(36) Sitting Down in Public

(36) Sitting Down in Public. As psychopath Graham, in the short film Sitting Down in Public directed by Judd Eustice.

After deep-kissing an alluring woman in a darkened car, sticky-taping deranged notices onto Lower East Side lamp-posts and brooding on a bench on Pearl Street, my character Graham’s chosen location for committing bloodthirsty murder is a suitably marginal space of echoing concrete beneath the booming of the elevated highway along the East River under the Brooklyn Bridge; and his thoughtful post-murder stroll is beside the World Financial Center, staring out at tiny lights across the grand span of the Hudson River, reflecting on what he’s done and who he is.

If the character had been just another brainless brutaliser of women on film, I’d not have auditioned. I decided I’d do so, because Graham isn’t a thoughtless thug: he’s a lost individual who evokes pathos, he’s the only character who gets naked on camera, and he’s a clear contender for the Norman Bates emotional maturity award.

In fact, I recall it was mentioned that if Judd had been able to afford to cast Anthony Perkins, then he might have been tempted to approach him. (4’25”)
(See video here.)

 

(This video is also on Vimeo and YouTube.)