CHASKE SPENCER: I just finished a movie called Shouting Secrets. I’m pretty proud of that one. We did it in Globe, Arizona and I really liked the story. I found out that the script is also written by Steven Judd, who’s a Native American screenwriter and very talented.
It was first written for a Dutch family, and they were trying to get it financed, and for some reason they switched over to a Native American family. I did not know that when I first read it, so it doesn’t really read as a Native American movie. It is like a family movie and the people just happen to be Native American–it was a different twist on things. It was totally a movie written for a Dutch family and you know it just interested me, I really like the character I play.
Chaske Spencer in Shouting Secrets
I finished that project and I’m gearing up to do Breaking Dawn in November. I think we’re shooting through March. After that I’m gearing up doing Winter in the Blood, the James Welch novel, with Andrew and Alex Smith, the guys who did The Slaughter Rule.
RACEBENDING.COM: Sounds like a lot on your plate this year.
CHASKE SPENCER: Yeah, (laughter) yeah and then my production company gets started on The Block after that. I guess I do four movies back to back, to back, to back.
RACEBENDING.COM: Can you tell us more about your production company and it’s new project The Block?
CHASKE SPENCER: The Block is about a writer who has a block, and the only way he can cure the circumstances he’s in is by killing people. He finds that the more people he kills, the more he has to write about, and it becomes an addiction. It’s very dark and it’s not like any character I’ve ever played. I really like the script. Ted Kurdyla, one of my production partners brought the script to me. He had done Tigerland, Phone Booth, Once Upon A Time in America so he’ s a pretty heavy hitter. We had a few meetings, ate dinner and lunch together, and I guess he was really feeling me out and fortunately we hit it off and he brought me the part.
The thing that I’m really excited about for it is that it’s my first production for my production company, Urban Dream. So a first for Josselyne [Herman], Ted, and me working together.
RACEBENDING.COM: Do you feel your projects, especially the success of the Twilight franchise, are opening eyes in Hollywood? Or at least convincing them to make more contemporary roles available for Native actors?
CHASKE SPENCER: Well, yes, and no.
Hollywood has a very short memory. I still have to struggle. I’m still getting roles geared towards Native Americans, but they’re not great scripts so I have to navigate and find out what I really want to do. I have to see if the character is right, and the story is right, because I want to keep challenging myself as an artist.
I have to be picky and it’s hard to find good roles and good scripts. I think that’s why there’s a lot of crap being made out there in Hollywood but I think there are great stories and movies out there in the independent film world and I think that’s the way to go.
Plus, Twilight is so huge–I don’t know where I could go or a bigger movie I could be in. I like the fact that I can somewhat control my career and not always be a product of Hollywood, because it is a game as well as a business there.
Also, I want to make stories and movies not just for Natives. I don’t want this to be just “a Native American production company”– it’s not about that; it’s about finding talent and stories that appeal to me and hopefully help other artists as well.
Read the full interview here
Via TwilightExaminer
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