Show Notes
Casey to to sit down and chat with actor, writer, director, producer (and more) David A.R. White to talk about this new film Beckman! You may remember we talked to Kira Reed Lorsch about Beckman back in August! (listen here)
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David AR White Interview
[00:00:00] Casey: All right, everybody. Welcome again, to another episode of spoiler country today on the show we have actor, producer writer, David, a R Y.
David, how you doing, man?
David AR White: I'm good. Thanks so much for having me,
Casey: man. Okay. So I. Clear the air a little bit here. I think we dropped the ball once or twice in trying to connect with you. It's been crazy. We had some issues with recording gear and all that, but now we're ready to go. You have a movie premiere coming up.
Can you tell us about it?
David AR White: Yeah, I'm excited for it. it's a movie called Beckman and if you like revenge movies, This is a, this is that I, I've always been and a big fan of revenge movies. and so, you know, from the John wicks to the takens, to the man on fire it's, this is, this is its own, its own version though.
but, yeah, I'm excited about for it.
Casey: That's awesome. That's all I can. can you go into a little bit of detail about the film?
David AR White: I can not, no,
[00:01:00] Casey: I'm still no, that's cool. Get away. But
David AR White: of course, yeah. It's about a Hitman who wants out and, and he comes and he's been battled, bruise shot up.
He's bought on his deathbed and he stumbles into this church. and this pastor played by Jeff Fay. He brings him into, you know, nurses and back to life, so to speak. And, and in the past process of it, you know, he kinda starts to look at faith. And what is that, you know, what is the purpose of his life and all of this.
And he starts to dig into it. and then fate, he turns this church over to him. To take over and end. He ends up, you know, taking this runaway off the street, and this little family, and then, all of a sudden, yeah, Billy Baldwins characters is played by, you know, he plays this like Villa, this billionaire, just, crazy cult leader.
And he wants his muse, which is that happens to be that runaways that, you know, he wants that girl back. And so he comes in and he kills people. [00:02:00] and then, of course, you know, our Hitman comes out of retirement and has to get her back. But in the process, he moves through a lot of people.
Casey: That sounds like the premise of that sounds pretty awesome.
I am looking at the cast list on this and I mean, you already amount announced, Jeff Fahy William Baldwin. you have so many really solid actors on this piece
David AR White: and
Casey: yeah. It sounds like it's going to be a really entertaining film. Burt
David AR White: young, you know, that was pretty fun to work. I've been a big Rocky fan.
Yeah, Burt. It was the only one who was in all the Rockies. So, it was a pleasure to work with him and in here, you know, crazy stories and everything else.
Casey: I just realized he was in Chinatown. I love that movie and I, for some reason it never connected. yeah. Burt young is, this is huge. So, so this is, this film is one that you're producing [00:03:00] through your company.
Correct?
David AR White: Yeah, it's, you know, there's really, for us, pure flex is our company and there's really never been like a fate, you know, a revenge movie with, with more faith, a faith bent to it, so to speak. And, and so just, was excited to take a stab at that and, you know, and try to bring something new as well to the revenge, genre.
Casey: Was it hard? It sounds like a, as someone who's wanting to adhere to their principles and their faith, it sounds like a film that would be a hard line to
David AR White: walk. Yeah.
Casey: And stay true to those principles. W was it hard to, Did you have to check yourself while you guys were making this and kind of just double check and make sure that this was what needed, you know, how the characters needed to be, how the film needed to be, how it needed to represent your faith.
David AR White: Yeah. You know, obviously, I think anytime you know, I mean, [00:04:00] obviously, you know, no I'm most famous for the God's not dead movies. and, I think, anytime you try to deal with faith and in films, you want to do it as organic and realistic as possible. And as in any story, you know, and I loved dealing with this idea that.
No, one's perfect. And everybody needs a second chance. And even if you're, you know, and then you take it to, we've seen it in a lot of different ways, but we just never seen a Hitman, have to work through his faith. And, and that was really just an exploratory Tory, towards, I think I got the raw explorative, journey to take and.
And I think we came across some really cool themes. and, and how do you have second chances? How do you have forgiveness if you are an assassin? You know, so it was fun to explore.
Casey: That's awesome. I'm looking at the other things that you've done, and you've really kind of [00:05:00] explored a lot of interesting things, via pure
David AR White: Flix
Casey: and keeping in with, not just through pure Flix, but the films that you've done through pure Flix have all been.
Pretty varied in their content and what they're about. So it's interesting to me that you guys are really kind of running with it. And I respect that so much.
David AR White: And,
Casey: it's a weird comparison. But, you guys are like the Tyler Perry of Christian Christians in that you're instead of asking for a seat at the table, you're building your own table, and became herself seen.
