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Steven Grayhm writes, directs, and stars in the evocative and informative drama Sheepdog. Vondie Curtis-Hall is one of the actors to grace this talented ensemble, and the two sat down for a brief (but insightful) interview with Deepest Dream. Two topics were covered: their thoughts on screenwriting and working together on a pivotal scene in in Sheepdog. Check out the full interview below!
Sheepdog centers on Calvin Cole (Steven Grayhm), a U.S Army combat veteran who is undergoing treatment under the supervision of VA trauma therapist in-training (Virginia Madsen). Vondie Curtis-Hall co-stars as Calvin’s father-in-law, a retired Vietnam veteran who has just been released in prison.
Grayhm’s Sheepdog writing process began with a level of freedom afforded by imagination, extensive research, and a healthy share of journals.
“My process really quickly is pretty simple and it’s just the way it works for me,” said Grayhm. “I journal, so I get moleskin journals that have no lines on them, so there’s no rules (on what) I can write. I try to fill (them) up, two or three of them, so that when I do sit down at final draft, I’m not staring at a blank page.”
“I have tons of stuff in a journal to put into script form, and then you just commit it to the page,” added Grayhm. “That’s like the biggest thing is like don’t edit your thoughts, you get, you really write the screenplay in your revisions. That’s where you find the voice of it all, but get all your ideas down. Get them all out, because it doesn’t service you to have them living in your head.”
Vondie Curtis-Hall shared his initial screenwriting experience. “When I started writing my first script, it was holding the notion of holding something I created,” said Curtis-Hall. “My first film was Gridlock’d and I wrote it AFI in film school. And, just the, that feeling of the weight of a, you know, a hundred and whatever page script, is what carried me through. I would look at the stack growing – and I had to have a deadline. Film school provided that for me.”
Co-starring Dominic Fumusa and Matt Dallas, Sheepdog is now playing in theaters.
I review Sheepdog on this week’s CinemAddicts podcast:
