SAGEBRUSH: CRAWLSPACE (2011)—The Evening Class Interview With Actors Kristy Leigh Lussier and Jim Lile

My involvement with the sophomore edition of the Sun Valley Film Festival (March 14-17, 2013) has involved negotiations with the Idaho Film Office (IFO) to increase media visibility for the event, in hopes of shaping the festival to become a desirable destination experience for out-of-state visitors wishing to combine recreational skiing with film viewing; a package that Idaho—and Sun Valley in particular—are poised to provide. The IFO, of course, is hoping that some of those visitors will be scouting for locations for upcoming film projects, which is admittedly the presiding objective of a film commission. But even as Idaho woos financial investment from out-of-state, it celebrates its regional production by exhibiting a curated selection of films crafted partially or wholly within the Gem State. With exhibition being the weakest aspect of Idaho's film culture, the role of the Sun Valley Film Festival (SVFF) as an exhibition venue has become increasingly vital. Producing a film that few will see is of limited value; thus, my hat goes off to SVFF for providing local talent a chance to shine and to, hopefully, be seen by a broader audience. Although the tension between national cinemas within an international network of distribution has been discussed at length, attention to the difficulties that regional cinema faces in achieving a national identity is equally important, though too often blithely disregarded.

Regional programming makes sense of course. The Toronto International Film Festival—which has evolved into one of the world's largest film markets—began as an effort of frustrated Canadian filmmakers wanting their films to be seen by the world. A comparable impulse is inspiring the development of the Panama International Film Festival, which—like SVFF—held its inaugural edition last year at about the same time. For me it's an interesting exercise to watch two film festivals being built upon similar impulses, if on dissimilar scale. Bruce Fletcher, who programmed the now defunct Idaho International Film Festival, was the one who invited me to consider the importance of regional filmmaking and with my visit to the Idaho International in October 2007 my interest in Idaho's film community began. Since then it's been of considerable interest to monitor Idaho's "community", as inspired and fractured as it now appears. Once I moved to Boise, attending the monthly Boise Cutters meetings at the Owyhee Hotel has proven to be a great introduction to creative individuals and projects being endeavored at the local level. This is how I met the team behind the 2011 short Crawlspace, produced by All Fools Productions, co-directed by Christian Lybrook and Tom Hamilton, and starring Jim Lile in the lead role with Kristy Leigh Lussier in a strong supporting turn.

All Fools Productions came to do a preview presentation of Crawlspace at Boise Cutters and I was not satisfied with the teaser—I wanted more—so I turned to Lybrook, who was sitting near me, and I said, "I know you have a screener in your backpack. Give it to me." He was startled if obedient and I took the screener home and watched it. Crawlspace impressed me. I found it to be an evocative and ghostly tale of coming to terms with one's past. It felt perfectly honed down to its essential core, which reflected the care and responsibility taken with the script. I'm grateful to Jonathan Marlow at Fandor for agreeing to stream the film concurrent with the Sun Valley Film Festival, along with Lybrook's more recent venture The Seed (2013), to promote not only All Fools Productions but SVFF itself. When that stream goes live, it will be accompanied by a conversation held earlier with Lybrook.

One thing I need to stress about Christian Lybrook is that he is adamantly non-auteurial, in the sense that he isn't trying to grandstand or claim all credit for himself. This is actually quite an attractive quality. Lybrook has made it clear to me that both Crawlspace and The Seed are collaborative ventures with his creative partners; but, it just so happens that he's the guy out in front because Tom Hamilton is preoccupied with a newborn and Chris Brock—co-writer, co-producer, assistant director and miscellaneous crew—is either shy or unfamiliar with self-promotion. So as a caveat, though the Fandor piece is being billed as a conversation with Christian Lybrook, he is speaking on behalf of the team and wants that to be known up-front.

Two members of the film's extended team, however, were out in front of the camera. I spoke with Kristy Leigh Lussier at the following Boise Cutters meeting and met with Jim Lile more recently in my home. My thanks to both of them for being willing to discuss their involvement with Crawlspace. I'll approach this in a mannered way and present Kristy first.  Photos courtesy of All Fools Productions.

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Michael Guillén: As I've been interviewing folks in Boise about its local film production scene, I've been struck by the absence of women, particularly as directors. Either I find women behind the scenes engaged in production or in front of the camera as actors, like yourself. Can you speak to your background and how you came to acting? And what it's been like for you to be an actor in the Treasure Valley?

