Carl Andress and Charles Busch co-wrote and co-directed the film The Sixth Reel, which was released in theaters on September 22nd.
The film follows the character, Jimmy, played by Busch, who has recently found out that a close friend has passed away. While helping sort through the belongings of his late friend, he unearths a classic horror film reel previously thought to be lost forever. This discovery causes Busch’s character and his friends to devise a series of schemes to cash in on the sale of the film. This comedy offers viewers a variety of emotions that convey moments of laughter combined with heartfelt scenes and complex characters.
The Sixth Reel won a Special Mention for Ensemble Performance at Outfest 2021 and has been showing at film festivals around the world over the past year, including Frameline, Newfest, Queer Screen’s Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney, Australia, and TLVFest. This film is just one of many projects Andress and Busch have created together. Their partnership has allowed them to develop a connection and understanding that has contributed to the success of the projects they have completed together.
The Knockturnal spoke with Andress and Busch about their film and what they hope viewers will take away from it. As well as some of their most memorable moments during the creation of this film. Busch also discussed the release of his memoir titled Leading Lady: A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy.
The Sixth Reel will be available on VOD beginning Friday, October 20th.
The Knockturnal: You both co-wrote and co-directed the film The Sixth Reel. How did you both come up with the concept for this film?
Charles Busch: We had an idea for a caper film about the world of classic film collectors several years ago. We got carried away and had the characters on a road trip that would have required a budget of Marvel proportions. Ditched that idea for years. And then during the early days of the Covid pandemic, we skyped until we came up with a more rational idea for a movie.
Carl Andress: Once we settled on the idea of revisiting the caper story revolving around a famous lost film, I also thought it would be fun to try to capture onscreen the comic chemistry in the relationship between Charles and Julie Halston, particularly from a play we a few years prior called The Tribute Artist. They would be the protagonists in the plot involving the lost film.
The Knockturnal: Over the years, you both have worked together on a variety of comedies Off-Broadway. What do you both enjoy most about working together?
Charles Busch: We’re almost 99% in agreement and the remaining 1% works itself out with no offstage drama. As an actor, I have the comfort that Carl knows my strengths and weaknesses so thoroughly and that he can steer me in the right direction before I’ve written a word of dialogue.
Carl Andress: We’re such great friends and know one another so well, that the collaboration is the best part to me. I love the long conversations we have about each project at the outset, as we imagine how the world of the story will come together, who the characters are and who might play them, and dreaming up the physical aspects of the productions. I particularly enjoy how we figure out solutions whenever we encounter a potential roadblock in the story.
The Knockturnal: The Sixth Reel won a Special Mention for Ensemble Performance at Outfest 2021 and has been showing at film festivals around the world over the past year, including Frameline, Newfest, Queer Screen’s Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney, Australia and TLVFest. What have the reactions been like towards the film? How did it feel for you both when you found out the movie won a Special Mention for Ensemble Performance?
Charles Busch: The audience response has been so full of affection and appreciation. There haven’t been too many comedy caper movies in the past several decades and it’s marvelous that we won these awards for our ensemble. Partly because of the COVID lockdown of Broadway, we were able to assemble a fantastic cast of stage performers who might not have been available and were so thrilled to be out of their homes and working. Many of them had professional associations with each other that went back many years. We all had a kind of sympathy and enthusiasm for the project that was out of the ordinary. How great to be awarded for something so full of love.
Carl Andress: The response has been pretty great, and it’s terrific to see audiences get a kick out of seeing an original comic story. I felt so proud when the film received that Special Mention for Ensemble Performance. It truly is an ensemble film, and everyone worked together so beautifully. They really clicked onset, and it was a joy to work with these amazing actors, many of whom we’ve known or admired for years. Our hats are off to our wonderful casting director, Matthew Glasner!
The Knockturnal: What was your favorite part about making this film?
Charles Busch: It was great having the opportunity to work on a movie with my longtime stage partner, Julie Halston. Over the past nearly forty years, we’ve done so many plays together. It was marvelous now, presenting this relationship on camera.
Carl Andress: I really enjoyed working with our cinematographer Jendra Jarnagin. She photographed the movie so beautifully and made everyone look great, along with the fine work of gaffer John Roche. Staging the scenes was great fun for me, and then choosing the shots and angles with Jendra’s guidance was exhilarating on a daily basis.
The Knockturnal: Can you talk about your creative process and how you worked with the cast and crew?
Charles Busch: In full disclosure, Carl really was the director of the film. I was so involved with acting the principal role of Jimmy that Carl did all the heavy lifting. I just like being in position of throwing in my ideas on casting, production, and costume design and then in post-production editing. I did relatively little coaching of the actors. With veteran performers of this high caliber, you basically leave them alone.
