Lukas Hassel - Actor, Director and Producer - video Dailymotion

Power 98.5 Satellite Radio

Born and raised in Denmark, Lukas Hassel trained and graduated from the Samuel Beckett Theater School, Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Resides in the US.  As a screenwriter, Lukas won the Screencraft and CineStory Fellowship as well as placing top 30 and top 40 in the Nicholl's Fellowship. Won the Shore Film Fund as well as Fresh Voices TV Pilot competition.  Lukas wrote and directed the sci-fi short film "Into the Dark" which went on the win multiple awards for acting, writing and directing and played in over 70 film festivals world wide. His latest award winning horror short film, "The Son, the Father..." got a production deal after winning the Hollyshorts Film Festival competition for best screenplay and has screened on over 60 film festivals winning multiple awards. He's working on getting his first feature as a writer/director underway.  He has appeared on TV recently as recurring Elias VanDyke in The Blacklist as well as in shows such as Blue Bloods, Limitless, Elementary and more. In features like The Black Room, Art of the Dead, In Sickness and more.

Transcript

00:00hi this is dan akroyd he's progressive he's beautiful he's thoughtful he's intelligent

00:08he's powerful he's positive he is stephen cuoco on power 98.5 satellite radio

00:14empowering listeners from the u.s to the uk live on air with stephen cuoco

00:22isn't that fun that is brilliant talk about great energy right there

00:29thank you to everyone who's tuning in to live on air with stephen cuoco on power 98.5 satellite radio

00:37all the latest and greatest in news sports entertainment reality tv film and more we've

00:44got with me today an incredible look at you you look like you just walked off a cover of a model

00:52fabio you've got listen i'll take it long locks yeah yeah we've got actor we're going to writer

01:02can we say producer and director you can all right lucas hassel with us today we're going to be

01:08talking about his latest film house of abraham i wish i was in la right now to be enjoying all of

01:15the festivities with you yeah i wish you were too we we had our opening night last night and it was

01:21incredible uh full house fantastic responses we did a fun q a with the cast uh natasha henstrich was

01:28there lynn shea and our captain at the helm lisa belcher our director and uh and it was just such a

01:35room full of love and the film is harsh and dark and a psychological horror but uh people dug it so that

01:43was good i bet you showed up looking like david beckham in your own type of

01:47i've been to like right oh but you are a new yorker through and through so we're going to have

01:57you back very soon that sounds great i mean i'm i'm a new yorker through and half through because i

02:03wasn't born there i was born in europe uh but i have lived there since 96 and i certainly call new

02:08york my home when you return to new york lucas are you going to be doing any more film showings at all

02:15or or is it done right now i think it's it's up in the air a little bit if the cinema is going to

02:20extend the run there so we're we opened in new york and then we took it to la and it's going to run

02:25here for a while and then i think the plan is to sort of open it in the bigger cities around the

02:29country uh and after that it's going to go to streaming uh you know the option is always to go

02:34straight to streaming but the distribution company they're working with i think it was a good

02:39strategy to get it out in theaters first and spread the word and then uh gain a little awareness before

02:44it hits uh streaming services when we look at and consider bigger cities what is that is that dallas

02:50so that would be well it'd be atlanta it would be san francisco uh we're going to go to indianapolis

02:57it's also sort of where there's where there's interest generated they have ways of figuring out where

03:01the trailer or where the word is spreading well and so it's interesting of course to to get it

03:06there because it's important that we try to fill houses as much as possible you know with indie

03:11filmmaking it's very tough to to get any attention for your work and um you're competing with big

03:18studios much bigger movies and so you're trying to sort of get your you know foot in the door wherever

03:24you can so when there's a good response then you sort of have to follow up on that so we're going to

03:27be flexible and see how things develop for those that are listening once again we have actor producer

03:33director writer lucas hassel we're discussing his latest film house of abraham it is the type of film

03:40that i had said to you already lucas i belonged in this film it's not your fault we did not know

03:46before it was happened i'm i'm a little bit with the cast they are extremely lucky to have had this

03:56opportunity well thank you for saying so i i feel i was lucky to get them to be involved uh

04:03myself and lisa belcher we'd worked together before on a short film and she called me up one day and