Kristy Leigh Lussier: I moved to Boise almost six years ago. My background is similar to Christian's: creative writing and an English literature background. I did some film study work in the Midwest, have done a lot of production work, and actually used to work with South by Southwest. I did a lot of independents down in Austin as a production assistant and got my feet wet on film sets down there.

For fun—when I first met Christian, Chris and Tom—I mentioned to them that I was a screenwriter and have always loved the writing element of filmmaking, but have always wanted to be onscreen as well. I did a lot of theater in high school and in college. Early last year I thought, "Gosh, I really have to get back into the film realm." I had taken a break, had a couple of kids, and wasn't doing much more than caring for my babies at home. But I'd heard about film projects going on and knew films were being shot around town so I began paying attention.

I started surfing Craig's List to get back into the scene. That's where I spotted Christian's ad for Crawlspace. He was looking for an actress to read for the part of Beth. We met and he cast me in the role. Crawlspace was the first thing I did in Boise's film community after years of being away from filmmaking. We shot it in May. Since then, I've worked on at least 9 or 10 other projects, including Brandon Freeman's Mark of the Veil, a couple of I-48s, an H-48 with Troy Custer, and last summer I was cast as a lead actress in a feature film project by Kim Kovac [A Ghost Of A Chance] out of Mountain Home.

Facebook and social media have helped me to network, to find out what's going on in the community, and have led me to projects like Crawlspace. I met Jim Lile working on Crawlspace and, since then, Jim and I have worked on the bulk of all these projects together. You meet other actors who are involved in a project and then you keep each other connected. If you hear about something, even something you can't do, then you offer it to someone else. "I've heard about this audition. I can't make it but you should try." I've noticed that a lot of people in the community really keep each other informed. So if it's a role that I won't fit because I'm too old or not young enough, I'll send the notice to a girlfriend of mine or someone who I might know that could fit the part or might be interested in the role. Boise's acting community keep each other in the loop and help each other out.

Guillén: I'm glad to hear you acknowledge that there is a community.

Lussier: I've only been involved with it for a year, but what I've noticed is its entrepreneurial sense; friends like Christian, Chris and Tom who say, "We can do this. We're not experts, we don't have a million dollars, but we can do this." I've been so happy over this last year with all the projects I've gotten to be a part of because most of these people want to tell a great story, they have great ideas, and they pull together people who they trust and who want to help them tell that story. Most of us work at careers outside of these projects, but we do them for fun and as a form of self-expression.

Guillén: Have you signed up with local casting director Catrine McGregor?

Lussier: Her name keeps popping up but I've never met her, though I would definitely consider that. Obviously, I would love to go further. Everyone wants to go further. Sure, I'd like to wake up and make movies every day and get paid to do it; but, if I only continue doing this, for fun the way I have been, and meeting a lot of people and having a good time with my friends making films on the weekend, I would still do that. I love the nature and the spirit of it.

Guillén: It seems to me that most of the positions available for films in Boise are in production. You mentioned you've trained as a production assistant. Would you consider going back into the production side of things?

Lussier: I would love to stay on camera. If I did move into the production realm, it would probably be writing or directing (though I have some fear about directing). As a screenwriter, it's a part of me and a piece of my soul to put it down on paper and tell the story that way. I feel confident that way. I feel confident as an actor to bring a script, a role, a person's story to life. To translate that story to screen as a director? I haven't done it yet. I'd be up to the challenge, but I'm hesitant to go in that direction. It's a matter of time.

Ironically, because of I48 I spent the weekend hanging out with a lot of local film people. I spent Saturday evening talking to some well-known people around town about a script that I had written last year and tossed around ideas about how to get the script to feature and put it to film. How would we shoot it in Idaho? How would we fund it? By its nature the script asks for a big budget. But I love that independent feel and I don't want to leave Idaho. I would rather shoot here. I would rather put people in Idaho to work behind the camera and in front of the camera. I love writing and, sure, I would love to get a million-dollar paycheck for a script, but if I had a chance to make it here instead of selling it, I would make it here in a heartbeat.

It's a lot of fun to have people in the community that you can go to and say, "Hey, I'm working on this script. Can you read it? Can you give me your ideas? Can you give me your thoughts?" Or, "So and so's working on this project and I thought of you. What do you think of his idea? Do you think you can do this? Would you come shoot it?" It's a lot of, "Hey, come help us do something and make something and bring something to life." A lot of people around town are willing.

Guillén: Can you recommend other women who are doing good film work here in Boise?

Lussier: Whitney Maunie is a great young actress who's been doing good work around Boise for the past few years. Kirsten Strough is a good producer-director out of the Boise State University group who's just graduated recently.

