American Cowslip

Tweet

By: Chelsea Zotta

Mark David seems remarkably laid back for an indie director who has been in the trenches since 1996. Ronnie Gene Blevins, the star and co- writer of ‘American Cowslip,” sits next to him, with a thoughtful gaze on his face. After David’s critically acclaimed indie debut “Sweet Thing” and his slick, veteran studded and un-apologetic film “Intoxicating,” he  seems content speaking with me about his latest film, which one could say is very different from the previous films he helmed, photographed and scored.

 IFQ: What gave you the idea to do a comedy about a sweet, introverted heroin addict? 

 Mark David: The initial idea for “American Cowslip” came from Ronnie and I throwing around ideas for making a low budget film.  So, we focused on a story that would be character driven, that would maximize his abilities as an actor and showcase his talent—something that would be a challenge in terms of direction and tone.  We wanted to have a small crew, one camera–maybe a digital. Though, I am still not a huge fan of digital. And make the film for whatever money we could raise quickly.

 

This story came from several life experiences that we had either faced ourselves or had seen other people face.  Unlike the main character, Ethan Inglebrink, neither one of us had ever been a heroin addict, but I’ve had bouts of agoraphobia when under severe stress.  A lot of the humor came from things in our personal lives, like the way some of the relationships take place in the film.  Some of the really odd, strange behaviors are what we’d seen from residents of Houston, where we both grew up.

 IFQ:  And were you worried about how the message of the film might be conveyed to the audience?

 MD: “Cowslip” is not a pro-drug message by any means, although some people might construe it as such.  It’s really a matter of accepting people for who they are and realizing that everyone has problems.    Some are considered to be bigger problems.  Everyone who lives on Ethan Inglebrink’s street has a problem of their own.  Ethan is an agoraphobic heroin addict who has never grown up and can’t pay bills.  Next door neighbor and landlord, Trevor O’Hart, played by Rip Torn, is a coach who lost the high school football championship last year and needs someone to torture to make himself feel better.  Frankly, he is just an angry man who wants that conflict to feel alive. Roe is played by Diane Ladd.  The complexity of her character is several-fold.  She is a closet alcoholic, but she has lost her husband who is a pedophile and had a relationship briefly with Trevor, which fell apart.  She is basically a lonely old lady whose children are estranged.  She has taken Ethan on now as a surrogate child.  Then we have Lin Shaye’s character, Lou Anne, who actually believes she is Barbara Streisand.  I have actually met people that crazy.  Lin’s a comic genius, a phenomenal actor and she pulled that off beautifully.  And Cloris Leachman plays Sandy, who is an older woman who plays poker with Ethan, Roe and Lou Anne.  She is one of the least strange of the characters.  She is just a lonely old woman who wants to play poker with her friends.  And she is the voice of reason for the motley crew we put together.

The story comes down to: Is Ethan’s problem worse than everyone else’s?  For him physically, yes.  But the thing is, you can be a drug addict and be a good person.  Sometimes, maybe, time is yet to prove that.  I know lots of people who have severe drug problems and sometimes I think that they are better off using than not.  Because when they are not [using], they are depressed and suicidal and in and out of rehab.  And rarely do they actually clean up.  In the case of Ethan, he is terminal.  He is not going to get better.  So, the drug issue and the heroin abuse really take a back seat.  This is the kind of film that Ronnie and I wanted to make; something that is not your run of the mill, popcorn movie. It looks into the human spirit and what we are made of.  Things are not black and white; things are grey.  Am I touting the fact that he’s a drug addict?  Absolutely not.  Am I saying that he doesn’t have problems?  Absolutely not.  Am I saying that the drug problem is his biggest problem?  Absolutely not.  His biggest problem is that he can’t pay his rent and he is going to lose his home, and that is all that he’s known.  Our problems are multifold in life and that is something that this film examines.

 IFQ: There are similar themes of the protagonist as a drug abuser, as in your second feature “Intoxicating.”

 MD: There is a similar theme in all of the films that I’ve made, and that’s sort of my stamp.  All of my films are very character driven and, hopefully, visually stimulating.  My first two films are straight dramas.  My first feature, “Sweet Thing,” is a film about a painter who is sexually abused by his stepfather, who is running for Congress.  He outs his father and takes him down.  That film was more black and white than “Intoxicating,” my second feature, which is loosely based on a true story of someone who is very close to me, a physician with a bad drug problem.  The drug issue in “Intoxicating” is way different than that of “American Cowslip,” which is a dark comedy.  Sometimes it is funnier to laugh at things that aren’t supposed to be funny.  In “American Cowslip,” the drug problem takes a back seat and has nothing to do with the main plot. Whereas in “Intoxicating,” the drug issue keeps our protagonist from moving forward and actually takes him down.

 IFQ:  How was the process of putting together the actual production, i.e. raising the funding, crew and equipment? Any particular struggles that you were faced with, and if so, what were they?

