Actor Will Wallace has amassed a prestigious portfolio, performing in a litany of films alongside the likes of Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and George Clooney. His debut as director or producer of the films “Rock Slyde,” “Cake,” and “Clear Lake, WI,” marks not only an expansion of his own cinematic career, but an opportunity to nurture the work of his acting students, who appear in all three movies. Here he discusses independent film, acting, and the movies that will screen at the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema.

How has your experience as an actor informed your work as a director of producer?

Wallace: I think the reverse of that is an easy question. Being a director really helps as an actor. I think that seeing others’ performances and guiding them with respect to creative choices helps to stretch out my own instincts and allow for more colorful journeys in my own acting. Being an actor and needing to challenge myself internally always makes it easier to empathize with the actors who are doing the same thing. One of the compliments I get is having a big bag of tricks to get actors where they need to be.

How did you ensure that your students were up to their roles?

There’s a process to get into one of my classes, so there’s a real comfort level to me to know that they would be committed to their roles and be team players. And of course, most importantly, they need to have the acting chops to sell the character... I have a Wednesday group and a Thursday group that I teach, and the Tuesday class is taught by my students. I think you learn so much as an actor when you’re put into a position where you need to teach and direct.

What do you look for in a screenplay you’re considering?

If it’s a good story, combined with a good team, I think that equals the green light in my book. It moves us, makes us laugh, touches us. It can scare us or thrill us. I think just instilling different emotions, aside from boredom, or a sense that “I want back those 90 minutes.”

What are the budgets for the films showing at the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema, and how would you describe the difference between studio and independent filmmaking?

Rock Slyde was under $2 million, Clear Lake, WI was under $1 million and Cake was under $500 thousand. There’s something wonderful about independent films. There’s a maverick style. Anything can come up, and you have to come up with quick choices and quick solutions. Individuals are doing more than one job. Something about that creates camaraderie that you often don’t see on big-budget studio films. With the big ones, everything becomes departmentalized and oftentimes a little less personal.

Who are some of the actors that have inspired you?

Albert Finney in “The Browning Version,” moved me immensely. Also, Meryl Streep never ceases to amaze me. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with Sean Penn three times now, and I think he’s one of the best the industry has to offer today. As much as I admire those actors, though, I teach my students that rather than studying an actor’s performance, I encourage them to study real life. As a student I remember marveling at two people having a conversation on a subway. And I was amazed by how real it was. I thought, if it were a scene it would be the greatest scene I ever saw.

Interview With David Spaltro

By Deborah Brennan

For a year and a half writer/director David Spaltro attended film school by day while sleeping in Penn Station at night, paying tuition with a veritable portfolio of credit cards and juggling odd jobs, class work and the pressures of a dual life. His first film, “… Around,” documents that experience in a darkly funny semi-autobiographical story.

At turns edgy, hopeful, sarcastic and sad, “Around” is unmistakably a New York film. Spaltro describes it as a love letter to the City of New York, but it can also be viewed as a love letter to filmmaking, with all the passionate toil and dedicated mania that entails.

A New Jersey native, Spaltro developed an interest in filmmaking as a teen, then enrolled in New York’s School of Visual Arts. When he lost financial aid his second year, he determined to stay in school, even if it meant going without a place to live.

Doyle, his character in “…Around,” imparts a sense of desperation to the choice, but Spaltro describes it more as an exercise in brashness, or a sort of dark adventure.

“It was just kind of a kamikaze mission,” he says. “I was a cocky 19-year-old. I thought, I can do it for a semester, and it turned into a year and a half. It’s something you could only do in New York. There’s so much space. It’s 24 hours. There’s something about the city; it doesn’t ever sleep. I don’t know if you could pull it off in Milwaukee, or a suburban town.”

Spaltro graduated with a BFA in directing in 2005 and kicked around on a couple continents deciding what to do next. As he told, and retold, his story to friends and strangers, it gradually became clear that his own tale was fodder for a film.

“I didn’t have a story, but everyone else said, ‘How could you not have a story?’ It’s not that I was embarrassed or didn’t want to get personal, but I just didn’t see my own life as that interesting,” he said.

When he finally saw its potential, he holed up for a week and churned out a 300-page draft of what would eventually become “…Around.”

With some interest from investors and possible talent attached, he began preparations for the film, but the threat of an actor’s strike dashed his financial backing. He turned again to credit cards to cover the movie’s $150,000 shooting budget, most of which covered wages to cast and crew.

“You can’t ask somebody to work without pay for 21 days in New York City,” he said. “I didn’t want anyone else to become homeless.”

Casting his own character was a challenge, Spaltro said. Robert W. Evans, who plays Doyle, was not his first choice. With his laconic, Southern manner, he didn’t seem an obvious fit, until he displayed an unexpected intensity during a reading with Marcel Torres, who plays Doyle’s best friend Logic.

“Casting yourself, or a version of yourself, it is hard,” Spaltro said. “I think it helped that the guy couldn’t be more different from me.”

Molly Ryman, who plays Doyle’s love interest Allyson, “had the right combination of sweet and dark, and played off Rob perfectly.”

When the original plans for sound and scoring fell through, Spaltro assembled a slate of his favorite New York indie bands, who donated their tracks for the purposes of festivals and screenings.

The film’s self-taught producer, Lee Gillentine, assembled what Spaltro describes as “an all-star tam of the best, low-budget film people,” who shot for 21 days in 190 locations around New York.

“Our art department would build sets overnight,” he said. “We were doing three moves a day, which, on a big budget film, you never do. This is Queens, then we’re in Brooklyn, and then we’re in Manhattan.”

Although Spaltro had lived in Penn Station, they shot the station footage during a four-hour stint at Grand Central, without lights or a tripod.
“We were supposed to shoot in Penn station, and they wouldn’t let us shoot there,” he said. “They said, ‘There’s no homeless people in Penn Station.’ They said that to me while they were stepping over a guy.”

The irony of that incident is fitting for a movie whose bleakest moments are laced with comedy, and whose tender scenes are bittersweet.

In a pivotal scene, actor Ron Brice, who plays Doyle’s homeless friend and mentor Saul, tells him of his life at the station, “That place is always going to be a part of you.” It’s a piece of wisdom that Doyle rejects, but Spaltro has embraced.

Ultimately, the experience of living on the street provided not only the storyline, but also the resilience required to make the movie.

“You have different eyes the rest of your life,” Spaltro said. “I really do believe that we are really intrepid, durable people. I believe that you don’t know what you’re capable of until you have no choice.”

“…Around” is available on Netflix instant streaming, on Amazon VOD, and in the UK on Blinkbox.com.

Spaltro is working on a follow-up to “Around,” entitled “Things I don’t Understand.”