This past week I had the privilege to interview award winning director, producer, actor and writer Brian Metcalf, who just released a new movie during a pandemic featuring Micky Rourke, and several academy award nominees. Most of us are struggling during a pandemic and wanna achieve success, Brian is someone who released an entire movie during a world experiencing a reset. I did an exclusive interview to motivate you that anything is possible. Success, comes from doing great work and your business is your gift. Brian’s business, passion and gift to the world is film and I think this interview below will really let you get a sneak peak into his head. Also check out Adverse in Theaters now and VOD! It features an insane cast, and remarkable action sequences.
As variety itself said, “A quick glance at its supporting cast — a lineup that includes such notables as Mickey Rourke, Lou Diamond Phillips, Penelope Ann Miller and Sean Astin — might lead you to suspect “Adverse” has only recently been retrieved from a time capsule originally sealed in the mid-to-late 1990s.” I can’t wait to finally see this film, and I hope you get a chance to as well.
Interview with Brian Metcalf below.
how did you get inspired to become a director?
My love for wanting to become a director came at a young age. I was an avid movie watcher, sometimes watching 4-5 films a day. My fascination with the art became so obsessive until I decided this was what I wanted to do.
what background do you have in the film industry?
I worked in art, design, photography, animation and visual effects for films, DVDs, trailers, EPKs and more when I eventually became a creative director. From there, I started to direct and produce documentaries, music videos and short films before I got my chance to move on to directing feature films.
what is your superpower you would say?
My biggest superpower is that I realize that I am not automatically knowledgeable about everything and that I need to keep learning in this industry so I can improve and hone my craft. I am able to study what other successful artists have done before me and learn why they were successful.
How important is manifestation to you?
Manifestation is extremely important to me. You have to make things happen yourself. You can’t wait around for your agent to get you a job. You have to keep doing what you can to make your projects happen. If you don’t make it happen, nobody will.
what advice would have for someone who wants to break into the industry as an independent.
My advice is to learn multiple skills. Don’t just be an actor, director, producer or writer. Be all of them. Learn to be as diverse as possible. Write your own materials to create the type of role you see yourself playing or directing and make yourself relevant. Produce, direct and write your own shorts to hone your skills.
if you could go back to being 18 again and start over what advice would you give yourself.
There is so much I wish I could tell myself. I would want to keep motivating myself to never give up and to listen to others more. I would remind myself to also enjoy certain aspects of my life more. I look back at things I got stressed about growing up and I can now laugh. Life is too short to put yourself in unnecessary situations but I didn’t realize that then.
I just saw adverse, excellent film, give us a behind the scenes of the development of this project and tell us how this project came about and the inspiration? I heard this is a personal story to you, please tell us more what it’s based on?
Thank you very much. This film was incepted when I was younger. I had a girlfriend who ended up mixing with the wrong crowd. That crowd happened to be a group of drug addicts who also got themselves in trouble with the law. But because she considered them cool, she wanted to hang out with them. And eventually she herself became a drug addict. She started stealing money and also getting herself in trouble with the law. And the saying of “you are who you hang out with” came true. I realized that she didn’t want to be helped even though she was sinking deeper and deeper. And I learned that there was only so much I could do if she didn’t want to be helped. This always stuck with me so I based Adverse off these true life experience. I wrote a treatment for this a while back and kept coming back to it, dusting it off and changing it. Eventually I sat down and wrote the full script for it. After that, I submitted it around along with my producing partner, Thomas Nicholas and we found some investors who wanted to do the project with us. We were actually up and running fairly quickly from the time I finished the full script to when we raised the financing for the film.
Micky rourke, and Thomas Ian Nicholas and so many great actors, how did you friend these amazing talents and put this together?
Thomas happens to be a business partner of mine, so he was involved early on, but only on a producing level. I initially wasn’t sure he could pull the role of Ethan off, but he proved he could in spades. Mickey rourke and the rest of the cast came on board through the help of a casting director and personal relationships with my partners and I. I was so very excited to get the chance to work with this diverse and talented cast.
How was it like working with many of these talents, and what story do you have that stands out to you most?
Working with this cast was an absolute dream come true. I grew up watching many of these talented actors so getting the chance to work with them was surreal. I had to force myself to stay extremely focused to make sure I wouldn’t get starstruck. There are so many stories with so much of the cast, I could write a book. But one story in particular that stands out is that some of us were filming at night in a sketchy location. We had started to get the attention of some of the local hoodlums. But because our characters were dressed just as sketchy and we had prop handguns, they decided it best to leave us alone and walk the other way.
If you were given an unlimited budget what would be your dream team of talent to work with?
Even though I didn’t have an unlimited budget for this film, I got the chance to work with some of the great talents I had always wanted to. There are many more I would love to work with such as Gary Oldman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep and more. With an unlimited budget, I would hope to throw so much money at Daniel Day Lewis that he would be forced to come out of retirement to work with me.
what’s the future of film industry as a director producer, actor with streaming is the opportunity greater?
I have a tremendous love and support of the movie theater experience and always want that to stay alive but I think streaming gives us more opportunities to get our content out there to a wider audience. And that is fantastic. There are so many opportunities for creatives and so many choices for viewers to watch.
where do you see your career in 10 years from now?
Hopefully I am doing the same thing I am doing now. I want to work in both film and television. And I hope my budgets will continue to grow and that I will get the opportunity to keep working with such great and diverse talent.
What advice would you give us trying to make it in the industry, and how do we contact you to work with you? Social media? Instagram?
My advice would be to network like crazy. Networking is extremely key and now you have to do it safely with covid. But I would always meet people for coffee and talk with people about projects. Also study your craft. I am always watching films and television, watching the behind the scenes, roundtable discussions, and more to learn how directors work. I am constantly reading scripts, taking courses such as the Sundance Collabs in order to become a better writer. As an actor, I have taken many classes to study acting such as Ivana Chubbuck’s school and Peter Berg’s. I attend events and ask a lot of questions to those professionals whose films I have just watched. It’s a constant learning process to which I will never stop wanting to learn. Keep up with the latest trends. Films and television have a much faster pace than they used to. Learn what the norms are now.
I have Instagram, Facebook and Twitter that I can be reached at:
Instagram and Facebook handles: bametcalf1
Twitter handle: bametcalf