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| Kicking It Back with Brian O'Halloran |
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| Interviews - Actor | |
| Written by Marilyn Almonte | |
| Sunday, 29 June 2008 | |
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His presence was a constant reminder of how Clerks continues to be a cult classic, initially exposing audiences of the late 90s to its more-than-racy subject matter and thought-provoking humor. It goes without saying that questions about Clerks are going to be asked! So, shall we begin? I wonder what he thought about working with Kevin Smith (a.k.a. Silent Bob) for so many years... "He's really a regular guy. I mean he grew up in the neighborhood or township not far from where I grew up as well (in New Jersey). We have the very same sarcastic, dry thinking-man type of humor. Working with him and his dialogue and verbose vocabulary... it was very compatible with my humor. He's quiet, very funny and he would throw very rude jokes, sometimes, at inappropriate times. But at the same time, he's very nice to work with."Clerks has been so immensely popular that four years ago, Kevin Smith compiled all the footage and extra features he could find to deliver to the fans a 10th Anniversary DVD: Clerks X. It has everything from audition tapes to a ninety-minute documentary on the impact and success of the film. Seeing Clerks for the first time, you might have wondered why Smith used black-and-white in this one and not in the second? Wasn't it taking a risk? Who could have imagined that it would be so appealing to the younger generation? "To be honest with you, the only risk we had was that we never thought we would have audiences, plain and simple. I mean the choice of black-and-white wasn't because we were trying to be artistic; it was because of a lack of money. "We didn't have the money to get the proper lighting package that would be shot on [color] film. We would have had to rent a really large lighting package to compensate for all the fluorescent that you would have to turn up. It's because fluorescent makes people on film look greenish. We would have looked like a bunch of aliens running a convenience store," Brian reasons. Zombie Clerks anyone? "So it was just a budget choice, not an artistic [one]. We were fortunate enough to enter it on the New York City Feature Film Market which no longer exists. We had the one screening on a Sunday and were fortunate enough to have somebody by the name of Bob Hawk, who was the part of Sundance Committee, come and watch it and recommended it to go to Sundance. We went to the following Sundance....January of 1994. "We had four screenings there that were all sold-out through the buzz that had gotten around from all the film companies who had seen copies of it or tried to see copies of it and tried to buy it. They made it worth seeing." It is well known that Kevin Smith produced the film on a very low and astonishing budget of $27,575. Not only was the film in black-and-white, but it had very controversial subject matter. Even cashing in his comic book collection and filling up his credit cards, Smith ran the dangerous risk of going into financial debt on top of it all, but the luck did come and it came gracefully. "At the time, it was a comedy that was pushing boundaries of different subject matters that weren't talked about in '94. Now, you can get films like American Pie with no rating problem. So people were like, 'Wow, you guys got a rated 'R' with no problem with the second movie.' The first one got an NC-17. There was no nudity in it, no violence; it was just the words or subject matter we talked about it," Brian explains. It's crazy what you can get away with nowadays that would have earned you an easy NC-17 rating back then, or a sure promise that certain scenes of your film would be cut out. "We knew that times had been pretty forward so far when we didn't get a blink of any type of hardship about this... We were like, ‘Wow, really, there's a donkey show in it for god sake!' We talked about so many different things in it (making it even more controversial). So you can see the boundaries have been pushed," Brian reasons. A past like that will remain with him throughout his career, but he still has other sides to himself that he would like to explore. What upcoming and future projects does he have in store for us? "I am on tour with is a new comedy-horror genre film. It's called Brutal Massacre. It's a fake documentary about the making of a horror film. "It's got David Naughton from An American Werewolf in London; Gunnar Hansen from the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, he was Leatherface; Ken Foree from Dawn of the Dead, one of the original horror films from back in the day, and Halloween; Gerry Bednob, the Indian guy from 40 Year-Old Virgin whose line was like ‘Go f**k a goat!', he's hilarious in this as well; and you've got Ellen Sandweiss from The Evil Dead. Actually all the women from Evil Dead are in it as well." "So you follow this crew from a film company in the making of a horror film. It is very [much like a] Christopher Guest Spinal Tap mockumentary," Brian asserts. Sounds interesting. Where and when will it be released? "That I don't know. I know it's definitely going to New York, LA, and Dallas, and then hopefully wider after that. Otherwise, it should be on DVD probably by September or October. It's through Anchor Bay, the distributor, which is owned by Starz Network. You'll definitely see it on Starz." Other projects you're in? "I have a couple of cameo scenes in the new M. Night Shyamalan film called The Happening that came out June 13. I can't talk about that because I'm legally bound not to," Brian says with a smirk. That's perfectly alright, who doesn't enjoy a little suspense? The trailer looks interesting enough. Now I'm curious; I wonder what Brian will be doing in this new thriller. A jack of all trades, Brian's abilities extend to reach the full scope of the film business from acting to writing to producing to directing. "I have a film that a friend of mine has the rights to produce and they asked me to help produce it. It's a family film based on the best-selling book, The Boy of Steel, a children's book about a kid who has cancer and becomes the bat boy for the New York Yankees. It's based on a true story. I'll probably be doing that or producing it by the end of the year. I have my own script that I'm writing that hopefully will be ready by next year." Extremely funny, versatile, and talented, which does Brian enjoy more: acting, writing, producing or directing? "You know what, I'm a big ham. Since I was a big kid, I was always like an attention whore...I thoroughly enjoyed acting by the way. I mean, there is a point when I'm on projects that the producer-end of me has to step in... and the director side of me will think of certain options. They all have their strong points and downsides though. "As of right now, the acting is really a great key. Since I still have somewhat tangible looks, I could still do acting. Eventually when I lose my looks, if I haven't lost them already, I can get behind the camera. Just like eventually I'm sure we'll go back to doing Clerk cartoons because we'll be too old, it's not going to be worth watching us anymore," Brian says and then laughs. How about a third Clerks film, Brian? "Right... Clerks III: Two Clerks and a Baby," Brian jokes. Brian O'Halloran is an easy-going kind of guy that anyone can get along with. When I found out that he was Dana Snyder's special MC host of the Master Shake Rock Band Challenge, I waited patiently for the special event. I'm glad I went, because he rocked that Friday night! Whether you were up front jamming away with Brian as your front man or in the audience cheering, the Guitar Four event was an amazing experience. He definitely creates a sensation that will be hard to forget.           |
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We do not regret meeting the man who will always be known to the world as Dante Hicks from Clerks. With more than a few jokes under his sleeves, Brian came to share with us his past experiences, upcoming projects, and future plans.
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