D(e)ad is very much a showcase for Isabella Roland as a writer and actor, but that isn’t to undersell her co-stars, including Vic Michaelis. The Dropout regular and star of Very Important People appears in the new comedy as Violet, Tilly’s older sister, who is already stressed enough by her pregnancy when their father dies — and returns as a ghost Tilly can’t see.
It’s a movie that finds the right balance between silly and sad, in part due to the way the cast brings a lived-in and emotionally real touch to the film. During an interview with TVBrittanyF, Vic Michaelis discussed bringing their personal touches to their performance in D(e)ad, the balance between comedy and grief, and how the movie plays a part in an exciting trend of Dropout stars independently producing their own films.
TVBrittanyF: Congrats on D(e)ad!
Vic Michaelis: Thank you! I really appreciate it. I can’t believe it — we shot this last April, only over 15 days. The fact that we’re now in movie theaters feels surreal in a wonderful way. Wanting to make movies and stuff like that, it’s a little bit of a dream. Getting to do projects that you believe in and see them on the literal, non-metaphorical big screen… You gotta slow down and be like, ‘This is why we do commercials. That way, you can do stuff like this.’ This is the dream.
This is such a personal story for Izzy and her whole family, and she told me that one of the great delights and surprises of this experience was seeing how much everyone else was also deeply connected with this film and brought a personal touch to it. What was it like stepping into something as personal as D(e)ad and finding ways to bring your own touches to this story?
It was so surreal. I think it was something that — intimidated isn’t the right word, and neither is nervous. It’s something in between there that spins maybe more on the excitement side of things. I wanted to make sure, especially with my role being [inspired] by Natasha, Izzy’s actual sister — Violet is a very fictionalized version of her. But Natasha is one of the most incredible people, and she’s just a cool person.
She’s cool and interesting in a way that, especially improvisers like me, spend a lot of time studying and taking copious notes about, so that we can imitate it. I wanted to make sure that I was doing the fictionalized version of her justice. I think we accomplished that. She’s been nothing but sweet and kind about the portrayal. I think it feels weighty going into something like that.
Izzy is one of my absolute best friends in the world. Beyond that, this is just such an interesting and specific and funny and talented artist in her own right. I just wanted ot make sure that I was doing this story, which was so personal to her, justice. I didn’t know what the expectation level was, and then I got to go in and be a part of it. I learned the expectation level. I’m going in and taking it seriously, but also doing my best and making informed choices about the character. It was awesome.
You really get to do everything Violet in this film. How did you approach the script’s balance of tragedy and comedy?
I am also a part of the sad and unfortunate club of having lost a parent. It’s really interesting. It does just feel very true to actual life and a representation of grief… sometimes you’re laughing really hard. It’s sort of going about your day-to-day life, and then you just get his with waves. As you get further away from it, maybe the waves come less often. But it doesn’t necessarily mean the pain is any less. It’s just coming at weirder or more infrequent times. I think [D(e)ad] did such a good job representing that. Even just reading it, I was like, yeah, I can see what this looks like. I can understand that, I feel what that looks like.
It’s also just an actor’s dream, getting to play a character where you get to do comedy and you get to have those big sad moments, and then you get to have the love story too. Every actor gets asked ‘What kind of characters do you want to play?’ And it’s like, I don’t know, the funny one who’s also the lead and the love interest and then also gets to cry twice [Laughter]. It’s a dream.
I also love the dynamic you end up finding with Craig in the film, which really lets you play with a lot of emotions.
My Dad is not a con artist, but is also someone I spent so much time with growing up. He raised me, my brother, and my sister by himself. Even though my Dad is still with us and is healthy and everything, I think I brought a lot of my dynamics with my Dad to this. I’m yelling at him about something, and then we’re laughing about something else a second later.
Craig is just brilliant. One of my favorite shows, especially as a teen, was Unreal. I thought he was so brilliant in that, so getting to work with him was so much fun. He’s very much that character — not the slimy side, not that morally gray side, but that repartee is there, that wit is there. He’s such a brilliant actor; it was so much fun getting to do that with him.
I’ve also got to say, congrats on Very Important People season 2!
Thank you so much! I’m still getting tagged in all the Spencer art, despite it coming out months ago. It’s such a treat. The show is such a gift. It has changed my life in so many ways. I think about D(e)ad and this independent [approach]– we’re getting into theaters, and I feel this way about Dropout too. I’m just so grateful to have a platform where they really allowed me and Tamar to run with this super weird version of the idea.
This was not the version that they were expecting, and they have embraced it wholeheartedly in a way that I don’t know another place would. This is the type of thing that I think ordinarily you’d have to crowdfund and put it on YouTube and hope somebody found it. To have a network like Dropout behind us… It’s so artistically satisfying. It’s such a gift.
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I do see D(e)ad as a showcase for what the people at Dropout can do outside of the pure comedy material that’s largely on the channel. I know this film was independent, but do you think D(e)ad could impact how places like Dropout approach projects?
That’s interesting. I can’t speak to dropout as a network. Obviously, they’ve got a lot of their own stuff going on, and they film a bunch of stuff in-house. I think they’ll continue to push new shows and continue to expand, is my guess. I don’t have any insider info, unfortunately. My assumption is that they’ll continue to grow and green-light things that sound interesting and fun, and that the audience will like.
I think what is interesting, and I think this wave of what we’re seeing happen, D(e)ad shows that there is an appetite from people to follow Dropout talent as performers and to see what else we have. People are interested in our comedic ideas, and now it’s expanding. Rekha had a very successful crowdfunding campaign and is shooting her movie Zach. Jess just finished filming a movie that they crowdfunded. Obviously, that comes from a lot of different places and people doing that. And obviously, we’re not the first movie to ever crowd fund anything.
I do think that the success of D(e)ad has given a lot of people confidence to go like, ‘Oh, okay, there is an audience. There is an appetite for us to crowdfund stuff and go out and see it.’ That has been really exciting. Dropout has fostered talent that I think are some of the funniest, most wonderful, and incredible performers in the world. They’re also some of the hardest workers that I know, and now they’re getting to pursue and make some of these personal projects. I just think it’s incredible.
What would you say was the biggest surprise of the experience of making D(e)ad?
It’s really interesting — I knew that this movie was such a personal and close story to one of my best friends in the world, and she did such a beautiful job writing it, and I really wanted to honor exactly what she brought to the table. I think the collaborativeness of it was the most surprising part, because I think with personal stories — I’ve worked on other projects that have been very personal to people, and it is very easy for people to get very guarded and put a shell around the project. They want to make sure that it’s absolutely perfect, and it’s exactly 1,000% the vision they had in their head.
I think with this project in particular, it was so deeply collaborative. Izzy and Claudia, at every step, were interested [in what I was thinking]. Especially with like Violet, my input and what I had to say about the character being so important to them, them allowing me to be the voice and the champion for that character, and allowing me to try things with the character, I’m endlessly grateful. I think that they are so brilliant, and I am so excited to see where they go next with this, because I hope they make a million more films.
D(e)ad is now playing in select theaters
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