David AR White: from early on, I grew up, my father was a minister and, I'm in a really conservative town outside of Dodge city, Kansas. And, you know, growing up, I just realized that there was no. There was no faith as genre at the time. And you know, when I got to LA I was on a television [00:06:00] show called evening shade with Burt Reynolds for almost four years.
And it did a lot of TV stuff, mainstream TV, but I always just had this passion of this faith based genre. And how do you flush that out more? and in the process of that, you know, not just the dude that the cookie cutter faith-based movies, but that there's comedies dramas, you know, actually thrillers.
Like there's all these different veins within the genre that you can explore because faith doesn't stop. Like if you look at the Bible in the old Testament, I mean, there's. But a lot of bloodshed there's, you know, it's just like super violent, but there's also just this in the Bible as a whole there's all everything, you know, and God offers that forgiveness, not just for, you know, those people who have lived a perfectly righteous life.
Like it's, you can have a second chance to anybody who's out there. And I think that's the interesting thing that there's. You know, I think our society sometimes wants to put everything in a, you know, [00:07:00] parameters around it, but it's, it can be more wide open and exploratory, you know, sportive.
and that's what we're trying to do, you know, even in this movie
Casey: that's really cool.
David AR White: And still have the action and the fun.
Casey: Yeah. Yeah. do you think that you guys will we'll explore any more with the characters in this film? Because it sounds like something that you could keep going with.
David AR White: I mean,
Casey: if you look at the contemporary, like John wick or something like that, it's, people love stuff like that. It has legs for sure.
David AR White: Yeah, I think this one does as well. You know, we'll obviously see how the audience responds to it. I mean, you know, as it comes out, on the 22nd here and it's comes out wide, Universal's taken out, so that's exciting and, you know, it'll be everywhere.
but ultimately you kind of just see how the first one performs and this director Gabriel SAB law. And I did, the revelation road trilogy, which if you haven't seen it, that's, it's worth the watch. it's super fun. And [00:08:00] it's this apocalyptic mad max, you know, these three movies. And so I think this one's falling in the vein of that in its own way.
I'm hoping to do SQL we'll see. That's
Casey: awesome. That's awesome. So you wear so many hats. the, you got bit by the acting bug at a young age, I'm sure. can you tell us a little bit about that?
David AR White: Yeah. You know, I was, I grew up as a Mennonite. if you don't know anything about the Mennonites, the joke is that the Mennonites make the Mormons look like a pack of hell's angels.
So we were super conservative. I saw one movie in the theater the first 18 years of my life. I was probably the last person that would have went into the entertainment industry, but. From an early age on, I think, I just remember, like in high school loving movies and, you know, from what I knew about them, you know, from television, I could watch television so I could see some things and, but [00:09:00] love stories.
I just was a storyteller and, you know, that kind of just led me to move to LA when I was 19. And then. You know, certainly the performing is something that I love and hopefully have been, you know, pushed in on and, you know, you just try to be excellent at whatever it is that you put your hand to.
then I think I've directed, I've written, but I mostly, I enjoy just the producing and the, in the performing side, those are the two that I push in on the most.
That's
Casey: awesome. was it hard to get support the thing I'm curious about, you know, growing up in a minute, I family, was it hard for them to see that.
Your desire to create and to, to have that sort of a creative side was valid, or did you really have to kind of put your nose to the grindstone and prove to them like, no, this is I can actually make a living doing this and you know, it's actually pretty [00:10:00] cool.
David AR White: Yeah, I don't think any of, I don't think my family really thought that I was going to stay doing this.
but you know, my parents were supportive. And they, yeah, it is, you know, they just hope that I would continue to serve God in the process. That's what they said. They said, as long as you put him first and foremost in your life, then we'll support you in whatever you want to do. And, you know, they were small town pastors, so they didn't have any money, but it was, you know, the emotionally supportive, Even not even, you know, not really understanding it.
I think if your parents out there just support whatever it is that your kid is passionate about. because you know, we run with our passions and, and if you don't then, you know, then I think you second, guess yourself a lot in life. So it's never too late though.
Casey: that's awesome. That's inspiring.
That's inspiring. just one quick dumb question. How was it working with you? Burt [00:11:00] Reynolds.
David AR White: Yeah, Burt Reynolds gave me my start actually. And, very cool actually. I mean, you know, he believed in me. I came on that show with one line. And he developed a character for me to keep coming back. I'm playing the best friend of his son on the show.
And
Casey: so, Oh, that's awesome.
