Act 2: Gratitude with Chris Wilmot

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Chris Wilmot, a man with an incredible journey in both the film and sobriety communities. We shared our experiences in the film industry, our personal struggles, and the importance of gratitude in overcoming life's challenges. Chris, whose family has a rich history of political involvement and success, showed us how these experiences have shaped who he is today.

During our conversation, Chris opened up about his 40-year journey to sobriety, which was supported by his family and the power of external support. We explored his career path, from working as an associate producer to acting in various film projects, and how his passion for film and politics intertwined. Chris's story is truly inspiring and offers hope to those facing their own sobriety challenges.

We also delved into the ever-evolving landscape of the film industry, discussing the challenges of producing and marketing films in today's world of streaming platforms and cable TV. Our reflections on the industry, together with Chris's insights, made for a compelling conversation you won't want to miss. So, tune in and be inspired by Chris Wilmot's incredible story, his dedication to sobriety, and his passion for chasing dreams.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Three dot conformist. Oh, Ipromised to be different. I promised to
be unique. I promise not threepeat things other people say. Welcome back

(00:31):
to positive blatherings with Fits. That'sme Fits. And it's one of those
things where it started out as adaily show, and then it kind of
went to a weekly show, andthen there was a monthly show, and
it seems like it's quarterly show,or it's a whenever I have to have
time to do it show, orif I have an opportunity to speak to

(00:52):
someone very special like I do today. Chris Walmot joining me in studio.
And I've known Christopher quite a fewyears now in the in the film community
and UH and now in the sobrietycommunity. Yes, and I'm honored to
be here. I appreciate it,Scott, thanks for having me. I'm
glad you're here for for a numberof reasons, and one of them is,

(01:12):
first of all, you've you've beenUM, whether you know it or
not. You've been kind of amentor to me over the over the last
few years, UM when we wereputting together Bottom Feeders and UM and and
as well as in sobriety. I'velooked up to you and you know,
seeing your accomplishments and all that kindof stuff. And so today was a

(01:34):
perfect example where I wasn't feeling it. I wasn't you know, this is
positive blatherings, but I wasn't feelingvery positive. I was kind of like,
uh, I don't know if Icould do this. I don't want
to be I don't want to befake, you know, I don't want
to be in inauthentic. Is thata word? Yes, I would say
so. And then I was like, no, I've got to I've got
to go through with this. Youknow, We've been talking about doing this

(01:56):
for a long time, and I'mlike, no, I'm not going to
call in reschedule. I'm not gonnaI'm not gonna do I'm gonna force myself
to do it. And you come, you come walking in in this great
mood, and I'm like, well, there you go, this is a
perfect thing. Well, yeah,you know, I I've done some radio
before, not a lot, andcertainly when I was in politics, I
did a good portion of television,some TV interviews, but I haven't done

(02:17):
anything like this in a long time. And it really as soon as I
woke up, I was really excitedto do it. I felt real good.
And you know, I'm to semiretire now. I'm still producing some
films, but I um, Idon't do it every single day, and
so you know, sometimes my time'sa little too unstructured. But today I
was like, nope, this isa good day. I'm going to see
Scott and talk about something I've nevertalked about publicly before but certainly would want

(02:38):
to do that. So, andis being semi retired does that mean like
every other day is a Saturday kindof Yeah? Yeah, yeah, there's
no hump Day anymore. I don'tknow, maybe that's a Tuesday now or
I don't know, maybe maybe never. Um. Yeah, so I'm I'm
I'm still directing and producing a documentaryfilm, which is taking too long.

(02:59):
But I hired a new producer who'shelping me a lot, and she's great.
She's twenty eight years old and hasa lot of energy and some good
experience. So starting to pick uppace. In fact, I'm going to
be doing that today at two o'clock, doing some editing with with Mike and
Clara. Mike's my editor, MikeBoaz. So yeah, so, but
I don't I don't work every day. I Also, my health is not

(03:20):
you know, it's not fantastic.I've severe asthma and um, you know
a few other things I'm dealing with. Nothing fatal at the moment, but
you know, every day you wakeup as a what's that when they say
every day above ground is a goodday? And it's true. You know,
my parents unfortunately died young a differentdisease is very young, and that
was rough. I mean it's veryhard. Luckily, I have a very

(03:40):
large family in this area and goodsiblings and so and good grandparents and that
helped. But so I'm eleven yearsolder than my father ever was, and
I'm twenty three years older than mymother ever was, and so it's I'm
every day I wake up, seriously, I'm very grateful and grateful to be
sober, you know, even allthese years later. Yeah, And gratitude

(04:01):
is one of those states of mindthat we strive for, or you're supposed
to strive for. I try to, but it is so easy to not
be grateful. It is so easyto you know, pick this and pick
that and say oh this is badand that's bad, and look what happened
here, and look what happened there, and you really have to You really

(04:24):
have to kind of shock yourself outof it and be like, no,
no, let's look at the goodthings and that gratitude will will it will
change your day. But like,like I had to force myself today.
I was really struggling earlier the wholemorning, and I was like, you
know, it's I don't know ifyou like this. This is how I
am. If i get overwhelmed withtoo much work and I'm in a messy

(04:49):
space, like something's disorganized, everythingjust starts to fall apart on me.
Inside yeah yeah. Someone else itmight be like, oh, well,
what's you seemed fine, Scott seemsgreat, Yeah yeah, And inside I'm
like yeah, like trying to holdit up. You know, we had
um had had someone very graciously donatea whole bunch of old voiceover scripts that

(05:16):
um she said, you know youcould use this. You do demos for
people, and this is good tohave a nice collection of scripts for people
to choose from, which I waslike yes. She's like, you know,
I got a bunch of scripts.Can I bring them by. I'm
like, yeah, absolutely, bringthem by. That's great, And she
showed up with seven file boxes ofand I was like, oh, you

