Arrow in the Dark

Last Updated on July 28, 2021

NOTE: This article was slapped up on the old “AITH” site last year; in light of Alone in
the Dark’s nearby theatrical release (Jaunuary 28 2005), here it is again.

Before “Arrow
in the Head“ was born, I had a two-year stint in film
school, followed by 3 years in acting school. Soon thereafter, I worked on
French films/TV as an actor here in Montreal and graduated to English gigs. Over
the last couple of years or so, acting suddenly took a backseat for many
reasons. Yes, I focused my efforts on screenwriting,

producing and getting my directorial
debut
off the ground, but it’s really becoming a
journalist (or whatever you want to call
me) that was to be the biggest obstacle in terms of me remaining a “working”
actor.

Although working on the website has
undoubtedly given me access to a larger pool of high profile contacts in the
movie business, it’s also given me an added hurdle: being an actor and a
journalist at the same time raises a mammoth conflict of interest. Luckily
for me, I managed to overcome that obstacle and locked a small role in the
upcoming video game film adaptation:


Alone in the Dark.
Let me give you guys a peak at how it went down.

GETTING THE PART


In between takes,
trying to remember my damn lines!

When I first interviewed German director
Uwe Boll on my site for the now released

House of the Dead film, we kept in contact for obvious reasons.
I’m a journalist, he’s a filmmaker and we both dabble in the same pool which is
the horror genre. After much back and forth, Uwe offered me a role in his next
film “Alone in the Dark.” Sure, the part of Agent Yoneck was a small one, but
that was enough for me to want to fly down to Vancouver BC to do it. Why? Cause
I’m that guy!!

THE TRIP

Uwe Boll doing the directing Doo!

Unfortunately for my
clichéd “starving artist self”, I was flat ass broke around that time. So I had
to make a decision here. After thinking about it long and hard, I figured that a
small role in a high profile flick was worth putting myself deeper in the hole
that we call debt and eating disgustingly cheap 75-cent noodles for the next two
months. So after bumming some green off a bud (thanks Berge, I owe
you…well…too damn much), I got my plane ticket and found myself the cheapest
hotel in Vancouver BC to live in.

A note on my hotel, if I
may. It was in the heart of East Hastings. For those of you who don’t know about
this (I didn’t, silly me), East Hastings is the worst gutter in Vancouver. I,
for one, have never seen so many crack whores, smack addicts, bums and hookers
all collected in one neighborhood. DAMN! I felt like I was on the JoBlo.com
message board (just kidding)! You should’ve seen my face when my cab pulled into
my hotel at midnight– I was like “You’ve got to be shitting me! Somebody needs
to NUKE this place like now!!”

ON SET


Me,

Stephen Dorff and Catherine Lough Haggquist
talking about the scene at hand

After surviving 2 nights in
my rat hole hotel (I blocked my door with a chair and slept with a kitchen
knife) and killing two days exploring Vancouver (great city, except for all the
no-smoking laws), the day that I was to shoot came about. Thankfully, production
had a driver pick my ass up at the hotel to bring me to the shooting location
(it would’ve been a long walk otherwise). Once there, I immediately went and got
my make-up done (met Christian Slater along the way, kool guy, nice tattoo
dude!), munched down at the craft table (finally…real food!) and eventually
made my way on set to shoot my scenes.

Director Uwe Boll greeted
me warmly. This was the first time we had actually met in person and I was taken
in by his positive aura and friendly demeanor. He was a class act. I also talked
shop with amicable screenwriter Michael
Roesch, briefly met producer Shawn Williamson (too bad I met him on my
way out, would’ve loved to talk to him more) and yes, bad boy actor Stephen
Dorff, in all of his surfer blonde haired glory. All good people all around…
which is always a plus. They made me feel comfortable. NOTE: I missed out on
Tara Reid…dammit!

MORE LINES
YIPPEE!


Me,

Stephen Dorff and Catherine Lough Haggquist
acting out the scene

Then came the pleasant
curve ball. Uwe, in all of his wisdom, decided to expand my part of Mr.
Yoneck and gave me more lines. I was basically handed 5 pages of dialogue on the
spot (some of it, pretty technical) and had to get comfortable with it in about
five minutes because we were ready to shoot my scene now! I felt some
pressure since I’m usually religiously over-prepared before any acting gig, so
to connect with all that text so quickly was quite a challenge.

I did my best and that’s
all I could do. Did I ruin one of Stephen Dorff’s takes because I blanked out?
Yes, I did (he was kool about it, good sense of humor on that mofo) Did I
improvise and invent my own lines? You bet I did! Was I fully content with my
performance when all was said and done? Hell no! But I know I did my best taking
into account the situation, so yes…at the end of the day, I could look at
myself in the mirror without spitting on it.

WHAT I
LEARNED ABOUT MYSELF

Me gawking at
Stephen Dorff’s ass…just kidding. Or am I?

One thing that I’m very
happy about and for which I have to thank the extensive experience I got working
for JoBlo.com, was that I was not intimidated by the “stars” around me and more
importantly, not intimidated to act with one (Dorff). Throughout my years on the
site, I’ve been getting less and less star-struck. Every time I meet an actor or
a director nowadays, they’re people to me. So that played in my favor
when I had to act with Stephen Dorff. So even though he’s the biggest star with
whom I’ve ever shared a scene and the fact that I’d seen most of his movies as a
fan, on set…he was just another fellow actor to me. I’m glad to have reached
that level. Thank you, JoBlo.com!

CONCLUSION

Me and
co-star
Catherine Lough Haggquist
…thanks for the support hun!

After I was done with my day of shooting, Uwe
took me and other guests into his trailer to show us “dailies” of the film. I
was pleasantly impressed. From what I saw, the flick had a grim and mature tone
to it that I really dug and there was one particular massive shootout involving
soldiers and “now you see them, now you don’t” creatures that had me
grinning in a fanboy “Fuck yeah” kind of way. Let’s hope that the movie comes
out as good as the dailies looked. After the disappointment (for me,
anyways) that was “House
of the Dead“, this might be the film that pushes Uwe Boll to the
next level as a filmmaker.

On a personal note, I had a
lot of fun on my “Alone in the Dark” gig. Did it render me penniless? Yes. Was
it worth it? Yes. I believe that as an actor (or any other title in this
business) you have to do whatever it takes to get up “there”. You have to create
opportunities and when they come, you have to seize them, because if you
don’t…the 500,000,000 other people in line behind you with the same
aspirations, will. You want to be in the movie business? Ask yourself this: Are
you willing to live paycheck to paycheck, take a bullshit job on the side to pay
your rent, owe money to friends, family, creditors, eat freaking 75-cent noodles
day-in, day-out…all in the name of your career? That’s the worst case
scenario, but it can happen, trust me…I know.

Later dudes and dudettes!

Thanks to
photographer and class-A dude Chris Helcermanas-Benge for the on-set pics

“ALONE IN THE DARK”
HITS THEATRES ON JANUARY 28, 2005

Visit the Alone in the Dark website

Visit
photographer Chris’ Official Site here


Visit my Official Site