 Maya, Victoria De Mare, Dawna Lee Heising, Dolores Quintana, Phedra Syndelle, Brad Slaughter, Brad Potts & Erik A Williams.
This interview is the first of many I hope by my new writing and business partner the super talented Kim Culpepper. Kim sure as hell popped her cherry good and proper with this one I can tell you.
Your new film Happy Endings, looks amazing. Do you like a happy ending?
Phil Condit (writer/director/producer): If you’re talking about sex, Woody Allen is the only person I’ve heard of who gets nauseous afterwards. Hell yes I like a happy ending! If you’re talking about in life I hope for a happy ending. If you’re talking about in fiction and movies, etc. I like all kinds of endings. Well maybe the Sopranos was a little funky.
Maria (actor/co-producer): Yes, we LOVE happy endings! And the happiest ending we could think of right now is if everyone could love our HAPPY ENDING right back! Love can be shown right here: (our Indiegogo page) and (our Facebook page)
> There are of films and books out there crossing horror with comedy and sci-fi. Would you consider Happy Endings more horror or sci-fi or a combination of both?
Phil: HAPPY ENDING is your basic creature feature, but it is sci-fi based on the origin of its creature. An alien predator gives it that sci-fi aura and mystery. There is no folklore about it. Nobody knows what it is. Nobody knows what it can do. But it is still a monster terrorizing people.
> What other films could be compared to Happy Endings?
Phil: For an alien predator, nothing compares with the creature from ALIEN. For comedy while being faced with extreme danger in a sexy setting I think of FROM DUSK TILL DAWN. HAPPY ENDING is a mixture of the two.
> Happy Endings seems to have a fantastic array of characters. Tell me a little about them?
Phil: I love the leading lady of my last film, EMPRESS VAMPIRE, the beautiful Ange Maya. She did such a spectacular job I knew I had to have her back. “Happy Endings” are often associated with Asian massage parlors, so I made Ange the Madam of “Madam Wang’s House of Happy Ending”.
Candy is a kick-ass, drop-dead gorgeous leading lady who takes the fight to the alien. Candy had been a vice cop busting hookers until she found out just how much they got paid for doing something she loved – sex - and without the thing she loathed – commitments. She jumped the fence and never looked back. When Jill Evyn read for Candy I was blown away. She is the embodiment of Candy - and gorgeous!
The Rubenesque Hispanic foodie Roxanne is brought to giggly life by the delightful Dolores Quintana.
Cinnamon, bless her dizzy little head, is a sandwich shy of a picnic. When you talk about how far someone’s stairs go up, hers don’t reach the first floor landing. She is cute, bubbly, loveable, and dumber than a bag of doorknobs. Victoria De Mare took that characterization into the next galaxy with her performance as Cinnamon
We have an ex Vegas showgirl Alice, a baby doll talking bleached blond cougar played to perfection by Dawna Lee Heising. I had met Dawna when she acted in my daughter’s film, BONER, and loved her to pieces, so I wrote the role specifically for her.
Whip-cracking Dominique, the dominatrix, is played with particular glee by my co-producer and extremely talented actress, Maria Olsen. Dominique and Sarge from the military base have a special relationship. Maria has taken to occasionally dominating me, which I find strangely enjoyable!
The stunningly beautiful and more than a little vain, leopard skin pattern wearing fashionista role of Bridget, was won by the smoking hot Phedra Syndelle.
And let’s not forget the guys.
Hunky construction worker Rick has a heart on for Candy, who likes him too but dreads commitments, is played by the equally hunky Brad Slaughter who plays the perfect foil for Jill’s Candy.
Rick’s bud is the bone skinny, always hungry jokester, Steve, who finds his food and love goddess in Roxanne, played wonderfully by Erik A, Williams.
And finally there’s macho, blustery Sarge who came to life when Brad Potts showed up. He knew exactly the right blend of macho and humor we were looking for.
If you don’t mind me saying so, we have an incredible line up of characters you won’t soon forget, played by the best, kick-ass talent in town!
> Which one is your favorite and why?
Phil: Candy is my favorite. She is an incredible person. She is in touch with her sexuality and is very feminine, but gives up none of her power to determine the course of her life. She knows who she is, what she wants to do, and what she won’t do – succumb to attacks by a slimy creature from beyond the stars.
> Who is the villain in this film and what about him/her/it is so terrifying?
Phil: The alien is the obvious bad guy. The fact that it is a complete unknown is what is terrifying. What does it want? Why is it attacking them and taking people? What is it doing with them? And what does it look like? I took a note from JAWS and decided to not show the creature for quite a while into the film and even the not terribly clearly.
> What makes this film stand out from the others that you have written/produced/acted in the past?
Phil: HAPPY ENDING is a fun, sexy, hilarious, scary rollercoaster of a ride with the best characters I have ever attempted to bring to life.
Maria (plays Dominique the Dominatrix): Well, I’ve certainly never played a dominatrix before, and no-one’s ever trusted me with a whip on set, either... #BadMistake #AccidentWaitingToHappen #ItsFunUntilSomeoneLosesAnEye!
Dawna Lee Heising (plays Alice): “Happy Ending” is a horror/comedy and the script is very well written and funny, like Phil himself. I’ve wanted to work with both Phil and Maria for a long time because of their years of experience and professionalism, and their stature in the horror industry. I know that this film will be awesome because of the great script and because of the talent of the people involved!
Brad Slaughter (plays Rick): I've always want to be in a comedy, and what better than a horror/comedy? It’s going to be a romp of fun, and I can't wait to be a part of it.
Dolores Quintana (plays Roxanne): There's a sense of joy and fun to the script (which is
very good by the way) and the people involved that is definitely different from the rest. I'm not saying other groups don't have fun, but there's a very special effervescence to Team Happy Ending. Also, the role of Roxanne is different for me personally as an actress. She's like a ray of sunshine and a very big personality and I am actually a bit more shy as a person. Most of the work I've done is on the serious side, so this is a big change. Another difference is that the women's roles are different than a lot of films in the genre. There are a lot of strong women in Happy Ending. None of the girls are waiting around to be rescued or protected by the men. They are ready to do battle for themselves and save the world, not to say them men aren't ready to rumble too, they are!
> On a personal level is there one film that inspired you or led to the start of your career in the film industry?
Phil: I saw KING KONG as a child and fell in love. I knew I was watching some really great special effects and wanted to learn how they were done. And the story completely captured me. As a kid I felt like I was a King Kong – a disaster area in search of a place to go off – but still loveable! It is a perfect blend of story and technology that hasn’t seen an equal until James Cameron’s ALIENS came out.
Dawna: “Silence of the Lambs” was a film that inspired me and scared me to death at the same time. My uncle Tak Fujimoto was the Director of Photography on the award-winning film.
Brad: I went on a show called King's 15 Things. It was the first project I ever worked on. Coming from a modeling background, I always wanted to try my hand at acting. That experience, being around friends, and creating something, inspired me to want to get into acting. The thought that I could reach out to millions of people through my acting was inspiring.
Dolores: I was moved by many films so it's hard to say. I spent most of my childhood watching movies and tv shows and I always dreamed of being an actress. It seemed like the greatest job in the world. (It is.). If I had to pick one, the greatest influence on me as a person and as an actress and the one that had