(05:38):
got you said a shitload, butI didn't. I didn't know that that
much of a shitload. So um, my other studio is is wall to
wall boxes of scripts and a tableand stuff every and so that has been
like just and I'm trying to geta hold of of a file cabinet and
I'm like, but that's that's thewhole thing. It's like these little tiny

(05:59):
things that happened that could be insignificant, but to some people it's it's huge
and it can ruin your day,right, you know. And that's so
thank you for coming sure because becauseI'm gonna I'm gonna snap myself out of
it. But you mentioned you mentionedyour family, and I know that.
I mean, I know kind ofon the surface, but the Wilmot family

(06:23):
is is a big family in Rochesterand very successful family, is that right?
Like you're connected to the Wilma rightproperties, and and and the people
on politics which you were in ye, stuff like that. My granddad and
his brothers um and the wives thatput up with those guys, to those
irishmen. They my granddad started PageAirways with a guy named Elmer Page stringing

(06:46):
into a very large company which wassold in nineteen eighty one, and then
wilmur Right is the one people know. So wilm Rights started as post War
um gi housing really just small littlecape CODs and ranch houses and Henrietta and
parts of the city, and thatturned into little tiny strip Plausa is like
suburban plaza and Henrietta. I thinkthere was one called Dewey Latta and then

(07:10):
eventually the first mall was Greasetown Mallback in sixty seven. Let's say pittsoph
Plaza came before that. My dadwas the project manager on those malls and
Eastview. So my granddad was oneof these guys. He was not a
college graduate. He's one of theseself made guys. His father died in
that horrible Spanish flu in nineteen nineteenalong with his older brother. So my

(07:34):
granddad suddenly was the oldest male inthe family and he just took it upon
himself to really get out there andhe became a He managed a playground.
That was his first job for awardboss, a Democratic ward boss, and
then he then eventually started volunteering orworking at the airport and became the manager
of the airport and that's how Igot into aviation. But he was just

(07:55):
one of these amazing guys whom hejust had an instinct for bus and just
could put it together. And I'mnot talking about all his hard work and
his brother's hard work, and mydad's hard work, and my uncle Tom
too. Um. And again allthe women they put up with those guys
because they were they were they weregood men, but they were you know,
they were irish, and they theyknew hard to you know, kick

(08:16):
back and party a little bit andand um, you know, you don't
make all that money by being niceall the time. So however, my
both my grandfathers were very successful andthey treated me like gold. Um.
And you know that's where I geta lot of my inspiration from his,
especially my grandfather's and uh. Andthey're also both my grandfathers are involved in
politics. My my mother's father inLos Angeles. He was a city councilman

(08:39):
and a mayor, not a mayorof Los Angeles, but a mayor of
a small city and surrounded by alake called San Fernando, the city of
San Fernando. And then my mythe one who's well known around here that
the cancer Center is named after JamesP. Wilmot. He was the one
at one point the treasurer of theDemocratic National Committee, so he had guys
coming over to his house and menand like Hubert Humphrey school Jackson who was

(09:00):
a senator, UM, Bobby Kennedyone time. So you know, he
knew he knew those guys and hungout with them and raised money for the
Democratic National Committee and wasn't much involvedin local politics. But anyway, so
my sister Mary and I we bothhave been involved in politics, and we
come by it honestly and you knowliterally. It sounds cliche, but around

(09:22):
our dinner table growing up, wedid talk about politics and current affairs.
We were always watching Walter Cronkite orJohn Chancellor at NBC, and so yeah,
so that's I, you know,I uh, I was blessed to
be born into a family UM thatUM was interested in the larger world and
that participated in it, and itmotivated me to get sober when I was

(09:46):
twenty years old, thank God andUM, and my life was on an
upward spiral. Ever since the firstday I got sober, I just and
I was lucky. I was soyoung. I think that was the key
was that I I crashed and birdquickly as as a drunk and um,
and nobody, you know, nobodyever dreams of being a drunk. I
took my first drink when I wasprobably fourteen and loved it too much.

(10:09):
And by the time I was twenty, I went to Clifton Springs for thirty
days and it totally changed my life. And it was my father and his
brother Bill that encouraged me strongly andgot me into that. And my dad
was an alcoholic. So I mean, it's it says something to me that
somebody who struggled so much with drinkinghimself saw that I had potential, that

(10:30):
I really needed to get a handleon the drinking and the marijuana used to
and so November second, eighty twothat was the last time I've ever used
anything. And um, forty yearslater here I am. So that's amazing,
It's and in did you have Imean, this is probably a ridiculous
question, but how have the upsand downs been over the years as far

(10:52):
as any desire to use, um, those you know, urges and the
peaks and valleys of life in general, just causing you say, oh,
man, I totally could do it. Drink right now. Yeah, I'll
tell you. Three months into mysobriety, I was working for my uncle
Paul. He used owned some LenehangHallmark stores locally at the mall's, Marketplace

(11:16):
and East Food. And I wasworking at Marketplace and I was just doing
the cash register and stocking the shelves, and it was, you know,
I was, I was. Ijust turned twenty one, and I was
a little bored and restless. AndI remember leaving work that day one day
and I said, Okay, I'mgoing to get some Miller ponies. They
used to sell eight packs of theselittle Miller bottles. And there was a
seven to eleven on West Henrietta Roadnear the nearer the mall, and I

(11:37):
said, I just can't handle it. So I drove and then I said
to myself, I the AA kickedin and the and the treatment I went
to and I said to myself,by yourself, a few minutes drive over
that. You know that big hillon West Henrietta from Calkins over to Lehigh
for going south, And I said, just drive over that hill and see
if you feel a little bit better. And then that means I was past
the seven to eleven, not thatthere weren't me other opportunities to buy I'll

