Brett Rickaby stars as Graham Sutter in Stevan Mena’s newest film “Bereavement”. This is Brett first leading role and also his most intense and dark. Brett is also know for his role in the recent remake of “The Crazies”. Movie Mikes had a chance to chat with Brett about his new film and working with such an intense character with “Bereavement”
Mike Gencarelli: Tell us about how you prepared for such an intense role of Graham Sutter in “Bereavement”?
Brett Rickaby: Everything just sort of aligned. I was at this point in my career where I was trying to expand my abilities as an actor. I was really practicing emotional availability and it was a big thing I was working on in front of the camera. Sometimes acting is like landing a jet on the head of a pin, you got the camera going and you got to deliver on the spot. What is really important for an actor is to have quick access to their emotions and to a full range of emotions. I had been practicing that and I felt like I could take on anything. Next thing I know I get a call for this role and I thought it was perfect. When I read the script, I never read anything that was as emotionally voliatle as this role was. A lot of people buy into the fact that an actor has to go crazy to play crazy. To some degree it is true…while you are on, you need to be in it and living it, but you don’t have to stay there for good. That is something I have been practicing with the attachment and really getting into it. I have seen the movie three times now and there are points where I say to myself “I wonder want I was thinking there?” There is some crazy stuff going on with my face and I have no idea what I was thinking at that time. It is fun on that level to go back and look at it watching it again. It was really my first lead in a film. I felt like it was written for me as from the moment I finished it.
MG: Where you familiar with “Malevolence” prior to shooting?
BR: No, I had no idea. The suggestion to watch the first film kind of came hand in hand with my 
first call. They came me the script and then said “here this is what we are going from” with the first movie. Stevan had hopes to really outdo his first film. He had a bigger budget and more to work with and was trying to improve on the work he did with the first one.
MG: What was the hardest scene you had to shoot for the film?
BR: There are two that comes to mind. My death scene was really hard. It took a long time to shoot the scene. It was so brutal to do that and after shooting it for a while we all had to kind of take a break. We all were kind of shakey and was like “Wow this is awful”. The whole crew was messed up from that scene, but it works for the film. The other scene is, in what I feel is the climax, when I am in the bedroom with the little girl. Although I love the way it actually turned out and looks. Due to labor laws, we didn’t start shooting till 1am that day and the little girl had to leave by 2am, so we only had an hour to shoot that climatic scene. It was my first role and since it was the climatic scene of the movie and I was all upset. Firstly I had to be in crazy mode and then personally I am actually upset and I am wailing. Everyone thought I was actually going crazy [laughs]. Stevan edited that scene really well. Since non of us were really happy with what we got when we shot that scene originally. But it turned out really well.
MG: How was it working with Stevan Mena?
BR: Stevan has very particular and strong ideas for the film. If I felt that there was something I had to fight for I would push for it. So there times when we would rub up against each other. He and I both believe it is about the work and we realized we are working towards the same goal. When you have two strong creative people come together that is going to happy. We understood that and both have tremendous respect for each other. Both of us put in a lot of loving making this movie. It is almost like a survival thing between us.
MG: You are no stranger to intense roles, tell us about working on “The Crazies”?
BR: “Bereavement” is the hardest role I have ever done…in terms of preparation. I have learned so much about myself and there was some really big challenges. “The Crazies” was the easiest role I have ever done. One of the things that happened was I got Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which is shingles of the ear, the year before “The Crazies” was shot. Breck Eisner was talking about the different various stages of the virus. It starts from low energy and then he said the next is when your worst thoughts became your prominent thoughts. When I had Ramsay Hunt syndrome, I went to bed at night and I was haunted from my negative and bad thoughts. It was an interesting experience but perfect for “The Crazies”. I was already through that. So when the house burns down I am sitting on the back of the truck whistling. The camera come around in close and I just had to think bad thoughts. How easy was that? The only thing was difficult was the physical part of throwing my arms through the jail cell. Arms are not made to go through those and I had bruises up and down my arm.
MG: Do you have any plans for anything upcoming?
BR: I am working on a couple of short films. I have a lot of people asking me to do different projects. So I take a look for the following things, 1: Is there something I can do for this? and 2: Is it something I haven’t visited yet?. If I could bring something unique it catches my interest. I am definitely interested.
