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Interview
with the Cast of the Film Solver |
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The feature suspense filled PG rated film
Solver opens in theaters
across America on January 29 and simultaneously is being released on the
digital streaming services of Amazon and i-Tunes. There is not a single
weak actor in this film from the local Sheriff Riley (played by Timothy
Brennen) to the lead actors Kerry Knuppe as Alex Derringer and John Ruby
who plays Luke Williams. The two other protagonists are Jesiree Dizon
who makes a spectacular major film debut portraying Nadine Simms and
Antonio Jaramillo as badass Demien LeBlanc who will give you nightmares,
while your eyes are still wide open.
Solver
is the brainchild of actor / producer John Ruby and producer /
screenwriter Jack Kelley who crafted a mystery that is chalk full of
clues that easily engage the filmgoer, has as an underlying element a
budding romance between Luke and Alex and even serves up amateur sleuth
Diego Gonzalez played by Pablo Castelblanco. Luke Williams works in the
corporate world of the big city and his grandfather with whom he was
very close passes away, taking Luke back to his roots in small town
America. What begins as a trip to tidy up his grandfather’s affairs and
to take care of funeral arrangements, becomes the catalyst for a high
stakes adventure.
Jack Kelley provides some background for the conception of
Solver, “Solver’s origin came
about here in Los Angeles at a place called Alfred Coffee at Melrose
Place. John Ruby and I were having coffee. I had just moved out to LA
and I was working on some scripts. John had already lived in LA for ten
years and he was acting. We met, because his sister and I went to
college together. We became friends and he told me about a directing
class that he was interested in taking at the UCLA Film School. The idea
was to shoot a short film, direct and go through the process. He asked
if I wanted to take the directing class with him. He asked me what kind
of movie I would want to make and we realized that we both loved these
kinds of puzzle, mystery, adventure, treasure hunt kind of films. We got
excited about doing it and then I asked John how much the course cost.
He said, I think it is five thousand dollars. I said that’s fine, but
why don’t we both just put in five thousand dollars and we will go shoot
a film by ourselves on a shoestring? At the time we had no idea about
what was realistic in terms of production costs or anything like that.”
He continues, “We were quite happy for a few weeks, while we started
working on a script and we thought let’s shoot this at places where we
have support and where we can access a ton of people that we know
between the two of us. We thought this would be great. What we found out
is ten thousand dollars barely covers your audio engineer. Making a
feature film is a much bigger endeavor and we learned that out very
quickly, but we still said let’s go ahead and do this.
We got so excited we just started scribbling notes down. I would go home
and work out story stuff and we went back and forth by email quite a
bit. We had tons of emails every day. We decided to produce the movie
together. I started working on the script. Every day I would write
twenty-five pages or so and then I would email it to John and he would
give me his comments. We would sit down and go through them together. We
would revise them and then we would move on to the next thing. We had
this great writing system going and at the time we lived about twenty
minutes away from each other. It was very easy to get together. We spent
all of this time researching codes and cool puzzles, unsolved mysteries,
science experiments, secret cold war stuff and games that people were
creating. We found this whole world that is out there. We are still
uncovering amazing people and things every week.”
There is something about the human mind that really wants to know. Human
beings like to learn and we like to discover things. We like to
challenge ourselves. You see people on the subway in New York where I
lived for ten years doing crossword puzzles and stuff. You say to
yourself those puzzles are mentally challenging, so why would someone go
and do more work in their free time? To me it is the same as someone
playing a game or reading a complex piece of literature. You want to be
stimulated and you want to see if you can figure it out.
My whole life I have been excited and stimulated by mysteries, puzzles
and unsolved things, enigmas, codes and clues. I can’t say exactly where
that came from, but I just love that stuff. We wanted to share that kind
of love with people. It is almost like a modern Goonies or the Hardy
Boys.”
Actress Kerry Knuppe who puts in an absolutely stunning performance
talks about her preparation for her role as a mechanic, “When I was cast
they said you have a week to prepare and I said I would like to come out
a couple of days before we start shooting and shadow a mechanic, so they
said that was fine. They spoke to the person who owned the mechanic shop
where we were going to be filming and he also said that would be fine.
He was really great and he showed me how to change the oil and all of
that kind of stuff. I was fiddling around with what he had been showing
me on this car and a customer came and he asked the owner if he had a
new assistant. He said no, no there is a film they are going to be
shooting and she is here to shadow me for the day. (The customer) called
me over and he said he tells me you are an actress from LA. Then he said
you guys are full of it. Then the guy said, no (way). I thought you
really wanted to be a mechanic and I thought it was cool that a girl
wanted to be a mechanic. I said (she
is laughing) well I play one. They were all really great people.
