The independent film business is a tricky one. Opening to rave reviews at a major festival may be huge for artistic validation, but it’s not a guarantee that the film will sell to a major studio and will be distributed worldwide. But that’s why we love guys like Dominic Bogart who go beyond making a movie to making a movie happen. The stage actor and star of Sundance Film Festival entry I Am Not A Hispter isn’t taking any chances when it comes to the passion project. He and the film’s director Destin Cretton have started a Kickstarter campaign that has so far brought them $8,126 closer to releasing their film.
We caught up with Dominic to talk about life, real jobs, and just how crazy you have to voluntarily become a starving artist.
Hey Dom. What’s up?
Hey there. I’m stoked to talk to you about what’s been going on. This weekend I’m excited to be headed to Austin, Texas for the premier of my sci-fi film, Extracted, at the South By South West Film Festival.
It’s inevitable that after Sundance, most people will start labeling you as an indie actor, but you were in theatre way before that. How did your love for acting begin?
I was first influenced by my brothers. I idolized them on the football field and then on the stage. I saw them expressing themselves on those public playing spaces and it was enthralling to strive for that rush. So I jumped on that bandwagon with them and we’re all pretty much still looking for that fix. My mom is also a singer and, from an early age, I remember seeing her perform onstage in local festivities and community theatre. That was always a trip seeing her up there. She was so busy working and raising four boys, but found time here and there to get up and sing like an angel for the town.
I read in wired.com that the role of Brook in I Am Not A Hipster was actually written for you. Have you and Destin been friends for a long time? And are you planning on collaborating again any time soon?
I met Destin and acted in his graduate thesis short film, Deacon’s Mondays, a few weeks after I’d moved to Los Angeles several years ago. I spent a week in San Diego with many of the same beautiful people that made Hipster possible. Since then, we’ve been friends, worked on several projects together, and have been supporting each other’s work. He’s an awesome person and friend who’s loaded with talent. Hopefully we’ll be working together again in the near future.
“I’m a sucker for sweeping romantic dramas. Don’t judge, dudes.”
How involved were you in the writing process? Did a lot of your personal life leak into the film?
I was involved in the process in that Destin would call me and bate me for information about my hometown and such then I’d get a new draft of the script in my email and discover a conversation we’d had the week before. That was fun. Destin and I have some parallels in our lives. He and I both grew up in the country and with three siblings. These similarities made it easier to relate to his characters.
You have an eclectic list of roles. In your next film, you play a convict used as a lab rat for a new memory intrusion technology. Now, in case someone were to perform that experiment on you, you might want to air out some dirty little secrets.
I’ve watched the film, Pride and Prejudice (2006), 20-some times. Legends of the Fall, only a few times less. I’m a sucker for sweeping romantic dramas. Don’t judge, dudes.
If you could get into anyone’s mind, whose would it be and why?
Shakespeare. I’d love to understand how he was able to have the English language at his command so he could continue to teach the world about itself for centuries after he shed his mortal coil.
It’s the lightning round! Suggest a song you think would be appropriate to be the soundtrack to the following senarios. Don’t forget to tell us why you picked them.
Waking up in the morning?
“What’s That I See” by my brother, Kevin Bogart. Inspires to look at the beautiful things around and ahead of me.
Going to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum?
“Back In Black” by ACDC. 12 years old. First song I ever learned on my electric guitar.
Thrift shopping for checkered tablecloths?
“Changes” by Bowie. Radical unusual days call for changes.
Finding a new band that you like?
“Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” by Fleet Foxes. First listened to them while walking through windy city Chicago two years ago…blown away.
Watching I Am Not A Hipster?
Any song by CANINES you can listen to and download my band’s album at www.iamnotahipster.com
Chilling with your bros?
Erie Canal (old folk standard) – We do a scholarship benefit back home every year that’s a great excuse
to see and jam with each other.
Interview by Rita Faire
Photographed by Coy Aune
For the full story, grab a copy of STATUS May 2012 issue
