, and he was like, dude, we're here. Whatever you need, take your time. Do what you want to do. Don't do what you don't want to do. Just enjoy it. And what kind of what struck me about Nightmares not just what Haley was saying in terms of everyone being so welcoming. I go to a lot of film festivals, so I see a lot of films, and you see this wide breadth of filmmakers and films, but man, nightmares just has, you know, when you're seeing films at Nightmares that these are some of the best in the world like, these premiere stitches. Fantastic. Best bright Fest Fantasia, just the best Slam dance. All the best genre film festivals in the world. So, you know you're in for a treat. Just whatever they're showing. So it was just a great time.
Chuck:
That's cool. And you took Lethalogica. Am I saying that right?
Haley:
Yes, that's right. It was our world premiere. Okay, so no one has seen it. Yeah. So that's always a little bit nerve wracking. Like, are they going to get it? Is the pacing right? Does it work? So it's kind of stressful. But it was fun. It was a lot of fun. I think Tony is just happy that Chris, who made Guts, liked it.
Tony:
Yeah, there were a couple of films there Chuck that really just stand out. And there's one called Gus that I love. There's one called Peter the Penguin that Haley loves.
Haley:
Oh, man, I loved that one so much. Peter the Penguin. Oh, it was so crazy. It's worth seeing. It's actually on alter, so you can look it up. Okay, so basically the whole premises, it's a new relationship between this single mom and her boyfriend and stuff like that. And it's all about meeting the kid. And he's nervous because he really thinks that this could be something special. And the whole running joke is like, he's brought this stuffed animal. And she's like, it's not big enough. And they pull up to the driveway, and little girl runs out and she's like, Peter's Hutch. And you think like, oh, Peter's like her brother, right? But sobbing, sobbing like, mom, come and you get in and it's this decent sized stuffed Penguin, right? Just like the head has been severed and there's just, like, stuffing coming out. And he's like, we have to call in an ambulance. And everyone is just 100% serious about this Penguins, like life or death situation. And the boyfriend is the only one that's like, what the hell is going on? But I don't want to give away the end. But I feel like, what did you say, Tony? It was like something like Edgar Wright would do.
Tony:
Yeah, it's a British film, Chuck. And so they play on that long, drawn out humor, that dry humor. The funniest part is the mom calls to me anyway, the mom calls an ambulance, and the two guys from the ambulance show up at the door, and the boyfriend greet somebody's like, I'm sorry, guys. This was just a mistake. It's nothing. We don't need you. And they're like, well, we need to check it out. And they go in and they see the Penguin, and they, too are like, oh, my God, we need to do something. And the boyfriend's like, no, you don't understand. I mean, it's nothing. It's a stuffed animal. And no one got from the aim is like, sir, stop screaming. You're just panicking. And he's like, I'm not. I'm really just talking to you normally and telling you this is ridiculous. This is ridiculous. And they're like, oh, my God, please take him and help him. He is losing his mind. He's out of control. Oh, yeah. And then he's like, no, this is ridiculous. And then he's like, sir, you're scaring the child. And then you think, Where's this going to go? And it goes next level bonkers insane. And like, just the end song is just amazing. Yeah, it's worth checking out. So maybe we should just be on. You're just talking about Peter the Penguin? Yeah. Screw our films. Yeah. Well, that's great. I mean, that's what some of these festivals are really great at. Is finding just bizarre stuff that you really like world. So you're going to see something like that? Yeah, exactly. That's what's fun.
Chuck:
What's Lethalogica All about?
Tony:
I'd kind of like to hear Haley's take on it. Okay.
Haley:
I mean, to sum it up, it's a joke told in reverse, right. But it's basically the premise of a normal couple housewife like lovebird situation where she is put in a circumstance in which she feels the need to murder someone. Yeah. But like, torture them first. Okay. Chuck, are you familiar with memento? Yes. Okay, so it's memento if memento was told in the structure of a joke where you get the punchline and then the next scene does the set up for that with a punchline. And then the next scene does a set up for that punch line. So it's doing that in reverse. So it starts off with an absurd punch line. And we walk backwards along two different sort of story arcs, where one is the mundane relationship, right. Where you've got the boyfriend tracking along this mundane relationship. Right. And you've got the B store line, which he sort of just glosses over because he doesn't care about that. He's trying to figure out this main storyline, which is all about. And I guess we could just tell you Lethalogica if you don't know what it means, is the phenomenon where you've got something on the tip of your tongue but you can't remember what it is. Okay. He has something on the tip of his tongue and he's trying to remember what it is. And she's trying to help him. And as she's describing, like, was it when we were talking about this and this? And he's like, no, it was before that. And her storyline is bananas level crazy. And his is just this mundane trying to figure out what it is that's on the tip of his tongue.