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Guillén: So Jim, what's your background? How did you come to acting?

Jim Lile: Like many people who have an interest in the industry, I was just a fan of movies; but, the more I watched films, the more I watched actors and how they acted. I was always jealous of people who could act and play roles and as I developed professionally and no longer worried about standing in front of a group of people and giving presentations, I knew my skills were ready.

Gregory Bayne had an open casting call for a handful of positions for his film Person of Interest. I'm a corporate guy, usually in a suit during the day most of the time, and I thought, "Well, I'll play one of the FBI agents. That'd be an easy introduction." Then as I sat there, I scratched my head and thought, "Wait a minute. There's a role for a guy who's a war vet with PTSD who's lost a leg, is kind of weird, and is pivotal in this one scene, even though it's a small part." Even though he didn't have a lot of time on screen, his character underpinned the story. I decided I wanted to do that, which was good because the role of the FBI agent ended up being completely cut out of the film. So I got that part and got such an energy rush from doing it; it was a natural high. I was excited to get the role and loved being on set during rehearsals.

Guillén: You had no official training as an actor?

Lile: No. I've started official training two months ago. I work over at Nike in Portland and I take classes from Jana Lee Hamblin at Act Now Studio. I get great feedback from her. Now that I have a handful of films under my belt, I feel good about getting more training. I feel doors are opening. I've started to work with an agency. Grimm's interested in meeting with me! It's filmed in Portland. Knock knock on wood.

Guillén: So after Person of Interest, Crawlspace was your second project?

Lile: Yes, and my first as a lead.

Guillén: What is the value of getting your start as an actor in Idaho?

Lile: The benefit is the work. I just turned 40 a couple of weeks ago and I often see movies that have roles for guys 35-40 as the leading character. There's not a lot of competition for that in Idaho. I feel that I'm getting consistent work and that definitely feels good. It gives me on-the-job training. I've learned my own way of reading a script and thinking about mannerisms or how my presence comes off on film when there are cameras around. Interestingly, many of the things I've taught myself are 80% in the ballpark as to how professionals organize and learn their dialogue, and their actions and reactions to scenes. That's definitely a pro.

The con is that there are a lot of people who have an idea about a project, they write a story and have a camera and a couple of guys and they want to make a film but they don't understand the editing process, or lighting, or what it means to add music and undertones to a film. Probably half of the local projects I've done have never been finished. Maybe, ultimately, that's a good thing? I don't know.

Guillén: You've mentioned that you're continuing your training in Portland because it's convenient to your work, but would you have considered training here in Idaho? Is there any kind of real training for actors in Idaho?

Lile: There's some training. There's a lot of stage work. The people who offer training tend to come up to this area from Salt Lake to do training; but, I'm not quite sure how I feel about some of those folks who are brought up here to do the training. I get a mixed review from local actors. Why would I want to get training from someone questionable?

Guillén: And the point is that training builds upon natural instincts, natural talent, which I suspect you have as an actor. When I was talking to Christian about the filming of Crawlspace, he told me you filmed the last and most powerful scene first.

Lile: He was ambitious.

Guillén: He said he was stunned by your performance in that scene and that he knew the film was going to work after he saw what you did. He said you came right into the scene, grabbed the emotion, and wowed everyone on the set. So my question would be: without any official training as an actor, where did that come from? How did you know how to emotionally inhabit that character and ground him in your performance so quickly?

Lile: The simplest way to answer that is that you read the story and—if you believe in the story and if you understand the character and what he's gone through—then you can do it. I associated any feelings I had of unresolved guilt in my own life to the character. I felt that final scene was a moment of reconciliation in my character's life. He had come to terms with his brother's death. I thought about it and felt he had to first break before he could rise. He needed to hurt and feel his pain and then let it go. He realized he shouldn't carry this burden anymore. So that's how I thought about it and then I brought personal sadness to it to make the connection more real to myself.

Guillén: Christian said no one expected you to actually cry in that scene.

Lile: Right. [Laughs.] I wondered. Nobody said anything. It got really quiet and dark for a minute and I said, "Give me one second." Then I sat down, thought about these things, and put myself in the mood. I thought of a phoenix. Even though you don't really see me rise, you do see me cry with the relief of letting go. That's what I wanted to show. Christian didn't actually even know that I cried at first because he was at such a distance underneath the crawlspace and the way he was all tucked down. He was having a hard time seeing through the camera. But we did one shot, one take, and I got up and everybody was really quiet. It was a little embarrassing. I walked off and gathered my thoughts and everyone was standing there staring at me. I was wondering if they thought I was mental. Then I came to find out when he got home that night that he didn't know I had cried, but he made me feel really good about it. I think it shocked people. I grew up as a tough sports guy so people who knew me then who have seen the film say it really moved them.