(12:00):
call it that day. But butjust buying myself two three minutes, I
just was the desire left me.And that was the closest I ever came
to a relapse, to just youknow, throwing it all away. And
it's not that in forty years I'venever thought about you know, oh well,
look at all the you know,the years I have behind me in
sobriety. I guess I could havea glass of wine or a beer,

(12:22):
but I know that road. Iyou know, I did a lot of
drinking in five years. I meana lifetime worth of drinking. So um.
No, I never slipped, thankthank God. And I'm not a
I'm not an overly spiritual person.I'm not an overly religious person. I
was brought up Catholic. I hada lot of trouble in a eight first
with the spirituality stuff. I reallydid. And I didn't like all the

(12:43):
sayings like you know, have anattitude of gratitude or watched that stinkin thinking
I hated that stuff. I reallyI hated it. But you know what
they said, do forty meetings inforty days. I didn't quite get to
forty meetings and forty days, butI probably got over thirty. And I
got a sponsor, and I suddenlyfound two guys from high school that I
didn't know. We're sober. Isuddenly saw in meetings and there was a

(13:07):
gang of us to start hanging out. We were all sober. We started
playing trivial pursuit in the eighties.That was a big thing, and you
know, going to diners and justnot going to bars, you know,
And I never liked bar as muchanyway. They used to drink more outside
of bars. But um, theysay you have to change people, places
and things, and it's true.And I kept my you know, my
old drinking friends and drugging friends.They I didn't banish them, but I

(13:31):
hung out with them less. Andmany of them went down some bad roads
with cocaine. And I luckily didn'tdo all that. But but the alcohol
was enough. It was It wasdisastrous for me. So, um,
I couldn't have done all the jobs, to college degrees, being an elected
official. None of that ever wouldhave happened without sobriety. So yeah,

(13:52):
and what what did you go tocollege for? Pardon me, I've been
fortunate that I've used my major inmy careers my several careers. I suppose
I was a poly side miner andI was a com journalism major. So
I got my associates from MCC,which for me was a big deal because

(14:13):
I did lousy in high school becauseI couldn't stay sober I was. I
barely graduated on time, so gettingan associatest MCC. I did go to
Syracuse for a while Syracuse University,but then my dad died in four days
into my second semester, and mymother had already died when I was in
high school. It became a difficulttime in our family. So I was
back and forth on the Thruway allthe time between Rochester and Syracuse. And

(14:33):
I didn't love how large Syracuse was. My class sizes were huge there,
so I transferred back and I finishedup at Fisher. And I happened to
be living across the street from Fisher, so I could walk to college just
like I used to walk to highschool. My house was six houses away
from Sutherland High School, So yeah, I was able to use both my
major and minor from college in mypolitical career. And also I worked at

(14:56):
a television station Fox thirty one forwhile in the eighties as an engineer,
and then and I've gotten into filmback in two thousand and three and this
is my seventh film. So I'vebeen very fortunate that I've been able to
exploit in a positive way that whatI went to school for. And the
interesting thing for me is that yourbackground, your family, that must have

(15:20):
been a huge influence on you whenyou were going through your schooling and trying
to figure out what exactly you wantedto do. Because I always found that
that's like the hardest thing. Somepeople they know, I'm going into the
family business. My dad was this, my grandpa was this, And it
feels like your family business is sovaried and was such a you know,

(15:43):
there's so many opportunities for you togo in a lot of different places.
You know, what was the onething that made you go, I definitely
want to do this or well,I mean my uncle Tom, Tom Wilmot,
who still runs Wilmurray. He wasvery kind to me and he let
me try will Murray a few timesand it just it just wasn't me.
It wasn't my personality. And Ithanked him for the opportunity. But but

(16:07):
ever since as a little kid,I always you know, music first,
but then you know TV and film. I mean, I'll be honest,
I'm an addict. I mean Iwatch a movie every day, and there's
some movies that are so good thatI'll watch them twenty thirty times. I'd
like to memorize the dialogue. Mybrother and I grew up doing that,
you know, challenging each other onWoody Allen dialogue or Albert Brooks was a
big comic in our house that weloved. And um, and then you

(16:30):
know, later Martin Scorsese and hisfilms. So you know, I'm I'm
proud of myself that I had theopportunity to pursue what I love, you
know, which and politics was anotherthing that I that I've always loved.
Um, you know, trying tomake a difference. You know, they're
three hundred thirty five million people inthis country, So any one of us

(16:51):
trying to make any positive change,it's going to be very small. Even
elected officials, even the big onesat the federal level in Washington, UM,
even presidents, they're constrained at somelevel. So anything anybody does in
the in the in the public spherewhere they're trying to help somebody. That's
the whole point. You'll never knowreally what you did. You know,

(17:11):
I helped pass some legislation when Iwas in the county legislature, but um,
I don't know how much I reallyimpacted people's lives. But you know
the fact is I tried. Idedicated my life to doing that, or
at least part of my life.And now with film, I was turn
limited out of the legislature. SoI, um, I decided to I
called an old girlfriend of mine inLA who was working on the X Files,

(17:32):
and I said to her and webecame friends after we dated, and
I said, how do I getmy foot in the door in film and
TV? And she goes, well, I hate it. I'm leaving it,
she said, but call my cousinKevin. He's a producer. Call
him. I think he's got aproject he might be able to, you
know, work on. And Ibecame an associate producer on a film with
Dean Kane, who played a supermanin the in the ABC series Lewis and

(17:55):
Clark. And then I think hewent on to do, uh, what's
that show? Um, we pleasbelieve it or not or something like that.
But anyway, so that was myfirst film. I was an associate
producer and then I worked my wayup. So I did two films in
la one in New York City,one in Louisiana, one in South Africa,
which was the best film I everdid in terms of quality, um,
and then two in Rochester and threeactually because were I was an actor

