Post by Todd Tjersland on Jun 17, 2006 23:16:23 GMT -8
ANTI-HERO (1999)
Starring Isaac Cooper, Craig Smith, Mark Arndt, Matt Jaissle, Steve Sheppard and Todd Tjersland
Executive Producer Isaac Cooper
Written by Isaac Cooper and Matt Jaissle
Produced & Directed by Matt Jaissle
Summary: Ace Baldwin (Isaac Cooper) plays a super hero sidekick on TV's Magna Max & Wonder Boy show. But Ace feels like his career is going nowhere and turns to drugs to ease his pain. Zamfir (Mark Arndt), his dealer, tries to sell Ace some "synthetic heroin" he "five finger discounted" from the local crime boss, Gunnar. Ace turns the offer down but when he comes back to score some more dope, he discovers Gunnar's goons have already been there and killed him!
Ace steals the synthetic heroin, planning to sell it, but Gunnar is on to him and dispatches his hitmen, Cosgrove (Steve Sheppard, THE NECRO FILES) and Hornsby (Todd Tjersland, pictured in photo above), to retrieve the drugs and eliminate Ace...
When the hitmen attack the Magna Max & Wonder Boy show while it's shooting, gunning down the director (Matt Jaissle), Ace confesses to his costar (Craig Smith) that he's in over his head! The two TV super heroes flee for their lives in their Magna Max Mobile, only to be cut off by Gunnar and his men. This leads to a deadly game of hit and run in the woods, where there can only be one winner!
AN INTERVIEW WITH TODD TJERSLAND
Q: This film was an unusual depature for you, as your only involvement was acting in it. Tell us about that.
Todd Tjersland: Yeah, that was a lot of fun! I got to improvise most of my dialogue, so Steve Sheppard and I would riff off each other. My character's trademark was that he always wore shades, even at night. When my partner complains about me not being able to see in the dark with those things on, I shrug and tell him, 'Don't worry about it; they're prescription!' ;D
I did all my own stunts and f*cked up my back because I insisted on getting my death scene just right--where I'm shot by Wonder Boy and do this cool somersault. We did three takes, which is a lot when Matt Jaissle is directing!
Q: Wasn't much of the script improvised, not just your dialogue?
Todd: That's true. If there was a script, I never saw it! But I do believe there was one, or at least an outline, that Matt and Isaac were working from... Still, I think this film turned out very good, despite its budget limitations and lack of screenplay. Usually, those are a fatal combination, but they really managed to somehow make it work. I was impressed; the pacing is fairly brisk and there's a lot of fun (mostly intentional) comedy throughout.
The original concept was very different than what was shot. It was going to be a straight super hero movie--they'd approached me about playing a super villain--but budgetary issues got in the way and they decided to limit the super hero scenes to just clips from the Magna Max & Wonder Boy TV show. The clips were very funny and make me wonder what the picture would have looked like if they'd gone with their original idea.