Guillén: Hey, Channing Tatum has built a career being the butch guy with a vulnerable side. Audiences lap it up. So you're on a winning track there. Since you've had an opportunity now to work with a few of Idaho's filmmakers, and can compare, can you give me a sense of Christian's style? Of what it's like to work with him?

Lile: I absolutely enjoyed working with Christian. I've also much enjoyed working with Troy Custer. They're probably not that different in some ways. As an actor, you get their artistic creativity. You get that they spend time on setting up their films. They prep their films. They both have a strong grasp of the visual impact of their films with many cuts and many different angles that help the film build.

I've done more work with Troy Custer than anybody. Troy's a great character. He has such a passion for film. He is probably as good of a DP or DP coach—knows how to set up shots and scenes—as anybody I've seen. The product he delivers is as good as Christian's. They both have beautiful shots. Half the failure I see of films shot around Boise, even films I've been in that I haven't liked, is not so much the quality of the acting, but the quality of the film: how they cut in, the tone, the speed of things. You can have a great performance in a film and watch that performance and be enthralled, but that same performance filmed from many angles, many shots, the right tone in lighting, the right look with the close-ups and the cutaways will make it work that much better. Definitely, I would love to work with either of them again.

Guillén: Who else have you worked with that bears promise?

Lile: I'd work with Greg Bayne again. It was a great experience. His was a very comfortable environment, well-organized, smooth, polished, no stress. It was like you were walking into somebody's house to have a cup of coffee and then, "Okay, let's start filming." I see it as a Clint Eastwood style: "Take your time. Get ready. We'll start when you're ready to go."

Kristy and I both acted in a feature-length film called Ghost Of A Chance by Kim Kovac which is now in post. I need to go back and re-shoot one scene with her but I think most of the film is ready to go. We'll see how that goes. It'll be interesting. She's never done a full-length project and there's a lot of newness to it.

Guillén: I need to ask the dreaded question. In order to develop as an actor, will you need to leave Idaho?

Lile: I have been pushing and trying for probably a year and a half to help produce and create projects. A couple have been failed attempts. I've taken the approach of trying to build a project that's right for me and would work for me in terms of characterization and story, with the right ensemble of crew, professionals like Christian or Troy, but the problem is we don't have the right network in place, with the right screenwriters and production crew that can step in. We don't have that professional level of people to drive projects. Half the time people will come into a read or an audition and the script's not even done. Then it's two months before you get a callback. They don't have a distribution model. They don't know what they're going after. Their only plan is to submit to film festivals—which isn't a bad route in a lot of cases—but folks don't seem to know much past that. They don't know that there are mechanisms to get to DirecTV and cable contracts.

Guillén: Gregory Bayne has the best sense of that among the local filmmakers I've interviewed.

Lile: Completely! So, to answer your question, will I be able to stay in Idaho? My goal is to build a killer film in Idaho that will take me out of Idaho. This is my arrogant view of the world: I'd rather not go stand in a cattle call line in L.A. thinking I have some skills as a guy who's now 40. I'd rather have somebody see a film and think, "Wow, that was a really good film. I loved that actor. I want to use him for this role." That's my pipe dream goal. I would love to see it work that way.

SVFF: SODA SPRINGS (2012)—The Evening Class Interview With Jay Pickett

With the inaugural Sun Valley Film Festival (SVFF) less than a week away, Festival Director Sabina Dana Plasse has announced the festival's full schedule. Included among SVFF's slate of dramatic features is Soda Springs (2012), co-produced, co-written and starring Idaho native Jay Pickett, whose handsome performance as prodigal son Eden centers the film. Soda Springs is solidly directed by Michael Feifer and sports Jeffrey D. Smith's accomplished cinematography of Idaho's beloved sagebrush desert country. There isn't a single dishonest note in any of the film's performances, including a heartbreaking appearance by veteran actor Tom Skerritt as Eden's father. A classic narrative about fathers and sons, mentors, and guiding spirits, Soda Springs speaks to classic—nearly mythic—themes of sacrifice and redemption and is sure to be a crowd pleaser at its Lantern 1 screening on Saturday, March 17, 1:45PM. Pickett will be in attendance to Q&A with his audience.