(18:18):
in your film, so, whichwas a lot of fun, by the
way, thank you. That wasthat was that was a ball. I
led your character and that it waswell, you know what I've played.
I've acted in three or four films, and I've always played kind of a
bad guy or the guy that isa little suspect. And so I and
what was amazing by your film iswe did it as you know, we've

(18:38):
finished filming just as COVID started.We were lucky. I remember we were
over at Nazareth in that in thatbuilding and COVID hit two weeks later.
Yeah, we couldn't get any um, we couldn't get any extras. Yeah.
Yeah, because once, you know, once my part was over,
it was easy for me to forgetthat you guys still had a lot of
work to do. So um,but yeah, that was so that was

(18:59):
an early twenty I guess, yeah. Early We rapped on Friday, March
thirteenth, Wow, which was likethe day. Yeah, that's what we
wrapped. It was not too coincidentalthere with Friday the thirteenth. Yeah,
so but no, then that wasI saw the whole film. It was.
It was wonderful, it was funny, and I love being the professor,
the lecturist, professor professor. Sobut you know, for me and

(19:23):
Steve the director and writer for thatfilm, it was it was that we
had to do it. You know. We we knew that if we put
it off and put it off oneday, we were going to both be
seventy and we're gonna be like wenever made a movie. We're gonna be
angry and get off my lawn,you know, and and that's and that's

(19:47):
why. So we had to doit, and they were you know,
it was what I think, wedid it for seventy five thousand dollars,
which is remarkable, you know,I mean, we we got a lot
done, but you could you couldtell that it's a it's a little budget
movie. I mean you could wellif you want to, if you ever
are completely bored and you want togo chuckle. Read the IMDb reviews.

(20:07):
You can tell where all our friendsare, and then you can tell where
people watched it, and we're like, what the heck was that? I'm
never getting that ninety minutes back?But you know what, but we did
it. But it's really really good. You did it. And I would
encourage anybody you have to chase yourdreams. I mean, it's you know,
life. I remember there's this moviewith Anthony Hopkins Went and one of

(20:27):
the best lines from that film washe was talking to his father in law,
who was quite a bit older thanhim, and the father in law
said to him, he goes,I've seen these young men and they think
that death is merely a bad rumor, a poor rumor not to be true.
And I remember when being a youngman, I thought I was invincible,
absolutely invincible. So when you're young, that's when the dreams are vivid

(20:49):
and real, and it's it's importantto listen when you're in your teens and
twenties because by time people get intothories and forties. It's not that you
can't so important things, but youknow, our energy starts to dip.
You know. I remember, youknow, when I turned thirty, I
you know, around that time,I noticed a little bit of a difference
in energy. And I was evenin great shape that I was running.

(21:11):
I was really athletic. But youknow, and then you get forty and
fifty. Now I'm sixty one,my energy is way way different than I
was in my twenties and thirty.So that's the time is to make a
mark. And it doesn't have tobe a career could be you know,
if your dream is to have kidsand be a good father or mother,
that's fantastic. I didn't go tothe kid route. I went the career
route, and I don't regret that. It's fine. I have a lot

(21:34):
of nephews and nieces and that's wonderful. So but I think I'm proud of
you guys that you and Steve didthat, because it's just as easy to
come up with reasons not to doit and say, yeah, maybe maybe
someday, Well someday it's like todayor tomorrow, you know, So yeah,
yeah, and well, and youknow, you you were one of
the people that that we looked upto, that I looked up to as

(21:57):
someone who went after stuff and didthings. You know, went and did
it like a Hero the Underworld.You guys just did him. You just
made a movie. You were like, let's make a movie, and you
made a movie and it was andthat was that that approach to it.
And it's a lot of a lotof the advice that I got was,

(22:18):
you know, act like you havethe money, act like it's gonna you're
making it. It's a thing.And that's really what I did. Is
the whole time, I said,I just started putting on the calendar and
here's the dates. This is whenwe're gonna do this, This is when
we're gonna do that, And itall just sort of happened. Yeah,
and you know, it's it's sucha team effort. And you know,
back to Hero the Underworld for amoment. I mean, that's there's never

(22:41):
a film like that without Tom malloyand I meant to Tom and I were
trying to buy into a studio outin um Elm Grove, Um Young Lion,
Yeah, and I don't remember thename of the gentleman who was running
it, but um Alex, Yes, thank you. And he didn't you
know, he was a nice guy, nice enough, but he didn't seem
to want the help, and wewe didn't want to beg him, but
we said, hey, we're here, we have some money, we have

(23:03):
we have some experience. And sothen Tom and I said okay, no,
no, no hard feelings. Andthen we went and made Here in
the Underworld and Tom wrote that andTom started it. I played the abusive
boyfriend, so the woman he wasafter in that movie. Um, I
played the abusive boyfriend who Tom eventuallypunches out. And one time we took
about seven he takes that and onetime he nicked my nose but it didn't

(23:26):
hurt, thank god, he justbarely nicked it. But we filmed that
near next to the strath Allen,in a house there. But the but
the point is, yeah, youhave to chase these things and you'll find
there. You know, even ina place like Rochester. This is not
La or New York or Toronto orin London. But there are skilled people
here. You know. Tom malloywould never live here in a million years,
except his children grew up here andhe wanted to be a part of

(23:48):
his kids' lives. And now he'sgot a daughter I think is high school
or after. I think she mighteven college as now I don't know.
So he, you know, hesaid, Okay, I'm not gonna miss
my kids growing up. I could, and he likes La better. That's
where they started out, he andhis wife. But his wife is from
here. So I give him tonsof credit for saying, Okay, what
am I gonna do in Rochester?What can I do? And how many
people would have not done that,you know what I mean? Who would

