Damon Lipari is playing the character Keith in David R. Ellis 3D shark thriller “Shark Night 3D”. Damon is also working on another cool film called “Boggy Creek”. Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Damon about working on “Shark Night 3D” and his upcoming projects.
Mike Gencarelli: What was it like working with David R. Ellis?
Damon Lipari: David is one of those directors that you can tell really enjoys what he does. Everyday he’s on set he makes comments about how he has the greatest job in the world. When I auditioned I originally went for one of the leads but they didn’t think I was right, so David brought me back to play the role of Keith. The minute I met him I had this feeling that it would be so cool to work with him. You meet certain people that don’t have that movie star status and they are just so cool and chill.
MG: What can you tell us about your character Keith?
DL: I’m not going to sugar coat Keith’s character too much, so basically my character and his girlfriend Jess open the film and get you from point A to point B. Keith is a guy that lives in a camper along the lake and one day while swimming and…. well I am not going to give anything away but there are sharks.
MG: How was it working with Christine Quinn?
DL: Christine is awesome. The first time I met her was at the audition. She is such a pretty girl and once you get to know her you can see she has some acting chops and she can certainly scream. She did really well and she’s got a good head on her shoulders. She is from Texas and there’s something about those Texas girls that make you fall in love with them. When I met her during our call back we walked out together and Christine looked over at me and says “Oh we got that”. She was just so excited and celebrating like she had got the part already.
MG: How was it working with the sharks?
DL: I have done some stunt stuff before but never with sharks. I have been attacked by several different types of animals. One of my first movies ever was called “Vampire Bats” where I was attacked by puppet bats and CGI created bats. In terms of the shark, they brought out some model sharks so you had something to look at but in one situation I had to pretend. I had to learn the movements from a guy they brought in to teach us how to move if we were jerked a certain way by a shark. Without giving anything away it wasn’t difficult but it was a learning experience in how these creatures move and pray upon things. I know David has some stunning experience as he started back in the 70’s and worked his way up to where he is now and that’s probably why he enjoys his job so much. That’s also why the studios feel comfortable giving him $30 million dollars because he knows action and how to make things look good.
MG: What can you tell us about another film you have coming out titled “Boggy Creek”?
DL: When I got the call for that film they told me we would be shooting in a place called Uncertain, Texas. The film gets posted on imdb.com that the location is unknown and people had to tell them that there is an actual place called Uncertain [laughs]. Back in the day in the Boggy Creek area, people had been going missing and animals were being found ripped to shreds. This is the town where they have the Annual Big Foot convention every year, so stuff has actually happened there and that’s where we filmed the movie. I had been working on “Shark Night” and they moved us to the location of a giant wave pool, which was the same one used in “The Guardian” which I had a role in. Once that was done they shipped us off to a new location which was none other than Uncertain, Texas. I never thought I would be back to that town ever again! “Boggy Creek” comes out on DVD September 13th. I’m interested to see it as I haven’t seen any of the film what so ever. I kind of like it that way not seeing the films before they are done as I like to be surprised. Everything in this film was built from the ground up by Phil Nichols. There is no CGI at all. When we first left to go out and start shooting, my girlfriend in the movie played by Stephanie Honore asked the director for some reason if Big Foot had a penis. The director kind of laughed it off but came back and said he didn’t get any sleep that night thinking about if Big Foot had a penis or not. So they decided to put a penis on Big Foot. Each part of the costume was pieced on the actor’s one piece at a time. What you see is what you get in “Boggy Creek”.
MG: Do you enjoy working in the horror genre?
DL:It seems I have to like it as that’s what I usually end up getting. I get asked a lot what my next role is and they immediately say something along the lines of “oh you die again”. I seem to die in everything I ever book, which is pretty funny. Everything has been horror roles up until recently when I had a part on the series “Memphis Beat”. I get shot but I don’t die! They seem to be shooting a lot of horror movies here in Louisiana these days.