Star of HICK: Dave Vescio Speaks to RSR about being a Villain
Exclusive Interview by Marc Anthony
“We only live once on this planet or at least we only remember once. So do whatever you want to do.” – Dave Vescio
Great villains are a necessity in order to have a real hero: Imagine for a moment a movie’s whole story revolving around a hero overcoming a small challenge over a stubborn vacuum. Not only is this scenario underwhelming, but leaves the audience refusing to anoint the character the hero title. Of course the opposite is true, if the struggle was of great proportions against a believable villain that the audience fears and hates. It is a great honor and a big responsibility to be such a man (playing the villain).
RSR sits with Dave Vescio to discuss his journey from CBS photojournalist to Hollywood villain.
MA: Transition from CBS Photojournalist, teacher at Virginia Tech to successful actor…how was that journey?
I used to belong to an organization called “NPPA.” It was a national press photographer association. And those guys were my mentors. They were all Emmy award guys. Some of them had seven to eight Emmys in their career already, and I am the type of person if I am going do it, let me train with the best in the world.
So, I was with that organization for a while and then they became my mentors. Over time, they told me if I keep doing what I am doing; I am going to win an Emmy real soon, probably in the next five to ten years. I don’t know, for some reason it didn’t sit with me so well, nobody knows who we are. We are just photographers, the reporters get all the credit, the anchors get all the credit but press photographers nobody knows. They never talk about us. They never give us credit for doing it. It just did not sit well with me. And I was confused, I was actually confused. It was like; I don’t know what I want to do now. So, I went to Virginia Tech for about a year. I co-taught two classes. It was with a friend of mine, it was my professor who got me into the business in the first place. He and I co-taught these classes. He taught the reporting side, I taught the photography editing side.
It was probably the second semester, during spring break, I went to Hawaii and when I got back from Hawaii after spring break I just realized: wow I want to be an actor full time now. This is it. This is my next journey. As soon as I did that, I applied to David Mamet’s Acting Conservatory in New York City. Finally got accepted and about a year later, summer of 2002, I started training there.
MA: Must have been a big decision.
It was. I was walking away from something that was so easy for me. So lucrative, money was great. I definitely had a future in that. But at the same time, I just knew that I didn’t love it the way that my mentors loved it. We were all union guys for the most part, so we could only work forty hours a week: These guys would work their evenings; these guys would work there weekends. They would work their holidays, they didn’t care if they got paid or not. I got to find something that I love like they love. I assumed it was acting and I proved it to be right.
MA: You have stated that most actors don’t portray villains properly, how so?
I don’t think so…I really don’t think so. I think Hollywood… I think they are getting better at it. A few of them do, do it. Like Anthony Perkins who did Psycho or Ted Levine who played Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs, Anthony Hopkins in his later work: I just saw him in The Rite.
The reason I don’t think they do it. I think most actors want the audience to enjoy them being the villains. The problem with that is nobody enjoys these people in real life. So, at the end of the movie, if I enjoyed your work, in my opinion, you didn’t do your job properly. You should have scared the shit out of me.
When I walk out of that theatre, I should be literally scared for my life: somehow or someway or you creep me out or you freak me out…that’s what these guys do in real life. Anytime you find out that your neighbor was the bad guy, you don’t think kindly of that person anymore. Yeah he fooled you, but now he can’t fool you anymore: That’s the image I want to leave with my audience. I don’t care if they like me. I don’t want them to like me. I want them to know that these guys exist, they are out there and they are hunting you every single day.
MA: That does sound pretty effective.
Yeah, Silence of the Lambs, “Buffalo Bill” the whole movie was about him for the most part trying to capture him. Every girl that I have ever met, they were scared after watching that actor play that role. They were saying every time they see a van, that’s the character they think of. To me, that actor did his job. Showed that these people do exist, they are unstable but at the same time they can con you pretty easily: “Hey can you help me with my couch, thanks!” And the next thing, they shove you into the van and it’s over.
MA: Which villain would you love to portray?
Oh man…I don’t know…one journalist asked me that question once before and the one I would love to try to do but I know I would never be able to because for one I am too tall and I am definitely not German, but I would love to understand why Adolf Hitler did what he did. This is a guy who was born Jewish; he was brought up to be Jewish. And then he turned on his own kind. I truly want to understand how and why that happened. What happened to him in his life that made him do that?