(24:11):
have said I'm not living in Rochester. Yeah, there's no way in hell?
And then he and then he,you know, he might have been
more famous or been more successful maybeif he had stayed in LA, But
then he would have missed his children, and you know, he's an integral
part of their lives. He's agood father. I've mccathy and I don't
see Tom as much as we usedto do, but they used to come
over and swim at our house andwe used to hang out. So people
like Tom A Lloyd, I mean, I can't believe how much energy he

(24:33):
has. He's in his forties andyou'd think he was about twenty five.
And that was a wonderful project.And so yeah, you got you gotta
say today if today isn't the day. Tomorrow's the day, because you can't
keep putting stuff off because life startsto you know, my mother, my
mother was thirty eight when she died, but she warned me of this even

(24:53):
in her thirties. She said,watch out, it starts to go quicker.
And now it's sixty one. Wow. You know, weeks just fly
by sometimes. Oh I know,I know. I'm talking to my kids,
so I have my son is goingto be twenty wow in a couple
of days, which is blowing mymind. And you I think about we
started this studio here five years ago, and I'm like, he was fifteen.

(25:18):
My other daughter who's sixteen now she'seleven, and to me, five
years ago was like yesterday, it'slike five years ago. But to them
it's a lifetime. Oh my god, I was eleven years old. That
was forever ago, and you're like, it was only five years And for
them it's like twenty five or fiftypercent of their life ago, and for
us it's like a fraction, youknow. But it's strange how the yeah,
the time just at the time justmoves right along, and it becomes

(25:42):
more imperative to say, you know, not someday this bucket list thing.
You know, at sixty one,that becomes a lot more real. But
you know, the thing is,I've done a lot in my life.
I'm not I'm not saying I'm somegreat successor champion of anything, but I've
tried a lot of things, andthat's I guess if I had to say,
if I'm proud of anything thing,I failed many times, but I've

(26:02):
tried a lot and that has madeall the difference. So I've said to
my wife and my close friends,if I died tomorrow or tonight, I
don't really have many regrets. Iwould say that was a life well lived.
And again, in my family,sixty one is kind of old.
You know. My dad's day wasonly sixty eight when he died of cancer.
Fortunately, my mother's parents lived intotheir mid eighties, so I have

(26:22):
some longevity in my family. Ihave a great aunt to just died a
few years ago. She was acouple months short of one hundred. Her
mother was ninety eight when she died, so again there's spotty longevity. But
I'm just glad that, you know, I don't have any incurable diseases.
I'm sixty one, and maybe I'llmake it a couple more decades, hopefully,
you know, I hope so too. So apart from from family members,

(26:45):
who would you say was your biggestinfluence when you were coming up as
far as business or goals or mentorshipanything like that. Well, you know
mary O Cuomo, Andrew Cuomo's father, the man who was governor for three
terms in New York State, andbefore that he was lieutenant governor under Hugh
Carey. I met him in thelate eighties and fairly early on. I

(27:11):
got to work on his actually hisfinal campaign in ninety four, and got
to know him a bit, andI found him to be an amazing speaker.
I was. I was fortunate enoughto go to the nineteen eighty four
Democratic National Convention in San Francisco,and that was the one where Walter Mondale
was nominated. I was a GaryHart worker, but I heard Cuomo's keynote
address there and it was mesmerizing,and so I became a devote instantly.

(27:36):
And so he was somebody who reallymotivated me to pursue politics. And again
I had the honor of meeting hima few times. And I'm trying to
think, well, you know,certainly Martin Scorsese. You know, when
I look at when I look atthe film side of my life, it
would have to be somebody like Scorsese. My favorite director ever though, was
not Scorsese, and I love him. It's Sydney Lumett, who did Landmark
films like Twelve Angry Men, whichI still every time on TV, I

(28:00):
have to watch it. Um.He did Failsafe and an amazing nuclear drama,
Um Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico.Um my favorite film. He did
Network in nineteen seventy six, whichone a bunch of Oscars. And he
also did The Verdict with Paul Newmanand some films. He even did a
film with Philip Seymour hoppin I thinkit was the last film he ever did,
which was called Before the Devil KnowsYou're Dead. It's a terrific film.

(28:23):
Albert Finney is in it, Umwho ethan Hawk, tremendous actors in
that. So you know that Iwould have to say he's my favorite all
time director, and there's there's manyothers I love, but I love Sidney
Lumett the most. And he wasa very low key guy and a lot
of people have never even heard ofhim. But if when you start listening
his films, they're like, ohyeah, I mean she's especially in the

(28:44):
seventies he was prolific and with Albaccinohe did a bunch of good movies.
So yeah, was that the TwelveAngry Men with Fonda or it was it
was the first one, yeah,which I think is the best one.
Yeah. Um and Fonda and theyconsulted on that heavily before they did it.
M Fonda was really a big proponentof that story and hired Lumet and
uh, you know, the restis history. That's that's regarded. I

(29:07):
would say many people's book the toptop forty, top fifty films. Ever
in mine probably top ten. Soyeah. So anyways, these are people
that I looked up to. Um. Yeah, that that just that motivated
me, you know, And um, I couldn't believe I got an opportunity
to get into film. I meanthis without my friend Mary in California,
Mary Estadorian. Um, and Igot to go on the set of The

(29:30):
X Files. I met David Duchovnyand that was really fun, you know.
Yeah, and it kind of itreally like grabs a whole of you,
you know, when you're in thatenvironment, a lot of people would
be taken by it, even ifthey're not interested in film. You know,
there is a certain just magic aroundthat whole life. Um. But

(29:52):
you you know when you do it, when you actually do it, you
really you can very easily go,no, this is not what I want
to do because there are certain peoplethat work in and around film who can
be very difficult who you know,you know, the different personalities and things
like that. I know that inmy experience producing Bottom Feeders, I was

