Two Step is a real Austin film playing at SXSW. Set and filmed in the city featuring many local actors, the feature film debut of writer/director Alex R. Johnson stars Beth Broderick as Dot, a dance teacher who befriends her neighbor’s grandson James (Skyy Moore). James comes face to face with Webb (James Landry Hebert), a scam artist who had posed as James to embezzle his grandmother’s money. This is all from the SXSW film guide description of Two Step, which describes it as a thriller. When I met the three stars, I was more interested in circumventing traditional labels.
CraveOnline: Even the synopsis in the film program calls Two Step a thriller. How would you describe it?
Skyy Moore: Character development piece that turns into a thriller.
Beth Broderick: I think it’s about two young men who are lost, who have no home and who are trying to get home. One of them goes wrong and he does eventually land. I think James’ character, near the end, we know that Dot is going to be there for him, that he’s got something, some kind of a home. There’s a lot of action along the way but I think James kind of brings her home too. She’s divorced four times, she’s a tough lady and she’s hanging in there but I think he gives her a reason to be.
James Landry Hebert: I think that really is it on a deeper level, these lost souls at that fork in the road, but on the surface, yeah, it’s a Texas noir thriller. At the heart of it, that’s really what it is.
Skyy Moore: Well, they say that every film has two plots. There’s the emotional plot and there’s the physical plot.
James Landry Hebert: And that would be that.
See, I almost don’t want people to know it’s a thriller because they shouldn’t expect the turn.
James Landry Hebert: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like the idea of that. When it comes, it comes out of the blue. I feel like a lot of the images and stuff that we have out for it sort of alludes itself to being a thriller but yeah, maybe we could call it a Texas noir. I don’t know. I don’t know what we could call it.
Noir is good to keep it intriguing. Or we could really trick people and say it’s just a southern dance movie.
Beth Broderick: [Laughs]
James Landry Hebert: Yeah, right? I think that’s the move. In fact, somebody told me at the screening last night that they did not know anything about the movie, just that it was called Two Step and they were expecting Dot the dance instructor, just fun dance movie. He was like, “It definitely was not that.” I think we got him.
I thought that too in the beginning.
James Landry Hebert: I’m so glad to hear that because you know, we know the story well even though we saw it for the first time last night.
Beth Broderick: That is a first for me. It’s the first time I’ve ever been to a screening not having seen the film.
James Landry Hebert: I really wanted to see it beforehand but Alex, the director, was really adamant about all of the cast members seeing it for the first time together. I think in hindsight he was right. It made that experience that much more special. Then when we got the Variety review, it was just the icing on the cake at the after party. It was such a beautiful moment for everyone involved.
Beth, you usually insist on seeing your work first?
Beth Broderick: Well, in a movie like this, on these low budget films. I consider myself a collaborator, not just a performer. A lot of times I will give them notes on script and that you can add these shots. The whole point of being me is that I can work with first time directors and help them. So yeah, usually I feel like more of a collaborator than just a performer so a lot of films I’ve done, Bad Actress, Fly Away, a lot of them, that did pretty well, I was part of the editing process. Literally, they brought me in for first cut, second cut.
I completely understand why you’d want to be part of the editing process. What a privilege that must be to be involved in that phase of your performance.
Beth Broderick: I think when you’ve been around as long as I have, and this has always been my way, I never just play my part. I’m there to make a movie. So even if it has nothing to do with my character, I might say, “You need to add a scene for that guy. You need to see him walking away.” I’m thinking about the overall piece because I never just play my part. A lot of actors would not be able to divorce themselves from protecting their character and see the movie as a whole.
This is hilarious, I said to Alex when I walked in this morning, I said, “You have to stop giving me top billing. You need to move me to third.” He goes, “It’s in your contract that you have top billing.” I was like, oh no. [Laughs]
James Landry Hebert: That’s very generous of you. You deserve top billing. For all the amazing work you’ve done over the years, you really do.
Beth Broderick: But literally, he goes, “I can’t. It’s in your contract.” I was like, “Oh, sh*t.” I was like, “Well, we’ll rewrite it. Let’s get through the festival, we’ll change it.”
James Landry Hebert: That’s a testament to how selfless an actor you are, how generous.
Beth Broderick: I don’t think it’s right for the balance of the film. I think I should be third. I’m right, right? He knows. He says I’m right.
Yeah, I think that’s an amazing idea because audiences are savvy about how billing works. Maybe back on Deep Blue Sea, “and Samuel L. Jackson” fooled them, but now we know. Billing is part of the movie.
Beth Broderick: It’s part of how people anticipate the movie. It frames their expectations.
Webb is obviously a dangerous guy, but how did you want to play that? How much did you want us fear him?
James Landry Hebert: Well, he was written incredibly dangerous, which was incredibly attractive, but I also was excited about trying to find the heart in Webb, trying to justify his actions. Alex and I worked really hard, sort of trying to play it as the bad guy, finding the orphan in him and why he was forced to do what he did even though he wasn’t. We tried to play against it and that was really fun. The first time I met Skyy, I just saw our likenesses as well as my likeness to the James character in the script. I think it created this brotherly love almost. It was almost like the brother he never had. At the heart of it, he’s a stray dog looking for a home.
Skyy, are you relatively new in the business?
Skyy Moore: Yes, I started acting in high school. Right before I graduated high school I started doing regional theater in Texas. I transitioned into film and got an agent. I was at a show, I was watching it and during intermission my agent tapped me on the shoulder and asked to sign me.
James Landry Hebert: Nice.
Skyy Moore: Asked, “Would you like me to sign you?”
James Landry Hebert: It’s not usually that easy.
Skyy Moore: Two weeks after we started looking for work together, I got this film called Cry which premiered at the Dallas International Film Festival and got great reviews.
What show were you watching when you got signed?
Skyy Moore: Red Light Winter at the Second Thought Theater in Addison, TX.
James Landry Hebert: Nice.
Beth Broderick: That is a really trippy story.
How has the process of paving your way in film gone so far?
Skyy Moore: So far I’ve done seven modified low budget films, or actually some of them have been nonunion but they’ve been similar to a modified low budget. I did one TV movie for the Syfy channel called Arachnoquake. It’s as good as it sounds.
That didn’t have the buzz of Sharknado.
James Landry Hebert: I know, right? That’s crazy.
Skyy Moore: I’ve been doing these little indie projects and they keep getting a little bit bigger and a little bit better. This is definitely the best one I’ve done so far.
James Landry Hebert: What an incredible opportunity.
Beth, I read the book Under the Dome, but now I don’t remember all 1000 pages. Did Rose Twitchell make it longer in the book than she did in the TV series?
Beth Broderick: She lasts all the way in the book. They changed a lot. They made it a killing show which I don’t think it needed to be.
Here’s my beef with television. They have made the killing off of characters an event. My feeling is don’t make me want to tune in to see a character die. Make me want to see your characters live every week. It’s become too much of a stunt.
Beth Broderick: It’s become too much. It’s a stunt.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
