March 7, 2025 • 23 mins
Alex Javo transforms Greek mythology into modern vampire romance in his remarkable debut feature "Ambrogio: The First Vampire." After years of facing typecasting as an actor in Atlanta's film industry, Javo decided to create his own breakthrough opportunity by writing, directing, and starring in a completely fresh take on vampire lore.
What separates this indie production from countless other vampire tales is its foundation in ancient Greek mythology and Javo's extraordinary commitment to embodying his character. He underwent a dramatic physical transformation, losing 40 pounds in just two months through an extreme diet where he only ate three days per week. "I wanted to not only look the part but feel what a starving vampire might feel," he explains, drawing on his Stanislavski training. Working with an Italian dialect coach added another layer of authenticity, as Javo mastered not just the language but subtle mannerisms that brought historical depth to his character.
Perhaps most impressive is how Javo leveraged his eight years of industry relationships to assemble a dream team of collaborators. This strategic approach allowed the entire feature to be shot in just seven and a half days—a testament to the chemistry and professionalism of the cast and crew. When inevitable challenges arose, from sudden rainstorms to equipment failures, Javo's steady leadership kept the production on track. "I knew if I broke down or got angry, it wouldn't do any good for the environment," he reflects, highlighting the importance of directorial temperament on independent sets.
Drawing inspiration from filmmakers like Scorsese and Tarantino, Javo has created something that honors cinematic traditions while establishing his unique voice. "Ambrogio: The First Vampire" arrives on Amazon, Walmart, Fandango, and Voodoo beginning March 11th. Don't miss this debut from an emerging filmmaker who's already planning his next feature—a gangster drama that promises to blend elements of "The Godfather" with "Rocky" for a fresh take on classic genres.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
dumb cool weird podcast.
Welcome to the dumb cool, weirdpodcast here with alex jabo,
and we're doing a new segmentwhere we talk about independent
films and especially here inatlanta, which you know, a lot
of people around here makingmovies.
Now, usually I do a podcastepisode where I talk about
(00:21):
different things, mainly crappymovies from the 20th century,
and now we're going to betalking about modern movies,
especially the independent ones,because the independent film
industry is coming back.
I can definitely confirm, sureis.
I mean, look at those Oscars,so exactly.
So, alex, tell us a little bitabout yourself.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, I was born and raised here in Atlanta.
In atlanta always had the, youknow, dream of being an actor
and stuff watching, you know,nickelodeon and all those uh kid
shows growing up and then those, yeah, and then when you grow
up older, you know you get intosome of the classics.
You know my grandfather showedme scarface when I was 12 years
(01:04):
old, six and you know GodfatherTaxi Driver, all those Scorsese
stuff, and then Forrest Gump andyou know those classics and,
naturally, seeing you know, leoDiCaprio, christian Bale, tom
Hanks, denzel Washington, Iwanted to be one of those guys,
you know, and I started acting,uh, almost eight years ago now
(01:28):
and, uh, the first year was uh,a lot of uh kind of like
typecast stuff going on where Ilike kind of got uh
predominantly, uh, hispanic guysand uh, and and you know I'm
not Hispanic, I'm Greek andKorean on my mother's side, and
it's on paper now, yeah, it's onpaper.
And, being Greek, you comeacross some of these Greek
(01:52):
mythology stories and because Iwas booking a lot of day player
stuff and you know, or a coupleof days, you know, in and out of
films and TV, wherever, beganto write and, uh, and and, and,
you know, wanted to direct myown films, and so I came across
this uh, greek myth about thefirst vampire in brogio and uh,
(02:17):
yeah, I saw it, you know, online, and read it and thought, wow,
this is pretty cool.
And you know, at the time I wasauditioning for vampire shows
and uh, and and independentstuff as vampires, and could
never get a break.
So then I was like I'll just,uh, I'll just break through
myself, you know.
So then I started to write thescreenplay and um, here we are
(02:39):
today.
Ambrosia the firstire is afeature film that'll be
available next week, march 11th.
It'll be available on AmazonWalmart Online for DVD release,
digital DVD on Amazon, fandango,voodoo, and yeah, so make sure
you guys check it out.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, what would you say was one of the biggest
challenges making this movie?
Check it out.
Yeah, what would you say it wasone of the biggest challenges
making this movie.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
The biggest challenge um for me, uh, well, dirty
pre-production it was.
It was pretty smooth uh.
As a director um, on thedirecting side, you know I tried
to prepare myself best possible.
I got a lot of the crew um andcast.
You know they were all directoffers because I had I worked
(03:28):
with all of them before onprevious sets.
As you know, I've worked in uhin atlanta as an actor for
almost eight years, so I've meta lot of great people um,
producers, dp and editors andcomposers, all all that.
So I kind of try to set up formyself easy as possible by
getting guys that uh not only doI trust but I know how they
(03:51):
know how they vibe, you know,and I know how they work and uh
yeah, and so as a director, itwas, it was easy, you know,
getting the uh crew together.
All my cast um uh were allfriends of mine that I met over
the years on set uh, so I knewwhat they were made of uh.