(30:15):
like, I if I could produceevery day, if I could just produce,
I would be very happy because thatwas a great experience. But it
was insane. Yeah, and thiswas just a small, you know,
low budget film, and I waslike, I'm every day, I'm pulling
my hair out and I'm going nuts, but I'm solving problems. And the
next day I'm like, let's dothis again. Like I don't understand this

(30:37):
how I had a really horrible dayyesterday, but I'm excited about doing it
again. It's a weird thing.I've been mostly a producer in my film
life and I'm directing this time.I don't think i'll direct again, and
it's too much for me, butproducing and directing. Yeah, I'm doing
exact produce, produce and directing andthe script and the whole thing, and
self financing. So at least IWoT one hundred percent of the intellectual pretty

(31:00):
which is good because then I getto choose how to market this thing.
And that's that's another thing I knowthat you've learned is it's not just making
the movie, which is tough enough, but then how do you get it
out there? How do you getout so people can see it? That's
more important. Yeah, And peoplewill say all the time, they'll say,
oh, there's so many platforms now, and it's true, but there's
a lot of content out there,a lot of there is, and a
lot of people make very good filmsand they and they never get they never

(31:22):
get seen because the competition is fierce. I call the film business the wild
West because the First Amendment protects it. But that's also one of its curses,
because you know, I've been I'vebeen ripped off before in the film
business, not recently, thank god, but um, it's it's very hard
to find ethical distributors and money peoplesometimes, especially distributors, I find because

(31:47):
a lot of the deals are wewill take all the proceeds went until we
get made whole for our alleged orreal marketing that we do for your film,
and then you'll get some money andthey never get made whole. Yeah
well yeah, right, there's alwayssome way that the proceeds are pretty minimal,
I find. So so thank godI've got us some other investments because
if it was just film, Iwould be in the poorhouse. So it's

(32:10):
a tough it's a tough thing.I know. We we we went with
indie rights. Uh they're great people. Um. Probably wasn't the best deal
ever, but it was it wassomething. It got it. It got
it out there, you know onthe platforms, and I would go back
and do things differently, Um,you know as far as the marketing was

(32:32):
concerned. But we really we spentall our money on the film, so
it was kind of like, youknow, you really have to have a
war chest. Yeah, and youknow, one of here, the underwroll
was made for probably forty forty fivethousand dollars. I've done films that are
over a million. Um, neverover too, but um, you know,
everybody wants to make the next BlairWitch project, which was made for

(32:55):
Peanuts and made zillions of dollars.Another film that people forget it was made
for very little money that did veryvery well was Easy Rider. That movie
was made for under two hundred thousand, I think three hundred thousand, and
it, you know, has reapedmany millions. And that was nineteen sixty
nine. It was a long time. That was a lot of luck with
Yeah. Have you heard the storiesabout that being made with Dennis Hopper and

(33:17):
like he's just insane. Yeah,Denis Hopper incredibly creative, brilliant actor,
but probably not always the easiest towork with. Um but um. I
read a great review once of EasyRider where the reviewers said that was the
movie that almost bankrupted the Hollywood studiosystem because then all the studios saw what
that kind of film could do,and they started trying to do it themselves,

(33:42):
and they the efforts were not good. There was a movie with Joe
Namath called CC Rider, which wasnot very good, you know, and
so they were they were there werecopycats of Easy Rider, but they didn't
have the people who made that.Terry Southern, Peter Fonda, and and
Dennis Hopper. They were living thatkind of hippie lifestyle and they knew the

(34:04):
good music, and some of theother guys weren't quite as cool that tried
to copy that. And so anyway, so the seventies was a very weird
time where the studio system almost failedcompletely. But then people like George Lucas
came in did Star Wars in Spielberg, and they don't. I don't necessarily
like those films the best. Imean, those are great directors, but
I like the more. I likethe era of realism is my favorite.

(34:29):
That's why, like the mid fiftiesto the mid seventies might be one of
my favorite periods. And then againin the late eighties into the nineties some
very very good films. I'm notso impressed now with films. I don't
like the superhero films. I don'twatch any of them. I just don't.
I'm Mike Martin Scorsese said to me, it's like going to an amusement
park, you know. And soit doesn't mean those aren't well made.

(34:50):
Films are super well made, butI don't like that. I call it
the simplistic depiction of good and evil. That's that's I think that's more for
kids' day. I mean, it'speople love them. I just have a
comic book. Yeah. And Iyou know, I'm one of those guys
that didn't grow up loving comic books. I didn't hate them, I just
didn't love them. So again,I know they're well made, it's just
not the kind of film I wantto see. So yeah, and and

(35:12):
and it's true with um. Withthe with cable and TV and streaming systems
and streaming services or whatever, youknow, the theater experience has really become
it's like going to see a concertbecause yes, you could watch a movie.
I like seeing films on the bigscreen. But I'm also not like

(35:37):
I don't have to guess. Butthere are some films that when it comes
out, you're like, oh,I have to see that on the big
big street, you know. Ifit's if it's an indie drama, you're
like, all right, well it'sit's on HBO Max, so I'll watch
it there. But it's also inthe theater. But you know, um,
but I i'd be interested to seewhat um, what happens with the

(35:58):
with theaters in the next ten tenyears. Yeah, I mean it's kind
of scary. Locally, we've seenthis with the regal grease Ridge closing and
now Regal Henrietta. We're hoping thepistoph Plaza one opens. I think it's
some company called Apple Theaters out ofMassachusetts. So did Zurich completely get out
of the area. No, hestill has UM Movies ten. I believe

(36:20):
Conrad Zurk a good man. Ilike Conrad. Yeah. He put our
film Lucky from that we made inSouth Africa. He put that on his
screen for three weeks running in Pittsfordand that was, you know, we
were indebted to him. He wentto Toronto and saw it there. We
were in the Toronto Film Festival andthen we became friends and so yes,
I believe he still owns some moviesten. And if you haven't been there,
he rehabbed that and put some reclinersin there, and it's a very