Chuck:
Interesting. Okay.
Tony:
It was an experiment. When you were saying earlier about film festivals, you get to see things that you wouldn't normally see. So when we were out for play times over, I had the luxury and blessing to go to a couple of film festivals, and I would go to them and I would watch I'd sit there with the audience and I would just gauge what worked and what didn't work from different because you would see some of the same shorts at different venues. You could see like, oh, that worked both times. That didn't work the second time. You'd know, some things worked. Some things didn't. But you'd also see new shorts like, oh, that was like a body horror. And that seemed people really were into that or that was like a love story. And people were drawn a little bit to that. That's the one. Visitors. Exactly. Yeah. Visitors is a really good example because I saw another Korean film where I was trying to ask Stacey at Nightmares because she programmed it at Nevermore in Durham, and it was this crazy Visitors the same way where it's a Korean film. So everything about them, the way they're shot, the way they're told the acting, it's all different and new. And the one in at Nevermore was about a little girl who had found a Walkman, a pink Sony Walkman. Right. But in her mind, she envisioned it as this robot savior that would just follow her around and protect her. And then in the end, you see from her point of view or from the real world point of view that it was just a Walkman and it was just told so Interestingly that I just took a lot of notes over all of these film festivals of like, oh, that worked well, that's a really good idea. That's a good plot device or that's a cool technique. And it was sort of Lethalogica was my way of saying, because it's not something I don't think Haley or I would ever make something like Lethalogica, which was kind of cool to kind of push us outside of our terms. Right. Experiment. Yeah. And I can see why it would be nerve wracking. Can show something like that for the first time to audiences. If it's something that you feel like you haven't really done before and also just the nature of the story itself, you might like, man, did we make this too confusing? Yeah. Right. Not only something we've never done before, but when it comes to horror films, I don't use this word a lot, but I hate body horror as a genre. I cannot stand body horror movies, but they're very popular. My wife loves them. Glenna loves them. Yeah. It was very much me personally stepping outside my comfort zone because I was like, okay, if I was going to do a body horror, how would I do it? That was sort of the draw for me. And then the thing that really sold me was the fact that in it, Haley gets to play the same person, but you see two wildly different characters that she portrays, the loving housewife or girlfriend, and then this almost and you don't know what it is, but you think it's like an insane assassin type thing. Yeah. I was like, oh, there's only one person I know that could play this is Haley. And then there was only one person I knew that could play the antagonist. And so we got Victor Rivera. It was just a big, fun little experiment.
Chuck:
Nice. Well, Haley, talk about that from your end, about playing two, like you said, wildly different characters in the short, preparing for that.
Haley:
I like doing stuff like that because for me, it's funny is the challenging part for me was playing the person that was like in love with someone. Yeah. Okay. No, like for real. So when they were switching to this badass, he doesn't give a shit. I was like, oh, yeah, okay. No, the switch for me is going to be someone who's in a loving relationship, but I enjoyed it as an actor. Obviously, the more arcs you have, the more fun you have. And that's just my opinion, because it's a challenge. And Victor was great because, I mean, spoiler at one point, he spits in my face and I weirdly requested that because I have this thing I want to do at the end of my real where it's like three solid spit takes, but they're spitting on her. They're not necessarily spit takes. It's spitting on Haley. I want to stand out. You got to be weird, I guess. But yes, Tony, we got to do that real soon. Victor, because his character has kind of a similar innocent to kind of manic insane person. He took me outside before we kind of got into that full scene and God love him. He was just like, I just want you to know that I respect you as a filmmaker and as a creator, and there's going to be some stuff I do in there that is in no reflection of you just making sure I knew and just having that talk of comfortability, like, I really just respected him for. Yeah, that's very nice. Yeah. I think it's funny to most people that for me, anytime I have to do, I get an audition where it's like, oh, you just got married. I'm like, son of a bitch. Yeah, you're super happy. And I'm like, great. But yeah, it's always a challenge switching. But I think because we had the time in between those days, it wasn't as challenging as it could have been, had been like the same day type of thing.