The challenge would be, as theactor, getting into ambrosio.
(04:12):
Um, you know this was my firstuh time directing a feature
length.
I had I had done one otherfeature film where I was the
lead um malcolm.
That's on 2b and Amazon, butfor this one he was a totally
different guy.
I mean, this was when you lookat vampire films you see a lot
(04:33):
of the chiseled jawlines ofRobert Pattinson and all those
guys.
And so I at the time was 215.
And I was like I got to getdown, you know, I got to lose
some weight, you know, to betrayone of these guys, and so I
lost 40 pounds in two months.
I don't recommend this at home,doing it this way, but I
(04:55):
basically only ate three days aweek, so it was I only ate
Wednesdays and the weekend, evenSaturday, sunday, and so
because I wanted to not onlylook the park, I also wanted to
like kind of feel what astarving vampire could, could
feel like.
I mean, cause, you know,vampires, they're always
(05:17):
starving for blood, right,that's why they go out and kill
and whatever.
And as human beings we operateoff of food.
So it was like, if I could, andthat's.
You know, I don't claim myselfas a, you know, daniel day lewis
type of guy, but um, but I havetrained in stanislavski, which
is where method actingoriginated from, and one of the
(05:39):
and you know, naturally you cannever be your character, but
striving to be the character anyway you can, just to understand
them and find the empathy withthe character, that's what I
would strive for.
So that was hard to do.
(06:00):
He is an Italian vampire.
The italian dialect wasimportant to me so I hired a
dialect coach joseph's for gola,from, uh, south italy.
Uh, he was, um, he was great,great to work with, really
helped me out with all the uh,especially the italian lines
where I do speak italian, um,and you know, and, and just well
(06:23):
, I had some dinners with him.
He really helped me out withjust kind of understanding.
You know what it's like to be,you know an italian, you know
kind of guy and like some thingsthat I may you know, because
when you think ofstereotypically, you think of
kind of like mario, like youknow it's kind of like a babble
piece, how you doing and sothere was a certain elegance
(06:44):
that he had when when talking tohim, he totally wasn't that, he
was very stoic, the way he kindof held his shoulders and stuff
, and this is because he's beenaround for a long time.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Because he's been around so long, he kind of makes
a guy right.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah, yeah and uh, and joseph was like this, so I
kind of modeled a little bit ofambrosio's um mannerisms a
little bit after Joseph and ofcourse other inspirations for
the film, you know, Interviewwith a Vampire and Vampire
Diaries and the Notebook,because it's a romance vampire
(07:17):
film, so it's not like aNosferatu horror kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
The ladies are going to eat it up.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Hope so, I hope so, and so, yeah, I would say,
getting into the character wasyou know that work?
Um, but once, once we'vestarted shooting, I never felt
more, uh, confident, and now,with the film being finished and
released, I couldn't be moresatisfied with the uh, with the
picture.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
That's good.
Uh, you know, one of the thingsI noticed about making the
piece it is you know, sometimesyou have an expectation right
Before you step on set, and thenwe step on set and then
something bad happens.
And it's always those momentswhere something really bad
happens that get a thick, quicklimb on your feet, solve the
problem, and I think that's whatreally separates the, the
(08:04):
amateurs, from the pros.
And yeah, did y'all ever have amoment like that?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
yes, absolutely we um , we had, so we shot the film in
seven and a half days.
Um, we were shooting, I mean,when, when, when you got a crew
and a cast that's in sync and Itried to write the screenplay so
it wouldn't require so much.
You know, we had five locations, predominantly one.
The other cast was, I mean, themain cast was five characters,
(08:32):
and you know so.
So a lot of scenes were two tothree people talking.
So it was like so, when thecrew and everybody, we were, all
you know, getting, you know,really in sync and we shot 19
pages in one day, you know, andthen 32 in a weekend.
It was yeah, and so it was.
So you know, it was reallygreat.
(08:53):
But towards the end, on therethere was some, there were some
scenes outside and, and you knowthe the weather, you know, like
, you like like it is in georgia, just, you just never know, and
it uh, yeah, I mean rain camein and out at one moment.
We had, on this particular day,we had some fight scenes going
on.
We had, uh, some visual effectsstuff all crammed into.
(09:16):
Like one day, um, and you knowit was like I don't know what
plague it was or something, butit was like batteries weren't
charging, all those things.
And and I, I knew in thatmoment, as the director on the
set, you are, you know your, youknow your vibe and your energy.
People you know thrive off ofright and I knew if I at that
(09:40):
moment would have broken down orgotten pissed off or something
that you know you, you wouldn't,you know, do any any any good
for the environment.
And so I knew people werelooking at me and depending on
me, so I just, you, just held mycomposure and was like it's
okay, guys, we'll push through.
And we did.
Eventually, the rain did stopand eventually we got.
(10:02):
We were, we had to pivot some,some of those scenes.
Thankfully we had, we had a biglocation, so there was a lot of
different sections of thelocation that I don't want to
spoil anything, but basically wehad sections of the location
that I don't want to spoilanything, but basically we had
sections of the location wherewe didn't expect to film at, but
we ended up doing it.