(36:44):
nice theater and it's affordable for peoplethat can't afford you know, a Regal
lease fewer AMC Webster, you know, that's where we That's where we had
our premiere for Bottom Feeders, andbecause of the pandemic, we had it
on all ten screens because only twentypeople could be in each theater. It's
pretty cool though it was he wasa great guy did so I actually got

(37:05):
movies ten and the the other theaterconfused. I thought they were the same,
so I was I was mistaken.Oh yeah, that's all right,
And I want to ask you aquestion. So I'm gonna ask you a
question. Sure, because I loveBottom Feeders and I love being a part
of it. Um, will youdo another film? Do you think?
Is that something in the future.It's something that we want to do or

(37:25):
that I want to do. Um, it's gonna come down to just have
to do it. Yeah, Um, I was. I was looking at
at doing um a web series typeof thing based on this studio and sort
of a little storyline. And becauseI missed that creative process, I miss

(37:46):
putting it together and all that stuff. And it really because I work well
as a collaborator and not as acaptain. You know, I'll get so
far and then something gets in theway and the next thing, you know,
six months has passed and I gotnothing done. Yeah, and that's
that's what I missed when I wasjust a producer, because I worked with

(38:07):
some excellent people and there were alwayspeople around to solve problems when I ran
out of energy, you know,and one I worked the hardest one in
the most time where I was theI guess I had the biggest role as
a producer and exact producer. Wasour film Lucky that we made in South
Africa and uh we were. Wefilmed there for thirty four days. I
was an amazing experience and meant someamazing people, very South African's, very

(38:30):
friendly people. Also we got tohang out one day with wild baboons and
we hung out one time. Onetime a giraffe, a wild giraffe wandered
onto our set and that was achallenge. And so you know how many
people can say that now many?And that's that's why I was. I
mean my wife and I she wasmy girlfriend, and Kathy we she was

(38:52):
a producer too, And it wasjust such a phenomenal experience. And uh
we met. We did a filmcalled Revenge for Jolly in New York City.
We had some A level casts.We had Kristin Wig and we had
Ryan Phillippi and some really good actors. And I met Ryan on the set
and somehow Lucky came up in SouthAfrica. Came up. He goes,
do you know Jubilani. I said, yeah, he was our Bodyguard and

(39:15):
he goes, yeah, mine too. So he worked with the same studio
in South Africa called Out of AfricaProductions. So and Ryan Phillipy is somebody
who's I've always admired his acting,especially in that movie Crash. He played
a cop in that he was great. So he was. He was in
our film he played a criminal andm so I have a picture with him
where he's holding a gun to mebecause he's a criminal in the film.
So. Um. But but anywayyou meet, so it's not just it's

(39:36):
not just the crew, which whichare fantastic in films, fellow producers,
whoever. But many of the actors, most of the ones I've met and
have been really good people. I'vebeen fortunate. I haven't met any horribly
snotty, you know, snooty actorsthat didn't want anything to do with me.
Um. Some one guy met whowas in Goodfellas, Kevin Corrigan,
who played Rayleo to his younger brother, and that he was crip. He

(40:00):
was in a wheelchair. Yeah,he was in our film Revenge for Jolly.
So I tried to talk to himon the step, but he was
in character. He was a methodactor. And so I realized quickly,
Okay, you know that's cool,you know, let him do his thing
and not. And I've learned aroundfamous people, don't you know, read
the science, you know, readthe tea leaves. If somebody needs to
be left alone, that's cool.Maybe they'll talk to you another time,

(40:21):
you know. And so anyways,it's been it's been a great experience.
Like I said, if I ifI if I passed tomorrow or tonight,
I don't think I have any regrets. I think I would say that was
a that was a good life.I was lucky. I was very fortunate
to have been able to be anelected official and to be in the film
business. Very fortunate, and tohave a great wife too. So yeah,
I see on the cake, right, Yes, yeah, I still

(40:43):
am kind of in awe of thethe way that you've navigated your career and
managed to just completely just be like, all right, alcohol, it was
done. I don't need that anymore. And you know, there's a lot
of people that struggle on a dailybasis. I know when I was going

(41:07):
to AA, and thankfully I'm notone of those people either. I don't
I don't get up in the morningand be like, oh my god,
I gotta make it to noon.You know, I'm fine. I don't
think about it at all ever.I'm just fortunate that way. Yeah,
but I know that other people aren'tas lucky. And so have you ever
been a sponsor for somebody? Butthat's a good one. Maybe many years

(41:30):
ago in the eighties, but Idon't really remember now. I probably was,
I just don't recall, and Ikind of faded out of a again.
It saved my life, but Iam you know, I guess I
realized there's some hardline a people andtwelves to people that think there's kind of
sometimes only one way to do AAand I wasn't like I'm a very individualistic
person, and I found that myway, whatever it was, worked for

(41:52):
me. And I never put anybodydown that did it their way where it
was a meeting a day or formeetings a week. And for a while
I was like that. But asthe eighties and my career got kind of
busy, my life got kind ofbusy in the late too late eighties,
and I just kind of faded outof it. And there were people that
criticized me for that. But that'sokay, you know, Um, like

(42:14):
I said, I was fortunate thatmy way has worked. Not perfectly,
but um, and you know whenI realized, you know, alcohol and
marijuana, those were kind of thesymptoms, but the problem was, Um,
I learned some bad things as akid. I learned some wrong ways
to address life and to overcome challenges. And so I've done I've done psychotherapy

(42:37):
too, I've I've been in therapyand still after this day, you know,
I go over a couple of weeks, and so you know, in
life, don't be too embarrassed askfor help. There's a there's a great
what was that movie called with umAnthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin are lost in
the Alaskan Edge. Yeah, andand there's a there's a amazing tough movie

(42:58):
though. But at one point thingHopkins asked Alec Baldwin, who's a real
scoundrel in that film album, Buthe asked them, you know why most
people die when they're stranded in thewilderness, and Alec Baldness is no.
He says they die of embarrassment,and it's it's the idea. But we're
all The wilderness is here, it'sin Rochester, it's in any community.
Anywhere in the world. And ifif you forget that people will help you.