04:09said listen i think we should move on and make a feature together we collaborated well and so um

04:16i said okay let me see if i can put something together because she approached me as she approached

04:20me as a writer and actor the intention was for me to write a script that we could do together

04:24and so i just think with the indie cinema your best shot at getting any attention is to write

04:29something that's a little outside the box like don't write something that hollywood could do

04:33better and bigger uh because what's the point of that so we took a bit of a risk with the

04:39storyline it's very dark and it takes on sort of unaliving and end of life discussion so it really

04:46takes on a very deep and dark subject better but it was really an exploration of manipulation

04:52that i was after i've been fascinated by this notion of sort of be careful who you trust when

04:58you're at your most vulnerable and so that's what this film really is about it's about making sure

05:03you don't end up in hands of people that are stronger than you hypothetically or more ruthless

05:09than you uh because before you know it there's no way out and so i came up with this particular

05:14story house of abraham and together we we just pushed ahead and i was lucky enough to have worked

05:21with both natasha henstridge and then shay before so i could get the script into their hands at least

05:27of course you never know if they're gonna like it or if they have time to do it um and thankfully in

05:33both of those cases they really enjoyed the scripts and they came on board and then lisa cast

05:39pretty much the rest of the group out of austin texas where she's based and where we shot

05:43um marvel rex is a trans actor out of la so him we found by uh social media lisa found him and what a

05:53what a gift and revelation for him to come on board so it's been so fun to meet these actors that i

05:58hadn't worked with before and then also work with people that i love and have worked with many times

06:04before like lynn and natasha so it was a real gift it was once said i i had seen a video on tiktok that

06:12everything up until your 40s is research and you and i are a little bit older than

06:20even though this book phenomenal correct you and i yes we we're timeless we're ageless we are the reason

06:31why uh beauty products are so scared and timid but they'll have to use children because they can't

06:38find many people like you and i because the products aren't clearly don't need them

06:44exactly what what you said exactly

06:47do you feel that the the timing is

06:53so serendipitous for you for this because it feels monumental

06:59emmy level for you well i think you know for me when i'm in projects or when i write things

07:07you always as the artist you have to ask yourself where like what is my why this why now right why

07:15are we doing this film currently and why does it have any relevance today because you can make

07:20films anywhere any given time for any given reason but if it doesn't have if you can't answer the

07:26question why this why now i think you know maybe you haven't thought enough about it right i think

07:30it's very important to have a sort of an angle a vision about why you're doing things and so

07:35in this case it was looking around me you know around the u.s around the world today and i see a

07:41lot of people being manipulated by people that have more power that have more money that are more

07:46ruthless and they get back into a corner where i don't think they intended to be but that's sort of

07:51where they found themselves at and so that was fascinating and that's why i think hopefully

07:57it'll resonate with people beyond um just being a good night of entertaining fun hopefully i've got

08:03some questions prepared for you i was going to have fun this i wanted to do something different from

08:08your other interviews okay how has house of abraham altered if anything your worldview of cinema

08:18i think i had a pretty solid sense of cinema i mean my realization with the post work on a film has

08:29been i have increased that learning curve because i wasn't really aware of all the work that goes into

08:36trying to get a film out once it's finished and then in the world today where people go to the cinema

08:42less you have a lot of cinemas closing down or they're changing their model where it's more about luxury

08:47seats and fewer seats and many people don't even go to the cinemas anymore because they have a big

08:53huge screen at home so it was a realization of sort of how dire is the situation for cinema in general

09:00and how can we reinvigorate the crowds to go back in and experience those films on the bigger screen

09:06where you have a great sound and you're surrounded by other like-minded people who want to explore this

09:11in the dark and so that's been the sort of bigger revelation to me is where we're at exactly and how

09:17difficult it is to compete with the bigger studios and not fall under the sort of um bigger picture of

09:25streaming where there's very little transparency right they don't have to tell you how many people

09:30watch your movie because it's a subscription basis system so there's a lot of hidden issues that make it

09:38very difficult for indie films to break through and that's why you see you know all the big films

09:42are either based on ip popular books or they are sequels or prequels so original scripts are having a

09:49very difficult time and that was the biggest thing i've sort of realized that it's if you write original