Tony:
And also, Chuck, just to add a little bit of insanity to it, was we filmed it over two days, but the two days are spread apart by about I don't know, six or eight months. And the first shoot we did in the height of COVID, no vaccines, no protection in terms of medicinal protections. But we did all of the testing and like 6ft and kept everything open and this and that when we filmed it. And so in the script, it was Victor's character spits on her. But I was like, obviously, we're not going to do that because of Covid. And Haley's like, no, we're going to do it. And I was like, oh, dear God, here's where Covet hits our film set and shuts us all down. Victor had just gotten tested the day before and the day before that in Ditto. So I was just like, it was a trust fall spit take. It was the gussiest part of the whole shoot to me because I was like, oh, my gosh, I don't know what's going to happen here. We did a couple of stunts that I was like a little gnarly in terms of just if something goes wrong, we're going to be in big trouble with the safety, but nothing. I mean, not too dangerous, Chuck. Not like anything crazy, but just where I was like, we just need to be really careful. But the one that really just had me beside myself was that spit take just because of Covet. I was like, oh, my God, if Haley gets Covid, I'm going to be beside myself. I would have taken full blame for that. But I knew that we had taken all of the precautions we did and everyone on that side hadn't left their house.
Intermission:
Hey, and welcome to the Intermission. Chuck is breaking in real quick with some announcements kind of quick this week because, well, as I'm recording this in two days, I have a shoot and then it's my birthday and then it's Halloween this weekend. So just a bunch of stuff going on. Happy Halloween, by the way. Hope you're going to be able to have some sort of celebration this year. Everything was muted very last year, but this year, be safe, but still have fun. Like I mentioned, I've got to shoot a couple of days, so I'm going to go head off and do that real quick after I get this episode ready. But I did want to mention real quick. Obviously it's fun catching up with Tony and Haley again. It's always great when people come back and they've got a bunch of stuff that they're working on and they're getting bigger and better and things are going well. It's always great to see. One thing I wanted to mention. Tony talked about Lethalogica being a word that means something. You feel like you have something to say is on the tip of your tongue, but you can't remember it. If you're ever looking for a writing prompt, look for words like that. I have a few in my notes. I'm not going to say them here because I want to workshop them myself, but there's plenty of words out there that would make a great title, like Lethalogica. That maybe you don't use the title. Maybe you don't even really use that idea, but they're great for just unplugging your creativity, I guess, because maybe you get stuck. Like, I just don't know what to write. I want to write something weird or whatever. Maybe you're just having trouble with ideas. It's a great exercise. Just to go. Maybe Google like the weirdest words or words that mean very specific feelings. That's just a great way to get something going. And again, you might not use any of it, but it just unlocks some stuff in your brain and gets it moving and get your hand moving, which is even more important if you're writing down some stuff and then ideas start coming and then you have a film. All right. Anyway, keep working. I want to see all your cool stuff you're working on out there. Maybe you'll be on the show. Tell me about all your great successes very soon. All right, back to the show.
Chuck:
You mentioned simple stunts or whatever, but we've seen recently with the unfortunate news. All it takes is just one fucking thing. It's made me very aware. I have a shoot coming up this Thursday. Oh, nice. I'm just thinking. And it's our first shoot back since Covid hit. Like, we haven't done anything and it's our first thing. And it's got me not panicking, but just very cognitive. We don't even have any stunts, for Christ's sakes. But it's just got me very cognizant of every single thing we do, like taking that extra step, like, what can we do to make everybody feel super safe?
Tony:
Are you directing it, Chuck, or what's your role on that?
Chuck:
No, I'm producing. It's my production company. Okay. But my co producer is flying in right now. Actually, he's on the plane and he's directing it. He'll be directing, so it'll be fine.
Haley:
Is he joking about shooting it on an iPhone?
