INTERVIEW: Reevaluating celebrity culture in ‘An L.A. Minute’
Photo: From left, actor Gabriel Byrne, director Daniel Adams and actor Kiersey Clemons have released An L.A. Minute, a commentary on celebrity culture. Photo courtesy of Strand Releasing / Provided by Big Time PR with permission.
The new movie An L.A. Minute follows the unlikely relationship of an unkind novelist who has earned awards and fame throughout his career and a lesser-known performance artist who goes by the name of Velocity. The novelist, played by Gabriel Byrne, is difficult to deal with, and Velocity, played by Kiersey Clemons, starts to change his life and let him see the real world for a change.
The commentary on celebrity culture is the product of director Daniel Adams, who co-wrote the script with Larry “Ratso” Sloman. The movie, which is currently playing in theaters, was made on a tight budget over the course of two weeks, and it serves as an acting showcase for its two stars, Byrne and Clemons.
Recently, Hollywood Soapbox spoke with Adams about the project. Here’s what he had to say:
On the feeling of satisfaction upon finishing the film …
“It’s a relief. Like every movie, it was a monumental task and takes forever. It was three years in the making and finally came out, which is really great. You can be relieved at that point. All of your work is done.”
On how the idea for the film developed with Sloman …
“We came up with the idea years ago. It was such an outrageous film back then that nobody wanted to do it, but even friends who were actors, like Chris Walken, read the script back then. He’s like, ‘I can’t do this,’ and Chris is pretty outrageous. So we then moved on to other projects, but the whole idea of fame and celebrity and the superficiality of it, I know it’s an old theme, but it seemed relevant after the election recently. So we thought we would revive it, and a friend of mine who is a folk singer, he wrote an anti-war song and somebody came up to him after the concert and said, ‘Boy, there’s so many anti-war songs out there. Why do we need another one?’ And he said, ‘Well, maybe when they stop making wars, I’ll stop making anti-war songs.’ It’s sort of the same thing. We keep falling into the same social trap, and so we simply thought this film would resonate.”
On casting Byrne and Clemons …
“In the last couple of years, we had to come up with a cast, and we were talking to a number of actors. And then it was funny, I hadn’t known about Kiersey until I was asking my son, who is a standup comedian in L.A., and was on the pulse of what’s cool and hip and cutting edge. I said, ‘Who’s a really hot actress in your age group right now?’ He didn’t even flinch. He was like, ‘Kiersey Clemons.’ I was like, ‘Who is she?’ He said, ‘She was just in Dope.’ And I said, ‘Well, I saw Dope, but no one that I thought would be right for the role, not the lead.’ He sort of rolled his eyes and said, ‘Dad, she’s an actress. She can do it.’
“I had to be reminded by my son that, yeah, of course, she’s an actress. I saw her in other stuff, and it was amazing what a chameleon she is. And so we made the offer, and she said yes. It was after that that Gabriel said yes to it.”
On the demands of making an indie film …
“We had lots of financial pressure. We had to cut our shooting schedule from 20 days to 15 days, which was really, really tight. I had to cut a couple scenes and rewrite quite a bit and cut down the number of shots and so on and so forth, but generally speaking we got it done.”
On directing a veteran actor like Gabriel Byrne …
“What I usually do is I sit down with the leads beforehand and give them some background on the character and where I think the character is coming from and so forth. We try and work out things, and have a discussion about who the character is, what the backstory is. And then afterward the difference between a veteran actor or a really talented actor and a not so veteran or talented actor is with someone like Gabriel, who is brilliant and amazing, after that initial conversation you see him become the character in front of the camera. He pretty much makes all these brilliant choices as an actor, and you sit back and watch.
“With an actor that doesn’t have as much experience or is not as talented, you have to adjust them more often, but it was a rare instance where I had to adjust Gabriel. He’s just so good. The reason why every director loves working with great actors is you come to the set every day, and you’re pleasantly surprised to see the character come to life and see these brilliant choices that the actor is making. It’s just a joy to watch them work. It’s really amazing.
“And I have to say, Kiersey, who was 22 years old at the time, she is just as good as any veteran actor I’ve ever worked with. It was the same sort of thing. I think because she has been doing it a while. She has an amazing, innate talent. Not just innate — she studied very hard. I’m just saying she’s got this talent that is just amazing. The few times I had to adjust her, she gets it. We’d do a take. It didn’t work. I’d say, ‘OK, let’s try this,’ and she got it and would change up right away, whereas it would take quite a bit of rehearsal, quite a bit of takes for a less talented actress. She was amazing. The whole cast was really great.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
An L.A. Minute, directed by Daniel Adams and starring Gabriel Byrne and Kiersey Clemons, is now playing in movie theaters. Click here for more information.
