Friday, November 9

I'm An Actor Dammit!

By Dave Finger
EXPN.com

Editor's Note: This is an interview conducted with Todd Richards about his involvement with the Touchstone Pictures Nov. 21st release of Out Cold. This film is about the local shred scene at legendary "Bull Mountain" which is being threatened by a big ski area developer with two hot daughters. For more information on the picture please visit www.outcold.movies.com.

Are you sitting in the car with Geb? (I caught Todd while he was driving to Denver with friend Mark Gebhardt)
Yeah, I'm sitting in the car with Mark.

"The Superstar"… Is he (Mark) fawning over you and asking for your autograph?
No, not yet. He will be though very soon.

He will be once you start talking about what a huge megastar you are…
A giant, I'm like Seinfeld.

So this movie here - Out Cold.
Out Cold.

Yeah that's what we're talking about here.
Hit me hit me.

You know that's a Disney movie don't ya?
I know but it's like the cutting edge part of Disney.

Heheh... So was this like your first Hollywood movie?
I've never, ever acted before except for maybe… I think I was a tree once. That's about it.

Todd gettin' his love van on.

In a movie?
No in a play in grade school…

So did that immediately elevate you to Cool Guy status on the set?
What, that I was a tree in Grammar School?

No you monkey, that you are this awesome pro snowboarder guy…
I think they thought I was pretty cool; I definitely got some respect because I don't know... It's just something that not a lot of actors can really relate to, because it's real. It's like you're not pretending for a living (laughs).

Did you make sure to rub that fact in to all the actors you met?
No, not really. I mean we kind of hung out but we really didn't super bond or anything. They're kind of hermitty.

Really? You'd think they'd be extroverted just because they have such "star quality" you know?
I mean they were really cool, like all the actors were way, way cool. But I only got to hang out with them for like 3 or 4 days so it wasn't really like we got to, you know, bond. But sort of like at the bar and stuff, you can always bond at the bar.

The bar is the known place for bonding.
Enough drinky drinky and you're anybody's best friend.

I love you man.
That's basically the equivalent of the bar friendships.

So you're on this set here, where's the set first of all?
Well first we did some stuff in the Vancouver area and then we went inland BC, that's British Colombia for all you out there, and we went to Nelson BC and went up into the mountains in Nelson.

So is that where the legendary Bull Mountain is?
Well I think Bull Mountain is actually supposed to be in Alaska.

Yeah it's supposed to be in Alaska, but is Nelson where most of the stuff was shot?
Most of the snowboarding stuff was shot in the Whistler backcountry.

How'd you access that?
Um, I didn't do any snowboarding.

What!? (With amazement)
I'm strictly an actor in this piece. You didn't know that?

No, I was under the impression that you were shredding.
No, my part is like the lead chick's boyfriend, who shows up about three quarters of the way through the movie, so I'm in the last quarter of the movie - acting. I don't snowboard at all I just act.

So they brought you in there to just act?
Yeah, I'm an actor. You're talking to an actor here. Heheh, yeah it's pretty funny dude.

I'm about to poop myself this is so exciting.
It is exciting.

Acting, man that must be tough.

So how did it… Do you have a movie agent?
I have an agency called The Familie that kind of helps with stuff and they called me and told me that there's these guys doing a movie and, coincidentally Palmer (Palmer Brown of Elwood/Aesthetics) is good friends with one of the directors. And this guy Chad from Nixon is good friends with one of the directors so they're like, "you need to go and audition we really want to get you in this thing some how." And I'm like, "O.K." So me and Mark (Gebhardt) go up to Palmer's house one night and get really drunk. Next day is my audition. So I go to this place and I'm so hung over, just totally hung over, and we get to the audition and I'm trying to drink coffee and there's all these "serious guys" at the audition place, reading scripts, talking back and forth all serious, and I'm just like… I was supposed to memorize lines and I didn't even read the script or anything. So I get in there and I just kind of did it funny like, like read all the lines really sarcastic and funny thinking there's no way I would ever get the part, and they called me back that day and said, It's yours if you want it." I couldn't believe that.

Did you know right then that you wanted it?
I didn't even know, I was just like, "O.K. sounds fun."

So were there any celebrations that took place after that phone call?
Well it was Palmer's birthday that night, so yes there was celebration. We partied over at this place called "The Drode" or something; I don't know what it was called.

Oh sh*t... So there were other people riding in the movie, were you around when they were?
Not really, I was just hanging out with the actor dudes. When I was doing the movie thing, it was basically just the people that were in my scenes. Because Devun Walsh pretty much shot the majority, him and Sean Johnson, of the stunts - that was all filmed afterwards.

Page 1   Page 2