Pressure: Interview

Review by By Clint Morris

Interview with Director Richard Gale
Head of the forthcoming Pressure starring Kerr Smith.

Richard Gale has a vision. The award-winning Director has plans to share it with an audience in 2002, via an exciting new teen thriller called Pressure, and he talks to Clint Morris about it.

Director Richard Gale

Clint: The Proposal was an entertaining film. Are you particularly interested in the mystery thriller genre?

Richard: Thank you! I love thrillers... I enjoy stories with twists and surprises that one would never anticipate, and most of all I like creating suspense. It's fun to place characters in such a desperate situation that the audience wonders, how can they possibly get out of that? I'm also interested in doing some jaw-dropping action sequences, once the budgets I work with will allow it.

Clint: What's your new film Pressure about?

Richard: Two medical students on a road trip make a pit stop at a bar, and stumble upon a wild party filled with sexy cheerleaders. One of the students has a girlfriend back home, and the way he chooses to deal with this temptation leads them into very, very deep trouble.

Clint: Why did you cast Kerr Smith and how did you approach him?

Richard: Kerr had just done the vampire movie The Forsaken, where he plays an innocent guy on a road trip who gets into trouble! It was easy to see that he'd fit perfectly in the lead role of Steve. It was crucial that he be very likable and intelligent -- a believable med student. I liked Kerr's work on Dawson's Creek, and felt he could do a great job. We had two casting directors, Lindsay Chag in L.A. and Blair Law in Vancouver. Lindsay contacted Kerr's agent, sent him the script, Kerr liked it, and was available (we shot Pressure while Dawson's was on summer hiatus). Kerr was great to work with -- a serious, dedicated, talented performer.

Clint: How did you cast supporting players. Anyone you would have liked to have had but missed out on?

Richard: Blair Law helped us cast most of the supporting roles in Canada, where the film was shot. That's how most actors usually get approached, via casting directors. We got very lucky with our casting on Pressure, because I think everyone in the cast is excellent. Lochlyn Munro, Angela Featherstone, Adrian Dorval, Donnelly Rhodes, Michelle Harrison and many others all do exciting work. I say "lucky," because even if your casting director is great (and Blair is), there are so many things you can't control once you've set a start date, when you have to begin shooting or you'll start losing money. This date is often set long before you've gotten your cast, so now it's a race against time to see if you can put together a great cast before time runs out! There could be terrific actors who want to do your film, but they are not available at that time, or there's simply not as much time as you'd like to cast the film. So many things can happen. The song comes to mind, "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you need."

Lochlyn Munro (left) & Kerr Smith (right)

Clint: Kerr Smith as a young actor/Dawson's creek face - what do you think of younger actors? Sometimes they are mistakenly passed off as pretty faces rather than talent.

Richard: Good looks are often a pre-requisite to being a lead actor, but if that person is not truly talented, their career is not going to go very far. I think the young actors who star in film and TV are quite similar to the older ones; they are hard-working professionals with a lot of talent, who usually have developed their discipline through years of experience and training. I have great respect for anyone who can get in front of a camera and lights and crew and be so relaxed and open. It's a joy to watch.

Clint: Is Pressure the kind of movie that may spawn a sequel?

Richard: In order to have a sequel, the main characters have to survive the first film... And I don't want to spoil anything!

Clint: When is Pressure released?

Richard: It should be coming out sometime this year....

Clint: What's your next movie plan?

Richard: I'm writing a Mother of a horror movie, something I've wanted to do for a long time. Tons of action, extremely fast paced, and extremely scary.

Clint: And who would you like to cast in such a future flick?

Richard: I'd like to work with so many actors... anyone who's ever been nominated for a gold statuette, for starters. No, seriously... any actor who has ever moved me with their performance, and there have been many.

Clint: You cast The Cancer Man from X-Files in Proposal. How surreal was that?

Richard: What a joy to work with William B. Davis. I'm a fan of the X-Files, and because we shot The Proposal in Vancouver (former X-Files location), he lives there and was available. Mr. Davis is the consummate professional. He nailed everything in one take, and we'd get another one just in case of a technical flaw on the film. I'd love to work with him again. Oh, and he doesn't smoke in real life. He never even really smoked on the X-Files! He told me he would puff the cigarette, but (as a former U.S. President said) he didn't inhale.

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