It actually worked out better.
(10:25):
Um, so some of those uh momentsmay come in and you and you may
look back and those films areactually, or those scenes
actually come out better thanwhat you had planned.
So I think being um, open anduh, and trying to just stay as
optimistic as possible in thosemoments will definitely carry
you and your crew through thestorm Gotcha.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
What would you say is one of your favorite first-time
director movies that are big.
Now, for instance, you have, uh, you know like, kevin smith did
it clerks right, so like.
Or you know like, uh.
Another good example would beyou know, uh, peter jackson.
He did a movie called bad taste.
You know what would you saywhat director?
(11:07):
Kind of like, real like, likewhat first time, like first film
that a director did that hereally enjoyed, that kind of
like inspired.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
It won't be a pub maker well, uh, as far as their
first film they ever did, um,well, let's see, I mean there's
not really first films, I I meanthere's films in general that
made me want to be yeah, andthat's fine, we can get into it
(11:35):
with that Cause, you know,sometimes not everybody knows,
like you know, that some ofthese records what their first
films are.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
I I tend, I tend to kind of look at those sometimes,
but sometimes people have heardof them, you know, I'm like you
know, uh, richard Linklater.
His first film was a moviecalled a slacker, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Yeah, yeah, the Godfather, the Godfather, okay.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
I mean, you know, godfather, rocky, scarface, you
know, being a kid that looks,you know, like I do in Atlanta
of all places, where there's alot of Hispanic culture and
stuff down here and I getmistaken for being Hispanic all
the time, and I would kind oflook at those movies and see De
(12:24):
Niro and pacino and and was insly and I don't think I really
realized at the time growing up,but I was kind of looking like,
looking for like a, like a rolemodel in a way, and seeing sly
play rocky, almost like thissuperhero like figure, and
seeing the shapeshifter of alpacino, from godfather to
(12:44):
scarface, I was like I looked atthose two movies and I was like
that's the same guy you know,and so really that's what really
inspired me to, um, later on,be an actor and to try to be the
kind of shapeshifter type ofact, because that's just what
I've always loved is is seeingwhat, what actors, um, what
(13:05):
actors do and what they can dolearning a dialect, you know,
losing weight, gaining weight,whatever it is, and uh.
But as a filmmaker, um, myfavorite directors of all time
is, uh, scorsese and uh, andtarantino, I mean my, any, I
mean you know anything thoseguys, so reservoir dogs, you
(13:25):
like reservoir?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
oh yeah, oh yeah, starentino's like first feature
yeah also.
Yeah, I wasn't sure if that washis first.
I know he was a writer first.
He was and he did.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
He did shorts before yeah, exactly so, and um, that
was like, but that was like hisfirst big like yes, so yeah,
that you did that, like reallyput him on the map, you know.
Yes, and it's just.
I just got to give a shout outto, um, one of my you know dear
friends and filmmakers that I'veworked with Phil Blattberger,
um, which did a film togetherthat came out in theaters, um,
(14:05):
and screaming, called laws ofkytel in it, and so it's pretty
cool to have a credit withharvey because, uh, you know,
loved him and uh, and reservoirdogs and, um, and in lots of
bands, so, um, so yeah,tarantino's, you know, up there
is one of my favorites you knowit's funny.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Um, you're talking about how, like some people
mistake you for different races,right?
You know?
That kind of reminds me of hisrob schneider a little bit,
because he's half jewish andlike white, and then he the
other half is, I think, filipinoor something.
Yeah, yeah, so in all thoseadam sandler movies remember, he
always plays like an asian guyor, yeah, yeah, hispanic guy,
and then the indian guy.
Then, like in 51st dates, heplayed a freaking hawaiian.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Yeah, yeah, I love that.
Yeah, it's so great.
And even, uh, oscar isaac too.
Like talked about how you knowthe joke about a rabbi, a priest
and whatever he's like.
I can play any of them, becausethat's what ethnically
ambiguous means.
Oh, my and um, yeah, it'spretty cool.
I mean, my dream was always tobe, though, I mean to be the
(14:58):
lead and be the leading man andromantic interest and all those
kind of roles on top of being,um, able to shape shift and uh,
having that presence.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
You have that presence.
I'll say, yes, that's like,that's like you know, like I'm
not like you know, I know weshot that one short like many
years ago.
Yes, and you know, I didn'teven have to give you a ton of
direction.
You were just likeautomatically.
Just I was like, hey, I needyou to come out of the ocean and
I need you to.
You know, I need you to likelook like you know.
(15:28):
You, it was like the best swimyou ever had.
And then he just like came outof the ocean.
So, like you know, like allsuave and shit, I was like, damn
, I was pretty good, yeah west.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
West cast me my first ever film like to the like as
an actor like.
I got into it in 17 as an extraand taking classes and all that
stuff.
But west was like you know,come do this short film with me
and in pcb and it was just, itwas just so great to be an actor
(15:58):
on camera because at that timeyou're in the I mean, I was in
the background, I was the standin on set watching the talent on
camera do the thing and justlike itching to get front of the
camera and Wes gave me thatchance.
