My love of horror movies is long documented. From the ‘video nasties’ I collected in the UK back in the very late 80s, right up to now with the plethora of ‘torture’ horror movies out there.
I love the gory stuff, whether it be zombies feasting on human flesh or people getting their just deserts at the hands of maniacs.
Last year I had an audition. Nothing new there. I had tons of them last year in fact. This one was for a ‘Bingo Game Night’… Hang on, let me rewind a little bit.
It was a beautiful Wednesday afternoon in August. I was sitting in the parking lot opposite Sony studios in Culver City, waiting to go into the biggest audition of my life. I was up for the lead in a multi-million dollar Sony pic opposite Tom Berenger and Billy Zane.
The breakdown said ‘Names only’, meaning they wanted someone with a recognisable industry presence in the lead role. And here was me, rubbing shoulders with some of the great and the good.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, parking lot. There I was, sitting in my parked car with the script in one hand and a mocha-chocca-skinny-soy-latte (hold the cream, hold the coffee, hold the water) in the other and as I was looking at the Sony building, calmly content in knowing that I had about 45 minutes to go and a very short walk ahead of me, there came an almighty bump behind me. I turned round to find out that someone in an SUV had reversed into my car… My brand new, three week old, cherished car…
The person who drove into me wanted to swap insurance details, naturally, which I was fine with. They then insisted that the police come, so they sent their daughter to find some. I looked at my watch. T-minus thirty minutes and counting. fifteen minutes later, the daughter came back; the Police weren’t interested as there was no injury. T-minus fifteen minutes to zero hour. We got everything sorted out and with about three minutes to go, I sprinted into the casting office on the Sony Lot, angry, hot, flustered and completely off my game, and auditioned.
I got a callback. I found out I had beaten a couple of famous people to that callback too. Colour me happy. In the audition waiting room a few days earlier, I had already seen a few famous people in the waiting room who were up for the same role as me, so I had beaten out some famous people to the callback.
The moral of that particular story is something else I will write about and is not the focus of this story.
Later on that day, I had another audition at CAZT in Hollywood, for the ‘Bingo Game Night; I mentioned earlier, so I trundled along there, in my broken car. When I got there, the casting director, a lovely guy called Tamlin, said that they are casting off personality and the ability to improvise, so can I tell him a story of something interesting that had happened to me recently..? I thought that if this job is about bingo caller, these might be useful traits to have, so I went along with it happily.
Naturally, I regaled him the story of exactly what had happened earlier in the day, and after a while I had him smiling broadly with the absurdity of it all.
On the Thursday, he called me and told me that if I wanted the job, which paid $100 (and boy did I need the money), it was mine and that I would start tomorrow (the Friday). I said yes please and he told me that he needed to email over some NDA details that I need to sign and return before we can chat properly. Odd, I thought, but OK.
I signed and returned them and he phoned me back and told me that I would be working with Darren Lynn Bousman. HO-LEE-SHIT!
Now, as I said before, I am a dyed-in-the-wool horror fan and the SAW movies were a particular favourite of mine. Darren is the man who directed SAW II, II and IV.
Honestly, when I got off the phone, I cried a little. Darren is a bit of a hero of mine (although i’ve never told him this and probably never will), along with other horror directors like Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter, Dario Argento, Sam Raimi, George A Romero, David Cronenberg et al. I was fucking ecstatic! You. Have. No. Idea.
But I am a professional, so I kept the relationship with Darren strictly actor-to-director; exactly as it should be.
The project was an immersive horror theatre project called “The Tension Experience‘ and it was the culmination of nine months of an ARG (definition of ARG here). I played an ensemble character called ‘Simon’ and I like to think that I brought a lot to the role and to the overall Tension project. I approach all my roles with a shit-ton of research. Not just on my lines, but on who he is, what he is, where he is and where he’s going etc etc.
Well, Tension broke the mold for immersive theatre here in LA. It redefined the genre completely and it is the yardstick by which many of the other immersive horrors here in LA are now measuring themselves. In fact, most of the creators of the other immersive horrors came through Tension to see how it should be done.
The reviews we got were incredible! In fact, I got interviewed by Bryan Bishop of The Verge after Tension had finished.
I wont list all the reviews here because honestly there are dozens of them but you can find them by a quick Google search.
To this day, it remains the best experience I have ever had on a set. Darren was incredibly kind and really cared for his actors. The rest of the cast were amazing and really helped me to up my acting game, and the crew were diligent, professional and fun to be around, who worked tirelessly for hours before we got on set and for hours after we left.
This is why I became an actor. To broaden my horizons. To do things I have never done before and push my boundaries. To work with other incredibly passionate and creative people and to touch lives in whatever positive way I can.
Thank you Darren, thank you Tamlin and thank you Tension. If I die tomorrow, I die happy knowing I have already lived a thousand lives.
Damien Gerard 