New York City’s Tribeca Film Festival, which opened on April 14, is getting ready to wrap up its 2016 screenings. The festival received over 6000 entries this year, and of those 314 films were chosen. On Thursday those films that were in competition (because not all are) were judged and the winners chosen in numerous categories such as Best Narrative Feature and Best Documentary Short.
As such, one might think that on Sunday, April 24th it would be all about catching up on those films you might have missed earlier in the week. Well, that’s not quite true this year. One of the films being screened as a world premiere tomorrow is the low-budget Almost Paris, which was directed by Domenica Cameron-Scorsese. Yes, that Scorsese, as in she’s a daughter of the legendary film auteur, Martin Scorsese. I’m told the tickets for this film sold out in three minutes!
Luckily, some members of the press got an opportunity to see Almost Paris before the official premiere, and without getting into depth on it, I can say the film is both timely and charming. On the Saturday afternoon before the official screening, I got a chance to sit down and talk one-on-one with actor Adrian Martinez who in the film plays Ricky Santana.
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Martinez has been in a string of major movies including last year’s Focus which starred Will Smith and the 2013 Ben Stiller film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. He’s also done a lot of television, the most recent being on season three of the Comedy Central hit, “Inside Amy Schumer” (Martinez: I love you, Amy!)
In Almost Paris Martinez’s character is a bank manager at a local Long Island bank who really wants to improve his swing in baseball. The performance definitely will get some laughs, but these aren’t comedy sketches. I asked him if he could talk about the difference between having a comedic moment and playing a scene for the comedy.
Martinez: Well, Ricky doesn’t know he’s funny. (…) You don’t play the comedy. You play the moment to moment truth of it all.
He then relayed a story about being called in personally by actor/writer/producer Louis C.K. to play a part in an episode of the FX comedy Louie. At first he didn’t believe the show was calling him, and so he told the person on the other line he’d have to speak to Louis himself.
Martinez: Then Louis got on the phone. “Hey, it’s Louis, I need you to come out to Greenpoint. You’re going to be running naked in fake rain, and screaming. I don’t know what you’re going to be saying. We can send you an Uber. Are you down”
Aside from being an entertaining story, Martinez uses it to illustrate his point. He asked Louis if the moment was supposed to be funny, but Louis told him to, “play the truth of it. The world is ending and you’re screaming for your life.”
Martinez: I just played the truth of that moment and uh, it just happened to be funny.
D’Angelo: That’s awesome, because I appreciate having real characters. There are some comedians that don’t, translate as well – as an actor.
Martinez: Yeah. A lot of comics can’t act –
D’Angelo: Yes.
Martinez: – because they go for the punchline. It’s not about that. It’s about real people trying to connect.
From there he let me in on who he takes his inspiration from: Peter Sellers.
Martinez: You know, everyone says genius today, but he really was a genius. When you look at Dr. Strangelove, when you look at Being There, when you look at his whole filmography. Even when he did, uh, Clouseau (aka The Pink Panther). I mean he was just so funny, because he was grounded. He’s was really trying to solve the case. He’s not trying to be funny.
My last question for Martinez was about his experience working with Cameron-Scorsese.
Martinez: I honestly felt like, ummm… I was on a rubber duck in the middle of a pool and just basking in sunlight, man, because she was just so real and sweet to me – everyone. And I say that because an actor needs to feel safe when he’s working on a set. You have to feel like the director’s got your back – that if you make a mistake, no one’s gonna go crazy. And I felt completely safe: to be myself, to take chances, to improvise..the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. She’s really special.
Almost Paris will be making it’s World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 24 at 6pm. Check back with TVoverMind for a film review, along with an interview with director Cameron-Scorsese and more of the actors from the ensemble cast: Abigail Hawk from Blue Bloods, Wally Marzano-Lesnevich – who wrote Almost Paris and plays the lead character Max – and actor/producer Michael Sorvino. (Yes, Mira Sorvino is his sister, and their dad is Paul Sorvino.).
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