So I really appreciate thatdude and, uh, you know I'll
never forget that yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
We had oysters after birth.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
He did.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah and um, but yeah , uh, you know.
You know we're talking aboutyour, your current feature.
What do you think the nextfeature is going to be?
Because you know they're alwaysgoing to want to know what's
next, because you know, as soonas you do one, you got to do
another one.
You got to do another one.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yes, yes speaking of, you know, gangster films and
scorsese and tarantino, and, uh,my next film is gotta be Enzo.
I did a short film of it.
It's on YouTube, on my YouTube.
Enzo, I did it back in 2021.
(16:51):
And yeah, it's a classic kind ofit's like a classic gangster
film.
It's like Godfather meets Rockyand like all of my favorite
kind of films put together andthere's a lot of I draw a lot of
inspiration from a lot ofdifferent classics, but but
ultimately I think it's a.
I think it's like like ambrosiobeing unique and being a
(17:12):
vampire film that came fromgreek mythology and it being
like a love story, like no one'syou know ever really seen like
a greek mythology, like storyabout vampires.
So that's what makes that kindof different.
And, uh, with this one in, soit's, um, you know, have having
the kind of the worlds of, likeyou know, professional fighting
(17:35):
mixed with the mob, like youknow it's, it's, I mean we've,
we've got some, you, you knowit's, I mean we've got some you
know, gangster activity stuff inRocky, but it's not like a
gangster picture, it's a sportspicture or it's what Sly would
say it's a love story.
But, yeah, enzo is definitelyits own thing.
But that's my next one that I,you know, would love to.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
You want to adapt it.
You want to adapt it into afeature here.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yes, absolutely.
I have the first draft of thefeature script ready.
Um, but uh, but yeah, I meanwith, with, with how great tulsa
, king and and penguin have beenthis year and and uh, watch us
the sopranos and stuff.
It's like man, you know, I, Ithink, I think they think the
gangster next.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Sopranos is one of my favorite TV shows.
Yeah, oh yeah, it's a reallygood show.
Did you watch the documentarywith David Chase?
I watched it.
It's on my list and I haven'tseen the Many Saints of New York
, but I've read it.
Oh really, I heard Curtis Smartis nowhere near.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
No, I mean it's, you know, I think, Alessandro who
plays Uncle Dicky in it.
I think he was really great.
I think he was great.
I love all gangster films, kindof like how I love, obviously,
Michael Keaton was the betterone, but then Christian Bale
(18:56):
came on and then, you know, benAffleck later.
So it's like I still enjoy itand I'm looking forward to the
Alto Knights with Robert De Niroplaying two roles Vito Genovese
(19:16):
and Frank Costello.
I can't wait to see that.
Zero Spins.
The Irishman I was just about tosay the Irishman is the one
that kind of got me inspired towrite Enzo.
At the time, in 2019, I wasdoing a lot of research on
basically trying to, like youknow, mark off every box of like
(19:39):
these classic movies.
So if I was in a conversationwith you know people in the
industry, they're like did yousee Godfather 2 or did you see
this?
And that I, you know.
So I was watching all of DeNiro's films and Scorsese's and
and Irishman started my love forgangster stuff again.
Um, cause, before that I'd seengodfather and I'd seen scarface
(20:02):
and it was.
So some of the elements inirishman and in godfather 2 I
kind of, like you know, put into, put into enzo as like the
catalyst kind of thing.
So so that's the movie thatkind of got me pen to paper with
enzo jack irishman, so I'm goodwell that's cool.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Um, you know, as we get into the to the end of the
podcast here, uh, you know what?
What are some?
What are some more cool thingsyou want to tell us about?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
your vampire is coming out, yeah well, what's
really cool about it is, um, youknow, I've got to give a shout
out to all my uh gray um.
You know, as you know, as afilmmaker, it takes a village,
you know, and uh, and I can'tthank my producers enough.
Um, angelina boselli, um, whogives an astounding performance,
(20:52):
uh, masterfully executed.
Uh, playing our female lead,she was just amazing.
She, her, her character's uharc in this film is like a
caterpillar that turns into abutterfly.
I mean, she just truly blossomsin this.
She'll make you laugh, cry andapplaud and she's just fantastic
.
She also script supervised,helped me produce.
(21:16):
She was the assistant editor onthe project, and so the trailer
that's out on youtube now, um,she edited, and so she, she's
just a a a wonderful, uh force.
Uh, you know, in this, in thisuh film world we live in, and uh
(21:37):
, so she's wonderful.
Dwayne bontrager, who was my dpeditor and producer on this
thing, I can't thank him enough.
He did a beautiful job puttingeverything together for us and,
yeah, and Noah Marconi's musicis beautiful.
It really sets the tone of thefilm and your emotions and yeah,
(21:59):
so I can't thank them.
And all the all the actors alldid wonderful, um, and uh, yeah,
had a great, had a great teamyou know, and it really took a
bit worse.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Well, thanks for coming out and telling us about
your film.
