Yesterday we brought you part one of our interview with Roy Abramsohn, the star of Escape from Tomorrow, which 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.” Part two concludes our interview with Abramsohn, and he reveals some more details about the film’s one-of-a-kind production with writer/director Randy Moore and his personal feelings on the project — particularly his concerns about whether or not the film would ever be released.
Q: You spoke about concerns about the film’s release. How concerned were you considering because of the circumstances it was shot there was a very real possibility that the film would never be released?
Randy and I had an argument about this the other day. He said, “You never thought this was going to be released, you never had faith in it!” And I said, “I had faith in it, I just never thought it was going to ever be released!” I mean, I knew this was special when I was doing the looping on the movie. I had to do two full days of looping because there were so many sound things that couldn’t come out in the park. A lot of it actually did, Randy was pretty surprised how the sound came out with these little microphones underneath our shirts going to a handheld recorder. But I had to do all kinds of things, everything from gagging when I’m throwing up to even a sigh or a cough or a sniffle. I had to do two days because I had the most to do – other characters came in for three hours, and I think Elena Schuber [actress who plays his wife] was there for a full day. So when I saw that on the screen it was the first time I had seen any of it. My first thought was, “Wow, this looks really good. It looks like a Truffaut movie or something. When you do something like this part of you thinks, “Aw man, this is going to look like a crappy student film.” I didn’t know what this was going to look like, I had no concept. So when I’m doing my voice work, I thought, “Wow, this looks like an art film!”
That was my first thought. I heard the music, I saw how it was shot, I saw the black and white, and I was really happy that day. I thought the black and white and where it was shot would be the death blow though I was going to do the film no matter what anyway, but when I did the dubbing I was buoyed by how it was shot and how pretty it looked and that made me thrilled. Then when I saw it at the original cast and crew screening I had a lot of different emotions about it when I first saw the black and white rollercoaster at the beginning and heard the music in a big theater. I think that’s part of the story and why it’s getting so much press, like how did they do this and it doesn’t look like a crappy handheld student film?
You know, most of what you do as an actor ends up the cutting room floor, never seen, or never gets you anywhere. I’ve done a lot of stuff that I knew would never see the light of day. So long ago I dropped the thought of “Oh, I want this film to become what it did.” I had no conception of it getting into a film festival or anything like that. I just did it because I’ve been here twenty-something years in Los Angeles and no one has said, “We want to put you as the lead in our film.” I mean, nobody gives unknowns leads in films anymore. I remember when I was a kid in the late 60s studios would introduce actors and give them a shot: “And introducing Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces!” Well, those days are long gone. You can’t get a lead in a film unless you’re already a big bankable star. There are semi-stars that can’t get leads in films. There are people who are Academy Award winners that can’t get in a movie now. I remember once being at an audition in L.A. and seeing Timothy Bottoms in an office somewhere for a low budget film. I was up for a role and I looked over and there was this grey-haired guy up for a different role. I looked at the sign-in sheet and there was only one name on the sign-in sheet and it said “Timothy Bottoms.” I looked over at this guy, who was once a young-man actor, and forty years have gone by and he’s a middle-aged guy auditioning for a low-budget film. I thought, wait a minute, he’s in one of the best movies of all time, The Last Picture Show – and talk about my love for black and white, that movie had a big effect on me, I think it’s a gorgeous movie and it’s sad and slow.
The original cut of Escape from Tomorrow at Sundance was twelve minutes longer, kind of a slower version. There were many things that were cut – I remember Randy rented this place in L.A. called the Hall of Records. I wish there was still a shot of that, hopefully it will be a DVD extra someday or a director’s cut where you see me running through these long tunnels that are very futuristic where I’m running from these guards who are chasing me. You still briefly see them, they zap me in the balls with a weird gun in the movie right before it goes to intermission, then I’m in the scientists’ lair, that’s kind of where the movie takes a real turn – you either stay with it then or wonder “Whoa, what’s going on?” Some people said it needed to be cut, but I kind of liked that slow version, and I don’t hide that from Randy. But he had to take out twelve minutes for a few different reasons. There were changes to the script that were done that were huge structural changes about what the movie was originally about and what it became that the director changed after the first cut. He cut out a whole section that I originally thought, “Wait a minute, that’s vital to the film!” and he said no, it would just add to the mystery, so it was interesting how he went with it. Some had to do with copyright, and some had to do with other stuff. I’m kind of a movie buff of that kind of movie, I like those slow, sad, depressing kind of movies. This has some of that feel to it, without giving away the end. It’s not an upper, let’s put it that way [Laughs]. Or you could look at it as an upper, it depends on how you interpret the ending.
