CraveOnline: Have you ever been tempted to find something where you’re just like eating a human liver through their stomach?
Lucas Till: Yeah, dude! I like watching those movies. I want to be a part of those movies, but I guess I have to be a little more selective. I would one directed by Steve McQueen [the director of Shame] or something, instead of just my buddy down the street and I making a cannibal horror flick in one room. But I do. The thing was, I was so… I’ve always liked the crazy characters, and wanted to do those. I never really liked the lead, but there’s so many benefits to playing the lead, man. But that was never what I wanted. I mean, that was never… I always liked the, I can’t even think of an example right now, but you’ve got your main character and you’ve got the brother of the main character, who’s like the crazy cool southern… Or like Sawyer on “Lost.” He was always the person I would want to be. Fucking Josh Holloway, he’s in [this] movie! People like that, I’ve always identified with them. The rugged dude, not the dude who’s right in focus.
It’s an interesting industry in that regard, where you look at someone like Colin Farrell, who’s a great actor but he’s better at interesting supporting roles and independent roles than he is in, like, The Recruit.
Yeah, you’re right!
They just ask him to be handsome and carry the movie, but he’s a more interesting actor than that. But he’s so good looking they won’t let him do anything else.
Right! [Laughs] Yeah.
You have these chiseled features and the blond hair, and people are going to want you to be the romantic lead, but that’s not what interests you.
No.
Do you just hold out? What’s your play?
I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t try until I’m 35, and I can actually grow a beard and maybe look like a man. But, yeah, I’m having a lot of fun doing a bunch of stuff now. I don’t see any harm in working, getting out there and practicing. [That’s] what it’s like until basically I’m 35 and I’m an alcoholic and have real problems to put on screen. [Laughs]
What are you working on right now?
Right now I just finished a movie called Strings, which has a dance element. It’s not a dance movie at all. It’s more kind of cathertic for this girl who lost her… It’s a veteran rehabilitation movie, coming of age story and a drama. Josh Duhamel is in it. Maria Bello plays my mom, which is killer. Laura Dern is so sweet, and she plays the other girl’s mom. Kherington Payne, she’s a prolific dancer, and she plays my love interest in the movie…
Do you get to do any dancing yourself?
Ha! No. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been in it. I play a DJ actually.
That’s kind of fun.
It was a lot of fun. I admittedly had very little respect DJ’s prior to this movie, and now I have too much respect.
Do you do a lot of research, or can you just stand there with one hand on a headphone and touch stuff?
Well, if I ended up doing just that, it was only because I did enough research to know to do just that. [Laugh] I did do my research, and now… I went to a festival in Winnipeg, which is where we shot this movie. I was watching this DJ and I was like, “You fucker, you’re not doing that! That’s fake! I know exactly what you’re doing!” But it is about those theatrics, because it’s boring just to watch some dudes tweak a couple of nobs. So you have to put some theatrics in there. But my character doesn’t really do that because he’s not about theatrics. He’s about…
He’s about the art, man…
Yeah, exactly yeah. He’s so focused because he’s got a terrible home life and it kind of comes out through his DJ’ing. But yeah, that was fun. I just finished that one, and Josh Duhamel plays my rehabilitation counselor. And now I’ve got another movie coming out, shooting in Vegas. It’s called Sins of Our Youth and it’s about four kids who kill their friend on accident. They’re shooting guns in the back yard and they come up with this shoot out solution. So they’re all going to kill each other.
I have not heard that before. That’s different.
It’s even better. I don’t want to ruin it.
Don’t ruin it!
But there’s twists, and they develop, and then they twist again.
That’s so interesting, because usually in a situation like that, in a movie, a bunch of guys get together and someone accidentally dies. Then they agree to hide the body and never talk about this again, and they end up killing each other.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen that movie. Here, I almost picture a scene – I haven’t read it – but I almost picture a scene where it’s just like, “Alright, we accidentally killed our friend. We’re either all going to go to jail, or we’re all going to pretend that this didn’t happen and we’re all going to kill each other. So let’s just get it out of the way.”
That’s exactly what happens! It’s heavy but there’s a lot of moments of comedy in it. Because the situation is fucked up, what they’re going through, but yeah… There’s a whole thing where they come up with a plan as kids to do this, and they’re like, “Oh fuck, I’m going to do this,” and the way it spins out of control in the end is fascinating.
That sounds really fun.
Yeah. It’s a million-dollar independent movie.
Well, you get to spend a lot of time Vegas. Maybe you can make more money for the budget. Bet it all on black.
Yeah.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
