Interview with Best of Seven Director and Actor Jonnie Stapleton
After reviewing the film ‘Best of Seven’ Ian Hornbaker got the opportunity to interview the writer, director and star of the movie, Jonnnie Stapleton. Ian and Jonnie sat down and had a great chat about the making of the movie.
Hi Jonnie, it’s great to meet you.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into filmmaking?
I grew up in Nebraska and pretty much spent my entire childhood and teenage years making home videos. Before involving my friends, I actually would play all of the parts similar to Best of Seven. The special effects weren’t really on par, but the acting was probably around the same level. I went to the University of South Dakota where I studied theatre with an emphasis on acting. There I realized I enjoyed writing comedies, especially the vulgar kind. After graduating I moved out to Los Angeles to pursue acting in film. After a few years of mostly low/no-budget stuff I met Domenico Grasso, the cinematographer of Best of Seven. He asked me to direct a short film he wrote and I really enjoyed working with him and being behind the camera. Not long after a few projects with Domenico, he approached me about the concept for Best of Seven and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t immediately on board.
Do you have any actors or directors you take inspiration from?
It sort of depends on the project. Acting-wise, Michael Keaton was a huge influence for me. Beetlejuice and Multiplicity are some of my favorite films and the influence of his characters is pretty evident with this movie. Directing, I really like Edgar Wright and Richard Curtis. It’s safe to say the Farrelly Brothers and Quentin Tarantino were also guys we pulled from while working on this movie.
Ahh… Multiplicity. That’s a movie I haven’t thought of in a while. Knowing that I can see how that influenced Best of Seven.
Can you tell us some information about your upcoming feature film Best of Seven?
Of course! It’s definitely for fans of outrageous, vulgar comedy. We decided early on with the script we weren’t going to hold back and we continued to push the boundaries as we went along. Primarily boundaries of taste. We shot with a very small crew and had a budget of around $5,000 (estimated). It was a labor of love and we never dreamt it’d become available on iTunes. This is pretty exciting for us!
Wow! Only $5,000! You definitely maximized your budget really well.
What was your inspiration behind Best of Seven?
Well, Domenico Grasso, the cinematographer/co-writer came to me a few years back and said he wanted to shoot a short film where a man has 7 different personalities who all try to kill each other. He wanted to do something violent and crazy and I was totally game. I thought it would be interesting to see more of this guy’s life and give him some backstory. From there we added Vera and Jerry, the parents, and expanded on the story. Next thing we realize our movie is going to be much longer than a short film so we just embraced it and made it feature length.
I’m glad that the project grew into what it did. It shows how a good concept can become bigger than itself if done correctly.
Normally you see movies about multiple personality disorder as dramas or thrillers. What made you think that it would translate well into comedy?
It worked well for Jim Carrey in Me, Myself and Irene, so we thought what the hell? I’m sure there’s a super dark version of “Best of 7” that could exist if you wanted to go there. Maybe like in the style of “Fight Club.” That’s something I’d like to see, but I guess we’re just more into comedy so that’s where we took the story. Plus, it’s more fun.
How did you decide on the six other personas your character would take on?
Definitely a question I wish I had a cooler answer for. I’m not exactly sure where Jack came from, but I think that’s just the slob, perverted, asshole version of myself I try to not show people. We definitely have similar thoughts. I mainly just love the idea of a guy who’s always in his underwear. Something about that seemed super fun and care free. Until I had to go outside. Hehe. Then it was scary. For the anal-retentive nerd, the jock and the kid those more or less came from wanting easily identifiable characters. So if you only saw them in small bits in the first 30 minutes you immediately knew the tone of their character. Then the costumes were just a clearer personification of that. We also wanted bright colors in there. Originally it was going to be all men until I was doing research and saw that it wasn’t uncommon for an alternate persona to be the opposite gender. Then my mind immediately jumped to “there needs to be a couple and they need to have sex.” Domenico was less on board for this, but eventually came around. Or gave in. Whichever you prefer. Then Boris was the random character that stemmed from my desire to try a Russian accent and Domenico’s love for “Red Heat.”
I’m glad you pushed for the female persona. The scenes and jokes with her, the joke, and the Russian were my personal favorite.
What was the most difficult part of making Best of Seven?
Constantly changing costumes, changing my hair, putting on make-up, washing it off, and most of all remembering what the other characters were doing while trying to be in the moment. And keeping up my energy with no one else to act with. It feels like every single joke falls flat because there’s no one to give the punch line or no one to give the set up. I felt like a complete idiot through 80% of the shoot. Which is fine. I’m used to that feeling. Domenico would make me feel better and say, “it’s good man” or give me an occasional chuckle so I knew we were on the right track. He’s pretty cool, that guy. And Mike, my primary body double, would touch his nipples to make me laugh. So that was fun to.
Haha! The entire movie I was either dying of laughter or wondering how the heck you were keeping the character conversations flowing. I’m glad you stuck through the awkwardness.
How long did it take from conception to the final edit to make Best of Seven?
About one year exactly. One month talking ideas. Another one or two for tests. Then it was go-time. We shot off and on for 10 months while working regular day jobs. We would shoot 1-2 days a week. Or sometimes no days a week. Or sometimes 3. Whatever we could fit into our schedule. It was an exhausting year. Fun though.
Do you have any other upcoming project you can tell us about?
We just finished a short film called The Man from Mars about a cynical podcast host who travels to small towns throughout the country, interviewing local celebrities, secretly mocking them for his listeners. He hears about an African American woman named Mama who has her entire community believing she’s the second coming of Jesus Christ. He seeks her out for his show, but some unsuspecting things happen in the process. I directed the film and co-wrote it with Domenico Grasso and Mike Nicholas. We did it for the Louisiana Film Prize in Shreveport and we’re competing against 20 other finalists for $50,000. It’s very exciting!
That does sound exciting and interesting! I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for it.
What else does the future hold for you?
That’s a tough question. I’d love to just continue making movies, hopefully with a bit higher production budget. We have some crazy ideas. We may even take a stab at a horror film cuz there aren’t enough of those out there. I’d like to continue acting, but maybe I’ll take it easy next time and just do three roles. Yeah, three sounds good.
Do you have any advice to any of our readers that wish to make an independent film?
Plan! Don’t underestimate the value of pre-production. A lot of our more elaborate scenes were meticulously planned due to the tricks we were trying to pull off, but that preparation applies to any film. Also, make best friends with a talented cinematographer who’s incredibly ambitious and a great collaborator. I got pretty lucky there. Have great friends that enjoy helping you out in somewhat thankless positions. I’m also very fortunate there. I have some really amazing and talented friends that I completely underutilized as my body doubles. They’re the best. Oh and sound is an aspect we overlooked. I recommend lav mics if you can’t afford a sound guy. You get 2 of those for less than $500 and you get some pretty decent sound. But if you have it in your budget to hire a sound guy DO IT!! Your film will thank you.
Sound is always one of the most difficult part of movies, so that is really some great advice.
How and when can our readers watch Best of Seven?
It’s available now on iTunes! It’ll be on Amazon in early October with some fun bonus materials. And make sure to write a review and rate it!
That’s really great. I expect all of our readers to check it out.
Thank you so much for sitting down with us Jonnie. It was a pleasure talking to you and we’ll keep an eye out for your future project. We wish you the best of luck in everything you do and thank you again.
You’re welcome and thank you.
Check out Best of Seven today! If you are on the fence, you can check out my review here or the trailer below. But I’d say get off the fence and give it a watch.