I uh, I think I'm gonna try tomake this a regular thing where
I'm talking to different peopleabout their indie films, because
I do think it's important that,as a community, we push forward
these different voices, becauseI think one of the biggest
tragedies of Hollywood nowadaysis they just keep recycling the
same garbage over and over.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah, absolutely, I totally agree, and thank you so
much for having me, wes.
And yeah, thank you all so muchfor tuning in and watch my
movie, ambrosio First Vampire,available March 11th.
Yeah, and for tuning in and, uh, you know, watch my movie,
ambrosio first vampire,available March 11th.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Yeah, and I'm going to have links and stuff, uh, so
you can go watch his movie.
So awesome.
So thanks, guys.
Thank you, thanks for watchingthe dumb, cool, weird podcast
where we cover some of yourfavorite movies in 20 minutes or
less.
dumb cool weird podcast.
Welcome to the dumb cool, weirdpodcast here with alex jabo,
and we're doing a new segmentwhere we talk about independent
films and especially here inatlanta, which you know, a lot
of people around here makingmovies.
Now, usually I do a podcastepisode where I talk about
(00:21):
different things, mainly crappymovies from the 20th century,
and now we're going to betalking about modern movies,
especially the independent ones,because the independent film
industry is coming back.
I can definitely confirm, sureis.
I mean, look at those Oscars,so exactly.
So, alex, tell us a little bitabout yourself.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, I was born and raised here in Atlanta.
In atlanta always had the, youknow, dream of being an actor
and stuff watching, you know,nickelodeon and all those uh kid
shows growing up and then those, yeah, and then when you grow
up older, you know you get intosome of the classics.
You know my grandfather showedme scarface when I was 12 years
(01:04):
old, six and you know GodfatherTaxi Driver, all those Scorsese
stuff, and then Forrest Gump andyou know those classics and,
naturally, seeing you know, leoDiCaprio, christian Bale, tom
Hanks, denzel Washington, Iwanted to be one of those guys,
you know, and I started acting,uh, almost eight years ago now
(01:28):
and, uh, the first year was uh,a lot of uh kind of like
typecast stuff going on where Ilike kind of got uh
predominantly, uh, hispanic guysand uh, and and you know I'm
not Hispanic, I'm Greek andKorean on my mother's side, and
it's on paper now, yeah, it's onpaper.
And, being Greek, you comeacross some of these Greek
(01:52):
mythology stories and because Iwas booking a lot of day player
stuff and you know, or a coupleof days, you know, in and out of
films and TV, wherever, beganto write and, uh, and and, and,
you know, wanted to direct myown films, and so I came across
this uh, greek myth about thefirst vampire in brogio and uh,
(02:17):
yeah, I saw it, you know, online, and read it and thought, wow,
this is pretty cool.
And you know, at the time I wasauditioning for vampire shows
and uh, and and independentstuff as vampires, and could
never get a break.
So then I was like I'll just,uh, I'll just break through
myself, you know.
So then I started to write thescreenplay and um, here we are
(02:39):
today.
Ambrosia the firstire is afeature film that'll be
available next week, march 11th.
It'll be available on AmazonWalmart Online for DVD release,
digital DVD on Amazon, fandango,voodoo, and yeah, so make sure
you guys check it out.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, what would you say was one of the biggest
challenges making this movie?
Check it out.
Yeah, what would you say it wasone of the biggest challenges
making this movie.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
The biggest challenge um for me, uh, well, dirty
pre-production it was.
It was pretty smooth uh.
As a director um, on thedirecting side, you know I tried
to prepare myself best possible.
I got a lot of the crew um andcast.
You know they were all directoffers because I had I worked
(03:28):
with all of them before onprevious sets.
As you know, I've worked in uhin atlanta as an actor for
almost eight years, so I've meta lot of great people um,
producers, dp and editors andcomposers, all all that.
So I kind of try to set up formyself easy as possible by
getting guys that uh not only doI trust but I know how they
(03:51):
know how they vibe, you know,and I know how they work and uh
yeah, and so as a director, itwas, it was easy, you know,
getting the uh crew together.
All my cast um uh were allfriends of mine that I met over
the years on set uh, so I knewwhat they were made of uh.
The challenge would be, as theactor, getting into ambrosio.
(04:12):
Um, you know this was my firstuh time directing a feature
length.
I had I had done one otherfeature film where I was the
lead um malcolm.
That's on 2b and Amazon, butfor this one he was a totally
different guy.
I mean, this was when you lookat vampire films you see a lot
(04:33):
of the chiseled jawlines ofRobert Pattinson and all those
guys.
And so I at the time was 215.
And I was like I got to getdown, you know, I got to lose
some weight, you know, to betrayone of these guys, and so I
lost 40 pounds in two months.
I don't recommend this at home,doing it this way, but I
(04:55):
basically only ate three days aweek, so it was I only ate
Wednesdays and the weekend, evenSaturday, sunday, and so
because I wanted to not onlylook the park, I also wanted to
like kind of feel what astarving vampire could, could
feel like.
