Chris Carmack is playing the role of Dennis in the 3D thriller “Shark Night 3D”. Besides acting, Chris also has a passion for music and even contributed songs to the film “The Butterfly Effect 3”. “Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Chris about working on the film “Shark Night 3D“.
Mike Gencarelli: Can you give us some background on your character Dennis in the film?
Chris Carmack: Dennis is a local dive instructor that is a bit off his rocker. He is one of those backwoods guys who rides around on four wheelers shooting guns. Dennis’ ex-girlfriend comes up to the lake for the weekend to relax not knowing Dennis would be there. The same goes for Dennis since he was not expecting her there either. It’s clear though that they have some unfinished business.
MG: What do you look for when you approach a character?
CC: It tends to be there in the script. If you respond to the script then you’re responding to all the characters. If you are responding to all the characters then you can definitely respond to one character. When I read the script I thought it was a lot of fun and it looked like a great movie. The characters we really drawn out and identified and I loved the role of Dennis. I love playing bad guys.
MG: Over all was the job pretty intense physically?
CC: It was. Anytime you are working with water you are going to up the fatigue factor. Working in the tank had its own difficulties. There was a lot of chlorine in the water burning everyone’s eye’s but at the same time it was a controlled 
environment making it easier to shoot. When we got into the lake the water is easier to swim in but you’re dealing with waves and wind. There is no winning with water.
MG: Did you get to do a lot of one on one with the animatronic sharks?
CC: It didn’t seem like there was a lot of one on one. When they were on set they were the stars of the show. They were really cool awesome creatures and there is a whole team of people working them. I think the person who got the most face time with the sharks was Sara Paxton.
MG: Did you have a lot of creative freedom working with David R. Ellis?
CC: David was a lot of fun and he gave me a lot of room to work. You also had the reassurance that if something was going in the wrong direction, he would pull you back. David was definitely a blessing when we got around to the action stuff as those scenes can sometimes grind to a halt and cause some headaches. David is an expert and we sailed through stuff pretty smoothly.
MG: On the film “The Butterfly Effect 3” you wrote and performed a few songs. How did that come about?
CC: (Laughs) I’m a musician as that’s my other passion even 
though I don’t make a living at it. I always have my guitar with me on set and always happy to perform for those interested. I was working with director Seth Grossman and he had mentioned he wanted to put some bluesy type tunes in the background of some of the bar scenes. He asked if I had any music he could use and I told him I did and that he could use any of my songs but I wanted to have a guy I play with sing on one of the songs as he has a really great voice. I sent Seth a recording and he loved it.
MG: Do you have any other upcoming projects?
CC: There are always some balls being juggled in the air. I can’t really say too much until things are 100%