David AR White: Yeah. You know, and then everybody on that show in the evening, shade was, had either won an Oscar and Emmy or Tony. And they had worked with Burt Reynolds over the years. And, you know, people like Hal Holbrook, Ozzie Davis, Ruby, Dee, Elizabeth, Ashley, Charles Durning, you know, and then they had these guys.
Yeah. I mean, from Billy Bob Thorton to John Ritter, you know, Kenny Rogers, like Terry Bradshaw, Holly's all of these people were on that show that as a kid, I was so blessed to just be around them. to start my journey out, but what I took most from birth Reynolds was that fact that he had worked with his friends for so many years and, and you know, over a 30 year span.
Yeah. And like on that show, he would have people from all [00:12:00] walks of life and you just look at the friendship that he had with these people. and I always wanted to do that. That's what I took away and, you know, and I've been blessed to be able to do that a lot with, with my own, you know, pals,
Casey: he kind of did that.
I'm saying her thing before Adam Sandler, if you think about like the, you know, how Adam Sandler has a.
David AR White: Yup.
Casey: Consistent cast of people that he works with and they go do their thing in Hawaii and make a ton of money making movies.
David AR White: Yeah. You know what I mean? We had John Farley actually, you know, Chris Farley's brother and wow.
In our last movie that we were shooting here. Right, right. After we were finishing it right after, you know, finally we got the approval from sag. but the funny thing was is that he was saying, yeah, you know, I had him as a, as long as you, as long as you'd come to Adam with like a really good project that's for his family, that his family would want to go and he would want to go.
Like, like in Hawaii or
Casey: like, you know, so [00:13:00] I had to heal and
David AR White: heal seriously consider it. And, that seems to be the thing that, that he does for sure. I mean, like, you know, they did that last one. I think that, all that Missy movie, you know, you see, you see Adam's wife has a big role in it and then Adam's kids are in it, you know, it's just funny.
Oh, yeah.
Casey: Yeah. We, my wife and I saw his
uncut gems film not long ago. And it was such a turn from what he normally does. I did, but it was a film that made you feel bad later. Like the light.
David AR White: Well, that was definitely one of his, I think tries, you know, his acting. It was like, yes, he,
Casey: he acted the crap out of it. And he, but it was definitely a heavy film and nobody in the film, it was one of those movies where nobody in the film is a good person.
[00:14:00] And it's hard to, it's hard to root for a protagonist if they're kind of a scumbag, which I mean, in your latest, this film, you play at a Hitman as an actor. Is it hard to get into a character that you would not want to be in the same room with much less, you know, Be, you know, working hand, you know, side by side with.
Is it hard to kind of take on that?
David AR White: Yeah, sure. I mean, you know, but I think with Beckman, you know, this guy is a, he's doing it because he feels like it's right. you know, when he goes on his revenge tour, it is not because of, he's trying to do evil in the world. It's, he's trying to correct an evil situation and, and that's easier to play because, you know, I think even if you're playing villain, I was told by one, I'm trying to remember [00:15:00] which star told me this, but years ago they said, you know, you want to.
This guy thinks he's right. And what he's doing is just his way of proving, you know, I'm trying to reset, recalibrate what's wrong. Yeah. Even though it's probably the wrong way of doing things, but in the same way, Beckman is similar in that way. he's trying to recalibrate and reset the evil that. You know, Billy Baldwin, his character has unleashed on the world and it gets into sex trafficking.
And I mean, it has the, you know, the kind of the taken aspects to it. But at the core though, I think it's a fun movie. That's, you know, hopefully you just go along for the ride and, you know, don't overly think it through. It's an action movie, you know, it's a revenge action.
Casey: What was it? was it fun getting to kind of do the action?
Pieces in this film.
David AR White: Yeah. You know, I mean, auntie purlins, my son coordinator, who's always just so great. And he's worked [00:16:00] with me since 2000, since I did a movie called mercy streets and, and he's just, he's always, you know, all the things is that, although I did all my stunts in this one, you know, all that really?
Yeah. It's just, but he's just helpful on the fight choreography we brought in some great martial artists. the coordinate, that aspects of it. there's just, yeah, it's fun. it's certainly, exhausting though. you know, I can only imagine how Keanu Reeves feels after his
Casey: that's what I mean, people are expecting.
I mean, it seems like. Now people are expecting so much more out of action films and by extension, the stars of those action films is so they really put you guys as a ringer when you're making these movies. did you have to do any kind of training outside of the normal stuff or did you, you just listen very closely to your stuck coordinator and just pray.
