Actor and director, the American Jim Cummings, 35, likes to interpret in his films pathetic losers, who successive failures have turned into psychopathy. He explains having wanted, with his role of agent of stars in his new feature film, to illustrate the dishonesty of the Hollywood system.
Your first feature film, “Thunder Road”, produced in 2018, was tinkered with friends. How was it received in the United States?
Thunder road received a good reception in the United States, where it is considered a cult film. Americans see it as a drama with comedy elements. Sometimes I meet strangers who want to hug me so much they empathize with my character. But I am more often recognized in the streets of Paris than in Los Angeles [rires].
You were then produced by MGM for “The Wolf of Snow Hollow” (2020), a werewolf comedy that has not been released in France. How do you feel about this Hollywood experience?
I have mixed feelings. I really enjoyed making a film with a bigger budget: we were able to build larger sets and have a stronger image result. I made this movie with my friends from Thunder Road, but with a budget ten times greater. We fought for it to come out in France, but we had no control over it. I believe that in MGM’s eyes the film was not big enough. At the same time, the studio was trying to release the last James bond in theaters, so this little werewolf movie went by the wayside. It was screened in front of spectators for the first time in Strasbourg, in September. It was wonderful to hear French people laughing all the way through, really wonderful.
With “The Beta Test”, which we are discovering today, you have resorted to crowdfunding. Was it out of anti-Hollywood conviction or out of necessity?
We wanted to shoot quickly and maintain artistic control. We didn’t want Hollywood to know about the film’s existence until it was released, and we got it. I believe that half of my films will now be funded through crowdfunding : it’s so rewarding to be funded by people who really believe in cinema.
It turns out that the characters you love to play, supposedly on the bright side of the American Dream, are in fact pathetic losers and proven psychopaths. Do they reflect your political vision of American society?
You have 46.3% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.