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- Vents is extremely happy to spend some time today with respected industry stalwart Dave Rosenberg; welcome to our humble pages, Dave! How is your 2022 treating you so far?
Happy New Year! Hope everyone out there is staying safe. So far so good in 2022. Just got back from Maui. 1st time in Hawaii. Beautiful island. Snorkeling. Whale watching. Sunset at Haleakala. The whole deal. Now back to real life. Teaching middle school kids in LA. And getting the word out for our Los Angeles Premiere at the Glendale Laemmle Jan 28th-Feb 3rd and our current release on I-Tunes.
- Congratulations and kudos for the new film The Reunion which is set to premiere in L.A. on January 28 at the Laemmle Theater in Glendale! You not only star in the film, but you also wrote the screenplay and serve as a producer. Can you talk a little about what The Reunion is about?
Thank you! We’re very excited to get this little gem of a film out into the world. “The Reunion” is about a former actor named Ricky Reilly who decides to confront his childhood nemesis at their high school reunion. He has 2 close friends. One is a Buddhist Mentor inspiring him to go the way of the peaceful warrior and forgive. The other is a NYC cop who encourages him to face his fears and become a “true warrior”. Eastern Philosophy meets Western Action in this spiritual showdown. And there’s a romance and sex and drugs and rock n’ roll and all that too!
- How closely to your own life does The Reunion skirt? Are there a lot of real-life incidents that found their way into your script?
Very closely. Pretty much everything that happens in the movie happened in real life in some form or fashion. The movie was inspired by my traumatic history of being bullied in middle school and how I had to live with the consequences of that. But it’s not a bio-pic, it’s very much a fiction extrapolated from real life events.
- As this was so intensely autobiographical in many instances, was writing The Reunion ultimately a cathartic experience for you?
Yes, very much so. But cathartic does not mean flowing easily in a bed of flowers. It was grueling at times, heartbreaking at others, and yet spiritually enlightening at others. I remember one night, when I found the “Rite of Passage” scene, walking around Washington Square park at midnight throwing up and reciting Hamlet, as one of the many demons in my soul was being exorcised. Cathartic like that!
- As this is a very personal story for you, did you ever weigh possibly directing The Reunion?
Yes and no. I’ve never directed a movie before. My strengths lie in acting and writing, and to an increasing degree, in producing. I have directed some theater and I enjoy that, but my technical knowledge of film is quite limited. A number of people suggested that I direct “The Reunion”, but I always wanted to find a director who could challenge me as an actor. And I did, and he did.
- The Reunion features a splendid ensemble: Andrea Modica, Cara Ronzetti, Dinh Doan, Austin Pendleton and Jim Norton are but a few of the brilliant thespians that populate The Reunion. What was it like working with these accomplished actors?
Well, Andrea and Dinh were 2 of my best friends, and we also wrote the movie together. So that was fun and relatively easy, although we did spend almost a year rehearsing. Cara was fantastic. We initially tried to get some big names that might help us to sell the film. But Cara turned out to be the right choice for Natalie. She probably has gotten the most praise of any actor in the film. She knocked it out of the park. And she won the SOHO Best Actor award for her talent and commitment to the part of “Natalie”. Working with Austin was a dream come true, as he was my mentor at HB Studio for 6 or 7 years. He really launched my career as a young actor, as he has for so many young actors. Working with Jim Norton was a hoot. He was a friend of mine, and I asked him to do a cameo. He came in and knocked it out of the park. I fancied myself a comedian, because I did stand-up for a few years. But he was on another level. So quick and witty and at the top of his game. Like playing ball with Jordan or Lebron for the young folk!
- What sort of challenges did the cast and crew of The Reunion face in shooting the film in the midst of a worldwide pandemic?
We actually shot pre-pandemic for 16 days in June of 2019, but as a low budget indie shooting in the middle of NYC, you can imagine there were some challenges. We shot 3 or 4 days in Union Square, which is one of the most populated areas in one of the most populated cities in the world. We shot on the streets of the Lower East Side, with our DP and crew literally moving in and out of traffic. We lucked out and got a studio right near Union Square which became our headquarters, our holding and our set for 7 or 8 scenes. It was all challenging. But exactly the way I wanted to make this movie. Guerrilla style. We made it work!
- The Reunion has been singled out already with four film festival awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor; congratulations for all of these accolades! Have you been surprised by how warmly The Reunion has been embraced by not only audiences, but also critics?
Thank you! It was a real joy, taking home those awards, especially from festivals in New York, where we shot, and where I was born. This movie is really a love letter to New York, with so many beautiful shots of Union Square Park and Washington Square Park and the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. The awards and accolades will not ultimately bring happiness (that’s an inside job), but they were a sweet salve and a reason for celebration after a very taxing 3 year filmmaking process.
- What do you hope audiences take away from The Reunion?
It really depends on where you are at in your life. Are you at a point where you need the courage to confront some fear you have or some incident or person from your past? Are you stuck in your life and need to shake things up and get out there in the world? Do you really need to take a good, hard look at yourself and your own demons and forgive and accept others? That’s all in the movie. But ultimately, for me, it’s about healing.
- The Reunion marks your first credited screenwriting gig. With all of the positive feedback on the film, can fans look forward to seeing you do more writing in the future?
Yes. I’m currently working on a web series with some friends in Los Angeles. Right now, we’re calling it “Seinfeld 2.0”. Don’t sue me Jerry; we’ll change the name! And I have about 5 screenplays in different stages of development. I also love to read other peoples’ scripts. I have 4 or 5 friends who are working on their own movies, and I’m doing my best to support them in bringing their dream to the big screen.
- Your first credited screen work as an actor is in the 2000 film Overnight Sensation where you play a character called Frank Hayes. Any special memories of that freshman project?
Oh, wow! Way back! Yeah, my first ever scene on screen was with an actress named Edie Falco. You may remember her from “The Sopranos”. That was a trip. And Maxwell Caulfield, from “Grease 2” fame was in the movie, and one night we were doing karaoke and he sang “Cool Rider”, which was way cool! Sean Dugan was the lead and I played his nemesis. In “The Reunion”, I played the lead, and he was my nemesis. Who says karma’s not real! I just remember being on Cloud 9 making that movie. I never thought I’d be an actor as a kid, and there I was making a movie with actors that I had watched as a kid. What a trip!
- What inspired you to take the path of an actor, Dave? Is there a Secret Origin story you could share with us?
Isn’t there always! I was a sports broadcaster in college at Hofstra University. I saw the movie “Jerry Maguire” and I fell in love with it. I watched it every night before bed. And one day I did an impromptu Tom Cruise monologue for my friend Tami and she said, “That was really good. You should be an actor”. So I grabbed the Yellow Pages (that’s right!) and looked up acting classes and found Michael Blinderman’s Acting Class in Oceanside, NY. He told me I could be a star. I was hooked from there!
- Final – SILLY! – Question: Favorite movie about the making of movies – The Big Picture, Living in Oblivion or The Player?
Honestly, none of those stand out for me, sorry! Favorite movies about making movies: “Stardust Memories” by Woody Allen about a film director attending a retrospective about his work. At one point, I watched all of Woody Allen’s movies and that was the big, sweet surprise for me. And I quite liked the James Franco movie, “The Disaster Artist”, about the making of “The Room”. I thought that was quite brilliant and hilarious.
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The Reunion is now available for pre-order on iTunes! CLICK HERE
For more info: https://www.thereunionfilm.com/
