“You get older and you know what you want and it’s a blessing and a curse,” Nick (Greg Vrotsos) tells a woman (Fiona Dourif) he just met in “Situations” — not the woman he was supposed to meet at a chic Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles, but another that he sees standing outside after deciding that the date he’s been set up on by his friend Paul (P.J. Byrne) would be too much to bear, still reeling from a break-up with his longtime girlfriend Jessica (Katie Parker) a week and change prior. Nick doesn’t look like the type to be easily shaken, brawny and seemingly casual as his loose-fitting threads are, and without the pressure of any expectations, he falls into an easy conversation with the stranger that both know isn’t going to lead to a long-term relationship, even if they end up consummating later that evening when both are in the mood.
Just because there isn’t a romance at the heart of Vrotsos’ feature debut doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot to love as it follows a photographer who has to give himself a hard look in the mirror on the cusp of middle age, having enjoyed himself plenty with a jetset lifestyle where every day has been a new adventure but has to wonder what he has to show for it besides a nice portfolio of work. He’d clearly like a little more stability when “Situations” starts, though it won’t be with Jessica, who should’ve been an ideal partner when they work in the same industry, but probably think and behave too much the same based on their profession to be compatible, and while his agent (Melora Waters) relays offers for photo shoots around the world and even a few music videos, the job that he wants is most elusive – to make an indie feature where he could engage his full range of talents.
Vrotsos, who has been a welcome presence as an actor on shows such as “Mayans M.C.” and “Orange is the New Black,” does little to hide the fact “Situations” was born from a similar impulse, but where Nick runs into a number of false starts in attempting to start a second act, the actor/director shows real muscle with a breezy comedy where he can clearly see how his onscreen alter ego has gotten in his own way and an industry town that draws people in when they don’t have to apologize for who they are is unforgiving in other ways when the itinerant lifestyle many have makes the idea of settling down seem impossible. As Nick makes his way from the Sunset Strip to Sunset Junction, Vrotsos covers plenty of ground as all the places that once made the photographer feel so cool and comfortable now make give shape to what’s missing from his life and while he keeps good company, his desire not to be alone makes the character compelling all on his own.
With the film set to make its stateside premiere this week at the Roxy Cinema in New York at The Downtown Festival following its recent international bow at Oldenburg, Vrotsos spoke about why he was finally ready to put himself out there in ways that seem to elude the film’s central character, the film’s alluring visual and verbal energy and embracing the unexpected.
How did this all come about?
I always say it was built out of frustration, just personally and professionally. It was just the frustration of being out there newly single again, and also not seeing these types of movies anymore, which [the film has been] referenced [as having] those ’90s, early 2000s types of vibes. I was also frustrated with not being able to be seen for these types of roles and typecast as a heavy, which has been great – it’s been the bread and butter, but at the same time, I wanted to play this type of character, so it was it was built off that. And at the time, I wrote and directed a couple shorts over the span of 10 years, but I hadn’t done anything in a while and I thought I’m ready to do a feature, but let me let me do this conceptual short [for “Situations”] and see how it works, just to see what can we do for no for no budget in Los Angeles?
It was a labor of love and I wanted to depict Los Angeles through my eyes. [As we say in the movie] Los Angeles is the best place to leave and the best place to come back to and I think it’s a beautiful city, but it can also be a very lonely city and I really wanted to have that “Lost in Translation” loneliness feel to it, but also keep that “Swingers” element where you’re bouncing around town. The short was essentially [the date scene that’s central to the film], which I thought was a good 20-minute chunk to test it out, and I wrote that and I called the gang and I said “Let’s try this and if it’s works, I have a feature on deck.” We screened it at Brain Dead [in Los Angeles] and we packed the house and literally the next day, we started going out there trying to raise money. It took a year from when we showed the short to start shooting [the feature], and Daniel Hartigan [my co-writer] and I wrote all these locations that I had in mind and for the most part, every character was written for someone that I knew or wanted to work with and just reached out.
You end up with a visual style that shows off all the great locations you get as well as conveys that feeling of isolation you speak of. What was it like to find the right compositions for this?
That was big to me. Trevor [Wineman], the [director of photography] and I, have been friends for a long time and we have the same kind of eye. Because it’s a story about a photographer, I wanted every frame to look like a photograph and from an acting perspective, I love seeing actors live in a space and I know the other actors did as well too, so that made it easy. Also when I think of L.A., I think of noir and I thought it would be interesting to see these moments [where] the obvious choice is get in tight [with the camera] when there’s a lot of emotions, but I felt that there’s a discomfort when the camera is just sitting there and you’re feeling it because you don’t know if you’re supposed to laugh or [cry].