09:53material it's tough but you're proud i am super proud i mean i think this to me it's something very

10:01different i love going to the cinema and being like leaning into the the movie rather than just lean back

10:07and look at the beautiful special effects or looking at the beautiful big stars and so forth

10:12i like to lean into something i like to be questioned i like to be challenged and so this film will do all

10:17that for you so in the end you know judging from just the response in new york and last night i was

10:22blown away by the effusiveness of i mean mind mind you many of many of those people are our friends and

10:29colleagues so they were probably extra supportive but it was a really wonderful vibe good

10:34in portraying your character lucas did you confront any personal beliefs

10:41i think i i think i've had to in the writing process because in this case i both wrote and

10:49acted the antagonist of abraham so i'd really already made those considerations by the time i was on set so

10:56there wasn't anything new i learned while shooting my role of abraham but writing it i definitely had to

11:03confront a lot of issues about life and death which is what this film tackles well and i'm not

11:08i'm an atheist i would call myself a agnostic atheist i'm not a believer in any shape or form

11:13but i also had to respect that many people do believe and i had to figure out how much of that

11:18do i want to include because often with end of life religion does enter the picture and i just didn't

11:24really want to take on that part of it because i feel that's a different story so but still i had to

11:31sort of explore what all that meant so there was a lot of research about how people handle uh end of

11:37life

11:37what societal reflections did you find in the script

11:44so it is this notion of you know i think i see it around my uh around myself here in the u.s a lot

11:54where where if you're not if you're not sort of lucky enough to have had a great background either

12:03financially or education wise or where you were born into which situation you were born

12:08it's tough to have any say you know you have that one vote you know every four years or every two years

12:15midterms whatever whatever but it's very easy for you to be marginalized and to be shut out and so you

12:21can really be pushed around and people are being i think people are being deceived in in the world

12:28today very much by more ruthless people right so people end up voting against their own self-interests

12:33a lot of the time under the guise of maybe you know trans thing over here or gay issue over here or

12:40they get distracted by shiny objects apart from what really matters which is do you have health care do

12:46you have all this and do you can you take care of your family you're still living in a trailer home but

12:50you're voting for billionaires and so that's the political aspect of this that's sort of hidden in

12:54the film because it really is about don't let yourself get conned don't let yourself get taken

13:00in by smarter more ruthless people and that's where this manipulation thematic comes in and that's sort

13:06of the basis of the script you're not going to realize that necessarily when you see the film

13:10because there's no politics in there but if you really go in and analyze why things the way they are

13:16in the film it's that was what inspired me from societal issues today i appreciate that treasure

13:21map because now i have that in here for when i see the film thank you for that right yeah yeah absolutely

13:32were there any emotional risks you took in this role

13:36well yes because you because i take on very difficult subject matters right so abraham is that

13:44weird voice of reason but it's also insane at the same time he's a he's a very difficult character

13:52very layered character and he would say things like well you got life without asking for it so you can

13:58give it back and that's sort of part of his effort in manipulating people into going through with this

14:06unaliving task that they came to the house with the basic premise is that people arrive at the house

14:11of abraham with the intent of unaliving and uh he's going to make sure that happens safely and peacefully

14:17and respectfully and then the lead protagonist played by natasha henstrom hd has a secret agenda that sort of

14:23changes that changes that particular weekend so abraham is there to make sure people go through with

14:29their end of life and he has very different ways of how he makes people do that uh and so i had to

14:38look into sort of how do i manipulate others and am i guilty of doing some of these things in subtle

14:44ways you know as an artist you you go to some cocktail parties or some networking opportunities and

14:51you find yourself sort of flirting with this person or talking a certain way to this person and it's a

14:56little manipulative because everybody has their own agenda and so i try to be as truthful and as real as

15:01i can but sometimes you fall into these manipulation patterns without even realizing it so i did have to

15:08look inward for some of these some of these issues and and so try to get that across through my writing

15:14the image in my head lucas is when you had made that reference is abraham is a a body

15:28sort of if i'm saying it you know precisely an embodiment of those that struggle with suicidal thoughts

15:37uh addictions uh addictions that abraham is this this this entity that people see but don't see through

