One of the most talked about films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Escape from Tomorrow, a film that was shot guerrilla-style in Disney World and Disneyland as an unauthorized production about a father who slowly loses his grip on sanity while in “The Happiest Place on Earth.” The House of Mouse hasn’t made any public statement on the film (nor is the company expected to), and despite many thinking it wouldn’t make it to theaters the film is set for a limited release beginning October 11.
Along with it’s unique circumstance surrounding filming, one of the most praised aspects of Escape from Tomorrow is the performance of the lead actor, Roy Abramsohn. Abramsohn has a long history in Los Angeles theater and has appeared on television and in film since the early 1990s, including recurring roles on Picket Fences and the seventh season of Weeds. However, his role as Jim, the father in Escape from Tomorrow is his first lead role in a film. It obviously takes a lot of skill for an actor to star in his first leading role in the middle of the world’s busiest theme parks without anyone else knowing he was acting in a film being shot secretly around them.
I had the opportunity to speak with Abramsohn at length about his role in the film, and it was compelling to hear him speak about all the aspects of shooting the film. In this first part (the second half of the interview is here), Abarmsohn spoke about how writer/director Randy Moore shot the challenging project and issues that came up during production, such as shooting a film in public in a crowded space when others around have no idea what’s going on and also how they almost got caught by security at the beginning of one the final days of filming in the parks.
Q: You’ve have had a career in television and film stretching back to the early 1990s, but Escape from Tomorrow is probably one of the more unique filming experiences you’ve had as an actor. Can you talk about how you got involved in the project?
I met my friend Adam when I went to Groundlings classes years ago. My kids were really little at the time and it’s a kind of thing you really should do when you are younger, but I was late to the Groundlings game. We went through the whole program and we kept in touch through the years. About three years ago he called me and said he auditioned for a friend of his, who was casting a new project, which turned out to be Escape from Tomorrow. He auditioned for the role of Big Red, the guy in the wheelchair, and he said, “You know, you’d really be right for the other guy, the lead in the film.” So he called his friend and the original casting director brought me in for an audition in this little theater on Hollywood Boulevard. I remember I was thinking, “This is really sketchy.” You know, there are tons of these little Equity-waver theaters in Hollywood that people do plays in, like I’ve done, when you try to get noticed – I’ve done a ton of theater in my life.
Anyway, I went to this little theater and, you know, movies aren’t usually cast in little theaters. And there was Randy, who was a very quiet, laid-back guy. He said right away, “You know where we’re going to film this and how we’re going to do this, I’m sure you talked to Adam a little bit about it.” He asked if I was okay with that and I said, “Yeah, that sounds wild!” and I didn’t really think about it too much. It’s one of those when you audition for something and they ask “Can you mountain climb? Can you ride a horse?” and you say, “Yeah!” and then when you get out of the audition you think “I better learn how to mountain climb and ride a horse!” I’m going to learn whatever they need me to do. Get the role first, and then learn the rest later is kind of how it works for most actors. Then he brought me back for a callback and there were four women opposite playing the wife in the movie. I knew I was in the running for the part because I was the only guy there and they were just testing the women.
So that’s how it worked, it was really bizarre. I tell people it’s a lesson in perseverance because had I not still been taking classes with Groundlings I would have never met Adam, which would have never led to this. It’s one of those connections that happen often in acting and I always tell young actors to always do plays. Not only are you going to do it to better yourself as an actor, you never know where something might lead. It’s not just for the work itself, but sometimes you will gain things that you will use years later that are coincidences.
Q: As an actor, can you talk about the pressure of shooting a movie in an environment with so many variables that are out of your control?
It was about seventy-five to eighty percent shot at Disneyland and Disney World. First we went to Orlando, and then we came back and went to Anaheim. Then we shot in controlled areas. Any interior scene that was in a hotel was shot in a hotel here in L.A. Randy rented out a whole floor for about a week and we shot all the interior scenes. Other places, like the scene at the pool where I’m gawking at the girls, was outside at place called Azusa, about a half hour from L.A. at a hotel we stayed at for a week and we shot all the exterior scenes. Then he had a studio sound stage where we shot for about three weeks where we shot all the green screen stuff. He also built a whole set for when I’m in the laboratory underneath Disney World.
