Dino might
Adam Hampton’s role in ‘The Jurassic Games’ is a highlight of Oklahoma films featured at 18th deadCenter festival.
Actor/writer/director Adam Hampton first came to my knowledge when he was promoting his film “The Unusual (Calling of) Charlie Christmas” back in 2012. At that point, Hampton already had been making films for eight years.
At this year’s deadCenter Film Festival, Thursday through June 10 in downtown Oklahoma City, Hampton will be one of the homegrown stars gracing movie screens with his turn in director Ryan Bellgardt’s “The Jurassic Games,” in which convicts are placed in a virtual reality simulation to battle dinosaurs — and one another — to the death, with the winner gaining his or her freedom.
I had a chance to discuss Hampton’s career in advance of deadCenter, where he’ll also appear in a short film that I wrote, “The Grave,” directed by Kyle Roberts and showing as part of the “Okie Mediums” block.
Matthew Price: Tell me how you got involved with “Jurassic Games.”
Adam Hampton: Well, I’ve known Ryan (Bellgardt) since forever. Since before either of us were working on movies, really. And I honestly think our friendship started developing as a result of the film festival scene, running in those circles. While he was out promoting his first feature, “Army of Frankensteins,” we (Outsiders Productions) were on the circuit at the same time with
“The Unusual (Calling of) Charlie Christmas.” So we were running in the same festivals, and it kinda picked up from there. I think he liked what we were doing, and I dug what their crew was up to. And he’s a really affable fellow. And he’s become a good friend.
I remember we were both playing in a comic convention in Florida, and our crews just hung out and started talking shop. Spitballing movie ideas for a horror flick he was considering. We’re both hungry, Ryan and I. Both obsessive a little. Anyway, fast forward a few years and he’s doing some audio work for our “Rough Cut” series — we were neck deep in that — and he was looking at his next project (after AoF got distribution). He asks if I’d be interested in playing the lead of a horror short film; I was all in. That eventually turned into a feature and then THAT turned in “Gremlin.” It was a positive experience for both of us, I think. We both wanna be the hardest working guys in the room, and he’s got a sense of team that I genuinely love and respect. So he’s always pushing himself and I’m always pushing myself, and that’s an environment that I wanna be in. And when it came down to it, he brought the idea of “Jurassic Games” to me, gave me another shot at a great role.
MP: What’s your working process like with Bellgardt? I noticed you’re also a credited writer on the film.
AH: I think it works because we’re both pretty obsessive. And I think we’re both trying to look at the big picture, which makes us feel like allies on a set. It gets easy to get tunnel vision on a character or a scene when you’re tired and you’re fatigued from shooting. And I think we — and the rest of his team — have really blended well. When Ryan decided to roll forward with “Jurassic Games,” he told me he was interested in me playing a role — it was undecided at the time if I was gonna be the lead or not — and he wanted my help in fleshing out some of the story. I got started in filmmaking writing, so I was excited to help out on something as insane as this idea was. Most of my stories are small scale, two guys drinking coffee or beers and swearing getting philosophical about what-does-it-all mean. So this was a departure for me as a writer. And I think taking Galen Christy’s template and then bouncing our ideas back and forth allowed us to get outside of the box a little bit. It was fun. A lot of fun. And filmmaking is at its best when the collaboration element is celebrated; that’s what it felt like. We’d meet up at Buffalo Wild Wings or Chili’s and drink cold beers and write ideas down for hours like a couple of lunatics. I love it.
MP: You’re quite ubiquitous in the Oklahoma film scene — we worked on “The Grave” together, you’ve been in “The Harvesters,” two of Ryan’s films, lots of shorts . ... what are some of the things to which you attribute your success as an actor?
AH: I think it’s an amazing time to be an actor right now. There is a genuine abundance of creative talent in this state, and the filmmakers around here are taking it seriously. It’s past the idea of “can we do this” and we’re deeper into “how do we do this even better” and that’s where I like to be. I feel very, very fortunate to be working with the caliber of people that I am. I think a lot of it has just been from toiling and working hard for ten years, mostly on my own stuff, with Outsiders. Going to festivals, being supportive, working hard. And, to be honest, I’m extremely lucky. I just keep my head down and work, man.
MP: I first came to know you as a writer-director, and I’m of course impatiently awaiting the next “Rough Cut.” What writing projects are currently in your sights?
AH: Oh, “Rough Cut.” Right now I’m focusing quite a bit of my writing on the “Play It Loud” series. I’m hosting it — Outsiders is producing and shooting it — and I’m getting to spend some time talking to local musicians and talk shop about dream-chasing, basically. I’m writing some of the narrative components of that. Otherwise, I’m obsessed with a werewolf script. It’s outlined and half-written. I think one good weekend of my kids sleeping in and I might have my first draft down. It’s a horror film, but there’s a lot of my childhood in there. I’m excited. And we’re editing the fourth episode of “Rough Cut” now. We have the first cut, but it needs some work. And it’s our season finale so we don’t wanna put it out until it’s perfect. Then we’re looking to start streaming the series online; we wanted to wait for all four episodes to be complete before we released so people can binge watch it.
MP: How do you balance your various projects? Does one aspect take more priority these days?
