-Welcome, everybody, to the Independent Film Society's
talkback series. I'm here with Frankie Tucker,
who was recently nominated for his work
in the film "Melissa's Kennel." -Oh!
[ Applause ] Oh, wow. Thank you.
Love you guys. -Alright.
Let's jump in. First question.
-Oh, hi. Big fan.
Um, do you have any advice for young aspiring actors?
-Yeah, I'd say my advice is dream.
10 years ago, I was living in this
crappy apartment in Hollywood.
I swear the roaches were the size of dogs.
-[ Laughs ] I've been there.
-But I said, "One day I'm going to make it out of this dump,"
and I did. And you can too.
[ Applause ]
-Wow, that's really powerful. Uh, okay. Next.
-Yeah. Uh, question this, uh, crappy apartment,
uh, which you speak of,
does it happen to be, I don't know, uh,
93 North Curson Avenue, apartment number 6?
-Uh, yeah.
-Oh, well, okay, I manage that property,
and I thought it'd be fun to come see my old tenant's
new film. I didn't realize I'd be sitting here
listening to my unit get dragged to hell.
-Oh, my God, Tom, I'm sorry.
I only meant to share that I had, like, a humble beginning.
My bad, bud.
-Oh, yeah. 1,700 bucks for a one-bedroom,
dishwasher in-unit, shared laundry?
But, yeah. Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.
What do I know? I've just been doing this for 30 years.
I love the film though.
-Um, okay, let's try and keep the talkback moving.
Anyone else?
-Uh, I just got to ask,
how did you memorize all those lines?
-You know, if I'm such an evil guy,
how come I gave you those Venetians for free?
-Oh, no. I never said you were evil.
And what do you mean, Venetians?
-The previous tenant left their Venetian blinds.
And when you moved in, I left them there.
-Okay, well, thank you for leaving me the blinds, I guess.
-You know, let's switch gears.
Frankie brought a scene from the film.
-Okay, yeah. This is when my character
finds out that Melissa is sick.
And -- trigger warning -- it's pretty intense.
Okay. What the hell?
-So, as you can see,
it's not the dump that he described it as.
I mean, how many apartments in L.A. have a shared pool?
-I don't know, like two thirds.
-Why are you doing this?
-Well, you talking trash is ruining my business.
-You're the one showing the address.
Look, the building was fine.
There were just, like, a lot of weird people,
you know, like that woman who slept on a raft in the pool.
What was her name? Christine?
-Actually, it's Chris-"tine."
And I only slept in the pool
when my apartment would get too hot.
-You're here too? -Yeah, I am. Tom got me a tick.
And I didn't realize you'd be using your 15 seconds of fame
to crap on my head.
-No, no, Christine, it's not that.
-See, I thought we all got along in the building,
but I guess not for you. -No, no, of course I did.
There were tons of fun memories.
And I loved the residents.
-Name one.
-I don't know, how about -- how about the gay guy, Richie?
You know, the super fun, flamboyant, queeny guy?
-Um, really? What a description.
Call me the F-slur while you're at it.
By the way, only you and my pastor knew,
so thanks for outing me, bitch.
-Yeah. Now you're just outed Richie.
[ Laughs ] You just outed Richie. Nice one.
Okay. You just outed Richie.
-I'm sorry. I just mean, you know,
it was a messy time in my life.
Like, I was getting dollar cheese sandwiches
from this deli guy with a He-Man haircut
and spending all day talking to my first agent
who looked like Voldemort.
-Nice. Yeah. Attack a small business owner.
-Boy, the only person acting like Voldemort is you.
-Why are all of you here?! I'm sorry.
Okay, look,
sometimes I exaggerate my struggle in Hollywood.
But the truth is, my real struggle was in grade school.
I got bullied. This mean kid named Jeff Stevens,
he made my life hell.
-Oh, it looks like we have a question.
-Let me guess. It's my childhood bully, Jeff Stevens.
-No, I'm his widow.
Jeff was shot yesterday.
-Oh, my God! -Jesus!
-And for the record,
he was really sorry for bullying you.
-I'm sorry, he was shot yesterday
but you came to this today?
-I don't know, just thought a talkback
would help distract me. Boy, was I wrong.
-Look, guys, everyone.
I'm sorry. It just really was a crappy apartment.
-No, no no, no, I'm sorry.
I should have brought everyone here, I shouldn't have.
It's just that managing 93 North Curson is,
you know, it's really hard. Sometimes I feel like...
like -- like God cursed me. -Wow!
Go ahead and crap all over my work.
-I really just wanted to enjoy an independent movie,
but instead, I'm getting dragged to hell.
Loved the film though.