Anyway, it was challenging because you always have in your mind “I might get caught,” and at one point we almost did, which was the scariest day. The challenge of acting there was you’re acting on two levels: you’re acting with your fellow actors and you’re acting with absolute strangers. In the scene where I’m running through the park looking for my daughter at the end I would occasionally turn people around to look at them. I remember doing that a couple of times and then thinking, “Oh, that can get me in big trouble.” Like a father could say, “Hey, who are you? Why’d you turn my kid around?” We shot that scene nine times at night. So the challenge is that you are bumping into people and you are knocking over real people occasionally though you’re trying not to. But another challenge is you don’t know where the cameras are sometimes because you’re not in a studio. In a studio you always know where the camera is, but here you never knew where they were filming you. I wouldn’t know where the two camera guys were sometimes, unless I’m on a ride then I knew they were behind me and in front of me on the ride. Some of the challenges are literally practical, like how do we get on the ride right next to each other? There’s a scene with the girls on Autopia and I’m following them around in that little race car. It’s kind of a throwback to a French movie – I think that’s what Randy was going for – that was really hard, I think we did it a couple days in a row because just to get the guys in the car behind me was logistically difficult.
The director went to the theme parks like eight or nine times before they started shooting because they planned out with where the available light is, and they had to check how long it was to get from this ride to this ride. They planned everything out shot-wise way before the film. But there were other close brushes while you’re acting. Like in the section when I’m getting drunk in Germanland there’s just this little montage where I’m arguing with my wife and she’s trying to pull my big beer stein away. I was getting a little obnoxious in that scene because I was supposed to be drunk and I would get up and dance with a waitress or I would say some weird Nazi thing and then Randy would come over to me and say, “Put a lid on the Nazi stuff” [Laughs]. I was trying to be funny, and some was scripted and some wasn’t in that section. You want to make a scene because you want to be an obnoxious tourist, but you don’t want to make a scene to the point where security comes over and says, “Sir, let me see your ID.” Then you’re done for the day. The kids’ actual parents were with us in both theme parks so they had to buy year passes for everybody and it would ruin the day if I got kicked out.
Setting up a shot was always difficult so we would go on certain things many times. I know Randy always said in interviews that the hardest shot is the People Mover shot. It’s the scene when my son asks me why we’re following those girls and I say, “What girls?” and they instantly pass us on the People Mover, and he goes, “Those girls” as they pass by. That was like a three hour shot because we had to time it right. It’s one of those seamless shots where you wonder how the hell did they do that. Well, it took hours and hours of riding that ride.
To get back to acting challenges, the most challenging thing was to act in public and not be found out. But in a weird way, and I told my wife Betsy – she’s an actress and a singer so she knows this – that sometimes this is what you have to do as an actor. You have to do a weird project somewhere. Maybe it won’t get off the ground, but it feeds your soul as an actor. Not to be too pretentious about it, but sometimes you just have to do plays or films that are good for you.
You tend to do more on TV than film because you know you have one shot at it or one or two takes and they’re moving on [Laughs]. If you’re a reporter, they’re not going to spend all day on your one line. So you usually push it a little when you’re in a part on television unless you’re the lead. It’s almost easier to do a lead in something because you already got the job and you’re already carrying the film and acting every day. When I was on this film I was on it for thirty-five or forty days, and so into the film a few days you realize, “I’m just doing the best I can in every scene,” so you’re not pushing like you would if you don’t work for three months and then you get a little TV job and all of a sudden you’re like, “Oh my God, I better be great! I might not get to work with this director again! Oh my God, they’re wasting $10,000 a minute because of all the people on the set!” All that is real pressure. In a way, it was pressure-less because we were shooting it on HD and transferring it to film to give it that look, so in a way you’re kind of free because if it didn’t go well on a ride you just do it again and you don’t have cameras and booms in your face, the cameras are sort of following you in a hidden way.
