Film Courage: What keeps you here now?
Adam William Ward, Actor/Director: In Los Angeles? I love the city and have been luck
enough when I came here my brother also lived here. Now my whole family lives here. My sister
is here (my younger sister) and my parents are in Palm Desert, it’s not far. So family
in a way will keep me here no matter what. But I love Los Angeles, it’s such a sprawled
out city. There are all of these different pockets of cool things to do or hikes or whatever
and the weather is beautiful. I don’t try to promote it. I never try to get more people
to move here because so many people move here already.
Film Courage: But a lot of people move back.
Adam: Back home, yes…a lot of people give up and move away. Because of the weather I
feel like a lot of people move to Los Angeles.
But I’m in the mecca of moviemaking in the United States. That’s where Los Angeles
is so I don’t know what kinds of trials and tribulations you’d have if you were
in Atlanta or somewhere else. Maybe there’s enough where you would have enough film people.
But here in my phone I have 10 DPs I can call (Directors of Photography) and they own a
camera. Here there are so many people that are making films, there are so many people
that own cameras, it’s really saturated. To get a project off of the ground, it’s
a lot easier. As to where in Middle America, do you know
anyone who owns a Red camera or Arri Alexa or any of these kinds of cameras. It’s probably
really hard to find someone who owns one in Nebraska or some place.
Here you’re in a bar, somebody in the bar probably owns a camera. It’s so saturated
in that way.
Film Courage: Hopefully they are sober enough to operate it?
Adam: Well…they’re not going on set like that. But when you meet them, it might help.
Film Courage: Right. But do you have a goal list? Do you have a certain amount of things
where by this date I want to have these many things completed?
Adam: I mean I want to make 30 movies in my life probably. It’s whatever inspires me
really like in my phone I have ideas for movies that go on and on. I must have 20 or 30 ideas
for features. Some are fleshed out and some are really raw (just one or two sentences).
So I came here and I worked for DreamWorks and I worked for for Todd Phillips and I realized
(it’s funny) the people around me want to be directors, they want to be some position
in film or they want to be some position in film and they weren’t doing it yet. And
they weren’t doing in yet and I was like “How long have you worked here?” “Oh,
I’ve been doing this 11 years and I want to be a film director.” And I was like “So
I could be you in 11 years? Yeah…I’ve got to stop.” So I left Todd Phillips’
office. I was like I want to act and direct. So I went to acting school and I started acting
in every possible thing I could. I did 11 short films in 2009 and then I was the lead
in 3 independent feature films in 2010 and when I saw the independent feature films,
I realized they weren’t good enough and I said to myself “I have to get behind the
camera if I want to make my dreams come true.”
And I always planned on getting behind the camera eventually but it just kind of pushed
me to do it sooner so I thought I was just going to produce and act and I manage to raise
the money together to film a TV pilot and we were going to produce. We had a director
and everybody. The director pulled out and it was his script. So I told the money people
“Hold on! I’ll write something else and we can shoot that.” So I ended up writing
THREE GUYS AND A COUCH which is a TV pilot that I wrote and ended up directing because
I couldn’t find a director. Everybody couldn’t see the vision that I had so I ended up directing
it to. So I acted, directed and wrote it. We filmed it in 2011. It’s actually on Amazon
Prime (you can go watch it on Amazon Prime) and it’s a comedy pilot (it’s a 20-minute
pilot).
I loved Seinfeld growing up and so it was kind of my newer version of Seinfeld. My best
version of it I guess that I could do. And it’s just about three guys trying to rent
out their couch to make rent. So the whole episode is couch interviews, they are interviewing
people to rent the couch.
That was the pilot episode and I have in my phone like 50 episodes of that show. I just
kept writing ideas about that show and that show. So hopefully I do another show and use
all of those ideas eventually.
But I did that TV pilot. It was the first thing I ever directed from that pilot someone
at Fox saw it and Fox called me in and was like “Hey…” (It was a subsidiary of
Fox but was on the Fox lot) called me in and was like “Hey, we’d really like to develop
a new show with you because it was really good for your first thing so let’s develop
something else.
So I came in every week for like 8 or 9 months developing new ideas with them for new ideas
for new shows eventually settling on an idea for a show called PAROLE OFFICERS which is
about a guy who gets arrested and he gets two parole officers that are going to help
him change his life back around but he got falsely arrested for bad things so he really
has no problems like that and the two parole officers are completely crazy who take over
his life and destroy it even more.
So we shot that in 2009…whoah…hold up…rewind…Fox ended up scheduling for me to do a table read.
They were going like we’re going to give you a million dollar budget to do the pilot
(all that kind of stuff) and then they ended up pulling the plug. And so the day before
the table read they were like “We have something similar, we’re not going to do the table
read.”
What they did not know is that every time I would come in with the script I was copyrighting
it so I knew that I owned the copyright on the show. So okay you have something similar
but you’re not going to steal my idea.”
I was like heartbroken for awhile. It was hard to get over. It was 8 or 9 months of
me telling my friends or whatever that I’m doing a show with Fox. So for me I was very
heartbroken when it didn’t happen but then I was like “You know what, I’m going to
film it myself.”
