With Destination Marfa now on DVD and digital services, I had the opportunity to catch up with producer and co-star Stelio Savante to learn about how he got involved with the film, his favorite on set memories, working with Tony Todd, and more!
How did you get involved with Destination Marfa as a producer and one of the film's co-stars?
The project kept coming across my radar where it no longer felt coincidental. Often these projects and roles serendipitously chase you. It literally felt like a case of pronoia to me. So I reached out to Andy, we had a solid initial conversation and he sent me the script. At that point the hitchhiker role (Vincent) was still up for being retold and it fell into place very naturally. As a producer, I wanted to help Andy’s vision become fully realized and I reached out and brought in a line producer and several of the cast (Starla, Richard, Lisa & Neil) along with our post houses for color and sound and seeing the film through to distribution.
What attracted you to the role of Vincent?
I immediately connected with the role and Andy’s vision for it. I love characters that are minimalist, internalization is just a color that comes to me easily. Vincent is on a mission, and has something deeply impactful that he’s trying to reveal but being pulled by forces on both sides. I gravitated to that dynamic as it seemed like the gauntlet had been laid down and I wanted to walk through it. Vincent knows something that none of the other characters know which I find to be powerful and extremely liberating.
Have you ever had any personal experiences seeing strange lights in the sky and/or did you speak with anyone who had while researching and making the film?
I’d never seen those or any other skylights before, nope. However Andy took some of us out on a night excursion where we saw the lights first-hand before we filmed those specific scenes. It really defied logic the way they appeared, disappeared, then reappeared again. A phenomenon for sure. They also represent something far more ethereal in the film so it guided things into perspective.
Can you talk about your time working with the cast & crew, including Tony Todd?
Several of the cast were friends, I’ve always been one to bring friends into projects when it makes sense. You want to work with people you can trust, and that was the case here. The collective effort was passionate and the crew worked exceedingly hard to help us cross the finish line. Tony and I clicked immediately, he’s terrific.
Working with this talented cast & crew, what are some of your favorite on-set memories?
I thoroughly reveled in shooting regionally where the locations and the colloquialized energy and appreciation of the locals was authentic yet also somewhat odd and unexpected. That’s something one cannot create, it just magically unfolds on its own. So I hope to film in that part of the world again soon. There were some rich off-set conversations and moments with my friends Neil Sandilands and Lisa Roumain and I on the Flat Top Mountain Ranch. Sitting in the middle of an ocean of trees and desert with honey-wagons and craft service to our left and the gleaming openness of the ranch to our right. But the greatest joy was watching Andy’s expressions in seeing his script and film come to life. It was priceless. To know Andy Stapp is to love the man, he’s one of a kind and we’ve become close friends.
With Destination Marfa now available on DVD & digital services, what projects are next for you?
I have several projects releasing soon including the dark comedy Lapham Rising (opposite Frank Langella, Bobby Cannavale, Ashley Benson and Katie Parker), the noir Brut Force (opposite Leila Symington, Tyler Posey and Patricia Velasquez), Pulled From Darkness based on a true story and directed by Emmy winner George Johnson, and also a new Netflix series that I’m in. The football film Under The Stadium Lights with Laurence Fishburne just released through Saban/Paramount, I’m a producer on that as well. I also start the first of three consecutive films very soon and hope to be able to share more about them in the coming weeks. Thanks Jonathan for your and Daily Dead’s support of Destination Marfa.
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To learn more about Destination Marfa, visit: https://www.spreleasing.net/destination-marfa
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