BREATH OF HATE – set report

(photo credit: Chad Clinton Freeman)

Keeping my three-for-three record intact as far as Sean Cain movies go, I spent Monday making my cameo in his new project BREATH OF HATE, starring Jason Mewes. Yep, Sean got a real bona-fide movie star in this one. And Jason Mewes too! (kidding – I love me some Mallrats)

Sean had asked me if I wanted to play a sleazy character in a strip club, so of course I said yes. I suggested wearing a trenchcoat, but he quite rightly reminded me that such would be way too hot — one thing you non-industry people may not realize is that air-conditioning nearly always has to be turned off on a movie set because it makes noise and interferes with sound recording.

So I donned my “Daniel Plainview calls a phone sex line” hat, a black tank top, and forest camo pants. But when I got to the set, Tina the producer had other ideas for me…

See that shirt I’m wearing? SKIN-TIGHT. Like a corset. Makes me look slimmer, which is a plus. I had to give it back at the end of the day, though. And if you’re not familiar with Joanna Angel, well…she was playing the stripper in the scene. And if you want to know more, I suggest not using a work computer when you search her name. If you want to SEE more without doing such a search, just wait for Breath of Hate to come out…

I don’t know anything about the plot of the movie beyond what’s on imdb. I was not too surprised to see several familiar faces on set — as I have often said, once you do one indie horror movie in L.A., you pretty quickly start to know everybody (though they don’t always know everything about you — at Fango Con this year, I gave a longtime acquaintance, who is also a director, my head shot. He replied: “Oh, you’re serious about this? I thought you were just kidding all this time!”).

Anyway, Shane Ryan, Kai Lanette, and Chad Clinton Freeman were among the other extras rounded up for the day. Tim Muskatell from SILENT NIGHT, ZOMBIE NIGHT was there too, in a more significant role, though he looks totally different in this one, like a cross between Gene Shalit and Ron Jeremy. There’s a moment in he strip bar where he and I do the terrorist-fist-bump (a bit improv’ed by him), and it’ll be a cool little easter egg for fans of SNZN to see the two main zombies together again, if only briefly.

The club is called, ironically, “The Classy Lady.” Next door to it is a pot dispensary. On my way to the set, an underage kid tried to get me to buy him some beer.

Acting in movies has been described many a time as “hurry up and wait” — this is especially true for extras. It was late in the afternoon by the time I got to see what special scene Sean had in mind for me.

There’s no real way to put this other than to say that Joanna Angel strip-danced right in front of me. Played with the Plainview hat. And all I gave her in return was fake movie money.

Then Muskatell comes and sits down beside me. Being a major character, he got it even better, as she rubbed cleavage in his face. There’s some funny dialogue between them that I won’t spoil.

While all this happening, Mewes has a dialogue scene behind us, further back in the bar, and on each successive take, he improvises filthier and filthier jokes, to everyone’s amusement. Very much what you’d expect from him, but in keeping with the general vibe as well. I hope there’s an outtake reel on the DVD.

I was sad when the day ended.