Actor / screenwriter Jay Pickett grew up on a ranch in Caldwell, Idaho in a close-knit family with four siblings. Sports and rodeo took up the majority of his time during his youth, even as he felt a pull in another direction. A graduate of Caldwell's Vallivue High School, Pickett pursued a Theatre Arts degree from Boise State and then headed south to Los Angeles where he earned a Masters of Fine Arts Degree from UCLA.

He has guest starred in numerous television shows including China Beach, Matlock, Perry Mason and a two year contract on Days of our Lives. In 1997, Jay originated the role of Frank Scanlon on the ABC Drama, Port Charles. He played the character for the entire 6½ years that the show was on the air. Most recently Jay has appeared on Desperate Housewives, Saving Grace and Dexter. Along with producing, starring and co-writing the feature film Soda Springs, he also had leading roles in the feature films Abandoned (2010) and the soon to be released, The Perfect Student (2012). He Lives in Woodland Hills, California with his wife Elena and their three beautiful children Maegan, Michaela and Tyler.[This conversation is not for the spoiler-wary!]

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Michael Guillén: Let's talk about your origins in Caldwell, Idaho before we launch into discussing your return to Idaho to accompany Soda Springs to the inaugural Sun Valley Film Festival. It's my understanding that your ease with horsemanship in Soda Springs came about from a background in ranching and rodeo work?

Jay Pickett: Yeah, that's right. I basically grew up on a ranch and started riding horses at an early age, probably two or three. I started competing in rodeos when I was seven or eight years old. All my brothers and sisters competed. I went through the ranks of the junior rodeos, high school rodeos, and college rodeos, on into amateur professional rodeos. So, yeah, I have a long background around horses.

Guillén: And yet you began to want more than a ranching life in Caldwell? What drove you to veer away towards acting?

Pickett: I always felt a pull in another direction, even though it was hard to define back then. I remember watching John Wayne in The Cowboys (1972) where he had this crew of kids on horseback. I can't remember the movie that well, but I do remember at the time I thought, "That would be the coolest thing in the world to be able to do something like that." So I was really young when I already felt that pull towards acting and performance, but it was something I couldn't really nail down. I took some theater classes in high school where I started playing around with it; but it wasn't until I went to college at Boise State that I began to think about it seriously. I had one professor Fred Norman who was a mentor and he helped me make the decision. He said, "If you really like this, you should commit to it because you're good at it." So I did that. I changed my major and pulled my focus away from rodeo and football and made acting my primary thing. I never looked back after that.

Guillén: And you've done quite well over the years. You've done a respectable amount of TV work, even in series I'd seen you in without yet knowing who you were.

Pickett: Really?

Guillén: Yeah, like in Desperate Housewives (where you roughed up Orson). It's always interesting to me when an actor blips on my radar and I look back and realize how they've shaped their careers. Soda Springs is definitely, however, the vehicle that brought you to my attention and which, I imagine, will bring you to the attention of others.

Pickett: I sincerely hope so, Michael. That's been the plan. Briefly, I went to UCLA and I was pretty lucky early on. I started working shortly after I graduated with my Masters degree. I spent a long time on soap operas but I felt that they weren't going to get me where I needed to go. I knew I had to find another way to promote myself and to get myself out there. I thought the best way to do that would be to tell my own stories and so that started me down the path of making my own movie.

Guillén: One of the taglines for Soda Springs is: "Coming home is easy. It's staying that's the hard part." I've taken that tagline as an overarching comment on the state of film culture and filmmaking within Idaho, perhaps because I still feel very much an outsider. Though I was born in Nampa and raised in Twin, I left shortly after high school and have spent most of my adult life in San Francisco. So my perception of film and festival culture is fairly urban and international, even though I'm observing Idaho's film scene and its regional aesthetics with considerable interest and curiosity. Your career exemplifies what I consider the ongoing conundrum in Idaho with regard to film talent. To achieve opportunity, you had to leave Idaho?

Pickett: You're exactly right. I did have to leave Idaho, but going back to make a film in Idaho reminded me that I've always had a fondness for Idaho. I love the state and am proud to be from the state. My producing partner for Soda Springs, Gary Hollie, felt the same way. He's also from Idaho. We both dreamed of going back there to shoot a film; but, there's not a lot of film production in Idaho, so it was difficult. There's not a lot of incentive. I don't know all the ins and outs—we were a lean production and weren't looking for a lot of incentives or anything—our plan was to film in Idaho just because we wanted to go back.

