Actor, Writer, Director Francisco Lorite

Francisco Lorite was born in Spain in August 1975 , and moved to New York to become an actor.  His dream was to act and tell stories.  The result of those efforts was a short film Cuco Gomez-Gomez Is Dead! (2005) and an upcoming feature film, Random.  In this interview, he reflects on his passions, his pursuits, and achieving his goals.

 

What drove you to want to become an actor?

I always felt that the key thing for me is to tell stories.  I started as an actor and continue doing it.  I was born in Spain. In NY, I was lucky enough to make a living as an actor.  As I was doing that, I started feeling like a mercenary as an actor.  They offer you stuff and you take it.  I didn’t have the luxury to say no to stuff that I found myself doing – not believing in the script.  In the meantime, I thought I should do my own stuff.  I treated it as controlling the outcome.  I started writing short stuff and then moved up to full-length screenplays.  The logical step was that someone should make it.  So then I said “maybe I should direct.”  When I moved to LA, I moved into a crazy building in Hollywood filled with New York actors auditioning.  After saying no a million times, I said I should direct.

 

Why did you make the move from acting to writing and directing?

I moved to LA and was readjusting from New York.  I couldn’t resist telling stories, so I started writing.  I approached it differently.  I wrote for people I knew and wanted so I wrote parts for them.  When I was happy with it, I invited everybody over for spaghetti and wine.  I told them that I wrote parts for them all and I was ready to direct.  I told them that they also had to be the crew.  Not only that, but you have to all pitch in and put up the money - $100 each, after much kicking and screaming.  We shot Cuco for $2500 in four days.  Everything that you saw was produced on a laptop the size of a big book.  Along the way, I started showing the rough cut around.  The sound designer saw the rough cut and came on board.  People helped along the way.  I had a very clear path for Cuco in my head.  I didn’t go the way of my master plan.  But it created a lifeforce – we got an award at our first festival.  Another four awards came that year.  They flew me to Hong Kong to represent the film once we were there.  It was a crazy ride the past year.  I wanted it to be successful because I wanted everybody involved to get something out of it.  If any of us gets a job out of it, great.  One of the festivals also did a 54-city US tour.  Now we are playing in London for three months.  It took off.

 

How did the success of Cuco affect your career?

Lorite on set

All of this put me in an interesting position.  People started calling me – the whole Hollywood thing.  I had been writing a screenplay which was very personal to me.  It’s based upon something that happened to me in Boston – I got stabbed.  It’s loosely based on that event – a revenge film called Random.  It’s more of a meditation of violence and redemption.  A group of strangers who witness the same random act and one of them decides to get even.  I was offered to go the studio way.  I decided instead to go the independent way.  It’s a piece that’s personal to me, so it’s essential for me to direct it.  I felt more

comfortable being able to realize my vision fully in a smaller scale and freer environment.

 

What are the overall plans for shooting your first feature film?

It will shoot from July 15 to the beginning of August.  It will be shot here in Los Angeles.  I’m very excited about it – looking forward to the challenge.  It’s about telling stories and in this particular case, I get to do it as a writer, director, producer and get to play a small part in it – all of the aspects that are crucial to storytelling.    This is a budget that is over $1,000,000, independently financed through a private investor.  I had a piece that people liked – the short.  The tone is different – Cuco is a comedy.  But the style of it is very much my style – very similar.  We were lucky to be able to shop around the script with a short – a piece of finished directing.  That helped a lot.  I would not be ready to direct a feature film if I hadn’t directed the short.  It would not have happened, period.  Without Cuco ,there would be no Random.  I wouldn’t be directing it because they wouldn’t let me.  People are also really excited about Random.  My approach was the same – I am going to write and direct something that I would go see myself – what moves me.  If I start second-guessing what other people would go see, then I can’t do it.  It’s impossible to second-guess other people.  When I sat down to write Random, I started with a very personal event in my life.  Then, I said, “what would I like?” That’s the story I wrote.  On the page, I’m lucky that people are responding to that.  I’m hoping that we have a final film of a circle of people who like the film that becomes larger and larger.  To me, it’s always about the story and serving the story.  If that’s accomplished that would be great.

 

As a director, how do you like to work with colleagues and collaborators?

Lorite on set

When I initiate the project, I want to work with people I like and for people to get something out of that film.  Even making a

bad film is hard – I like to surround myself with people I like so that when you are up to your neck in problems, you’re surrounded with people you like.  I hope that their careers flourish because of that when people see them in Random.  Los Angeles has been

very kind to me and I appreciate it.  It’s in my blood to tell stories.  Having people give me the money to go do it and having people come aboard is a great thing.  I can’t think of a better way to spend the summer than direct a film I wrote with great actors who I know.  For the past twenty years, I have seen one movie a day.  As a fan, I like to see a movie and enter a world – a vision of the world.  That’s what I like to do with my world.  Random will be 90-95 minutes.

 

RANDOM is a Man In A Suit Productions and CognizEnt Entertainment