Chuck:
No, because it's a sizzle reel where he bought the brand new iPhone 13 Pro thing. Okay. Yeah, but no, it's going to be quick and dirty kind of thing, but it should be fine. He's done some test footage and it looks great.
Tony:
Cool. Yeah, very cool. Going back to the stunts. And it's not just stunts because anything can go wrong on these sets, especially in light of covet and all these safety concerns you have and all the pressures that you have. It's really tough, Chuck. I really sympathize with producers at any level. Right. Because it's like not only now do you have to worry about telling the story or figuring out the best way visually to get make your day or do all these million things that are stacked against you. But now it's sort of like, oh, and on top of that, all of these crushing elements like covet and God forbid, any accidents happen or anything goes wrong. I think people don't always realize how stressful making a film or short film or anything creative like this can be on the day because it's not like you can just come back to it later or fix it in post, as they say. Yeah, that's the luck. At the end of the day, I could sort of do everything I can to plan for it. And I always miss things. You always don't think of it until you're on the day, but as much planning as you can put in and then on the day, you just sort of got to, like, pray to God and just be as safe as you can. Yeah. Ride the wave. Exactly. Because we're in the middle of filming a horror feature.
Chuck:
Yeah. I was going to ask about that.
Tony:
Yeah. Spookt. All right. And we've got a couple of stunts on the last day of that that we're bringing in a stunt coordinator and everything for because it's wire work. Oh, wow. Okay. That's cool. And luckily. Right. I've worked with him a couple of times. He's fantastic. But that's another thing. Chuck is sort of like if you're the producer. Right. Or you're the director, it's like, you know, you don't know everything, so you sort of know where your line is in terms of what you can do. And can we point? Yeah. Bring in people to handle that position. Because there's a couple of things that we've been working on with Spoofed now, and it's just this whole thing of like, how do we do it safely and how do we do it effectively where you got to balance that. So it looks good. It looks good enough that the magic sells it, but at the same time, it's safe enough where you're not risking anybody getting injured again. And I've been doing that all morning. That's what my whole day today has been about, logistics and planning and prep. Really the walk through tomorrow. Yeah, we have a walk through. And that's the other thing that I find really fun is Tory Hawks wrote the script for it. And so when he did it, in his mind, he created this house and where all these things happen in this house. So then we find that we have a house that we're going to be filming, and now we got to map his script to the actual physical location. And there's eight different setups in these different rooms that are all pretty big. And it's like, but how do you connect the dots and will it work in this actual physical location? Yeah, in the world. Yeah. Tory will be there tomorrow. Haley will be there. So we're going to all walk through it, and hopefully we'll be able to diagram it out to make sure that we haven't dropped the ball in terms of script to reality. And we may have to make some adjustments, obviously, because we can't really change the house. So we're going have to to change either how we film it or what we're calling the dining room is now this room.
Chuck:
Well, how much can you tell me about Spookt? Is this super secret? You've got Keith Brooks in it. Like some great names here I'm seeing.
Tony:
Yes. Keith's in it. We got Erin Brown, Kristin Haley's in it. I'm talking to Victor about a part for it, which I'd love to have Victor back. But growing up, I grew up in this very rural small town in Western Pennsylvania. And when you're growing up in a town of 3000, everyone knows everybody's business. You'd hear all of these stories. And growing up, you're like, well, that's kind of wild. And you just sort of assume that everyone sort of has that shared experience of growing up. And when we get down here and I tell people like, oh, yeah, that's crazy. This person I went to school with murdered these people and did these things. And I had two people that I went to school with that are now in prison for murder and all these things. Actually, it's like five people, but two that I knew really well. Yeah. And so you start to realize, well, she's in a town of 3000. That's a lot of crazy stuff that happens.
Haley:
Yeah. Tony is very nonchalant about chaos.
