Interviews

Aside from Fehr who plays Bradley, the film stars Nicky Whelan, Scout Taylor-Compton, Scott Martin, Dolph Lundgren, and Luke Wilson.

“Scout and Nicky were great,” he said. “I spend a lot of time with Scout and we play love interests and I am dragging her around everywhere. Scout is a great actress, collaborator and she really cares about the scene and what we are trying to accomplish. Scout was always throwing out ideas and I like to work the same way,” he elaborated.

On his experience in “The Best Man,” he said, “It was good, if you can’t have fun doing this then you are doing something wrong and you should be doing something else.”

“I always appreciate a little bit of the outsider aspect of him such as the reason he took the mission in the first place (because of what had happened with his family life). It was a great jumping off point for a complex character, and obviously, it’s an action movie,” he said about his character.

The movie will be released in theaters, on demand and digital April 21, 2023, via Saban Films. It was directed by Shane Dax Taylor with a screenplay by C. Alec Rossel and Shane Dax Taylor based on the original story by Daniel Zirilli.

The synopsis is: Luke Wilson and Dolph Lundgren star in this action thriller. When a team of ruthless mercenaries violently seize control of a remote resort hotel, former Special Ops soldiers attending their best friend’s wedding must rely only on their wits and training to combat the terrorists and save the hostages held for ransom.

“This film was an opportunity to work with Luke Wilson, and you get to observe him and see how he does it, and you pay attention on what works for you and what doesn’t. It’s just about meeting new people and trying new things,” Fehr said.

“The movie is me, Luke Wilson, and Dolph Lundgren running around a hotel shooting people up trying to save the day,” he added. ‘Roswell’ and ‘Bones’

Fehr opened up about being a part of “Roswell” and “Bones.” “Those were wonderful. ‘Roswell’ was my first big one, and ‘Bones’ later on had an incredible cast and crew. I love every project I am on. You are always going to learn something, even if it’s what not to do,” he said.

The digital age

On being an actor in the digital age, Fehr said, “It’s good, there are pros and cons to it. Anybody can make a movie now, in a sense, which allows for more voices and it will get a lot more people interested. On the other hand, I don’t think people are as prepared.”

“Back in the day, film was expensive so everybody had to be in their marks, and there was more of a craftmanship back then. We shot ‘Roswell’ on film, so we were on the tail end of things. That was my first experience and it will always be very special,” he explained.

“I focus on the acting part, and I leave the rest to everyone else,” he added.

Advice for young actors

For young and aspiring actors, Fehr said, “It’s all about being curious. It’s about reading books, watching shows, and talking to people that don’t think like you. There are instincts to being a good actor, and you can craft that with classes.”

“Ultimately, it’s about being curious and having some imagination, which is a muscle that you need to work out. Life experience plays a lot into that too,” he added.

On the title of the current chapter of his life, Fehr said, “Hopeful.”

He listed Jessica Chastain as his dream acting partner to someday work with in a project. “Jessica is just so good,” he admitted.

Fehr defined the word success as “being content with yourself.”

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STARBURST: How did you get involved with this movie?

Brendan Fehr: One of the line producers I’d worked with before, who I’d kept in touch with, said, “I’m doing a movie in New Mexico”. He knew I was there, and he was like, “I’m going to send it to you, and if you like it, then I think we can make it happen!” So I read it and I said, “Yeah, something with Luke Wilson and Dolph Lundgren, little shoot ’em up, let’s go do it!”

What do you remember the most from reading the script for the first time? What stood out to you?

Well, the first thing was, “Oh, I’m the best man? That’s cool”. When he sent it to me, he said, “It’s for the role of Bradley”, and I was like, “Alright, how soon am I going to die in this thing?” Between Luke and Dolph, I was thinking, “Do I die on page nine? Or do I make it to the second act!” No spoilers, but I’m there for a while! I think for me, it’s an action movie; they’re going to have the classic shoot ’em ups, running around, and fights and all of that stuff. Those always look great, you leave those to the stunt coordinators, and you do your best to make them look real. Editing helps a little bit. But for me, I looked at it and thought that it was an interesting relationship with the maid of honour. Me talking with other actors, as a character in the scenes is a lot more enjoyable than doing fights or stunts. Fights and stunts are very cool to watch when they’re done well, and they can add to a movie, but as an actor, they’re somewhat unfulfilling to me. They’re satisfying in the end, but doing them is very unsatisfying. It’s just piece by piece, little by little, and you build this thing. Whereas, interacting with another character, whether you’re amicable or whether you’re butting heads, or whatever the case may be, that’s kind of the fun stuff for me.

It’s an interesting idea, where a wedding turns into a hostage situation. What do you think the wedding side of the story does for an action movie like this? Like, maybe it makes the viewer care for the characters more?

Yeah, no story works if you don’t care about the characters, so that’s where I always put my focus; you know, as I said, I’ll leave the actiony stuff to everybody else because you could have the coolest stunts in the world, and the last thing you want is for the audience to go “I hate this character, I just hope he doesn’t make it through that stunt” My job is to create a relationship with the other characters, and then with the audience, whether they’re supposed to love me or hate me, or go back and forth. So I think with the wedding, and my character in particular, his back story is a great jumping-off point for how he arrives at the wedding, and then he hooks up with the maid of honour, and then the ambush takes place. I just had a lot of fun working with Scout Taylor-Compton on that and us trying to establish that chemistry because it’s got to kind of come quickly, it’s not like the whole movie is about us and our relationship, as we had too much shooting and fighting to do in the middle. So that kind of relationship has got to happen relatively quickly, and I think that it does in the movie. We had great chemistry, and she was wonderful to work with. We talked about every scene. We were super collaborative. We both had the attitude that no ideas are too dumb, even when the ideas were really dumb. It was a safe space to try them, and then we tried them, and we were like, “That was dumb. We shouldn’t do that.” It was a lot of fun to work with her because that’s when it’s easiest to do your best work when you feel comfortable, and you can throw anything out there.

You filmed much of the movie at the Inn of the Mountain Gods. Can you elaborate on what it was like to work there, and maybe why you think that location worked so well!?

It’s kind of in the mountains of New Mexico. It’s a beautiful place. I’d been there before. I filmed a little bit of Wander there as well. Yeah, so we ended up at the Inn of the Mountain Gods, which has some great golf courses, and I’m a big golfer. But I didn’t get to golf at this particular juncture. It’s always interesting shooting in a casino. It’s just got that vibe, we didn’t shut the whole thing down, but we could shut certain areas off. Casinos have just got that vibe of late nights, and there’s drinking. You get a whole cast of characters in there, walking around. It added a little air of excitement, I guess, you’re always hearing the noises of the machines, and you just want to make sure that you don’t waste your money at the craps table!

Going on from that, can you tell us about what it was like to work with your director Shane Dax Taylor?

Shane was great. I’d never met or worked with him before, but we got along really well. The movie is run and gun, but the filming was run and gun as well. Given the time frame of what we had to shoot and accomplish, he didn’t get flustered or frustrated. It was a real undertaking. We didn’t have a lot of time to shoot,, we tried to pack a whole lot in, just maintaining an even keel and being there for any questions we had. He left us to our own devices in terms of the characters that we had created. I think he liked what everyone was bringing to the table. My thing with every director I have is just like, “Mould me, I’m going to bring something to it. If it’s really bad, let me know, and if it’s close but not quite there, let’s talk about it, and let’s try to shape this into something, and get the best we can out of me”. I’m a real open book for that, so if I had any questions, he was always open. It was great that way, a good working relationship.

Saban Films will release THE BEST MAN in US theatres, on-demand and digitally on April 21st, 2023.

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