Yesterday I found out that a wonderful man passed away about a month ago from an unexpected heart attack.
I met Dennis at my friend’s work one day when I was looking for a location for Happy Birthday Jack! I had used this location on my first movie and knew that the owner would let me use it again.
I was describing the character to my friend when Dennis looked around and was intrigued by what he was hearing.
Dennis seemed like a nice guy working hard and taking time to allow for a joke. For some reason he said he wanted to play this character and right away I knew he was perfect. I said “The character supposedly does not speak any English”. His reply was quick and witty, “That’s okay, and neither do I”.
I went out and immediately got him his costume in his size. I made sure, as he was the visual and verbal punch line to the movie itself that whatever I could do to make him the best he could be, but something surprising happened, actually many surprising things happened with Dennis.
Dennis came to the set on the first day of shooting jumped into his costume and became Jose. Not just during takes. Mind you, that he was not an actor, but he loved playing the character so much that he became this man Jose. He would speak Spanish every time and made his character so real so visceral. He would have suggestions for his character and every single time I went with it.
At the very last minute, I decided to end the movie at an earlier point than I first scripted it. I ended it at the point where Jack’s brother asks “Who’s Jose?” and was going to leave it there for the viewer to decide what happened to Jose. After showing it to my test group (friends who I showed the movie to) it was determined that the ending was needed to clarify that Jose did get away with the money. So I called Dennis and asked him if he wouldn’t mind going out to the beach and shooting the ending.
Dennis was ecstatic and met me at Picnic Island in Tampa to film the last sequence. He was a trooper also because we had to go to my studio (A.K.A. my house) to re-do the audio as it was windy at the beach and all the vocals got washed out.
I was happy to have Dennis in my movie and to know him. He was a funny man and loved to live life. Although he was never technically an actor, he made my movie shine.
For me he will always live on as the guy who brought my movie to life.
You can watch the movie here.