Why would you turn on your own kind? That’s sort of unheard of in human history. You always attack your enemies, it just totally bewilders me. But, I doubt I will ever play that role. But I am always intrigued by why he did what he did. It just makes no logical sense to me at all.
MA: Can you tell us about HICK, your new Film.
Yeah, HICK is based on a novel written by Andrea Portes. The great thing about the script and the film and the novel is that it’s not really the same. So, if you read the novel before you are going to enjoy the film because it’s not going be the same as the novel. The ideas are there but it’s not the same exact story. And if you see the movie and you want to see a different version then you can read the book as well.
It’s about a thirteen year old girl that just really wants to try life out on her own. She grows up in a family that is alcoholics….that are mean to one another; they don’t want to be together with one another. She is getting sick and tired of it and wants to have a life of her own. She decides to leave Nebraska heading towards Las Vegas but when you are thirteen years old on the road, things don’t go the way that you think they are going to go. It’s sort of like a Wizard of Oz story trying to find yourself but it’s a more of a modern day type. It’s got a great cast; it has Juliette Lewis, Alec Baldwin, Blake Lively, Eddie Redmayne, Rory Culkin, so it was fun. It was a lot of fun.
I am one of the villains in the story. In the book my character is chapter 20-22. It was fun. I learned so much learning the best of the best do what they do. And the girl who plays Luli is Chloe Moretz, she is “Hit Girl” from KICK ASS. I am telling you man, she is going to be huge in the coming years. She is A-list for sure.
MA: What was it that you learned from working in HICK?
I am pretty new to acting. Well, I have been acting since 2002 and that’s a long time but in reality it’s not. Most actors start when they are three, four, or five years old. And they might not have started doing film or TV work until they are teenagers or their twenties but been doing it onstage for decades already.
So I think I am pretty new at this and I still have a lot to learn. What I learned from Chloe is she can not only do the lines, but she can also improvise with the lines, totally different direction and then go back to the lines. I have seen other actors do that but those are seasoned actors.
Actors who are in their fifties, sixties or seventies: This is a thirteen year old girl doing this. So, it I was truly amazed just watching her do that, and I learned so much. With Eddie Redmayne, what I learned from him is the Arc of the character, in this scene we are going to show these emotions but in this scene we are going to show these emotions. I guess I never worked with actors that paid attention to that as much. So, it was fun watching him do that and at the same time maybe a can apply that as well.
And the other thing I love working with these known actors is that there are mind games up the Ying Yang. They love stealing the scene and they will do whatever they have to do to steal the scene. That’s the job. That is why people are given Oscars, Emmys and Golden Globes…because literally you are the Actor who stole the movie. You stole every single scene that you are in. And they are always doing that. Which I love because you are “How do I steal it back?” you know “how do I win the attention of the story?” It’s not about an ego thing, it’s more about really putting yourself there as the character. Really believing that you are this person that you are actually going through this stuff, if you do that? Then you will steal the scene. Versus if you “pretend it” then it looks like the other actor is doing it.
MA: You studied Judo, is that correct?
I did, I was in the infantry for six years and they taught us Judo. It was a great job. I have enjoyed every job I have done. They just not have been the right one. It took me thirty two years of my life to figure out the right one.
MA: You have said that in acting you try to live in the moment; do you try to apply that outside of acting?
I do one thing that I do know about being an actor, if you are in the moment on set or on stage you have to already know how to do that in your life. I meditate a lot; I try to focus on what is happening right in front of me in the now. I don’t really have personal problems in my life anymore. I have cleaned that up because otherwise it tends to keep you trapped in the past. So whatever I need to do now? I do it now, so it doesn’t keep me in the future.
I am always trying to be in the moment. Instead of trying to be stuck in the past or thinking about the future. I think by me doing it in real life, it’s easier to apply when you are on set. But it’s hard; I can understand why most human beings don’t do it because it’s not as easy as everyone says it is. For me I enjoy it. You actually hear the sound when you are walking down the street; you actually see the flowers on the trees or on the plants. I enjoy it because there is so much to absorb even as an adult.
As kids we are always absorbing and absorbing but it seems like we sort of turn of the switch when we start becoming teenagers and young adults. I learned how to go back to when I was a child again and just absorbing. I can’t do it all the time but I try to do it as much as I can.
