5 Questions with Maxwell McCabe-Lokos
“Midnight Confession" is a darkly funny character study about a manipulative man self-nicknamed Tiger as he phones up some old friends to make amends about past dishonesties. We asked actor/director Maxwell McCabe-Lokos how the film got started, if he’s more confident as an actor or director, and what comes next for him…
1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
Yesssir. I have been acting for quite a while, I took it up in my hubristic youth without any experience or formal training. I learned on the job. Same with writing and directing, but you learn a lot about directing just being on set. In 2012 I co-wrote a feature film called The Husband and took it to a director I know, with the caveat that I would play the starring role. I worked on every aspect of that movie, from the script to post-production. After that I thought I would try my hand at directing and made some shorts and music videos, usually starring in them myself, more out of necessity than vanity. I guess that's when I first became interested in filmmaking, after working on The Husband, in 2013. But once you make a decision at that point in your life it quickly eclipses, at least in my case, many other opportunities or life choices. Since then, most of my friends work in film, it's a job and a pastime, I watch movies differently, much more critically, and I am equal parts cheerful and miserable because of filmmaking.
2) What’s the backstory here - the initial seed of inspiration, and how you went about building from there?
Rob Benvie and I wrote Midnight Confession after I heard a podcast where a young woman called up some people from her past and confessed to lying about something rather serious. I found it infuriating and I found the woman loathsome. It occurred to me that this person had no interest in contrition, only in seeking a similar type of attention to what I assume she had done when lying in the first place, otherwise she would have made the confessional calls in private and not felt obliged to record and broadcast them for the world to hear. This is where the character of Manny Jumpcannon was born. And since it was going to be a telephone movie, I felt it was necessary to set it in an era where you don't know who's calling when the phone rings, and there aren't a bunch of other options for almost immediate communication. I've always got a kick out of those ex-pat Berlin burn-outs, so we added that to the mix. Fox and His Friends by R.W. Fassbinder was a huge influence on this movie - the photography, costumes, set and character. Manny is a liar with a serious martyr complex. I see these kinds of people in real life all the time, there seem to be a surplus of them nowadays. So I thought I needed to lampoon this type of cretin in a movie.
3) This may sound like a weird question, but how confident would you say you are when making a film, both as an actor and as a director? Do you feel more sure of yourself in one pursuit over the other? Does it vary film to film, or is there a baseline condition you typically fall into?
For better or worse, I do not suffer from lack of confidence. That said, I know where my weaknesses lie and I feel stupid sometimes realizing, too late, that I made a mistake on set or in the script. Make a note of it and try to avoid that in the future. And I do find it very difficult to act in something I direct. It would be different if I had time to watch playback for every take, but I've never had that luxury. The way I see it, when I'm acting I am somebody else's tool, hired to illustrate their idea the best way I know how, and I cede to their authority. When directing, I am the one trying to get everyone to help me manifest my ideas. I think I am more confident as a director, possibly because it's newer to me and more exciting, but also because my acting jobs are so infrequently challenging or interesting, and have become more of a job than something I put a huge amount of emotional energy into. Acting has an eroding effect on the ego, but I still crave roles of characters that aren't just clichés, as long as they are directed by someone other than myself.
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
I saw this movie called Revanche recently that I loved, from 2008. There are so many great things about it - the way it's shot, the acting, the sets and costumes - all totally perfect. But what I loved most about it are the simple ways the director communicated things cleverly, and super-efficiently. For example, the main character is on the lam at his father's home in rural Austria, and he takes up the task of splitting a massive pile of logs for firewood. As the movie progresses, and the character's adversaries close in, the pile becomes smaller and smaller. The scenes of him splitting logs are beautiful and cathartic but they also really serve a purpose for the story. He's occupying himself, distracting himself, and time's running out. There is another scene in the beginning of the movie when somebody tells him (something like) "You know what your problem is? You're too weak." It sounds on-the-nose, but it comes out naturally in dialogue and is so useful. Now the hero has a goal: to prove he's not a pushover. And to this character, a low-level criminal tough guy, this really means something.
5) What’s next for you?
I just finished shooting a feature film called Stanleyville. There isn't a lot of money so it might take a while to finish, but so far everything looks amazing and it's very validating. It was written by me and Rob, the same guy I wrote Midnight Confession with, and shot by Cabot McNenly, the same dude that shot M.C. It will be the first feature film I've directed. One of the characters is even called Manny Jumpcannon, but I didn't play the role. This time Manny is played by a terrific British actor named Adam Brown. Adam didn't watch M.C. before we shot because he wanted to play the character blind. There are some similarities between performances, but Manny is all Adam's guy now, and I really enjoyed watching him take over that role.
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