Robb Wells (Trailer Park Boys) stars in the new Canadian comedy Vandits which tells the story of “four stoner idiots, self proclaimed “The Vandits,” who have a bright idea to knock over a senior citizens bingo hall on Christmas Eve.”
Robb stopped by to chat with us about the movie.
Today, we’re going to be talking about your new film Vandits. What was it that appealed about the script for you?
I just thought it was really different and funny, and had elements of Groundhog Day and Ocean’s 11 and Bad Santa. I guess it’s kind of all of them combined into one. It had a fun script, the cast was fantastic and I just wanted to do something completely different than what I’m used to doing, I guess.
You play a character called Ramone. What can you tell us about him and do you see any of your own personality in there?
I wouldn’t say there’s a lot of Robb Wells in Ramone, but it was just a fun character to play. The producers and director had some ideas of what they wanted to do and I just sort of expanded on it and went from there. They were pretty adamant about the little hairpiece on his forehead and when I looked in the mirror, I just felt like he also needed the toothpicks. So, we just kind of came up with it as a group.
How did you find working with Director Stuart Stone and how would you describe his directorial style?
He was good. I’ve never really worked with him before but he was very open to ideas. He pretty much would let us play around once we had something that he was satisfied with, which is nice. We always like to have a take or two of us messing around improvising. A lot of it worked and some of it didn’t work but yeah, he was great to work with.
This is probably a stupid question but how do you know whenever something works, and when it doesn’t, in terms of a take?
For me, in the editing room especially with Trailer Park Boys it was just watching it and seeing sometimes it just doesn’t work at all. It doesn’t seem real and then other times, it’s beautiful, because the actors, when you’re improvising, you have to listen to one another and it just seems a lot more natural in a lot of cases.
Judging from the outtakes during the end credits it looked like it was a lot of fun on the set. How was the atmosphere?
It was a great atmosphere. I mean, the crew really joined together and all the cast; everybody got along great. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was a low budget thing; we all sort of hung out on chairs between takes, and just shooting the shit and joking around with each other. I mean, the very night before the first day of photography, all the camera gear got stolen. It was just a weird shoot in some ways. So, everyone sort of just bonded together and yeah, everyone just had a lot of fun.
It was filmed in Manitoba, wasn’t it?
It was Selkirk, a small town in Manitoba, yeah.
What’s generally your process for memorizing lines?
For some reason, I don’t know what it is but I’ve always had a fairly easy time with it. I just go over and over and over it. Sometimes you’ll have a two or three page monologue, and those are tough. Then I just start from the beginning and get the first paragraph down, then do it over and over again; once I have that down, move on to the next one. Other times, I’ll just read with somebody else. It just depends on the situation and who’s available. Sometimes I’ll record on my phone for the other side of the conversation, play that back and yeah, those are the most common techniques I’ll use.
What was the biggest challenge of working on the film?
I guess, probably it was the weather and a couple of the scenes we shot outside and it was absolutely freezing. I lay on the ground for part of it and was just freezing. Other than that, it was very easy to shoot. Pretty much all in one location. It was good for a low budget film; it went really, really smoothly.
Having worked on TV and film, do you have a preference or do you’d like to do them both?
There’s good and bad about both. I mean, a feature is kind of neat in a way because it films very quickly and then you’re on to the next project. Whereas TV can take a little more time especially if we’re writing and producing and acting, then editing; it can be very time consuming, but there’s definitely good and bad about both and I like them both.
What is it you look for in a script to be interested in a project?
Definitely something original, usually and I like comedies, too. I also like a good drama if it works; I shot a movie called Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor, which was a little more dramatic. I really enjoyed making that as well. So, just original, I guess is the big thing.
Yeah. Is there like a dream project you’d love to work on at some point?
Oh, man, that’s a tough question. It’s a good question. I don’t know. I mean, I’m probably stereotypical in that I’ve always wanted to play a cop at some point; we’ll see if that’s gonna be in the cards or not. But yeah, nothing jumps out for me; it just depends on the script.
What would you like audiences to take away from Vandits?
Just that they have some fun with it. Get some good laughs and it’s kind of a weird project. Like I said, it combines elements of Groundhog Day and Ocean’s 11 and Bad Santa and probably a couple of others. So, it’s just a fun film to watch for Christmas.
Finally, what are you working on next?
We’ve got a bunch of Trailer Park projects that are sort of in the can editing right now. We’re supposed to shoot another Trailer Park movie next year. I just got offered a series that I’m not 100% if I’m going to do yet. I can’t really talk about that. We have another series coming out, which is called The Trades which is with Crave and Bell Media.
Well, thank you so much for taking time to chat and all the best with the upcoming projects as well.
Thank you very much.