But to respond to your question, you have to sometimes go away and learn. Even though I know the film industry is spreading out across the country, there's still so much going on in L.A. and it's where you can learn. You're around a lot of other talented people. Then you can take what you've learned and go back "home" and spread what you've learned around.

Guillén: Did you always have in mind that this script for this story was going to be set in Idaho? Did you always intend to return to Idaho to make your first feature?

Pickett: Yeah, that was always our primary objective: we wanted to go back. As I said, I love Idaho. It's a beautiful state. I have so much family there that I could call on for favors—which I did—and not just family but friends came out of the wood work. We were overwhelmed by the generosity of the people of Idaho and it truly was the experience of a lifetime, Michael. There will never be another experience like making your first film. There were so many synchronicities and happy accidents that happened along the way and I think that good vibe, that good energy, shows up in the movie.

We used folks from both places. We brought people from L.A. and they worked so well with the people we found in Idaho. Steve Fulton, the talented musician who scored our film, went to high school with me and my producing partner Garry Hollie. We wanted to involve people who we knew from our past. Our cinematographer Jeff Smith—who did such a great job—he's from Pocatello and went to Boise State, even though I didn't know him in Idaho; I met him here in L.A. He was the perfect choice to take back with us.

Guillén: I like how you talk about the generosity of the people from Idaho in contrast to the state, perhaps, not having the financial incentives in place that most filmmakers would seek out in trying to make a film there. You're not the first person to mention how important a role this generosity has played in making a low-budget film in Idaho. This generosity is one of the main calling cards the state has to draw in production. Can you talk a bit about how you coordinated that production? Did you go through the Idaho Film Office to find local talent? Or was it more through word of mouth and personal contacts?

Pickett: It was a little of both. We worked with Peg Owens and she helped point us in the right direction in a number of different ways. She helped us find Catrine McGregor, who used to be an L.A.-based casting director and then she moved up to Idaho. She casts a lot of people out of Salt Lake and Boise. She helped us find a lot of talent. And then it was just word of mouth. We'd meet somebody and then we'd hear about somebody else through them and follow up on it. There wasn't any one way that we went about coordinating everything; there were actually a lot of ways that we found people.

It's not only the generosity of the people of Idaho; it's their friendly nature. Idaho is a friendly part of the country. Yes, Idahoans were generous but they're just good people. That's why Garry and I went back, because we knew that. We knew that people there would bend over backwards. There's also—I don't want to call it naïvete—but, a kind of innocence to the people of Idaho. They haven't had a ton of movies shot around there so it's new and refreshing to them. If they were in a place where people were bothering them all the time to make movies in this location or that location, it might be different; but, right now, it's still new, they don't get a lot of that, so everyone was willing to help. But it even went beyond that. It went from us asking, "Can you help us out?" to their asking, "What can we do to help you?"

Guillén: As someone who watches probably one too many American independents, I was genuinely impressed with the professional quality of your film, especially the performances. As I mentioned to you earlier in email, I didn't detect one false note among the film's ensemble. So let's talk a bit about the casting. You mentioned that Catrine McGregor helped you secure local talent but how did you secure some of your bigger names?

Pickett: Oh my goodness, I could go on about some of the casting because almost every cast member has a separate story; but, I'll start with the local people. Catrine helped us find David Stevens who played my best friend Jake. Dave came out of Salt Lake, though he does a lot of work in L.A. I thought he did a great job of adding a little lightness to the movie and humor in places where it was needed. Catrine also helped us find Duane Stephens, who plays the Sheriff. Both of those guys are so professional and believable. That's what we were looking for: we just wanted honest people with honest performances. We set out to make an honest, straightforward, and heartfelt movie. We weren't trying to trick anybody or do anything too clever. We just wanted to tell a heartfelt story and those two guys fit into the cast.

Choosing the right director was key. I knew we had to work within a certain budget and I had worked with Mike Feifer on a number of smaller films and was starting to get to know him. I knew that—if nothing else—if we got Mike Feifer as the director, he has a certain eye and would help us cast and help us bring the movie in on time and on budget. He was invaluable to the production. He loved the script, he loved the whole idea, and he truly loved Idaho. He gelled with everything. He was the perfect choice. Mike has done a lot of really good films, but I think Soda Springs is the best film he's ever done and I don't think he would disagree with that.

I mention Mike because he knew Michael Bowen from working with him on another movie. Michael played Larry, the bad guy. We had other guys in mind; but, again, they wouldn't have worked. Dean Cain had agreed to do it, but he didn't want to be that mean. I thought, "Well, we have to find somebody who's okay with being bad." As a character, Larry has some redeeming qualities but all in all he's the antagonist. Mike came up with the idea of casting Michael Bowen and Bowen was like, "Beautiful. Perfect." He fell right in. It's not like we went out casting for all kinds of people; we found people.