AH: Man, I’m obsessive. If I’m not at home with Ang and the kids, I want to always be working. I’m restless. Starving. Being in multiple films as an actor makes you look really busy, because you put in a weekend or a couple of weeks and then six to nine months later, the movie comes out. So you can work for just a little bit, and then it seems like you’ve never stopped. Directing is a different animal. You’re breathing that stuff for months; I’ve been in three or four other projects since I finished with Ryan’s “Jurassic Games.” Meanwhile he’s stuck in a room somewhere making dinosaurs. And writing requires the most discipline, so I find that extremely difficult to make that time. You aren’t going to a set. You aren’t staying in a motel room or waiting for a call time. You’re having to shut out the world and sit down with your thoughts. And that is a tough gig. But I love all of it. It’s all part of the circle, man.
MP: How has being from Dale, OK, infused what you create?
AH: I’ve said a billion times that being an athlete in high school taught me how to be a filmmaker. One, I wasn’t very good at it. So I had to work really hard to try and compete. And I had a coach who pushed me, and that mindset really made sense to me. I can always be better, I can always do more. And that athletic approach to “art” is interesting, I think. And it makes sense when you acknowledge how collaborative filmmaking is. We’re all a team. We’re all there to help each other and achieve some common goal. Aside from that, I was raised to be humble. To be true. To finish what you start. I think those aspects of my raising certainly influence the way I approach projects and people. It’s easy to find fake people wherever you go.
MP: I talked with you about how you “bleed authenticity” whether you’re playing a hero, villain or someone in between, as many of your characters are. How do you approach each script to find that humanity?
AH: Still maybe the nicest thing anybody’s said about my acting. It’s been said that the best written villains see themselves as the hero. And I think that’s a good way to approach characters. I think being a writer helps inform my performances because I spend time trying to concern myself with their perspective. And I do a lot of people watching. And the truth is, people are gray. Good guys do bad things. Bad people can be heroic. Sinners can save people, and angels can fall. My favorite on-screen characters were always flawed in one way or another, and those aspects are what really interest me. In “The Grave,” I had myself pretty darn convinced I was the good guy. I was just trying to protect what I had earned. Illegally, maybe. But still.
MP: Talk a bit about your background and how you got started making independent films. How influential was having the Outsiders with you from early on?
AH: I got started working on films with Jason Alexander; this dude has been one of my best friends since I was 6. He’s my brother, more than anything. He was needing a senior project at East Central and so he commissioned me to write a script that he could shoot. I ended up going back as a postgraduate so we could make the movie together. We formed Outsiders Productions and made “Looking For Hope,” our first feature. Since then, Kenny Pitts and Chad Mathews came on. We turned it into an LLC, and we’ve been making movies since.
These guys are my best friends and they’re my family, but they’re also extremely talented filmmakers. I think we all make each other better, and that camaraderie has always been a huge part of what I love about the process. You step on any set for any period of time and you’ll have risked making lifelong friends. Do that with people you love already and you’re walking outta there with family.
MP: Tell me about your music program, “Play it Loud” — does hosting and crafting a show of that nature fulfill a different creative desire?
AH: Music has always gone hand-in-hand with filmmaking for me. I’m very passionate about music — it’s a huge part of my creative process — and the experience of a musician’s journey isn’t all that different from a filmmaker’s. Self-doubt, long nights, loneliness. I was asked because I’ve been doing this filmmaking thing for over a decade. I know what it’s like to fail, apparently, and that was part of the idea. They didn’t want a music historian or a journalist to be the host. They wanted someone who could sit down and talk about “the pursuit” and about sacrifice and love of the game with these varying artists. So being able to do that is pretty darn magical for me. I’m just happy to be a part of it and proud of what it’s doing so far.
MP: At the level you are now, what are your goals for the future?
AH: I just want to keep going. I’m a little bit like a dog chasing cars. I think, honestly, that I just want to keep getting better, keep working with people I can learn from, keeping being a part of projects that I can be proud of. Announcing plans is a good way to make God laugh. But I want to keep climbing
Specifically, I am incredibly excited about releasing the “Rough Cut” series. That will be a milestone. And I’m really curious to see where “Play It Loud” goes; we will be having some announcements on that in the near future that I think may kick that up to the next level. I’m looking at some auditions for other roles, of course. And I’m waiting to try and sneak into whatever Bellgardt writes next.
And be watching for that werewolf movie. I’m determined to make that happen.
MP: What do you consider the positives and negatives of the Oklahoma film scene?
AH: Oh, man. No negatives. I think we’re growing. And the journey of it is the best part. We have shown ourselves we can make movies here. Now it’s time to stop patting ourselves on the back and figure out how to make them even better. There is so much genuine talent in this state, and for the most part, there’s that beautiful down-to-earth vibe about so many of the filmmakers. They’re still humble, you know? Nobody’s too big for their britches, and they are just wanting to make the best film they can. And that’s exciting. There are so many people I’m dying to work with. And, genuinely, it feels like a community. Different filmmakers with different goals and voices are rooting each other, wanting each other to succeed. More now than I think I’ve ever seen. And it makes me proud to be from here. And hopefully be a little part of that.
MP: What do you like about attending deadCenter?
AH: deadCenter is an amazing experience. In terms of festival experience, it’s second to none in this state, and I’d put it up against anywhere. The whole vibe of it has this excitement and buzz. Crowds are electric and supportive, and the festival lineup itself is always so strong. Every year I go and think “it can’t get better” and then it does. It’s electric, man.