15:46actions through thoughts through um through a sense of deception of of having a denial about what life

15:57and death is really about correct you see where i'm going with that yeah absolutely absolutely

16:03so that's yeah no it's and it's interesting because it's you know you're you're throughout

16:10the script throughout the writing of it i i i take on so many different ways of manipulating people

16:16because everybody needs something differently not everyone is the same and that's kind of like a

16:20filmmaker directing you've got to work with your actors and you figure out what this actor needs

16:23this and this actor needs to pat on the back and this actor needs to line read and this actor needs to be told

16:28go faster everybody works differently and so with abraham and the writing of it it was

16:33interesting to explore all the different ways you can manipulate subtly or more directly depending

16:38on what people need and i've always been fascinated by these things i think i read a horrible article

16:45once about um a pedophile and it was fascinating how he manipulated these children and one of the things

16:52that struck me when i read the article was that for instance as an example and i'm paraphrasing some

17:00of this and it's it's not exactly what was in the article but he would he would offer them do you

17:06would like a coca-cola or would you like a sprite as opposed to would you like a soda right if you

17:12say would you like a coca-cola would you like a sprite there's really no option out of saying i don't

17:16want a soda never mind coke or sprite so it's all about how you phrase questions to make sure that people

17:22don't have a way of not answering in a way that suits you and that is dark and really manipulative

17:32and scary and that's the part about the psychological horror house i abraham that i think will make people

17:40squirm more than anything is that the real antagonist is human nature this is a something that just came to

17:46my mind lucas is have you ever given thought as to

17:54understanding that those who watch this are going to be able to separate

17:59you as lucas hassel and the character of abraham

18:05yeah you know it's that's a hard thing because when i did the show the blacklist on on nbc and i

18:11you know spoiler alert i kill one of the main characters um you know i got a lot of hate mail

18:17and i got a lot of love mail as well depending on how they felt about the character but it was

18:21interesting a lot of these messages were written to me like i was the character on the show like

18:26why did you kill her why would you do that to us and i was like do people not realize that a

18:33a i'm not that character and b somebody wrote those lines for me right it's like

18:38that delusion is hilarious to me and i don't feel threatened by it i'm abused by it so if people

18:44think that i'm abraham in real life as well that's all good i have no issue with it the real thing is

18:51of course the entire film did come from this noggin of mine right so i did think up all these dark

18:58things and all these horrible things but i think as an artist if you if you are afraid to entertain any

19:06thought and if it's just a thought right there's no way i would act out on any of these things but

19:12if you're afraid of letting your mind go to either extremes of either polar ends of yourself then how

19:19can you possibly be an artist because you're holding it back already so i think many people don't want

19:23to talk about death i don't want to think about this so i don't mention that i don't want to even

19:26know about it but i'm not that person i'm like i want to know everything i can talk about anything i can

19:32think about anything and then i'll make up my mind about how i feel about it but shutting it off

19:38is not lucas hassles way i like to face things up front have talks about it and then make an opinion

19:46or learn more and then form an opinion you either could have been picking up an alternate life or

19:52something intuitive because my sicilian grandfather always had said for every thought you have someone

19:59else in the world also has it so you could be retrieving a real personality or an idea of a

20:05personality emerging that could be taken on being facetious but i'm not i don't know i appreciate

20:11that i'm being i believe things like that no i appreciate it did you draw inspiration from any historical figures

20:22well you know you look at you look at dictatorships or manipulations around the world so sure but you

20:31know i've always been aware of through history how how people have been dominated by as i mentioned

20:37earlier smarter more powerful more ruthless people so yeah throughout history there are examples of how

20:43you know people get backed into corners that they can't get out of and as i said before sort of

20:47act against the role in self-interest because of master manipulation and it's only really when you

20:52are when you step out of it you can get perspective on it right um and so i think it's fascinating how

21:00people end up in situations a friend of mine who i i will not mention his name but and he's creating an

21:06own his own documentary about his journey but i remember he got into a cult at some point

21:11that he sort of he didn't realize that he was being manipulated and got into the situation and

21:16we've heard many cult stories before but the thing that struck me about his story was

21:20the thing that got him out of the cult in the end was that the cult had overplayed their hands so much

21:26by eroding his self-confidence eroding everything about him he thought he was nothing and that was how

21:32they kept their members in their cult and in the end they overplayed their hands so much because the

21:37only reason he found the strength to leave the cult was because he felt he was so

21:42nothing that he was pulling the cult down

21:47they had destroyed his self-confidence so much that he thought he was bringing the cult down by his

21:53own lowliness and disgustedness so he left trying to preserve the cult and it was only when

22:00he was out of it he realized holy crap what have i been doing and found the strength to eventually

22:06sue and shut down the cult and so forth but that story was like that's insane how you can get

22:13yourself into such a situation and it can happen easily i suppose i i i would like to think that it

22:20couldn't that it couldn't happen to me because i'm someone who questions a lot and i'm someone who pushes

22:24back against authority a lot but uh who knows maybe i couldn't yeah it's it's victims like to find what

22:34you desire or to assume the role of fulfilling what they believe they have found in you that you need

22:42correct and there's no matter how resilient you are there are some extremely smart highly intellectual

22:54beings in this world that's 100 yeah

23:01how do you hope your performance will impact the viewers that have not seen the film like me

23:08yeah well i hope you know i hope you get like a a visceral reaction to it you know it's so difficult

23:18now with films to make people scared or to make people cry or to get emotionally involved because

23:25we've become so savvy we're all a little jaded about films and society in general i think so with this

23:32film i was trying to set out to really make people squirm at least which i think is you know i see

23:41people in cinema pull up their shirts or pull their knees into their chest and i'm that's i'm enjoying

23:47the fact that i can actually have that effect where you can give a gift of making people feel something

23:52that they haven't felt in a while even if it's a bad feeling because then they walk out of the cinema

23:56and they realize life is great i'm not in that world right so something for something so if i can

24:02so my hope is that i can make people feel or experience something they haven't seen or felt

24:06in a while and that was uh and i think i have achieved that without having had seen the film

24:12yet and yeah and i'm looking forward to it and i will yes i'm definitely gonna hold you to that

24:20i believe from what i found from the trailer from other amazing reviews about the film and looking into

24:27it is it's real it may have come even though it came from your mind it's still real and these are

24:38things that you you could be at work your your supervisor your spouse how many times do parents

24:45not even realize their young children their adolescent children their preteen children have these thoughts in

24:52their head correct i believe when those that are cringing is they understand i'm not speaking for

24:59everyone i i'm only speaking for myself realistically that anytime a cringe comes

25:07it's knowing that that can that that's something that's real correct and that was a big takeaway from

25:13last night's screening a lot of people came up to me and said this was so

25:16real because the whole point of some of these things that happen in the movie is to keep it

25:22grounded and i wanted the tone to be very real it was it's very easy with certain horrors to sort of

25:29veer into spoof a little bit and too much comedy there is comedy in the movie there's some comedic relief

25:34you know lynn shay nails it as beatrice and she's hilarious but yeah to sort of hold her back because she

25:41has such a gift with comedy and so forth but if she went into that too soon it would shift the whole

25:46tone of the movie so we had to sort of hold her back almost like a race force of when do you let

25:51her freak flag fly and let it go and every now and then we let that happen and other times we have

25:56to pull it back and it's the realness is what i was going for and it's you know you have something

26:01like final destination where you have a lot of these amazing kills and it's fun to see how

26:06that comes together and it's an expensive setup and this happens for that to happen and it's fun to

26:10see how they do that house of abraham is the opposite of that the deaths that you witness on screen are

26:16harrowing they're real and you see every single thing like you cannot look away and and that's what

26:24we're going for when the sizzle reel was made lucas was their discretion made by either you the team

26:31the distribution company of how much of the visual would be shown for sure i mean and you can argue that

26:39that we like we over shared certain images in the trailer on the other hand for many people that

26:46might be the only thing they see of the film and so it's a tough balance of showing too little or

26:53showing too much and in this case i think it served as well i really i'm very proud of the trailer and

26:59is there's enough mystery that you don't quite know how it hangs together where in the film those images

27:05are and that's going to be part of the surprise when you see the film that it doesn't the order

27:09in the trailer may not be the same order in the film and so you just take some of the images to