Michael also worked with Patty McCormack, who played my Mom, and I thought, "My goodness, this woman is incredible!" So we hired her. We didn't have an actress for the role of Shelly and there were a number of people we were considering because we wanted to get someone with a name for that role. I remember driving my truck from L.A. to Idaho while on the phone with Garry and Mike and agents. Whenever I had service, we were trying to cast this role because we were going to start shooting in two or three days. Before finally reaching Idaho, we had decided on Victoria Pratt. She couldn't have been better. We went off of her demo reel and what people said about her and then she showed up on set and she was so great and gracious and fun. Things just fell into place.

Then there's the story of Tom Skerritt. We didn't get Tom Skerritt until almost a year later. We shot our entire movie without Tom Skerritt. Between you and me, you know the secrets of how people make films. We knew we needed somebody with a name playing that character. By sheer persistence and not giving up and dealing with agents and managers and on and on and on, we were finally able to land Tom Skerritt, which was one of the best things that happened to our movie.

Guillén: Skerritt's performance is the true broken heart of Soda Springs. It's one of the best things I've seen him do in a long time. He's always been one of my favorite performers, as far back as his TV work in the '60s and the '70s and then, of course, as Dallas in Alien (1979), but I hadn't seen him in a while and to see him come forth with such a heartbreaking portrayal was welcome.

Pickett: Yeah, he showed up and delivered.

Guillén: Another veteran actor who you had on hand was Henry Darrow as El Quijano. There are some poetic flourishes in Soda Springs I'd like to address and the character of El Quijano is one of them. He's a mysterious figure. At times I wasn't even sure if he was flesh and blood or whether he was just a guiding spirit.

Pickett: Michael, God bless you because that's exactly what I wanted him to be. When you say "guiding spirit", you totally get it. I wanted to leave this up to the audience's imagination. What is this guy? Is he real? Is he a spirit? Is he long past? In the movie we suggested he might be a relative of Sonya (Hollis Welsh) but the audience still doesn't know if he's alive or dead or if she even knows he's around. I wanted each individual audience member to come up with their own idea of who he could be.

Guillén: The ambiguity around El Quijano is one of the film's poetic flourishes. As I thought about it, the membrane between the corporeal and the incorporeal kept thinning. According to the continuity of the narrative, El Quijano not only interacts with Eden but also (off camera) with Jake. He's entrusted Eden's father's guitar to Jake to hand back to Eden. As a guiding spirit, he then became not only a guiding spirit to Eden but, in a way, to Jake as well. Or rather, one could say he became a guiding spirit to the narrative.

Pickett: Right!

Guillén: I think why that further touched me is because it speaks to the nature of Eden's friendship with Jake. Why I enjoyed David Stevens' portrayal was because he reminded me of my childhood friends from Idaho who are still my friends, some 50 years later. Jake is an almost archetypal friend who exemplifies the kind of people I've had the good fortune to meet in Idaho. In my own personal mythology, the friends I made as a child in Idaho have remained my friends throughout my life, whereas so many others have come and gone. There is a constancy to their spirit, which again speaks to that guiding ethos within El Quijano.

Which leads me to the film's overarching (and classic) theme of atonement, of the relationships between fathers and sons, of mentorship, and of Eden's particular sacrifice for Sonya, which is revealed late in the narrative. Why was this theme of atonement important for you to express?

Pickett: Y'know, I'm not even exactly sure, Michael. The script has, of course, evolved into something almost completely different than how it started out; but, even in early versions of the script, I wanted an element of atonement and forgiveness. That was essential to what I wanted to say and get across. I also wanted to suggest that—with regard to fathers and sons—everything doesn't have to be passed down the line. Somebody along the way can make a change.

Guillén: Sons need not necessarily inherit the sins and the sorrows of their fathers?

Pickett: That's right. Somebody along the way can break the chain so that things don't have to remain the same. By breaking the chain you change things not only for the future but even into the past.

Guillén: The past is never finished. The past influences the present, the future, and doubles back to influence itself. Why these themes interest me is, perhaps, because I was a student of the mythologist Joseph Campbell who often spoke of atonement ("at-one-ment") and who told me many stories about atonement, which were frequently about sons coming to terms with their fathers, or becoming one with their fathers. I remembered those stories while watching Soda Springs.