It was harder to shoot the scenes on the set when we were doing green screen stuff because then you are under more of a gun. But in the theme park it kind of freed me up a little because we’d just do it again. You almost have to act natural because you’re trying not to draw attention to yourself, so in a way it’s freeing because I felt I was acting more naturally. I felt I could be myself more, and I am a father of two and it’s easy to be myself and I’ve been to those parks, both of them with my own kids and I know what it’s like. It wasn’t a huge stretch for me [Laughs], it’s about as close to home of a role as I’ve ever had. Even my kids are about the same distance apart in age as these kids are. The first couple of days were a little scary, but it kind of adds to your own personal excitement of being there. Once you realize you’re not going to get caught it became easier for me and I thought of it like any project I would do – I’m just trying to do my best job in that scene and make whatever scene I’m in as real and believable as I can. There’s no secret to acting, it’s really just that you want to be as believable as you can. That’s all I ever really think when I’m doing it.
Q: What else can you say about Moore’s dedication to that kind of detail on a movie that was obviously challenging to shoot?
I remember saying when Randy was casting this – he told me he was bringing out a kid from New York, Jack Dalton, who plays my son in the movie, which meant he had to bring out his mother and put them up in a hotel for six weeks. I said, “Wow, that’s such an expense! You couldn’t find a kid in L.A.? There’s not one kid who could be my kid in L.A.? That’s all there is, kid actors out here. It’s like a glut!” And he said to me, “You know what, I just wanted the exact right kid and that kid was it.” It’s so funny that a lot of the choices he made that I look back in hindsight were the perfect choice that ended up as the perfect storm. Like that kid was one choice.
Another choice was to do it in black and white. When he originally told me he was going to do it in black and white, my heart dropped. Not only did I think this would never be seen because of where it was shot, but then it was going to be in black and white on top of that? With all the color those theme parks have? I remember coming home and telling my wife and saying “Now this really isn’t going to happen. Who makes black and white movies?” He was doing this before The Artist came out, so when The Artist came out I actually was buoyed. But the difference was that was a silent film shot to reflect that era, it was supposed to be black and white. This was an artistic choice because when they were doing test shots he came back and said he liked the weird, dread feel of black and white that it gave to the theme park that he needed for his movie. I remember when I was waiting for it to be edited I wondered why it was taking so long. I called him every couple of months – we almost kind of lost touch – and would ask him what was going on with the movie. He’d be like, “I’m waiting for a certain composer to be free so he can compose the music” and I think he waited a year until that guy was available. At the time I thought that there were so many composers, just get one, it doesn’t matter, but you know when you watch the movie and you hear the music it was a really good wait [Laughs].
Q: You mentioned before a story about a security guard almost catching you. Are you allowed to talk about that?
They told me early on at Sundance not to mention that day, but I did on the first talkback because that’s always one of the top three questions. So I’ve already talked about it, it’s not a secret where it was shot. There was a day when we were filming at the theme park here in Anaheim and we go in and it was early in the morning, about 9:00 AM. We had just checked into the hotels the night before. We were kind of cocky because it was near the end of the shoot and we had been to Orlando. We were doing a scene that’s not in the movie anymore, when we first enter the park. We were doing it out of order because we were at the end of the film, but this was the opening shot, though it was cut.
We go to the park and we do the shot just like anyone else would going into the park. But the shot where Elliot, my son, looks up at the guard and the guard and he had a moment of “Oh, you’re the new anointed one, you’re the anointed child who will use his imagination.” So that shot is that he looks up at the guard and we go in. We do the shot and the PA comes up to me and whispered to me, “Okay, go back and do it again.” And so we go out and we do it again and a security guard comes up and says, “Excuse me sir, can I ask you a question? Why did you enter the park twice in seven minutes?” My first thought was, “How did he know it was seven minutes? Are they watching me? Is this registering somewhere?” And I thought quickly and said to my movie-wife, Elena Schuber, “Oh, I left the sunscreen outside and I had to go put sunscreen on my kids.” That’s how I could tell him that we all left. Then he took a pause and was like, “Are you a celebrity, sir?” And I laughed and said to my fake-wife, “This guy thinks I’m a celebrity! Look at my dorky polo shirt, why would he think I’m a celebrity?” He said, “Well, there’s a certain protocol for stars who come to Disneyland and there’s a bunch of paparazzi following you and taking pictures.” That was our camera guys. And I said, “Really? Where?” and I pretended to look around but the guys were gone, they had like vaporized – they were absolutely missing in action, I don’t know if they had gone in or went out.