Tony:
Yeah. So I started telling these stories to Tory and I was like, for example, there was this just a real quick story that's not in our movie, but it sort of was the baseline. I told Tory this when I was growing up. My dad worked at the local College. It was called Till College. Still is called Till College. Still is there. My dad's not. But the College is there. But anyway, these two brothers, and I think they were twins were the homecoming Kings at teal. And so there's this. Wait, the homecoming team gave them both the title? Yeah, they were the Co Homecoming. Okay, so there's this picture that my mom has. Or there was somewhere. And it's them on the parade float. And I'm standing next to them on the parade float. And I'm like, eight or nine or ten somewhere in there. Right. I'm on the parade float. My dad worked at the College. Well, fast forward a couple of months and they both get charged with murder because what had happened was one of them was seeing this woman who needed their business burnt down for the insurance money. So she's like, hey, can you to take care of this? And they're like, sure. So they got their buddy and they're like, the three of them burnt down this building and the woman collected the insurance money. And there's more to it than that. And you can look it up. They actually made a TV movie about it. Anyway. Then the one guy who's not the guy they brought in get a little nervous about it. And he was like, I think I can't keep this quieter. They feel like he's not going to keep it quiet. So they take him to Ohio, apparently, and they kill him. And then they bring the body back across state lines and then they bury them in her backyard, if I recall this correctly. Anyway, long story short, they all get busted. They all go to jail. So I tell Tory this story and he's like, oh, that's wild. And I'm like, well, that's just one of them. And so there's like ten or twelve of these different stories. And it was cool because I would pass them through the filter of Tory. I just sort of relay them just casually campfire style like this where I'm thinking probably 80% to 90% of what I'm saying is factually correct. Some of it's just me as a kid not remembering the details. Exactly right. And so I pass it through his filter and then he writes this script and it's called Spookt. And it's about this doctor who has this basically he dies in this house and it's this haunted house. And this little girl goes into this haunted house and then she goes missing. And you've got two people coming together. One is this YouTube paranormal investigator type girl who comes from Atlanta as an outsider to this town to prove that it's not some crazy haunted house. It's just this little girl was murdered or this girl was missing. And then you've got this local girl from the town who grew up in this town who knows the people of this town who also doesn't believe necessarily that the girl is a ghost or this and that, but she knows that it's more than just this girl was kidnapped. And so you've got this two hander of these two protagonists that initially don't see eye to eye, don't get along sort of butt heads, and they're sort of put together by accident to figure this out. And that's sort of what it is. And then from there, it's pretty crazy. All the things that unfold because it has nothing to do with either of those things. Yeah. So I say there's nothing to hide because I probably made it extremely convoluted and sound insane, but there is a story there, Chuck.
Chuck:
Yeah, I believe you.
Tony:
The trick was like, so it's my first feature by myself, directing by myself anyway. I mean, the whole team is there. So for me, the pressure is like I had to make it had to be something that I could wrap my hands around and head around. And so this one kind of made sense since it's where I grew up. And then I was like, I can't do this without the best people that I can get. So we really searched high and low to find the best people for the different roles and the different positions and things like that. So really lucky so far.
Chuck:
Yeah. I was going to ask about preparation for a feature from both of you just having to up the game or do you feel like this is the next step or is it just that this is just another project that you guys are getting to work together and have fun. Is there extra pressure because there's a feature? Yes. Okay. Do you feel that, too? Yeah, for sure.
Haley:
In this realm, as a performer, it's not like, yeah, it's a short. Like, I can bring it for this amount of pages. It's like ten times that amount of pages. You know what I mean? My challenge with this character is not being the badass one, but being the more like, I don't know, a childlike more. I don't know, Tony. You're more empathetic and you're more.
Tony:
So the one thing that I told Haley was I grew up in this town, and I have a deep love for this town, even though it's insane and crazy, the people are not like, the people of the town are, like, genuinely great people. Right. But the town itself is cursed. And that's what I was told Haley. So I said the trick is that Haley, she is the face of the town. So we need to see in her the good and the empathy, and we have to really fall in love with her because she's representative of the town. At first, I know everyone was like, why don't you have Hailey read for the racial character? Because Rachel is the outsider that comes in, and she's sort of, like, lean and mean from outside looking in. And then Haley's character of Claire is the more empath, the more relatable, the more, like, innocent type, innocent. You know this person because you grew up with this person and you went to school, you'd find me in a library, not out at the mall with my friends or whatever. Yeah. And I cast Haley because I know that's Haley. I see that in Haley. So the trick then became, how do you find someone who is more dominant or more aggressive than Haley? Because I didn't want, like, a jacked up woman coming in. It wasn't about that. It was more about an edgier, more in control, more type A type personality. Right. So when we read a whole bunch of people for it, and I think I even told Kristen this that when I saw her first audition, I was just like, okay, it's cool. But it didn't really click with me until we got her in the room with Haley, and we all were just like, oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. That's her. And even people who were like, Tony, you're crazy. Because Haley should play the Rachel character. You need to find someone else to play the Claire character. As soon as they saw that in the room, everyone was like, oh, no, this is it. This is.
