Michael Jai White spoke to The Knockturnal about his experience on the set of ‘Vigilante Diaries,’ which hits theaters on Friday.
Tell us about your character and his progression throughout the film?
I play a character named Barrington and you’re not quite sure if he’s a good guy or a bad guy, which actually goes for most of the characters in the movie. He’s somewhat of the lead and somewhat of a good guy, he takes out bad guys all over the world in a very harsh way. It’s one of those movies, it’s kind of like dark comedy that meets action in a Quentin Tarantino type of way.
How did you come to this project?
I was asked to come on board with Christian Sesma as the director and Paul Sloan as the lead and also writer of the movie, who were friends of mine. I loved the genre; it was a fun type of movie and I wanted to have a lot of fun with my friends and kind of help the project along.
What was it like working with Christian Sesma?
It was great. A lot of us had come from the same influences. We love Tarantino. We love the action world. We love classic action movies and we want to do homage to those movies.
What was your favorite scene to shoot?
I had fun working in the scene where I confront Quinton and Paul Sloan. I feel like you see a history of their relationship all in that one scene and it’s fraternal and juvenile at the same time. So I like the layers in that scene. My favorite scene to watch is the security guard and the bond disarming. That to me is my favorite scene.
Did you find it easy to relate to your character?
Absolutely. I love playing characters, when I get a chance to, that are closer to who I am. A lot of times, I wind up playing very one-dimensional characters, but I love to play someone who has brains and brawn because I think that’s closer to who I am as a person.
Do you enjoy playing TV roles or film roles more?
To me, it kind of fuses together now. I would normally say movies, but I think television has become better than the movies that are out there lately. So it’s been a hybrid to me. I don’t know if I can choose one over the other now.
What is the biggest takeaway you have from this project?
The biggest takeaway to me is just the return to some fun movies. Not trying to be very politically correct and the thing that I like about it the most is that it’s not formulaic. I love when a movie can take you some place and you don’t know what’s going to happen next. That to me, is the movie being alive, being an organism that you have to ride along with. Nothing bothers me more than a formulaic movie; know from the beginning, you know how it’s going to end. This is not one of those kinds of movies.
Vigilante Diaries is scheduled for release on Friday, June 24.