I got a really nice email from one of the guys who had put some money
into the film and he said I really liked your acting and I really
believed that you were a mechanic. That is the best compliment that you
can get as an actor that somebody believed you knew something and that
you weren’t just saying your lines.”
To talk to Kerry Knuppe offscreen and get to know her it is sometimes
difficult to envision her taking on the persona of some of the
characters she has played and yet her versatility and excellence as an
actress was what made it an easy choice for Kelley, Ruby and casting
director Cori-Anne Greenhouse.
Kelley says, “Do we go with someone who is a big name or with someone
that we think is a great actress? We narrowed it down to a few people,
before picking Kerry, because she is the best actress hands down. When I
showed up for pre-production I remember thinking that’s the girl who is
going to play this tough mechanic.”
John Ruby picks up the conversation about Kerry Knuppe who played
opposite him, “Working with Kerry was fantastic. She was such a giving,
present, thoughtful and emotionally available actress and that is what
really stuck out for me.
The other thing that really sealed the deal for me was when we watched
her acting reel, in each scene she looked like a completely different
person. She is like a chameleon. I was so impressed by Kerry’s acting
talent.”
Jack Kelley adds, “Kerry should be a star and it is just a matter of
time. Kerry impressed me with her preparation, her discipline and her
work ethic. Some people just have talent, other people just work hard
and she has both. She is extremely dedicated.”
Without giving away too much of the movie, let us just say that Nadine
Simms has a few surprises in store for the audience and Jesiree Dizon
talks about her character and Simms’ relationship with Demien LeBlanc.
“I think he is the one person that she trusts whole heartedly. There is
something a little bit deeper that is going on between them that you see
hints of throughout the movie, but that is not really expanded upon,
because that is not what the movie is about. It is deeper than I am his
right hand woman. In my mind she had a really rough childhood and he was
the one who took her under his wing, cared for her and he showed her
what love and trust was. He showed her that there is somebody in the
world that has her back. She gave him 150 percent.
I think that Damien and Nadine came from a similar childhood. Damien got
messed up with his father and his experiences as a child have molded him
into this person and he does not want what happened to him as a kid to
ever happen to anyone again. It is a combination of control, of
rectifying what happened to his family when he was younger and I think
it might be revenge against what happened. He isn’t doing it to be
vicious or vindictive. He is trying to do right by his father and he is
trying to show his father, look I am getting them back for you for what
they did to you,” says Dizon.
Kelley describes Dizon, “Jesiree is the most fun, nicest and friendliest
woman, but she had to play someone who was both sweet and a badass. She
was able to turn on the I am a badass killer. I am a tough special
agent.”
With tongue firmly planted in cheek we asked Jesiree Dizon if she is as
cold blooded as her character Nadine Simms, bearing in mind that we were
talking to a mother who absolutely adores her son and was just two weeks
away from giving birth to her second child, a daughter.
Oh my gosh, I had such a blast. I come from a very athletic background
and my whole idea of the perfect character for me was someone who was
not only a witch and a bad person in that edgier role, but somebody who
could do more athletic things like kick and punch. I always aspired to
be like one of those villains when you get to fight. Those roles are so
attractive to me. It was so much fun to play this assassin kind of
villain,” she says.
At this juncture we have to leave out part of what Jesiree Dizon told
us, so we don’t spoil the end of the movie for the audience, but let
just say this, she was insistent that she got the opportunity to do her
own fight scene. Not exactly how you picture someone who has had a very
successful modeling career, but she is totally convincing in her role as
Nadine Simms and we forecast good things for her acting career.
“People
underestimate me and people think that for whatever reason I’m girly and
that I can’t do things, which is so funny, because all through high
school it was the opposite. I wasn’t the girly girl. I was the tomboy
and the one who was rough around the edges. It is funny how my life has
completely taken a 180 (degrees) and completely turned around. People’s
view of me is so different from what it was in high school and college,”
she says.
In fact, Jesiree Dizon was a star basketball player in high school and
was recruited to play college ball. That facet of her life came in handy
in between takes on Solver or
so the growing urban myth has it. As the story goes and told by several
people, Dizon and John Ruby challenged a couple of really big guys to a
game of two on two basketball and beat them. What we can tell you for
sure is we know Dizon and Ruby won the game and depending on who was
relating the story to us, the other guys kept getting bigger and bigger.
What is important about this story is it underscores what various
members of the cast told us about how there was a tight, family feel to
this production.
