| Passing Darkness |
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Q # 7. From your perspective what did Don bring to the role of Will? |
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Don is a remarkable actor and was really able to bring a great sense of compassion and humanity to the character. |
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That's what I love about working with great actors. It can be a magical collaborative process. And Don is such a wonderful person as well. A complete joy to work with. And that voice! Q # 9. Debra Hopkins is rather athletic and also quite skilled in martial arts. There is a flashback scene in your script where her character is described as 'throwing a kick to a man's ribs, driving him into the door, then slams the side of her hand against his neck, knocking him [Will] cold.' Did Don's rather extensive background in stunt work come into play here?Yes, and when we shot that scene we were fully prepared to have a stunt man double for Don, but he insisted on doing it himself. He's a real trooper. |
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 The Storyboard describing the scene where Debra's character 'throws a kick to a man's ribs, driving him into the door, then slams the side of her hand against his neck, knocking him [Will] cold. |
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Q #10. Is there anything that surprised you about working with Don, anything you hadn’t expected? Only that he is one of the dearest, most genuine and down-to-earth human beings I've ever met! And I mean that with all sincerity. You can never tell based on the roles they play what actors will be like to work with, but working with Don was an absolutely wonderful experience. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Plus, he's an incredibly talented artist as well, which was something I wasn't aware of.
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| An Interview with Ken Mader (cont.) |
One that comes to mind is when our fight coordinator/stunt performer (who was also playing the "Nemesis" character in the film) became unavailable at the last minute to shoot his closeups for the fight scene, and I ended up having to substitute my makeup artist as a stand-in since he happened to be about the same size and fit into the wardrobe. He ended up doing such a good job that I recast him in the role on-the-spot, then tweaked the scene in post with some digital face replacement and creative cutting so you couldn't tell it was two different guys! |
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Q #12 This is yours. Is there something you’d like the fans to know that I haven’t asked or wouldn’t think of asking? |
 Don is [...] committed to his craft... |
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| [Sel's comment ~ Having seen the film, I'm really impressed - Don's voice over work in the car and the digitalizing of the Nemesis/Raul flow so smoothly that you don't realize that Don had to re-record his scene in the car and Ken had to do some technical 'majik' with the Nemesis character.] | ||
 The storyboard for the picture above. |
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Q #13. Any questions you'd like to answer that I haven't asked? I guess just some stats: Passing Darkness was shot in Super-35mm 2.35 widescreen format over four days in January of '05, with some pickup shots completed in early March. Don was on set for two of those initial four days. Editing was completed in June, with final post, music and sound design finished by September. The film has gone on to become an Official Selection in five Film Festivals to date, taking top honors in the 2005 Movienation Festival winning Best Short Film, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Editing. For more info please visit www.passingdarkness.com.
The implication is that he is Sammy's step-father in addition to being Jessica's partner, which also answers [your first question]. The "asking for her Daddy" is a kind of double entendre, really just an innocent request by a 10-year-old that is meant to misdirect us into thinking she's talking about Derek, when in fact she's actually referring to Will. |
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More behind the scenes pictures are available at the movie's website.
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