Hey guys, Prometheus here! I recently had the chance to chat with Andy Mcphee (Sons of Anarchy) about his film, “THE FACELESS MAN.” It won a handful of awards when it was originally released in Australia, and it’s now available on VOD in the U.S.
Andy was a pleasure to speak with, and we get into all kinds of cool things, including his new film, and SOA! You can check out the trailer for “THE FACELESS MAN,” and our conversation below!
ANDY MCPHEE = AM
JOSHUA SCAFIDI = JS
JS: Hi, Andy thanks for the phone call!
AM: No problem. Where are you based, Josh?
JS: I’m in Lowell, MA.
AM: How’re things going down there, mate? With COVID? You guys doing alright?
JS: Yeah… better. There are still some restrictions in place. It’s starting to get better.
AM: That’s good.
JS: I heard it’s pretty bad out in Australia.
AM: Yeah. I’m in L.A. but where I’m from in Melbourne there's another four weeks of the six-week lockdown. Second time. We’re only allowed out twice a day. I can’t even believe I’m saying this in this day and age mate but were only allowed out twice a day.
JS: I’ve never seen anything like it.
AM: I think what happens with human beings is we start to create things and we go is it reallythat bad? Like you start doubting what people are saying. It’s insane.
JS: It really is.
AM: Things are starting to go back slowly. They’re starting to open restaurants up again (in L.A.).
JS: I was going to ask. So, you have a film that was just released in the U.S. – “The Faceless Man.”
AM: Yeah!
JS: It also stars Sophie Thurling and Lucas Pittaway and it won a bunch of awards. What was it, six awards at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival?
AM: Yeah! What I really loved about it was that I know James (Di Martino) and it’s his first-ever big script, and he asked me to come and do it. I was in America at the time and luckily I was already doing two other films there, so I could fit in and I was already paid to come out and do a story on Errol Flynn. So, it worked for James because he had a really low budget. I’ve known him for quite some time, so I said no worries mate, I’ll do it.
I didn’t think too much about the movie because it was his first go, and I was happy to support. The funny thing is, most of those young actors, I think four of them, I was teaching them in an acting class about two years prior to that. So, I’m thought okay, it’s a bunch of new actors and it’s a fresh script. We’ll see what happens. Once I got on and let all that go, I became part of the team. It was great, mate. They were all fantastic actors and James did an amazing job getting it competed.
JS: Awesome. Now you play Eddie Silverbeard in the film. What did you do to prepare for the role, Andy?
AM: Um… The honest answer?
AM + JS: (Laughing)
AM: Not much. I’ve been doing this for thirty years and my character was pretty simple. He had a lot going on behind the scenes but I just sort of go with the script and go, okay, I get this character. I’ve played enough crazy characters in my time to just go with the writing and make it work on the spot for myself.
JS: Makes sense. Now, this is a horror film. Are you a fan of the genre?
AM: I haven’t done a lot of horror films. Probably one of the best ones I’ve done to date was “Wolf Creek.” I was in the original. Then there was a TV series “Wolf Creek,” in Australia. I did that. The original “Wolf Creek,” that was awesome. It took me about three or four viewings to actually get over the horror of that - because it was soreal.
JS: The original was rough.
AM: Oh yeah, mate. I had a bit of a guest role in it, what ever you call it, being a red herring and making people think I was the guy that was going to be killing them. But man, I went to three or four screenings, and I’m being honest, it took me that many times to get rid of that feeling that man, this is so real.
Also, it used stories from actual serial killings in Australia. He didn’t use the actual facts, just bits and pieces of characters that have killed people in Australia, serial killings.
JS: It took inspiration from them.
AM: Yeah, he got a lot of inspiration from a couple of people. So, that probably made it even more real for me.
JS: So, Andy, what can you tell us about “The Faceless Man,” without spoiling too much?
AM: Um, I think, first of all, you’re not going to know any of the actors in it, obviously it’s a low budget and sometimes you get it in your head that if it’s low budget and you don’t the actors it’s no good. But let that go and just go for the journey because it is out there. It’s interesting to watch the journey.
I can’t say too much, obviously, without giving things away but it really turns around toward the end of the movie and the stuff that goes on is insane. If you sit and watch it, just go for the ride like a roller-coaster.
JS: What did you guys do to keep it light behind the scenes?
AM: Well, I knew a couple of guys on there so we would just have fun. What we did do a lot of the times was – one of my mates had a knife sticking out of his eye and we were standing there taking photos with him, having coffee, making it look like it was normal selfies. He was just standing there with this big knife sticking out of his head.
Talking about keeping it light, I did a film that’s done a few events around America. It’s another one of my friend’s first films. He’s an ex-police officer and ex-paratrooper. He wrote this horror film called “The Living Space.” His name is Steven Spiel. It’s quite intense.
I was playing a German SS officer in that and basically, I was dead and anyone who came into the house didn’t survive. We kept that pretty light because a German SS officer leaves a pretty dirty taste in people’s mouths.
JS: I have to ask because I loved Sons of Anarchy – What was that experience like for you, Andy?
AM: That was amazing because I’m into motorbikes. I’ve been riding Harleys for a long time. I used to ride with some motorcycle clubs back in Australia.
JS: Really?
AM: Yeah, not a member or anything just used to ride. Had a lot of friends in clubs, so that was right up my alley. I had been living in that world for thirty-five years so, to get in and play a role – even though he was a bit of a scumbag, I loved it.
JS: You were an important part of the back story, being part of the “First Nine.”
AM: I think they were thinking about doing that again, but obviously they’d use different actors.
JS: I was going to ask if you heard of any plans for that “First Nine” spin-off.
AM: I think they were trying to do it, but I just don’t know if it’s going to happen, mate.
JS: So, what’s next for you, Andy?
AM: Probably going back to Australia in, maybe, February of next year to shoot an indie film with a young guy who’s going to be telling his story. How I met him is I do a lot of acting coaching in between my acting career.
At the moment I’m coaching a young lad with autism. I’ve been coaching for about five years and we created a big series on his YouTube channel called moviemakerdoug55 where we’re interviewing people who have created extraordinary lives for themselves even though they may not be well known around the world, they’ve just created their own extraordinary lives.
One guy who was watching it contacted me and he said, I’d like you to be in my movie because I’m writing my story, about my journey. So, you never know where a movie’s going to come from. At the moment it’s pretty quiet. I’m doing a Netflix voice-over character for a movie, I’m not allowed to say what it is at the moment. Netflix has a feature film they want to turn into an anime, so they’re doing that, and I’ve got a really good character role in it. It’ll be out in, I think, 2021.
JS: I’ll keep an eye out for it. I appreciate the phone call Andy; it’s been a pleasure to speak to you.
AM: Thanks, mate.
Be sure to check Andy Mcphee out in “THE FACELESS MAN,” available now on VOD!
Until next time, keep on geekin’ on, my friends!
Joshua “Prometheus” Scafidi