Seguing back to why Jesiree Dizon wanted to play the part of Nadine
Simms in Solver, she says,
“This kind of character was one that I always wanted to play. She had
two sides to her, she got to be the secret agent and obviously she
wasn’t really, but there was more than just the bad girl side of her. It
was interesting that I got to show a couple of colors.
All the other roles that I played have been pretty girl or the girl next
door. It was always that typical, attractive kind of role that I really
wanted to get away from. When you are always playing those kinds of
roles it is difficult for people to see you outside of that. It was
really cool of them (the producers and casting director) to see the
other side in me and to trust that I could play that even though my
resume showed something completely different.
I auditioned once with Cori-Anne Greenhouse and Cori read the role with
me. I went in there thinking this is another role they are going to
consider me for, but I am not going to get it, because I look too pretty
or I look like however people see me and how the industry continues to
see me. Hopefully when Solver comes out more roles will come in like
this one. I auditioned and I got the call a week later. They said you
are it and you are exactly how we envisioned this character to be
portrayed. The rest is just history.
Leaving aside the fact that John Ruby is one of the producers of the
movie and is the co-creator of the story we wondered what made him the
right person to play Luke Williams.
Jack Kelley addresses that, “Luke had some of my characteristics and
some of John’s. As we got into the film, John said he wanted to play
Luke and we tailored the character. As I was creating this hero I wanted
him to have aspects or qualities that I admired and things that I knew
about. In terms of the character’s specific mannersims that was all
John. John is more of a people person kind of a guy and I am more of a
hard driving executive kind of a guy.”
John Ruby talks about his character, “I think Luke is like John Ruby in
that he cares about people and he is trying his best. He loves family. I
think I am a little more of jokester and a little more of a smart ass at
times. Luke is a little more of a straight shooter. What I really like
about Luke is he is not going to give up on what he cares about and that
is important. That is something that I feel the same way about and in
that way we are similar.” Jack what can you tell us about Antonio Jaramillo who plays the twisted character Demien LeBlanc?
“He is a very interesting guy. I think we lucked out, because he
perfectly hit it. He touched on melodrama, he created a little bit of
pathos and he was completely believable as this intelligent, driven,
entrepreneur, billionaire guy who also has a secret past.
I had originally written the script so the character of Demien was a
little bit more in doubt and the audience was a little less clear about
who he was. Then we thought people are going to have some ideas based on
Antonio’s performance, so let’s just let it ride. (Demien) is a powerful
person who can help you, but what happens if that powerful person was to
turn against you? You still have to have it as something that is
suitable for a PG type of film. The Indiana Jones movies were PG rated
movies and they had some pretty scary moments,” he says.
Solver
was filmed in Upper New York State, with only a few scenes, that gook
place in offices or a nursing home shot in Los Angeles. The film, which
was directed by Xandy Smith utilized a cabin about an hour south of
Syracuse, New York for one of the main locations, a local mechanic’s
garage for another and an old Kodak research facility for some of the
eerier scenes. Solver is an excellent film and the only recommendation that we would make is that you do not take really young children to see it, as some of the scenes may be a little upsetting, but really for older children and adults this is a “must see” film. For the first time out as cinematic storytellers Jack Kelley and John Ruby hit it out of the ballpark. The cast that we had an opportunity to interact with are not only very talented, but they are also really good people and it makes it all that much easier to cheer this film on. Solver is an 88 minute film produced by Empiere Builder Productions and opens in select theaters on January 29th, as well as simultaneously being released on Amazon and iTunes streaming services.
You can visit the
official facebook page for
Solver here
or visit
the Empire Builder Productions
website here.
You can also watch
the
trailer for Solver here.
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John
Ruby talks about why he thinks
Solver will appeal to audiences, “What is really fun and exciting
about this film is it is a mystery adventure where you have certain
pieces of the puzzle, but you don’t have all of the pieces until the
end. What I enjoy about that and I think what people will enjoy is you
are putting the pieces together, as the protagonist Luke is putting it
together. Sometimes you are ahead of the story and sometimes you are
behind the story, but the picture is not exactly clear on what is going
to happen, until you get to the end and then you look back and it all
makes sense. I think that makes for a really fun film. It also keeps you
on the edge of your seat, because you are waiting to see what happens
next. How is this person involved? What is their relationship? Are they
on the good side or the bad side?” 
“I am proud to say that I’m not (cold blooded), but she definitely was a
character that I was always attracted to. I have always been drawn to
(characters) who say something that is darker, cold hearted and bitchy
and kind of that I don’t care attitude. It has always been something
that is really interesting to me for some reason (she
laughs). 