 MD: The biggest struggle in putting “American Cowslip” together was that the picture grew.  It was supposed to be a small film, about the size of my first film, “Sweet Thing,” which had a small unknown cast of phenomenal actors.  And we made it for under a $100,000, and that was the original concept for “Cowslip.”  Something we could just go out and shoot and not have the restrictions of doing a larger budget film.  I mean, larger indie budget for under two million.  All of a sudden, to get the money, we had to attach name cast, especially with the economy going south the way it was in 2006, when we were putting this film together.  We could only get the money to make a little tiny indie if we got a pretty heavy name.  We started getting the script out to cast and it was phenomenal who responded to it.  Then it caught on like a wildfire.  We’d go after one person, and then they would suggest another person.  Fearlessly, we would go after another big name.  Before we knew it, we had five Academy Award nominated actors in the film and Val Kilmer.

So, the budget grew with the cast, and the amount of investment grew.  It almost became an indie with a distributor attached, but the distributor at that time had defaulted on the contract and pulled out.  We were left with a big gaping hole in our budget, and that was probably the biggest problem we faced.  It grew and we were actually shooting, and then, all of a sudden, there’s a gigantic hole in our budget.  And we had to get bridge financing while we were shooting.  We had to shoot every day like it’s our last.

IFQ: Did this gap in your budget affect your shots at all?

 MD: No matter if you are making a $50,000 film, $100,000 film, or a $1.5 million film, you are always going to be facing time constraints, weather problems and scheduling problems.  Another issue for us was weather.  We were shooting in the desert in October. Ethan’s garden is a character and we tried to shoot as much in sequence as possible, for the sake of production design and art direction, because moving around a garden on an indie can be time consuming and expensive.  But to accommodate the cast, we had to shoot so out of order that continuity became our biggest problem on set.  I’m also the cinematographer on the film, and we were shooting every scene in the wrong available light.  Usually, you just accent available light when you are shooting on location, but I was shooting morning scenes in the middle of the day and coverage into the evening and having to put up more and more lights to match backgrounds and keys on actors and backlight and color temperature.  We then had some fires in LA that turned the sky red, so on certain coverage, I had color timing issues that had to be taken care of when doing dailies.  You know, every film has its problems and this was just the set we were given this time.

 IFQ: Ronnie, can you tell us a little bit about your process of creating the character Ethan Inglebrink?

 Ronnie Gene Blevins:  I studied heroin addicts religiously. I would shadow my roommate religiously. Then I’d bring my version of the heroin addict out in public, without apology or justification, for days at a time.  I’m pretty certain all of Los Feliz thought I was on heroin. That really fed me.  I didn’t judge heroin or the addict. I created many justifications in my mind as to why I’d be on heroin.  I allowed myself to buy into all of them.  I took a video camera and set it up in my room.  I’d do monologues from the script for hours on end. Sometimes I would lock myself in my room from Friday morning to Monday morning doing lines over and over again to the camera.  I’d study those tapes. The many false starts allowed me to truly explore methods such as these along the way.

 MD: Playing a drug addict, especially a heroin addict, you are supposed to be sleepy and under the weather all the time, but Ethan’s also a charismatic guy who is faking it.  Ronnie had a lot of different emotions to play off at one time, with a lot of physical comedy.  Charlie Chaplin-esque.  He’s always wiping out, falling on the floor.  Also, Ethan doesn’t change in the entire movie.  He wears the same outfit, a tuxedo from a party he had at his house.  A lot of junkies forget to bathe and forget to change.  I wanted him to feel very comfortable in this tuxedo, so we had him wear it three weeks before shooting.  He lived in this thing.  He also slept on set.  The lack of sleep, stress, chain smoking and coffee probably helped him create this character.  Since Ronnie was the co-writer, we both gave birth to this guy.  He basically became Ethan, sans the drugs.

IFQ:  Ronnie, you and Hannah Hall have such great onscreen chemistry with your offbeat romance.  What was it like casting your young co-star and love interest, Georgia?  How did you two create that chemistry?

 RB:  It was effortless. Hannah walked into the meeting with Mark and I, and we just knew. The camera adores that beautiful face of hers. There’s a bonfire of emotion behind those eyes. She can do nothing and it’s so interesting.  We had little problem creating chemistry.  We were instant friends and I hope that shows on screen.

 MD: She has such a wonderful personality and such great chops as an actress.  Very diverse.  We both agreed that she’s perfect for Georgia.

 IFQ: “American Cowslip” may be the last film role that Peter Faulk will ever take.  He says he’s retired.  What was it like working with him?  Was it an emotional experience?

 MD: I am as much honored as I am sad that this could have been his last appearance in a film.  Peter felt very at home on set because he knew everybody.  They had worked together on other films.  It was like one big family.  It was emotional in that I never thought I would get to direct someone of his caliber, in my lifetime.

