say there’s no acting going on -
you’re just being a person. That
definitely helped the authenticity
of the film and we’ve heard
that from audience feedback. It’s
easier to connect to a story when
you believe the people and can
connect to them on a human level.
When you’re pushing the envelope
too much you’re not going to
connect. I think our cast is terrific
and it’s a testament to our director
Jared as well. He had a real facile,
nice touch with the actors.
I know you’ve worked in tv
and films; what was it like to be
part of the entire process from
raising the funds to winning an
award at a film festival?
I realize as we were doing this
that I now know what it’s like to
be a small business owner. I had
a friend of mine in college who
started working for his family’s
tree business. The guy is working
6 days a week for almost 30
years and I never understood
why. “Why can’t you not work
on Saturday? Why can’t you just
hang out?” But after doing this
film, I realized when you build
something from the ground up
it’s your baby. All of us are very
close to it and you can’t not think
about it. Everything is always on
your mind. You’re involved in every
single detail. It’s incredibly
gratifying and other than having
children it was the greatest experience
of my life. But it was super
hard too. We made this on a
shoestring. We were constantly
begging, borrowing, stealing
money. A lot of my high school
buddies pitched in and helped
get a lot of the initial money off of
the ground. A lot of my relatives
in Jersey did too and we had a
big crowdfunding campaign.
I tell people making movies is
harder than raising kids because
the unknowns are just constant
and problems pop up that you
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