So THREE GUYS AND THE COUCH we filmed for $5,000 at the time on the Red Camera. So this
I also ended up filming for $5,000 myself. It’s a 27-minute pilot (it’s also on Amazon
Prime - PAROLE OFFICERS) and so I ended up raising the money independently and we filmed
the pilot as well in 2013.
From there I ended up directing two short films for friends and then it was like it’s
time to do a feature so that’s when WALLY GOT WASTED GOT MADE.
Film Courage: I’m hoping we can go back to when you worked at Todd Phillips’ office
and at what point did you have that “Wow? I could be this person here or this person
here. And they seem happy with their job…or maybe they’re not…maybe they are? But
I don’t want this to be me.” Can you take us throw how long and when you left?
Adam: I think in the beginning it was just so exciting to be there. I mean Angelina Jolie
would come into the office. Like Angelina Jolie was in the hallway and I was like “Oh,
there’s a pretty girl in the hallway.” Then she’s standing out there for awhile
and I’m like “Maybe this woman is lost?” She was pregnant at the time. I’m like “Maybe
this pregnant woman is lost?” So I go out to the hallway and I’m like “Hey, are
you okay? You look lost.” And then of course once I get in the hallway I’m like “Oh!
I’m talking to Angelina Jolie.” And she’s like “No, I’m just waiting and I’m going
to go up to a meeting upstairs and I just wanted a moment by myself. And I’m like
“Oh, okay.” And then I walk back in the office. She’s right on the other side of
the glass and there is no one else around so of course I’m like “Angelina Jolie
is here” to the office.
And then the guy who played HELLBOY at the time, he was coming into the office and I
met so many people coming into the office that were making movies and actors. So in
the beginning it was just so exciting to be there. On the post side of things I never
would meet movie stars…I mean I met Stephen Spielberg and that but I wouldn’t meet Angelina
Jolie at Dreamworks at post production because they just don’t go there. But there it was
just so exciting. I think it took awhile for the excitement to wear off because I was doing
script coverage on like three scripts a day. They would expect three scripts a day for
me to read and do coverage on them and I’m a slow reader too. But constantly trying to
break it down and write a one-page synopsis of the whole movie and green light it or not
green light it. If you didn’t get through me, the people above me never read it. So
that’s how it would work. So if I don’t like the script, the person above me doesn’t
like the script…they are never going to read the script. Which was kind of crazy to
me in a way because these people have agents or managers but if you don’t get it through
the guy at the front desk, you don’t to Scott or Tod or anyone else. So I am literally
like green lighting someone’s life or not. But if I send it up the ladder and it’s
not good, now I’m not considered a very good script coverage guy. So my own behind
is on the line. It was very interesting at the time.
I think it took three months before the excitement of it all wore off and I started asking more
questions.
Tod’s assistant at the time was his assistant for 9 years and I found out he was a film
director and I saw some commercials he shot and some other stuff. He was like “Yeah,
I want to be a film director.” And I’m like “But you’ve been his assistant for
9 years? Clearly he’s not going to help you make a film. He’s not going to help
me make a film. I’ve got to go make a film on my own.”
So that’s the epiphany that I definitely had. If you’re not doing the job that you’re
supposed to be doing, they can’t see. Like something that I’ve learned in Hollywood
since I’ve been here is that people don’t see potential. It’s not something that they
see. It’s either you’ve done it or you haven’t done it. It’s very rare that someone
can see potential of what you’ve done. There’s no excuses. You’ve either made a phenomenal
movie or you’ve made a mediocre movie and they think you’re always going to make a
mediocre movie.
Or I guess in any position that you’ve done. They don’t see potential like “Oh, you
had a really good moment here or there.” Your budget…you didn’t have enough money.
They don’t see the excuses. Either it’s good enough or it’s not.
Film Courage: Why do you think that is? Do you think because everything goes so fast
and there is too much money on the line or they don’t have time to nurture something?
Adam: I think it might have been different back in the day. I think they might have nurtured
people back in the day. Like all the studios now are corporate like Viacom, like all of
these big companies own the studios. It’s not really owned by an individual now. I think
back in the day Paramount (was it Paramount I think?) was owned by a guy with a lion.
He would go to the premieres with a lion. I mean it was one person’s decision and
a few people below him.
Back in the 90’s all of the studios got bought out by big companies. Everything is
powered by money and so if everything is powered by money are you going to take a chance on
someone who has already delivered or someone who has potential. If your behind is on the
line you are going to go with the safe bet. So part of me understands that but I think
also it takes a very special person to see potential. I don’t think everybody can see
potential. It’s almost a rare skill compared to the talent. Some people are very, very
talented. Some people only have that rare gift of seeing talent too. And half the people
that I meet that are at the top still they don’t have that gift. They shove 20-40 million
dollars in advertising on a movie and still that movie might fail. Well someone else might
have been able to see that it was going to fail but they couldn’t see it but they have
the title of head of the studio or whatever.
So it’s just interesting to see how certain things happen or whatever. I know people in
positions who tell me all kinds of stories where I’m like “Really, I’ve saw the
trailer to this movie. I have no idea what that movie is about.” And it’s a two minute
trailer. Like if I don’t know what your movie is about and it’s a two-minute trailer,
it’s a really bad sign. And you’re putting 40 million dollars into advertising. That
wows my mind.