(43:21):
Um it could be a family member, could be a dear friend,
whoever it is a colleague at work. But if you forget to reach out
and ask for help, you're inthe wilderness if you if you forget too
many times. And so fortunately,and I didn't always do it often enough
or right, but I've asked forhelp enough. And some people have come
to me when they realized I needhelp, and they say, hey,

(43:42):
man, you know, can Ihelp you out? But but don't yet,
don't be embarrassed or try not totry to try to overcome the embarrassment
to say that person over there,they're doing something that I like, that
I admire, and I'm going togo ask for help or some some advice.
Who knows, you know, Iknow, Um, the old school,
the old school way is, ifyou're in therapy, there's something wrong

(44:07):
with you or you know, it'sa character flaw, just like addiction is
a character flaw. You know,in the old school way of thinking,
suck it up, you know,just pick yourself up by you by your
bootstraps and and and just sally forth, which which you know, maybe some
people could have done that, butit's not It doesn't work. And you

(44:28):
only have you know, uh,willpower is finite. You will run out
of willpower. And so I've beena big proponent of definitely getting therapy.
Therapy. Say I say this tothis day. Therapy saved my life,
saved my marriage. I would notbe sitting in this studio talking to you
about this if it weren't for therapy. And I believe, just like you

(44:52):
say, I believe that people shouldyou should go to a therapist a couple
of times a year, even ifyou think everything's okay. Yeah, because
like you know, they're they're professionals. I mean a lot of people didn't
believe the whole COVID thing. AndI know a lot of people at you
RMC, it's strong. And Iwas on a board directors there in a
cancer foundation for a while, andyou know, I say to them,

(45:13):
I say, you know, ifyou have a headache, you might take
some Madville. You know, ifyou or Tayland, if you if you
break your leg, you're going togo to the doctor. These are the
same people, these researchers that comeup with this medication and these vaccines.
They're the same people. They're professionalsand so sore therapists that that's what they
go to school for them. Theyget to their degree and you have to
be licensed in New York State.So so you know what, go see

(45:36):
a professional if you need your car. I don't know how to work on
a car. I know how tobuy one and drive one, but I
can't. I suck. I'm nota mechanic. So I go and get
some help. So remember, peopleneed to I think we're getting towards the
end, but people need to rememberreach out for help because it's there,
somebody's going to say okay, yeah, and that has really benefited me and
I and men need to do thismore than women. Women are better at

(45:59):
it. Women network better with eachother. I think men were supposed to
be these strong, virile types sometimesthat go it on our own and that
that's a tough road to go.Yeah, yeah, definitely. You know,
I completely meant to ask you aboutyour studio and we've this is positive
blathering. We can do it anothertime blathered. Yeah, what is the

(46:19):
name of your studio. It's calledGalaxy West. Galaxy West, and it's
in the it's in the northern endof the Genesee Valley Regional market in Henrietta.
So it's two buildings behind the Kingand I Restaurant next to Safe Light
Class. It's a gorgeous space.Thank you, thank you, and so
is this. This is my firsttime in your studio and it's a it's
also a gorgeous space. And Ithink you get a little more business here
than I get over there. SoI need to follow you and watch what

(46:40):
you do. I think, Scott, So, I think we got two
different business is going maybe, butI you know, I wish you a
lot of success in what's So what'swhat's kind of on the horizon for you
in the next couple of years orreally just finishing my documentary, Jimi Hendricks,
do this is? This is about? It asked the audience the questions,

(47:02):
should geography be destiny? So it'sabout K through twelve education, segregation,
that if you live in the cityand you're born into a situation that's
not your fault, don't you deservethe same opportunities that a kid like me
born in Pittsburgh. I didn't chooseto be born in Pittsburgh, but I
was or in Webster, or inGates or Chilai or Greece. These those

(47:22):
communities have better school systems and betteropportunities for kids. The city is tough,
and it's not suburminates or evil,and everybody in the city's great.
It's about just creating better opportunities.And that's what the documentary is about.
So we're about ninety five percentI wasshooting seventy seventy percent down with editing,
and then someday we'll market it.So very cool coming to a theater near

(47:45):
you, I hope, or atelevision set. Well, if there's anything
that I can do to help inany way, please reach out. Thank
you. Always happy to work withyou, and and really enjoyed our conversation.
So meandering it was, but Igot a lot out of it.
And like I said, when Iwas starting this conversation, I was like
kind of not there, and Iyou You've changed my day. You change

(48:09):
my day, and you too,Like I said, I woke up really
feeling good this morning, better thanusual because I knew I was going to
do this. Now you feel worse. Never on you, man, You're
You're enough guy. You make mefeel good right well, So, um,
how can people find you? GalaxyWest. You got a website for
that. Yeah, best way reallythough, is just my email, Chris

(48:31):
Wilmot sixty one at gmail dot com. Send me, send me an email.
We're still we're still tinkering at thewebsite. My my wife's good at
this stuff. I'm not. Sowe're trying to rehab the website. So
again, Chris Wilmot sixty one atgmail dot com. Get ahold of me
that way, and if you wantto rent some space, we'd love to
have you. Awesome, Thanks somuch. We'll do this again anytime.

(48:52):
Pot. Thank you Scott very much. Ol