I mean, cause, you know,vampires, they're always
(05:17):
starving for blood, right,that's why they go out and kill
and whatever.
And as human beings we operateoff of food.
So it was like, if I could, andthat's.
You know, I don't claim myselfas a, you know, daniel day lewis
type of guy, but um, but I havetrained in stanislavski, which
is where method actingoriginated from, and one of the
(05:39):
and you know, naturally you cannever be your character, but
striving to be the character anyway you can, just to understand
them and find the empathy withthe character, that's what I
would strive for.
So that was hard to do.
(06:00):
He is an Italian vampire.
The italian dialect wasimportant to me so I hired a
dialect coach joseph's for gola,from, uh, south italy.
Uh, he was, um, he was great,great to work with, really
helped me out with all the uh,especially the italian lines
where I do speak italian, um,and you know, and, and just well
(06:23):
, I had some dinners with him.
He really helped me out withjust kind of understanding.
You know what it's like to be,you know an italian, you know
kind of guy and like some thingsthat I may you know, because
when you think ofstereotypically, you think of
kind of like mario, like youknow it's kind of like a babble
piece, how you doing and sothere was a certain elegance
(06:44):
that he had when when talking tohim, he totally wasn't that, he
was very stoic, the way he kindof held his shoulders and stuff
, and this is because he's beenaround for a long time.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Because he's been around so long, he kind of makes
a guy right.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah, yeah and uh, and joseph was like this, so I
kind of modeled a little bit ofambrosio's um mannerisms a
little bit after Joseph and ofcourse other inspirations for
the film, you know, Interviewwith a Vampire and Vampire
Diaries and the Notebook,because it's a romance vampire
(07:17):
film, so it's not like aNosferatu horror kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
The ladies are going to eat it up.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Hope so, I hope so, and so, yeah, I would say,
getting into the character wasyou know that work?
Um, but once, once we'vestarted shooting, I never felt
more, uh, confident, and now,with the film being finished and
released, I couldn't be moresatisfied with the uh, with the
picture.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
That's good.
Uh, you know, one of the thingsI noticed about making the
piece it is you know, sometimesyou have an expectation right
Before you step on set, and thenwe step on set and then
something bad happens.
And it's always those momentswhere something really bad
happens that get a thick, quicklimb on your feet, solve the
problem, and I think that's whatreally separates the, the
(08:04):
amateurs, from the pros.
And yeah, did y'all ever have amoment like that?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
yes, absolutely we um , we had, so we shot the film in
seven and a half days.
Um, we were shooting, I mean,when, when, when you got a crew
and a cast that's in sync and Itried to write the screenplay so
it wouldn't require so much.
You know, we had five locations, predominantly one.
The other cast was, I mean, themain cast was five characters,
(08:32):
and you know so.
So a lot of scenes were two tothree people talking.
So it was like so, when thecrew and everybody, we were, all
you know, getting, you know,really in sync and we shot 19
pages in one day, you know, andthen 32 in a weekend.
It was yeah, and so it was.
So you know, it was reallygreat.
(08:53):
But towards the end, on therethere was some, there were some
scenes outside and, and you knowthe the weather, you know, like
, you like like it is in georgia, just, you just never know, and
it uh, yeah, I mean rain camein and out at one moment.
We had, on this particular day,we had some fight scenes going
on.
We had, uh, some visual effectsstuff all crammed into.
(09:16):
Like one day, um, and you knowit was like I don't know what
plague it was or something, butit was like batteries weren't
charging, all those things.
And and I, I knew in thatmoment, as the director on the
set, you are, you know your, youknow your vibe and your energy.
People you know thrive off ofright and I knew if I at that
(09:40):
moment would have broken down orgotten pissed off or something
that you know you, you wouldn't,you know, do any any any good
for the environment.
And so I knew people werelooking at me and depending on
me, so I just, you, just held mycomposure and was like it's
okay, guys, we'll push through.
And we did.
Eventually, the rain did stopand eventually we got.
(10:02):
We were, we had to pivot some,some of those scenes.
Thankfully we had, we had a biglocation, so there was a lot of
different sections of thelocation that I don't want to
spoil anything, but basically wehad sections of the location
that I don't want to spoilanything, but basically we had
sections of the location wherewe didn't expect to film at, but
we ended up doing it.
It actually worked out better.
(10:25):
Um, so some of those uh momentsmay come in and you and you may
look back and those films areactually, or those scenes
actually come out better thanwhat you had planned.
So I think being um, open anduh, and trying to just stay as
optimistic as possible in thosemoments will definitely carry
you and your crew through thestorm Gotcha.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
What would you say is one of your favorite first-time
director movies that are big.
Now, for instance, you have, uh, you know like, kevin smith did
it clerks right, so like.
Or you know like, uh.
Another good example would beyou know, uh, peter jackson.
He did a movie called bad taste.
You know what would you saywhat director?