Haley:
Yeah. And I remember when we were on location up in Greenville, we were doing a porch scene, kind of like it's a moment where we kind of realize we are more, like, than we think. And while we were doing that, thing. That's kind of where I discovered who kind of Claire was. Tony's direction helped a lot with that because I can play it. However people want me to play it. For me, it was kind of finding that who is clear, like her main delivery and how does she normally deliver things? And she's quiet, but she also doesn't want to be walked on. So it's finding that where she's soft spoken. But when it comes to it, she's going to stand up for her beliefs.
Tony:
Yes. And she's quirky, too. She's got this quirky, sort of country, rural side to her. And I remember the exact take where you did it, and I looked at Tory, and I just walked up to Haley, and I was like, that's it right there. That's too close. Yeah. And I liked that. I got to end the trip. I always liked it. And if I have to do an emotional thing, that was like my last scene was like an emotional scene. And it was funny because Tony was also great about we got two teal students that were paying so they could get some experience and stuff like that. And they were amazing. It was Sam Debucci and Marcus Hernandez, the fourth or something, but their tails students, and they were both amazing. They were down to do whatever. And we also had a local artist do the painting of the pale woman. She was great. And then I'm trying to think we also had a local makeup artist who had just gotten out of esthetician school. So she got to kind of see that side of things. And she was super flexible.
Haley:
But it was really funny because we're having to do this emotional scene. It's like coming face to face with this evil being. And I'm like crying, but I'm trying to be tough and everything like that. In the first take, like, I love Sam. She tries to do this old man voice. I get through it, right? Like, we do it. And I was just like, hey, Tony, could you tell her to read it in a normal voice? It's definitely going to go in the blooper real just because she was all into it. She's been perfect. She was like, I've known your family. And then I'm just sitting there, like, holding onto Kristen for dear life. And at that point, my shaking is from trying not to laugh.
Tony:
We were super lucky, Chuck, because we actually took I think we were there five days. Days. Four. Five days. Three filming. Yeah. In Greenville, my hometown. My whole family still pretty much lives there, so that everyone came out to help. Everyone was super supportive. So we had this real cool. It just felt, like, really welcoming. And shoot this crazy, insane horror story of, like, all this stuff, all this cursed stuff. None of it's really happened, but it's all loosely based. So when you tell these stories, everyone's like, oh, I remember that. Yeah. I guess it's a good job of combining characteristics of different people to create one new character, but it's nods to different people. When you mentioned Keith Brooks earlier, Chuck, he's playing this character named Mr. Mocken, who actually was. That's not his real name, but he was my neighbor growing up, this guy. And we haven't filmed Keith yet. That's coming up here in a couple of weeks. But I'm just telling you, like, just talking to Keith through the casting and this and that, I cannot wait to see what he does with this character, because I don't think every time I tell someone about this guy that I grew up with, everyone's like, really? No one's ever heard of anything like this. Okay.
Haley:
So excited to see what keep that. I think you'll be shocked. I think you'll be, like, not see what's coming with this character in a really cool way for this because Tony had met with someone to play this part, and once he kind of fully explained what the character would need, the guy wasn't confident he could bring that, and luckily, he was communicative about that right away. So when Tony hit me up about saying, like, yeah, do you know anyone? Because it's risky, Chuck, this character, A, it's risky to play, and B, it's super risky to pull off correctly. Okay. So I wasn't sure because I wasn't sure if he didn't, in my mind, looked old enough. But then when I realized we could kind of salt and pepper his beard a little bit and stuff like that, he's down for whatever. He's an amazing person and performer, so he's always going for a challenge. And so when he sent in his tapes and I sent him to Tony, he was like, no, that's it.