I hope it will be seen, I hope it will get into a film festival, but I really never think of that when I’m doing the scene. You can’t. You just can focus on your work in the scene. You just work on doing the best job and making the scene the most honest you can. Like the scene where I’m throwing up and shitting hairballs, you know that was one of the hardest scenes in the movie to film outside of the parks. I’m literally gagging and choking for an hour and they had to build a special glass toilet for the camera and I’m in my underwear and it’s cold and I’m on a sound stage and I’m gagging. Just to even pretend to gag for a few minutes is hard, and I’m doing it for an hour. I remember thinking, “I’m giving my all for this. The director better be fucking grateful because I’m almost actually throwing up for an hour straight” [Laughs]. But at that point you’re all in. And on a film like this I saw how Randy was kind of all in from the beginning. That’s an all-in position to take: I’m going to make it in black and white. That’s an all-in position to take to say, “I’m going to take whatever money I’ve raised and spend it on flying people to Orlando and take a risk that the very first day, because the cameras had to be checked, that they were going to catch us.” So he’s kind of a guy who goes all in. He’s a very shy, quiet type, and you don’t think of him as a big risk-taker, but obviously he is and every now and then one of those risks pays off. I just happened to be along for that ride.
I gave up other work to do this, while in the middle of filming I’d get a job and I’d have to turn it down, and there were moments of doubt, like “Could I do this commercial?” because I got a couple of huge commercials during this and my wife and I needed the money and Randy said, “No, we’re in the middle of filming. I have a soundstage rented out – there’s gaffers, there’s lighting people, there’s craft service – you can’t go, you’re in every shot!” He was really nice, but at that point there was no way to work around those days. There was one day I did a day on a soap opera in the middle of shooting because he shot around me. It was one of those days we were shooting the pool scene in the hotel, and he worked his whole schedule around me so I could do one day on a soap because he understands that I’m a dad who needs money. He has two kids, too. So he let me go that day, and I remember being very grateful that he worked his whole schedule shooting around me – no one else would do that on a film shoot, no director would go, “Oh, great go do your two lines on a soap.” I drove all the way back to L.A. and I did it and I just got back in time – it was like a four hour round trip to shoot the soap.
You hope everything you do will be seen, but you know that ninety percent of whatever you do is never going to go anywhere. You know, I was on Weeds a couple years ago and I thought, “Great! Now I’m recurring on one season of Weeds.” It was just a small part, but I was a recurring character. I thought, “This is going to open up a million doors!” But it didn’t. It opened up no doors [Laughs].
Q: After finishing the film has your opinion of Disney World changed at all? Are you worried you’re now on some kind of “banned” list?
I have wondered if I am persona non grata at the theme parks. But I’ve had a few Disney experiences in my life. I grew up watching all those Disney things, I remember when it would come on television and you’d hear the Disney theme and it would be a magical thing you would watch. So I grew up loving that kind of stuff. But I was never a Disneyphile like I found some people are, like there are Japanese tourists who get married at Disneyland. I don’t ever understand that, to me it’s like joining a cult if you get married at Disneyland. I understand going and having a good time, but to get married there? To honeymoon there? I couldn’t think of a place I’d less want to honeymoon! It’s not private! I really have no conception how people join things and become enamored – I’m not a groupthink kind of guy to begin with, so I never understood that. It’s kind of what the movie is about. A theme in this movie is the power of corporate branding and how do you find your individual happiness when you have corporate-branded happiness thrust on you. That could be one essay that could be written on this! Someone said to me yesterday that they think that I didn’t use my imagination enough and that’s why I get punished, like I’m sacrificed almost.