 RB:  Peter is a legend. It was a joy. You get the sense that laughter and a pure sense of giddiness has guided him all these years.  He would sit on set and just watch everything and everyone around him, and he would just laugh to himself.  Then when it was his turn to “act,” he’d come alive and deliver this monologue like he had been doing it for half a decade.  Oh wait, he had.

 IFQ: What was it like working with the big-timers like Cloris Leachman, Peter Faulk, Diane Ladd, Bruce Dern, Rip Torn and Val Kilmer, to name a few?

 RB: Cloris was like a whacky aunt. Peter was like badass uncle you want to drink whiskey with and just listen to him tell stories for hours.  Bruce was a class act and total actor’s actor who loved to improvise. He remains a very good friend and mentor.  I study him.  Rip was ornery at best, but hard not to love. He’s Rip Torn!  They all served as teachers, though.  Invaluable.   Val is awesome!  Many people don’t know this, but Val is one of the great impressionists. You give him an hour with any of the aforementioned and he’ll come back with a spot on impression of all of them.  His Peter Falk impression is unreal!

 MD:  I didn’t think I would get the chance of working with this many silver screen actors that I admired so much, in one film.  It was an honor.   There is a lot to learn from being on set with such great actors.  To me, I felt like a student on my own set because they had so much wisdom.  At the same time, they were so willing to take direction and so anxious to do well. I think a lot of the reason that my experience with them went so well is my respect for them and that they respected my passion for the film.

 

IFQ: The soundtrack is created by your rock band, Ultrarev, which consists of several established musicians.  What are some of the pros and cons of this creative process?

MD: I grew up playing music.  Music was my first passion, film was actually my second.  My interest in music is what got me into film, frankly.  I’ve been playing with rock bands my entire life.  One thing that I wanted “American Cowslip” to encompass was to have a very rock and roll feel, and I wanted to use tracks by Def Leopard, Steppenwolf, Cream and Kiss. Everything from classic rock to ‘80s hair band cock rock.  On the budget we had, that wasn’t possible.  So, I thought, I can put together a band and we can write and perform songs of that genre and put them in the film.  So, I enlisted Chris Cann, Dean Truitt, Joeseph Blaustein and Ben Shepherd.  And we are about to now begin working on our next record, which will probably be music for my next film.

 IFQ: How was the film received at the Austin Film Festival?

 RB:  They loved it! Austin is one of my favorite cities. Such a mixed bag down there. They love their art, maybe more than any other city in the States, in my opinion. They lined up around the corner to see “Cowslip.” They were complimentary of both Mark and I.

MD: The cool thing about the festival is that it is a writer’s festival.  It’s more about the actual screenplay, as opposed to “who’s in it” and “how much did you make it for”.  It’s not much of a buyer’s festival, but it’s really an appreciation of the art form of writing.  So, there are some serious powerhouses that attend the festival, some of the most phenomenal people in Hollywood, who are attending truly to watch films and read scripts.  It’s an amazing festival.  The majority of our audiences in Austin were people that walked in and wanted to see a movie.  As a director, I was able to sit back and feel the room and see what moments people enjoyed most in the film.  This festival allows you to get an objective view of your film, which you don’t get to experience when you screen it in LA.

 IFQ: What is the current state of distribution? 

 MD: “American Cowslip” has worldwide distribution, as of a few days ago.  It will be released on home video, video on demand and internationally.  Possibly released theatrically in some foreign countries, like England.  In March, we signed with three separate distributors: two domestic distributors who are handling VOD and video rights, and a foreign sales company that is taking care of foreign rights.  These days, in this film market, it’s hard to tell what movie will do well and what movie will flop.  It is really luck of the draw.  You just have to aim to make a good film and hope that the market takes it.

 IFQ: How do you feel about this film as opposed to your other projects?

 RB: It’s my baby! I love it! It’s so odd, and that’s what Mark and I set out to make. It is just as odd I had hoped.  A buddy of mine described it as “a beautiful car crash.”

 IFQ: What projects are in the near future for you two?

 RB: I’ll do anything Mark tells me to do, same goes for Tony Hewett, the film’s amazingly talented producer.  Those guys are the most under rated, unique forces in the independent film industry.  They lead and I follow.  I’m trying to get Mark and Tony to make this movie, “Solo,”  about a guy with no arms, who enters and wins the International Air Guitar competition.  Mark thinks it too dark.  He’s one to talk!

 MD: I have a few projects in the works.  I’m writing a script called “The Gift Horse,” about four generations of criminals.  At the same time, I’m writing a script called “Nighttime Bingo,” which is an absurd action thriller comedy.  Sort of in the vein of  “American Cowslip;” it’s based on a guy at the end of his rope who accidentally finds himself in a cult.  Again, it is very character driven, but it has a lot of action and comedy in it.  I’m attached to direct a movie called “Visions of Paradise,” about the last days of Jack Kerouac’s life.  And for Ronnie, you name a show on TV and Ronnie has been on it.  He’s going to share a long career doing leading man and character work.  He’s definitely going to be in all of my films.