So I was on my own. Now everything I’m saying is being recorded because we always had our sound running, which was another challenge. We had a sound pack and a little lavalier mic that was unseen that had to be taped exactly because there’s a lot of rustling of clothing and you don’t have the sound guy checking you or your battery every two minutes making sure you’re all right. The way it would work is that we would rehearse the scene first in Randy’s hotel room and Randy himself would put the sound on to make sure it was done right. At that point we didn’t have a sound guy so Randy was doing it himself and all the sound itself. Then we would sit there and we would go over the script every morning in each hotel room wherever we were until we got the lines right. If we didn’t get the lines right in the park I would have to go find Randy because he had the script on his iPod because we didn’t want to drop any scripts around the park.
Anyway, back to the story. I told the guy I wasn’t a celebrity and he said, “Could you come with me?” So he brought all four of us – my wife and kids in the movie – through the tunnel in Disneyland when you go into the park and it’s the beginning of Main Street and said, “I want you to wait here.” Then other security came over and I thought, “Uh oh, this is getting hairy.” And I said to him, “Hey, my son really has to go to the bathroom,” because I thought of all the sound equipment on us and I thought, “Oh fuck, what happens when they ask us to empty our pockets?” Then I thought he was going to ask for our IDs and then compare the IDs and realize every one of us has a different last name. My movie-daughter’s name is Katelynn Rodriguez, and what are they going to say, “Abramsohn? Rodriguez? What are you talking about? How are you a family?” Then the jig would’ve been up. So I say, “My son needs to use the restroom,” and he said, “Yes, but come right back out here.”
We went into the restroom and we took off all our sound equipment. I almost threw the recorder away because I didn’t know where to put it, but I didn’t want to throw them away because I didn’t know how many weeks of sound we had on them. I didn’t want to ruin those days of shooting. So I put them in my big white dad socks because I thought that maybe they’d look in my pockets but they won’t look there. So as we came back out and this was part of the Main Street where the parade is coming by and there are Disney characters dancing right near the security guy and his back was to me. It was a distracting moment and the PA walked by me very fast and without stopping said, “Get out of the park, get out of the park, go to the white production van in the parking lot!” like in a spy movie! [Laughs] That’s when I knew it was pretty hairy because he wasn’t even looking at me in the eyes. So I look over and I saw Elena there and I said, “Let’s go,” and we walked very fast to the turnstiles which were probably about 100 yards from where we were and when we hit them we just ran into the parking lot.
We jumped in the van all sweaty and hot and I remember as we were speeding away it seemed like there was a guy taking the license plate down of the car. I just thought he was a tourist, but he was looking at the back of the car and I saw he had an earpiece in and he took out a pencil and was writing down something. That was nerve-wracking. So we got back to the hotel and Randy said, “Everyone out!” and we just checked in the night before. I remember thinking that I never got to use the pool [Laughs]. We drove back to L.A., and that was my last day of shooting in the theme parks. It was kind of a sad day because I knew that exciting section of filming was over for me. I think they went back with the girls months later to do pickup shots with them because they weren’t part of that day. There were shots he really wanted that day, but we weren’t going to chance it. And I remember saying, “How are we going to get these shots?” in the van as we sped away, and he said “I’m just going to do them on green screen.”
Check out part two of the interview, in which Abramsohn reveals his thoughts about the very real possibility that the film would never be released, what was cut from the film, and some of his personal thoughts on the Disney theme parks.
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