1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?

I grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, which used to be this super liberal hippy college town, but now when I go back it feels like a total South Park joke of a burgeoning tech city. I still love it though. When I was in high school my 10th grade english teacher (who happened to be the state powerlifting champion of bench pressing) had everyone in the class make a comedy short film for this genre unit we were doing. Mine was basically a film adaptation of Super Smash Bros. The Nintendo Cinematic Universe! Making that project was the most fun I had ever had in my life and my class went absolutely nuts for it. I was pretty much hooked on filmmaking from that point onward. And it helped that my amazing weirdo parents have been super encouraging and emotionally supportive every step of the way.

2) What was the initial idea for this project and how did it evolve from there?

I was 28 and had never smoked a full cigarette before. I'm extremely sensitive to all drugs and chemicals and basically anything you put in your body that isn't food. Like even an 8oz lunchbox sized can of Coke has too much caffeine for me and I feel like I'm gonna pass on. So I originally just wanted to document myself smoking a full cigarette on camera like a generic Youtube vlog. To see if I could do it. To see how it would turn out. I was convinced that I would probably throw up and pass out before I got even half way through it. But as I started to prepare myself to make it, all these other aspects of vlogging culture and beauty and this amazing approximate quote from my uncle all popped into my head and I realized I wanted to make it into more of a narrative film. Kinda blending genre between a manipulated documentary and narrative satire.

3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And the easiest part?

The biggest challenge was definitely smoking the cigarette. The one I smoke on camera is my actual first one. So it was really hard to get through that while delivering a 5 minute monologue and... making myself more beautiful. Don't wanna give away any spoilers ;)

4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?

A while back my friends Claire and Karsten made me watch the 1996 OG version of Shall We Dance from Japan. It immediately became one of my all time favorites. The next day I emailed the bootleg Youtube "full movie" link to pretty much everyone I know. I probably love dancing more than anything in the world so that's a big part of it for me. But more importantly this film tells an incredible feel-good story about finding passion for life in your later years. It's so special. It has so many iconic characters. I can't recommend it enough.

5) What’s next for you?

I wrote this crazy feature with my friend Trevor Grove about what a miracle it is that we all get to be alive and exist on Earth. But the film is extremely ambitions and not cheap at all, so in the mean time I'm gearing up to make a short film about this gay bear that's convinced he's an actual bear, and hopefully a super scrappy feature back home in Wisconsin too. It's about trying to find Otis Redding's secret chest of gold at the bottom of a lake. Also, last weekend I acted in a big Skyy vodka commercial. Even though he's more of a Tito's guy, it made my dad really proud.

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