(11:07):
Kind of like, real like, likewhat first time, like first film
that a director did that hereally enjoyed, that kind of
like inspired.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
It won't be a pub maker well, uh, as far as their
first film they ever did, um,well, let's see, I mean there's
not really first films, I I meanthere's films in general that
made me want to be yeah, andthat's fine, we can get into it
(11:35):
with that Cause, you know,sometimes not everybody knows,
like you know, that some ofthese records what their first
films are.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
I I tend, I tend to kind of look at those sometimes,
but sometimes people have heardof them, you know, I'm like you
know, uh, richard Linklater.
His first film was a moviecalled a slacker, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Yeah, yeah, the Godfather, the Godfather, okay.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
I mean, you know, godfather, rocky, scarface, you
know, being a kid that looks,you know, like I do in Atlanta
of all places, where there's alot of Hispanic culture and
stuff down here and I getmistaken for being Hispanic all
the time, and I would kind oflook at those movies and see De
(12:24):
Niro and pacino and and was insly and I don't think I really
realized at the time growing up,but I was kind of looking like,
looking for like a, like a rolemodel in a way, and seeing sly
play rocky, almost like thissuperhero like figure, and
seeing the shapeshifter of alpacino, from godfather to
(12:44):
scarface, I was like I looked atthose two movies and I was like
that's the same guy you know,and so really that's what really
inspired me to, um, later on,be an actor and to try to be the
kind of shapeshifter type ofact, because that's just what
I've always loved is is seeingwhat, what actors, um, what
(13:05):
actors do and what they can dolearning a dialect, you know,
losing weight, gaining weight,whatever it is, and uh.
But as a filmmaker, um, myfavorite directors of all time
is, uh, scorsese and uh, andtarantino, I mean my, any, I
mean you know anything thoseguys, so reservoir dogs, you
(13:25):
like reservoir?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
oh yeah, oh yeah, starentino's like first feature
yeah also.
Yeah, I wasn't sure if that washis first.
I know he was a writer first.
He was and he did.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
He did shorts before yeah, exactly so, and um, that
was like, but that was like hisfirst big like yes, so yeah,
that you did that, like reallyput him on the map, you know.
Yes, and it's just.
I just got to give a shout outto, um, one of my you know dear
friends and filmmakers that I'veworked with Phil Blattberger,
um, which did a film togetherthat came out in theaters, um,
(14:05):
and screaming, called laws ofkytel in it, and so it's pretty
cool to have a credit withharvey because, uh, you know,
loved him and uh, and reservoirdogs and, um, and in lots of
bands, so, um, so yeah,tarantino's, you know, up there
is one of my favorites you knowit's funny.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Um, you're talking about how, like some people
mistake you for different races,right?
You know?
That kind of reminds me of hisrob schneider a little bit,
because he's half jewish andlike white, and then he the
other half is, I think, filipinoor something.
Yeah, yeah, so in all thoseadam sandler movies remember, he
always plays like an asian guyor, yeah, yeah, hispanic guy,
and then the indian guy.
Then, like in 51st dates, heplayed a freaking hawaiian.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Yeah, yeah, I love that.
Yeah, it's so great.
And even, uh, oscar isaac too.
Like talked about how you knowthe joke about a rabbi, a priest
and whatever he's like.
I can play any of them, becausethat's what ethnically
ambiguous means.
Oh, my and um, yeah, it'spretty cool.
I mean, my dream was always tobe, though, I mean to be the
(14:58):
lead and be the leading man andromantic interest and all those
kind of roles on top of being,um, able to shape shift and uh,
having that presence.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
You have that presence.
I'll say, yes, that's like,that's like you know, like I'm
not like you know, I know weshot that one short like many
years ago.
Yes, and you know, I didn'teven have to give you a ton of
direction.
You were just likeautomatically.
Just I was like, hey, I needyou to come out of the ocean and
I need you to.
You know, I need you to likelook like you know.
(15:28):
You, it was like the best swimyou ever had.
And then he just like came outof the ocean.
So, like you know, like allsuave and shit, I was like, damn
, I was pretty good, yeah west.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
West cast me my first ever film like to the like as
an actor like.
I got into it in 17 as an extraand taking classes and all that
stuff.
But west was like you know,come do this short film with me
and in pcb and it was just, itwas just so great to be an actor
(15:58):
on camera because at that timeyou're in the I mean, I was in
the background, I was the standin on set watching the talent on
camera do the thing and justlike itching to get front of the
camera and Wes gave me thatchance.
So I really appreciate thatdude and, uh, you know I'll
never forget that yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
We had oysters after birth.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
He did.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah and um, but yeah , uh, you know.
You know we're talking aboutyour, your current feature.
What do you think the nextfeature is going to be?
Because you know they're alwaysgoing to want to know what's
next, because you know, as soonas you do one, you got to do
another one.
You got to do another one.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yes, yes speaking of, you know, gangster films and
scorsese and tarantino, and, uh,my next film is gotta be Enzo.
I did a short film of it.
It's on YouTube, on my YouTube.
Enzo, I did it back in 2021.
(16:51):
And yeah, it's a classic kind ofit's like a classic gangster
film.