But anyway, I went to Disney World when I was very young right after they first opened, and my memory is that I lost a $10 bill that my uncle had given me before we got to the park. All I can remember is that I was miserable the whole time because I kept thinking where I lost my $10 bill [Laughs]. Then after the whole day at Disney World I found it where the door closes on the car all crumpled up. It even had the imprint of the door jam. I remember thinking, “God, I was miserable all day and here it was all along.”
As for Disneyland, my wife and I live in L.A. and raised our kids in L.A., but we never really took them there because it’s so expensive. I don’t know how everyone affords it. We’re not poverty-stricken, but you see people there and wonder where they’re getting the money to take their families. They’re dropping at least $500 in a day if you’re taking your family there. The problem with it is that there’s so much pressure when you go to a theme park because you’ve spent all this money, you better have a goddamn good time! So I walk in and I’m miserable already thinking, “I just $400 on tickets, now I have to have a good time! Now it’s hot! Did you bring the sunscreen?” Next thing you know you’re waiting in a line for a ride that’s an hour long – I mean, I’ve had those experiences that Jim has in the movie! I just wanted to leave right then, and this was the beginning of the day, before I dropped another $200 on food and stuff. We had kind of a miserable day there because our kids were really too young. I’ve been that dad there, but I didn’t have that bad a day, let’s put it that way! [Laughs] What I experienced in this movie is like the worst day you could possibly have at Epcot.
There’s a lady who approached me when the film went to Ebertfest and she said “I used to work at Disney, and you know that scene on the ride where you try to kiss your wife? You wouldn’t believe what people do on those rides.” And I said, “Are you kidding?” and she said, “No, what happens is the people go there and it’s their big vacation. The father wants to have a romantic time with his wife but unfortunately they don’t have much money so they rent one room so the kids are in the room. So they really can’t do much, so they tried to do stuff on the rides.” I was really surprised by that, I thought that was just a scene Randy made up and I’m sure it was, and when I told him this he said, “Really, they do that?” And I said, “Yeah, they do all kinds of stuff on rides!”
Q: I think I’ve asked you enough about Disney, so besides Escape from Tomorrow, when and where will we see you next?
I did an episode of Franklin & Bash, which is the series with Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Heather Locklear, and Malcolm McDowell, which just ran. The only upcoming film I have is Area 51. Oren Peli, who did Paranormal Activity, did the movie and people have been waiting a long time for it to come out and I’m the father of the lead girl in that movie. That was shot around the time I did Escape from Tomorrow, almost two years ago. It’s not a huge part, but I’m in it and I’d like to see what happens with it.
I’m always looking for the next play that I want to do, and it’s very difficult because with kids and money it’s hard to go do a play, especially one in L.A. that doesn’t pay anything. There’s a play that I’ve always wanted to do, I even tried to contact the people who have the rights to it in New York that’s called A Steady Rain. It was on Broadway with Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman. I just did a play called Souvenir in Palm Springs, which is a two-person show that was an off-Broadway hit in New York about a singer and pianist in the 1940s. The singer was a real person who was a horrible opera singer and I played her pianist who tells her story. It’s a beautiful play. A Steady Rain is another beautiful two-person play, and it’s always hard to find a really good two-person play. But the only people who get to do that are Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig [Laughs]. I guess if I ever got any kind of celebrity from this, which I’m getting a little now, to me the best benefit would be able to do plays that I always wanted to do because it’s hard to get plays nowadays. They like to cast movie stars, like Chris Pine did a play here at the Taper. I mean, you’re not going to get that role even if you’re better than Chris Pine if he wants to do the play!
It’s a tough life to be an actor, it’s always a struggle. The biggest success from this to me would be if an independent filmmaker came up to me and said “I want to put you in my weird, cool movie.” Honestly, that would be the biggest flattering benefit from this movie! I had a great experience here, and I would like to repeat that. The chances of someone coming up and saying “I want to put you in a $50 million feature” are still pretty slim [Laughs]. I mean, if I was twenty-one, gorgeous, and a girl I might have a shot, but work with what you have!
Thanks to Roy Abramsohn for taking so much time to speak with us! You can follow him on Twitter @RoyAbramsohn
Escape from Tomorrow opens in select theaters on October 11. For more information, including theater locations, check out the film’s official website here.
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