David AR White: Yeah. I mean, you know, you [00:17:00] rehearse this stuff and, on this one, you know, in fact, when we definitely, spent more time than doing our, our action sequences, both in shooting it, but also in rehearsals. And then, you know, and then doing it as well. And, obviously bigger than movies, you know, when you're dealing with those big revenge movies, you know, they have the, they can be rehearsing for six years, months up to it.
we didn't quite have that, time, but I'd done them, you know, in the revelation road movies, for example, those have a tremendous amount of fight scenes in those movies as well. yeah, I mean, you just kinda. I have a martial arts background and yeah. And then you go from there and yeah.
Try to keep your body in shape and not get hit for real
Casey: speaking of revelation road. do you have any more plans for, for, any more of the revelation road films
David AR White: or, yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's a question that everybody always asks, cause it was set up for revelation road four and We ended up, we're doing a series, we're doing a series basically, you know, on pure flix.com, 13 episodes of it, which [00:18:00] is very exciting.
It's just kind of the empire strikes expect, you know, of an apocalyptic. mad max thing. that's, we've been working on for quite a while, to get it going. I'm hoping to shoot that next year. That's the, Oh, wow. Wow. Yeah. So it hopefully will be coming to people by the end of next year.
Casey: Wow. So, with.
COVID going right now disrupting so many things. Has that put a stop to any of the projects you guys are working on or has it
David AR White: been, has it, you know, stuff back because you know, the sag is the screen actors Guild, which is all the actors and that, you know, it's, they have very stringent guidelines, which is great.
but it's also, it's pushed back a lot of production. And so, Cause it balloons the budget's up a bit specific specifically on the independent movies, you know, that it's harder to, it's harder to fund those. So, but we're moving, going forward, you know, it's just a, I think it's probably [00:19:00] kind of set us back maybe six months, but I think we're, you know, we're still shooting, so we're still, you know, we're making movies and, just a little slower.
I
Casey: understand that completely. luckily, I think that's pretty much everybody's, demo right now. you're in a big boat right
David AR White: now. Oh yeah, no, we're not alone. I mean, you know, but things are starting to come back now and, and we've shot, you know, we were shooting another movie right now and so we're doing it as well.
You know, everybody's, it's just, everything's just moving a little bit slower. That's awesome. And took a break, basically.
Casey: Yeah. Yeah. And the premiere is tomorrow.
David AR White: Yes. Yeah. We're one of the first Hollywood premiers back. If that's nuts. Yeah, it is. I mean, we're socially distanced and have all the COVID testing and all that other stuff.
you know, temperature, testing and masks. And so, but it's very exciting. It's that's the universal Hilton and, And yeah. Tell him medians coming out and, and all the [00:20:00] stars and so should be really good. and then of course, you know, on a Tuesday, the 22nd, it is everywhere. So it's Walmart target, red box, you name an Apple.
Casey: Oh, wow. Wow. So it's not, will it be streaming as well at the same time?
David AR White: no, it's streams a little later than that. Okay, cool. Cool. Yeah, there's always the windows in Hollywood, you know, when it comes out theatrically first and then it goes to home entertainment and home entertainment is everywhere, you know, except for S VOD.
And then the S VOD is normally after that, the streaming rights to the Netflix and the other places.
Casey: So. I do have one quick question. I understand you guys have a streaming service, the, yes. So
David AR White: airflex.com.
Casey: Are you guys going to stream both simultaneously on other, as well as, your own home service?
David AR White: not right now. No, the, it will, again, it goes out home entertainment first, you know, so it's on direct TV and [00:21:00] dish on the paper view, you know, all the. Red boxes and everything like that, and Walmarts and targets and everywhere else. but then, and then the S VOD, the streaming platform is the next.
And so it's planning on going to pure flix.com after that.
Casey: Oh, that's cool. Cool.
David AR White: Yep. And so, yeah. you know, pure Flix has been great there's if you don't know too much about it, check it out. it's, prefix.com has over 10,000 titles on it, a lot of original series and, And, yeah, some really cool stuff.
It's all faith family stuff. So it's great for your kids.
Casey: That's awesome. so David de Roy, thank you so much for coming on the show. we had one of your, your, costars on the show. Not long ago, she spoke so highly of you. And it's nice getting to, to kinda talk to the person that she talks so much about Kara
David AR White: Oh, I
Casey: was on and she, she couldn't say, She couldn't say a bad thing about you.
David AR White: She was just saying that you were,
[00:22:00] Casey: so dude,
David AR White: you needed more than that, David.
Casey: Thanks again for coming on. Good luck with your premiere. And, I can't wait to, obviously Alabama's a long way from Hollywood, so, I will be catching it a little bit later, but I'm looking forward to it, man.
David AR White: Hey, thank you so much, , and all the best to you as well. Alright,
Casey: thanks. Alright. Take it easy. Enjoy the rest of your evening.
David AR White: YouTube then.
Casey: Goodbye. Goodbye. See you guys.
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