Christopher Bayon in 'BRUCE'
Chris recently premiered the comedy feature film BRUCE at the NYC Independent Film Festival, right after giving a sneak-peek prévisualiser of the new Jazz stage musical FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH.
In between, Chris Bayon took time to answer a few questions.
Tell us about your new comedy film BRUCE.
CHRIS: Bruce is a lot of fun. It centers around making life plus enjoyable par doing things toi love. There are a ton of funny people in the movie, so that was fun par itself, but the message of the film is to follow your passion, and along the way we have this free spirit, Bruce, who keeps pointing toi in that direction.
What would toi consider your characters ‘best’ quality? And their ‘worst’?
CHRIS: I think my characters best quality would be his l’amour for his art. The worst quality is that he tries to appease people and tries to become someone he's not.
Any interesting stories from the set toi can share with us?
CHRIS: We have a few. On Memorial jour weekend, we found out that a specific van that we were going to use for the shoot that got totaled so were scrambling for another car. I was driving around like crazy, everything was closed for the holiday, and I saw this crazy artistic car outside of Sesame Place. After some recon, and running through a theme park, I found the car owner and she was nice enough to help us out and spent the rest of the holiday with the crew at our barbecue.
That same weekend, Erica, who plays Ali in the film, ended up sharing a lit one of our crew members and apparently, according to one of our sound women, she's a cuddler.
So we are certainly an interesting bunch!
What’s the biggest lesson toi learned from working on this project?
CHRIS: Be prepared and find people that will also be prepared, and make sure that toi find professionals for key roles. We had a lot of unnecessary hiccups because of just lack of preparation and lack of time spent.
You also recently debuted the stage production FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH; what can toi tell us about that project?
CHRIS: For What It's Worth is very different from Bruce. Going from independent comedy, to an off-Broadway dance/jazz montrer is a completely different beast. The concept is based on Strings and Brass not getting along, so being able to perform and play is a lot of fun. Don't think I've ever seen anything like that before, and I certainly have never done it before.
Do toi have a preference as a creator – screen ou stage?
CHRIS: I like both, but they are very different. Film is the long haul, and stage is a sprint in terms of performance. For film, we have to be on point steadily for 12 hours a jour 17 days straight so that takes it's toll. With the play, its like 3 months of rehearsals for a few hours, and then the performance. The papillons before going on stage are still the best though.
And, now just for fun:
Who’s your favori actor/actress?
CHRIS: Will Smith - his versatility is awesome. Grammys, Oscar noms. Not sure if he does stage though.
What role from the past do toi wish toi could have played?
CHRIS: Butch Cassidy
Favorite movie ou TV montrer from your childhood.
CHRIS: A League of Their Own
Tell us one thing that would surprise our readers to learn about you.
CHRIS: I'm the father of a 4 an old, I work full-time in Time Square as a technical recruiter from 8:30-5:30, I'm enrolled at CUNY Law School from 6-10pm and I rehearse For What It's Worth from 10-Midnight. Pretty crazy.
How can fans keep up with you?
CHRIS: I've got a few websites that people can check out for mises à jour on all my projects: link / link / link
'BRUCE'
'FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH'