Another poetic flourish that caught my eye watching Soda Springs was during the sequence where Eden finds the photograph of himself as a child with his father. It looked like a baseball photo and instantly reminded me of the photograph you have up on Facebook of you and your son Tyler, also at a baseball game.

Pickett: That's funny. I'm sure people do recognize that. We photoshopped that Facebook photo with Tom Skerritt.

Guillén: So it actually is that photo from Facebook?

Pickett: Yeah.

Guillén: Ah.

Pickett: Again, Soda Springs was my own movie, Michael. I brought Tyler to Idaho on the day we were shooting the baseball stuff and he was too little. He didn't want to sit in the stands long enough so I could get a shot of him in the movie so I thought, "You know what? I want my son in the movie somewhere." Especially because of the themes we're dealing with in the movie. That was my way of getting his little mug into the picture. I took a little license and put him in there. I'm okay with it.

Guillén: It's a beautiful gesture. I'm interested in why you decided to go direct to DVD? If I'm not mistaken, you did have a premiere screening at Boise's Egyptian Theater this past summer?

Pickett: Yes, we did.

Guillén: I was out of town at that time but would have enjoyed attending that screening. But other than for that screening at the Egyptian and a few festival screenings, you've decided to skirt theatrical and go directly to DVD distribution.

Pickett: First of all, a couple of things. Yeah, I would have loved for you to have been at the Egyptian because it was truly an amazing experience. We filled the theater and the audience absolutely loved the film.

Michael, not everyone gets the themes in the way that you get them. I'm also a fan of Joseph Campbell and have read his books on the hero's journey. In my own unique way, I wanted to follow that structure; but, not everyone gets that. We weren't able to muster up enough of a buzz to justify a theatrical release unless we self-distributed, did it ourselves and took the film around to different theaters. We weren't up for that.

Guillén: That's hard work.

Pickett: It's a lot of work. We put a lot of money and time into getting the film this far. I'm just hoping that with people like you who see the depth of this story—because there is more depth to this story than meets the eye—maybe we can create a kind of grass roots buzz and by word of mouth do well with DVD sales and on cable. We'll be on movies on demand also.

Guillén: IMDb lists two new projects you've just completed. You have a direct-to-video release from 2009 called The Real Deal and another project with Soda Springs director Michael Feifer called Unstable (2012). Can you speak a bit about those?

Pickett: The Real Deal was an educational feature film from Loyola Productions that they turned into a whole series of workshops and classes. I think it's a movie they use in-house and I'm not even sure if it will ever be available. I finished Unstable a few months ago with Ashley Scott and Ivan Sergei. I had a nice role in there, played a good guy, played the guy who ends up with the girl in the end. I really liked the script. I haven't seen the movie yet; but, I was happy with what I saw in the days that I was there. So we'll see what that one does too.

Guillén: In terms of your own writing and producing, you've started with Soda Springs but what can we hope to see from you in the future?

Pickett: I have a few different things in the air and we'll see what sticks. From another film festival, I'm working on a script with a guy out of Kentucky who loved Soda Springs so much that he showed me a script he was working on about an ex-rodeo rider who's down on his luck but gets a second chance through horses. I'm also working on another script about bull riding, which is kind of like Rocky meets 8 Seconds meets The Rookie. And then I got a nice Christmas story from another guy, so we'll just see. I'm trying to find the next logical project that makes the most sense.

Guillén: Well, Jay, once again I'm sorry I don't get to meet you in Sun Valley. Have a wonderful festival experience there.

Pickett: You've been so kind and gracious, Michael. It makes me feel good when somebody gets what we tried to do. It warms my heart like I cannot tell you.

Guillén: I appreciate that, Jay. Thanks again for your time today.

Of related interest: Jay Pickett's IMDb Demo reel. For those unable to attend the SVFF screening, the DVD for Soda Springs is available for pre-order on Amazon. The release date is March 27. It will also be available on Movies on Demand March 27 and in Wallmart stores this May.

04/21/12 Update: Soda Springs won Audience Favorite at the recent Sun Valley Film Festival. Here is Dan Delago's Examiner interview with Victoria Pratt. Also Soda Springs will screen at the opening night of the 2nd annual Idaho Cineposium, sponsored by the Idaho Film Office in association with kNIFVES (Northwest Independent Film Video Entertainment Society). Jay Pickett and executive producer Gary Hollie will kick off the event at Silverwood Theme Park's theater. The conference continues Saturday at the Coeur d'Alene Inn with great keynote speakers, panel discussions, and time to network with speakers and industry peers.