27:13sort of make people lean in and hopefully be excited about coming to see the film so yeah there's always

27:18discussion about what goes in and what goes out uh but at the end of the day we all agreed on on how

27:24to handle it but because of the subject matter and unlike the word suicide is very triggering for many

27:29we had to be careful about how to even use or you mention that word in many ways because it is a

27:37triggering thing it is a taboo subject uh particularly in this country and that's also why we took up that

27:42subject matter because i think it's important to talk about these things um and so we had to sort of be

27:48aware of of those those issues anything you would like to close by any golden nuggets you want to share

27:54about you well any golden nuggets i would share if anybody watches this or listens to this that

28:01are an aspiring artist whether you're a writer or actor or whether you're a filmmaker

28:07i think it's important not to wait for others to make things happen for you that has been sort of my

28:12lesson in life you know we're you know i'm at a more mature age now and i am done with waiting for

28:19the phone call to come from my manager or my agent and have things happen for me i'm somebody who tries

28:25to take charge of my own destiny you know as an actor you give your power away to everybody else

28:31because you walk into a casting room you do your audition and cross fingers walking out you got that

28:35role but it's not up to you giving away that power is tiring that's exhausting and that gets old really

28:42quickly so taking some of that power back i did that with my writing and then realizing that we're

28:47writing you still give your power away to a certain extent because you have to get that produced so

28:53if you can direct what you write that's real power with your circuit so try to make things happen for

28:59yourself if you're not happy with where your career is at or you feel not enough is happening

29:04go out and grab it make a short film start somewhere and uh you know a lot of the work i have today i can

29:10trace back to a short film i made 15 years ago my first short as a writer director

29:15and and here i am you know a lot later with a career that probably helped was helped by that

29:21initial uh product i'm excited for you really am i can't wait to sit down and we're both uh i've got

29:28water but we're both starbucks people absolutely oh yeah i've sold my soul to starbucks because they

29:33don't kick me out after writing five hours but i started supporting the small coffee shops but they

29:38needed the table after 45 minutes and that doesn't help me so i moved on sold my soul to starbucks and

29:44uh now they're like my friends they're the locals the cafe they know me they've come to see the film

29:48in new york so um yeah yes socials where can we find you where do you want us to be well so lucas

29:56hassle with a k lucas with a k hassle h-a-s-s-e-l i'm on instagram all my new products and films and

30:04productions are coming up there and then of course house of abraham movie is out on instagram um follow it

30:10there for where it'll come screening or if any news about that and uh yeah that's it i'm not on

30:16threads or x or any of that but i am on on instagram and uh you can find me there for sure it's a place

30:22to be instagram's the new imdb and yeah and you can go to imdb as well and if you watch the film and like

30:29it for indie films it's always super important that people go there and rate it because that does matter

30:34so and of course i have my own website lucas hassle.com where you can also go in and check out

30:38bits and pieces thank you so much for being with us today can't wait to have you back on

30:44thank you steven really appreciate you having me thank you thank you to everyone who's tuned

30:48in to live on air with steven cuoco on power 98.5 satellite radio power 985.com download the app

30:55tune in on alexa power 98.5 is available on apple music so if you are like me and you've got an iphone

31:01and apple music go right ahead listen to it anytime anywhere and today we've got lucas hassle writer

31:09producer director and actor we talked about his latest film house of abraham coming to a theater

31:17and streaming service near you and speaking of streaming when is that happening if anything

31:23that is uh that's to be decided we have to see how the theatrical run goes and then we'll take it

31:29from there but it's it's definitely going to hit streaming it's just a matter of when are we going

31:32to launch that perfect if you happen to not have heard the entire episode of today with actor director

31:40producer and writer film lucas hassle you can find live on air with steven cuoco on any one of your

31:46favorite podcast platforms remember this is a radio show not a podcast yet podcasting is your friend

31:53to check out and get the latest when you are not able to listen to it live take care have a wonderful

32:01weekend summer is here we're breaking out in the 90s here in new jersey and new york

32:06yeah i'm gonna stay cool and i hope you do too have a great weekend

32:36thank you

32:50so

Lukas Hassel - Actor, Director and Producer

Category

Transcript

Recommended