I found it more interesting because when we do go close, it has more meaning and [when] you’re just sitting there in the restaurant or in his apartment, I’m a Cassavetes nut and in those movies it’s like, “Man, I don’t know if I’m supposed to be in this room and checking this out,” and you don’t know when we’re going to cut or if we’re going to cut, so we want to really lean into that and not make it too redundant. The editing played a very big part in keeping you engaged [too] because if you follow the typical film formula, like “I’m going to go wide and then a two-shot and single/single, close-up,” you lose the dialogue and the feeling and then it becomes unrelatable at that point. A lot of the reaction we’ve gotten [so far] is they relate to those quiet moments of [Nick] just sitting, [saying] “I have a friend like that” or “I’ve been in this situation.” I love natural lighting as well, and we were able to use all practicals [because of that shooting style]. There was nothing crazy, and it created a mood.
Did the occupation of a photographer come pretty instantaneously for this? It seems like a great entry point to depicting the professional/personal balance people have to have here while being in other people’s spaces.
It’s a very interesting job because I know a lot of photographers who have to be this energy on set [to do their job] and a lot of them are kind of lonely. What I wanted to say with this too is that outside of Nick’s apartment, everyone’s asking is he okay, but he’s almost addicted to I think [people showing that interest in him] more than he is anything else and I wanted to have these subtle themes [because] you never really know why [Nick and Jessica] broke up. I didn’t want to turn into a [story where] you favor this person or that person, but one of the themes is there’s clearly an addiction to the job [for both of them]. He’s thinking about “Am I going to go here? Am I going to go there?” And I wanted people to wonder, “Well, maybe they broke up because he’s too much into his work.”
But it’s an interesting profession because there’s intimacy involved with it, but it’s also fulfilling where you do a job like that and It’s very easy to come home and [say], “I don’t want to talk to anybody. I’m just done.” But it’s a perfect job for L.A. as well. He can shoot models. He can shoot the bass player from No Doubt, he can shoot all these different people and he’s directed a couple music videos, so I just thought it was an interesting profession because it’s a beautiful beautiful profession as well and also an old-school thing here. I really wanted it to be a portrait of a type of man that is slowly fading out, and it’s a bit of a portrait of a city and a man that is no longer existing anymore. It’s a bit in the past and that’s the way I always approached it and that leaned into the shots and the character as well.
Tony Kanal of No Doubt really does acquit himself well in the photo shoot scene. How did he come to mind for that key role?
Tony is good friends with a big photographer named Steve Earl, who is a friend of mine and a closer friend of one of the producers and the production designer. We’ve gotten to hang out with Tony a few times before and when we were casting this part, I was going back and forth [because] I thought I can’t have it be a name name because that’s too distracting, but [I thought] Tony’s the perfect happy medium because if you know him, you’re cool and if you don’t, you’re like, “I think I know that guy.” So I thought he was the perfect fit and we asked. And he’s a pro. I had a couple things I was going to talk about and I said, “Well, let’s just shoot,” and a lot of that was improvised. He’s like, “I got it and that whole vibe was all loosely Improvised and I really did think it was the perfect person to have in that role.
Was there anything that you want to do for your actors that you would want from a director yourself?
The tricky thing is that it’s an ensemble cast and the majority of jobs I’ve done in the past five years have been ensemble casts and the one thing I’ve learned from that is every actor is different. You really have to understand that and [personally] I don’t like to talk too much about [a role]. I didn’t do a formal audition process because I [thought] I can see the personality if it’s there and I can feel it, so I wanted to let them do their own thing and then shape-shift. At the same time, the thing that most people think is the hardest, which is acting as you’re directing and vice versa, is the easiest because I had the opportunity to manipulate the scene if I wanted [as the main actor]. I could speed up the lines, or I could take a beat here [in the scene itself], so I could direct as I was acting and that made it fun.
Everybody has their own process and with P.J. [Byrne and I], we like to rehearse and then we rewrite. Melora [Waters] calls you and asks you questions. Gino [Vento], I give him an activity and he stays busy. Fernanda [Andrade] was one where you don’t have to talk to her too much, you just let her live. Katie Parker, you dance with her, and Fiona [Dourif] I would keep her off balance a bit. So everybody has their own thing, which I love and it makes the day interesting. It changes my character as well too because he’s a layered guy and how he talks to every person, [which] comes again with the job being a photographer, you talk to a model different than you talk to a musician, so you see the complexities and it’s very layered in that sense.