Tony:
Because the things we were asking him to do, it was like they didn't like the main thing that character had going on. He acted like it didn't exist. And that's exactly what we were looking for, especially in today's day and age, playing this character, not just with the sensitivity, but with an understanding of that. A, we're not punching down for this character in any way, shape or form, and we're almost celebrating this character. It's enlightening, but it's a very sad resolution for the how he came to be. Yeah. Of why he's this particular way. But the beauty of it and this is in my town, too, the beauty of this man was you see him out and about. Right. I guess we could just talk about it. Right. Haley, I don't think is there a secret to it, or do I need to walk sensitively? I feel like that's something.
Haley:
I wouldn't give it away just because I don't think they would expect that out of Keith, you know what I mean?
Tony:
Okay, great. So there's this man that I grew up with who was my neighbor, and you'd see him. Right. And he was very, let's just say different okay. Yeah. But you'd see him out and about. Nobody treated him like he was and he didn't act like it. So there's this thing that's going on with him that draws a lot of attention, but no one was like, oh, this guy's weird. This guy's crazy. This guy's. This guy is that it was just like that. That's just who he is. And you'd see him out at the hardware store, you'd see him out at McDonald's, and everyone just was super nice to him because he was a super nice guy and they understood the reason for this. I was a kid. I didn't know it, but I didn't treat him differently. And then finally, I think one day I think I saw him with my mom, and my mom was like, well, that's so sad about him. And I was like, oh, what do you mean? And she told me the back story, and I was like, that's devastating. And it always just lived with me. It's cool that's like just as a generalized filmmaking thing, to be able to kind of pay homage to those people in your life that like you saw were struggling, but then you saw a small town that a lot of fucked up shit has happened in. But they accepted this person because at the end of the day, everyone understands grief, right? Yeah. They just process it differently. This is going to be a way I do think I'll be interested, Chuck, when I'd like to talk to you, maybe when we can show you something and see if this is something that resonates with you, if you're like, oh, my goodness. Because I wonder if other people have sort of similar situations that they're going to go, oh, that's like such and such that happened, or if this is a Holy because I've never heard anything like that where it almost becomes like untouched space for people, but not to the degree of what his character is going to have gone through and how he responds to that grief. I'll say this about it. This really hit me in a way, is, you know how you see Ed Gein, his situation and his story, and there were so many different horror movies that were told about Psycho and all these Texas Chainsaw Massacre and all these things based on this person, Ed Gain. Right. He was a troubled individual to begin with, but you never hear about. And he was dealing with grief of his mother. Right. Lost his mother. And that's where all of this was born out of. But you never see something equally as, I don't know, out there as a game story, but told from a person who, instead of going that route, goes a wholly different route. Right. But they could be almost talked about in the same sentence, whereas one goes towards the dark and one goes towards the light. Okay. Interesting, in real life, this guy went towards the light in our movie, though he does take a turn.
Chuck:
Okay, man, you got me super interested.
Tony:
Yeah, it was really compelling to me just because growing up our town, like I said, there were just so many things. And off the record, Chuck, I can tell you some stories that will blow your mind because everyone I tell is like this is absolutely bonkers but we would try to incorporate these little pieces of it. But at the same time, I don't want the people of Greenville to be misrepresented or mischaracterized as these are bad people. Right. This is just a small town where a lot of bad stuff happens to good people. Yeah, that's it.
Chuck:
That's super cool. Well, as we wrap up, tell everybody where to find more information about your projects and yourselves and all that kind of good stuff.
Tony:
I don't have nearly the social media presence that Haley does, so I would suggest that you go to Haley Leary's Instagram because she posts better stuff. But you can find me on Instagram. Tony Reames, but it's going to be boring. And you'll see probably pictures of my cats, pictures of my kids. But check out Hayley's Instagram for some very cool stuff. And check out Spookt.
Haley:
Yeah. And I mean, Tony's website is memory wedge so like you can see stuff he's been working on. They're working on a really cool hiphop pilot so be looking for that. My Instagram is just H-A-L-E-Y-L-E-A-R-Y. I'm also on Facebook and unfortunately TikTok I'm not on there that much but sometimes I like making comedy videos or whatever. But yeah, Instagram is where I do most of my stuff, where you'll find info on where things are going to be showing upcoming projects and then you'll find about projects I've done that I could talk about.
Chuck:
Good luck with all the projects and look forward to seeing everything.