Carl Andress: Every project one undertakes, be it a play or a movie, is essentially like beginning a new start-up small business, and working with exciting new people and dear old friends, all coming together to tell the story at hand is the heart of the creative process for me. I start from a place of gratitude, as everyone onset or in the studio is there to help bring to life this idea that Charles and I had! Building a shorthand with the crew and production team on a daily basis was key and then adding in the actors and watching everyone ply their expertise both in front of and behind the camera was quite joyful and moving.
The Knockturnal: How do you hope the audiences will respond to the film? What do you want viewers to walk away feeling?
Charles Busch: With all of my work on stage and film, I enjoy providing a rollercoaster of tone. I hope the audience will enjoy the ride of laughing at the comedy and then being suddenly moved by the vulnerability of the characters.
Carl Andress: I hope people will have enjoyed a few good laughs and having had their spirits lifted by the story.
The Knockturnal: Can you talk about a particularly memorable moment during the filming of this movie?
Charles Busch: It was daunting having to deliver several key monologues to a set full of Tony and Emmy nominees and winners. And due to a very tight schedule, given only two or three chances to get it right. But when I did particularly well and didn’t screw it up at the very end of the movie, it was very satisfying. It’s also always memorable when a moment comes where I can step back and witness all these talented cast and crew attempting a complicated scene and realizing that it all sprang from an idea that Carl and I had over the phone.
Carl Andress: As we were filming several scenes in NYC on the stoop in front of “Jimmy’s” building over a couple of days of our very limited time on location, it was getting towards the end of the first day and we had one shot left before we’d lose the light. It was at this moment that one of the actual residents of the building halted our shooting, very upset at the idea of her building had been condemned! Seems the building’s super had not informed all of the tenants about the set dressing they would see and that this was sanctioned and approved by the building’s management…so she took it all quite literally and would not be mollified!
The Knockturnal: Are either of you working on any upcoming projects?
Charles Busch: This winter, Carl will be directing a new play of mine that I’ll be acting in called “Ibsen’s Ghost; an irresponsible biographical fantasy.” It’s a comedy about the great Norwegian dramatist’s widow the week after his state funeral. Hilarity ensues. Trust me, it really does.
Carl Andress: We’re very excited about the new play, plus we have a couple of ideas for movies that we hope to make, including a film version of Charles’ hilarious play “The Divine Sister” which we did Off-Broadway a few years ago, and another titled, “Visitors in the Dark” which takes place during the 1965 NYC Blackout…!
In this portion of the interview, Charles Busch discusses his memoir called Leading Lady: A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy:
The Knockturnal: Charles, what was it like for you to star in the film, while also co directing? Did writing and directing this film help add any additional insight into your character?
Charles Busch: Most of my career on stage and film has been acting in my own work. I can’t separate the two. I write my roles with my line readings in mind. I show up on the set with the performance already in place. The challenge is to then put aside those line readings to react spontaneously to the other actors. It ain’t easy. Since Carl really was the main director, I think I only occasionally gave one of the actors some insight into their character. When Carl and I do a play or film, when I show up on set, I’m basically just an actor in the cast. It’s easy for me to slip into that one role.
The Knockturnal: Charles, tell me about your memoir Leading Lady: A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy?
Charles Busch: I’ve worked on it for …. fourteen years! It’s peculiar having it finally out in the world. After so many drafts and different attempts at structure, it really is the book I’ve wanted to write. The final structure has a time traveling aspect. It starts off with a story about my friendship with the great Joan Rivers, which leads me to a memory from my childhood. There’s a chronological through line from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, but within that, I go off on tangents to incidents many years later. This allows me to get to the juicy stuff all along the way.
The Knockturnal: What inspired you to write your memoir, and what themes or ideas did you want to explore?
Charles Busch: I began writing with no concept or theme in mind. At a certain point, recurring motifs begin to present themselves. Then, in succeeding drafts, you begin shaping the material to emphasize these larger ideas. It became apparent that a major through line was my lifelong search for maternal figures after the death of my mother when I was seven years old.
The Knockturnal: How did you approach the process of organizing and structuring your memoir?
Charles Busch: It was a long process. I would work with one structure, and all I’d need was one friend reading the draft and giving me a critique with an alternate view, and I’d start from scratch. It was a bit ridiculous. The final product was fairly close to what I started out with.
The Knockturnal: How did you balance the need, to be honest, and authentic with the need to protect the privacy of yourself and others in your memoir?
Charles Busch: There was a point where I was airing out all my dirty laundry and some of my professional reminiscences had the unattractive tone of score settling. Carl, who is my most astute critic, thought I went a bit too far, and he was right. Also, over the course of writing this book, I found myself seeing painful situations with greater objectivity and understanding the behavior and point of view of people with whom I had a conflict with. It was actually a therapeutic experience. Put things in context, you don’t have to forgive, but try to understand and maybe you’ll find yourself forgiving them and yourself.