Is it interesting to be able to have a final say on the character with the edit or is it tough to engage with your work as an actor as a director?
Believe it or not, I was afraid of being in that room, but I had so much fun. I wrote it and shot it already kind of cut in my mind. We didn’t do a lot of crazy [camera] setups, maybe three [for any given scene] and then if we had time I’d say, “Let’s have fun.” But in the editing room, I was having a good time and I killed a lot of darlings which I thought would be hard for me, but I learned so much [thinking] I’d rather cut this and linger more here or whatever may may be. I’m sure you notice that when I’m with another actor [in a scene], I’m favoring them mostly, like with PJ’s monologue. It’s like let that happen because you want to feel like he’s talking to you. I love that scene where [my character] goes to see his ex at the bungalow and that is the only time in the whole movie where we break this format of following Nick – he leaves to go to the car and we stay on her and when they go inside the the apartment bungalow, the camera stays outside. It’s a power thing and stuff that’s fun to play with in the [edit] room, so I had a blast.
Was there anything you may not have anticipated but you could get excited about?
Yeah, to be honest every single day because those are the moments I’m looking for. I’m looking for a fumble because I don’t like to cut at all. I like to play through it to see what’s going to happen. We’d have interference from people in the streets, which would play into [the scene] and I wanted to keep the raw sound because [for instance] when Nick is sitting there and there’s people chattering, that’s not sound design. That’s all mics planted everywhere and all that was unplanned. Then the actors, everything you saw is written but I always let the actors ad-lib or improv if they have to and a lot of those scenes like the phone calls [with P.J. Byrne] we were doing those live and that was surprising. But every day. I felt like you would find something and use it. Like the dog running in the park, that just happened and I remember being in the scene and in my head. I’m [saying] to myself, “Please don’t fuck up the lines” and [I had to improvise], “Come back dog, come back dog” and there it is. It just comes back. And I thought, “Well, that’s the scene.” I don’t care what the dialogue is at that point.
Was directing satisfying as an artistic pursuit? You’re a painter as well and both that and acting, I imagine, can feel quite solitary.
I’ve always liked to collaborate and I think it’s difficult for me to be the lead in the film because that’s not what I chase. I’m addicted to bouncing off other actors and I didn’t approach it as like “This is my set and this is what we do.” I like asking everybody, “What do you think?” and let the actors do their thing. I think [movies are] more fulfilling than any of the arts, whether it’s painting or acting or playing music because you’re using so much of your creative brain, but there’s other skills You have to make decisions and everyone’s looking at you and you have to know. I like that pressure, but I also like surrounding myself with talented people because it makes it fun and I like listening to someone who has a better idea and the best idea wins. You can only do that with a small crew and for this film, it was perfect. It was very fulfilling and then you get the benefit of or the blessing or the curse depends how you look at it of living with this thing and editing it, but it fulfills me more than anything else because I love actors and watching them play and pulling performances out. It’s more fulfilling than doing it yourself, recognizing something in a person and letting them bring that to the life. A lot of these the actors, if not all of them, don’t get to play these types of people and that’s why it was important to let them fly and do their thing.
What’s it been like to start getting this out into the world?
The festival world, as you know, is unpredictable and you don’t know what’s going to happen and what [festivals] you’re going to get into. We had an interesting start to it all and a lot of heartache, but you’ve just got to trust it is what it is and it’s out of your control, so when we started to get into get some word from festivals, it was exciting. We decided to do Oldenburg because as soon as they reached out, they were like “We want you here” and they took care of us. I didn’t know too much about the festival, but when I looked into it, [I thought] the film is going to get the attention here. It’s not going to play at 9 a.m. on a Tuesday and there’s two people in there. We had two packed screenings and two great Q & As and we became a community because there’s a bunch of artists coming together. There’s no pretentiousness, no big carpets. They’re not about all that stuff, so it was a great way to kick it off because it was about the movie and this next one we’re doing, The Downtown Festival, I know some of the people involved and some of the films that played and I’m like, “This is what it’s supposed to be about — the art.” I feel like we’re going to have the same kind of [festival] run [as the spirit] we made the movie — it’s going to be punk rock and it’s a lot of work on our end, but we worked too hard to let it just go away and we won’t.
“Situations” will screen at The Downtown Festival in New York on October 12th at 7:45 pm at the Roxy Cinema.