MA: Sounds like being in the MATRIX.
Yeah, I guess. It’s really just about you right now. What do you see? What do you smell? What do you hear? What do the clothes feel like on your body? Are you wearing any kind of jewelry? It’s just being in the moment to what’s around you right now.
MA: You have previously said that you Read, Study, Practice, Master and Teach…
Yeah, that’s actually a motto I created for myself probably about a decade…decade and half ago? My dad taught me when I was a kid that you can learn to do anything in life all you have to do is pick up a book. You pick up a book you can learn to do anything in life. And he was right, every single day I am just absorbing information out of books, out of articles or whatever I can find. But I have been doing that ever since I was a kid.
I remember when I was about seven or eight years old at my grandfather’s, on my mom’s side…he told me that he knew that I love to read so here is a book of encyclopedias and I was ecstatic. I loved it.
I only saw my grandfather maybe once or twice a year but every time I saw him I would always be looking up these encyclopedias and now he gave it to me. I have just been taught that knowledge is power. It can help you. The more you know the more you use. The further you can go in life. I am always trying to absorb as much as I can but at the same time teach it because then you really learn it when you teach it or share it.
MA: Very Interesting.
Yeah because now you have to break it down to an elementary science. I went to college I have gone to several different Universities and some teachers want to speak to prove they are smart by using big words but I learned; how do you break it down to a fifth grader. That’s the average IQ, which is 100, which is a fifth grader education. So by me doing that now, I am really learning it and I really understanding what I just absorbed or just practiced.
MA: Are you in another upcoming movie, the title caught my eye, Kung Fu and Titties?
(Laughter) Yeah, I am definitely attached to that. We are supposed to be shooting that later on this year. It’s basically another Porky’s type movie. I don’t know if you remember Porky’s or Revenge of the Nerds?
MA: Absolutely.
It’s that kind of style of comedy. What I do know of the script and what I can talk about. It’s about an MMA fighter. I think he is retired and his wife kids kidnapped by a villain who loves to look at these girls breasts all the time. And this guy has to come and rescue the day. But it’s more in line with Porky’s and Revenge of the Nerds.
I am actually working on a film right now I just can’t talk about it. I wish I could but they are not letting me. The name of the person who is executive producing it is actually a very well-known study executive and we have some really good names attached to the script as well. As soon as I can tell you I will.
But, right now film is going in a different direction or at least some people want to take it in a different direction. So this well-known study executive type he wants to be one of the first to do it.
MA: So there is a movement to switch it up in the industry?
TV has figured out where its future is but film hasn’t yet. With the whole movie theatres back in the 1940s, I think 80-83% of the population in America saw a movie at least once a week. Now it’s only 6% of the population. Everything is changing and people are trying to project where it is going go next. Is it transition to or where is it going to evolve into? Nobody knows. So I am part of a movie now that is going in a different direction that no one has really gone before.
MA: That well is very cool to be part of something that can change the film industry.
Yeah, I remember when I first started acting in 2002; I thought I wanted to be a theatre actor. I had no idea of ever going film or TV. I didn’t really care about that. Then in 2004 I did a very short film, a friend of mine conned me to do it. She was like “come on let’s just do it” and then we will do a play after you do this for me and then I fell in love with film and I never wanted to do theatre again. I think the last time I did theatre was about 2003 or 2004.
I remember everybody was shooting on digital now at these lower levels and all my friends were telling me I have to stop doing that. The studios and the networks only use film. And I am like “yeah but I don’t think that’s the future.” And they were like: “But film is going to be around forever.” And I didn’t know about that.
So, I continued to do digital film acting vs. film – film acting and none of my film friends are around anymore. Because everything for the most part is shot digital, it’s different when you act with a digital camera it’s totally different then when you act with a film camera because the speeds are different.
I always do this. I always get on a run. What I am trying to do is that I am always trying to figure out what the future is so that way I am there when it already happens.
MA: For your fans who want to follow you on Twitter can you gave that?
Twitter.com/DaveVescio. I am also on Facebook and in MySpace for people who are doing MySpace.
MA: Any final message?
We only live once in this planet or at least we only remember once. So do whatever you want to do. Enjoy it because it goes by super quick. It feels like it’s getting faster and faster the older I get. This is all we got.