It's like Godfather meets Rockyand like all of my favorite
kind of films put together andthere's a lot of I draw a lot of
inspiration from a lot ofdifferent classics, but but
ultimately I think it's a.
I think it's like like ambrosiobeing unique and being a
(17:12):
vampire film that came fromgreek mythology and it being
like a love story, like no one'syou know ever really seen like
a greek mythology, like storyabout vampires.
So that's what makes that kindof different.
And, uh, with this one in, soit's, um, you know, have having
the kind of the worlds of, likeyou know, professional fighting
(17:35):
mixed with the mob, like youknow it's, it's, I mean we've,
we've got some, you, you knowit's, I mean we've got some you
know, gangster activity stuff inRocky, but it's not like a
gangster picture, it's a sportspicture or it's what Sly would
say it's a love story.
But, yeah, enzo is definitelyits own thing.
But that's my next one that I,you know, would love to.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
You want to adapt it.
You want to adapt it into afeature here.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yes, absolutely.
I have the first draft of thefeature script ready.
Um, but uh, but yeah, I meanwith, with, with how great tulsa
, king and and penguin have beenthis year and and uh, watch us
the sopranos and stuff.
It's like man, you know, I, Ithink, I think they think the
gangster next.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Sopranos is one of my favorite TV shows.
Yeah, oh yeah, it's a reallygood show.
Did you watch the documentarywith David Chase?
I watched it.
It's on my list and I haven'tseen the Many Saints of New York
, but I've read it.
Oh really, I heard Curtis Smartis nowhere near.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
No, I mean it's, you know, I think, Alessandro who
plays Uncle Dicky in it.
I think he was really great.
I think he was great.
I love all gangster films, kindof like how I love, obviously,
Michael Keaton was the betterone, but then Christian Bale
(18:56):
came on and then, you know, benAffleck later.
So it's like I still enjoy itand I'm looking forward to the
Alto Knights with Robert De Niroplaying two roles Vito Genovese
(19:16):
and Frank Costello.
I can't wait to see that.
Zero Spins.
The Irishman I was just about tosay the Irishman is the one
that kind of got me inspired towrite Enzo.
At the time, in 2019, I wasdoing a lot of research on
basically trying to, like youknow, mark off every box of like
(19:39):
these classic movies.
So if I was in a conversationwith you know people in the
industry, they're like did yousee Godfather 2 or did you see
this?
And that I, you know.
So I was watching all of DeNiro's films and Scorsese's and
and Irishman started my love forgangster stuff again.
Um, cause, before that I'd seengodfather and I'd seen scarface
(20:02):
and it was.
So some of the elements inirishman and in godfather 2 I
kind of, like you know, put into, put into enzo as like the
catalyst kind of thing.
So so that's the movie thatkind of got me pen to paper with
enzo jack irishman, so I'm goodwell that's cool.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Um, you know, as we get into the to the end of the
podcast here, uh, you know what?
What are some?
What are some more cool thingsyou want to tell us about?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
your vampire is coming out, yeah well, what's
really cool about it is, um, youknow, I've got to give a shout
out to all my uh gray um.
You know, as you know, as afilmmaker, it takes a village,
you know, and uh, and I can'tthank my producers enough.
Um, angelina boselli, um, whogives an astounding performance,
(20:52):
uh, masterfully executed.
Uh, playing our female lead,she was just amazing.
She, her, her character's uharc in this film is like a
caterpillar that turns into abutterfly.
I mean, she just truly blossomsin this.
She'll make you laugh, cry andapplaud and she's just fantastic
.
She also script supervised,helped me produce.
(21:16):
She was the assistant editor onthe project, and so the trailer
that's out on youtube now, um,she edited, and so she, she's
just a a a wonderful, uh force.
Uh, you know, in this, in thisuh film world we live in, and uh
(21:37):
, so she's wonderful.
Dwayne bontrager, who was my dpeditor and producer on this
thing, I can't thank him enough.
He did a beautiful job puttingeverything together for us and,
yeah, and Noah Marconi's musicis beautiful.
It really sets the tone of thefilm and your emotions and yeah,
(21:59):
so I can't thank them.
And all the all the actors alldid wonderful, um, and uh, yeah,
had a great, had a great teamyou know, and it really took a
bit worse.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Well, thanks for coming out and telling us about
your film.
I uh, I think I'm gonna try tomake this a regular thing where
I'm talking to different peopleabout their indie films, because
I do think it's important that,as a community, we push forward
these different voices, becauseI think one of the biggest
tragedies of Hollywood nowadaysis they just keep recycling the
same garbage over and over.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah, absolutely, I totally agree, and thank you so
much for having me, wes.
And yeah, thank you all so muchfor tuning in and watch my
movie, ambrosio First Vampire,available March 11th.
Yeah, and for tuning in and, uh, you know, watch my movie,
ambrosio first vampire,available March 11th.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Yeah, and I'm going to have links and stuff, uh, so
you can go watch his movie.
So awesome.
So thanks, guys.
Thank you, thanks for watchingthe dumb, cool, weird podcast
where we cover some of yourfavorite movies in 20 minutes or
less.
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