Guest Post #2 - Mark Lassise

Finally the clown speaks! Mark Lassise himself sent in his thoughts regarding his first memories of the project. Here they are, straight from Brazil(where Mark lives now).


I received a call from Carlyn Davis, a casting agent in Northern Virginia. I had never been called by her before and didn't know she even had me on her radar. After talking with Kevin I realized she didn't. He had called her...
(Kevin note: In my opinion, her agency sucks--it has in my dealings with it)

On the journey to the out-of-the-way hotel being used as an audition location, I remember thinking, “This is it, the one that vaults me into the limelight, the upper echelon of actors, 100's of different characters, Entertainment Tonight, David Letterman and everything else that come with it. All I have to do is go in there and knock it out!"

I was able to jump the line after giving my name. When I entered, Kevin and Rick greeted me and Kevin said, “I hope you can act because you are exactly what I pictured when writing the clown.”

Well, I landed the gig and began crafting Shivers.

When the shoot date arrived I was very excited to jump into this BIG production. Little did I know my idea of BIG was a little BIGGER than reality. The first day started off what is now normal for a first day on a Kangas Production....very frustrating.

My make-up took twice as long, my eyes burnt all day from the contacts and I don't think we shot anything. I also realized our DP, David Munn only had four fingers, Jacky Reres was not afraid of clowns and that this was a total “guerrilla” shoot....
(Kevin Note: Frustrating, sure. But we never spent a day without shooting SOMETHING)

I distinctly remember Rick Ganz started to ruin the movie from day one as well. BUT! Leaving us only us only one way to go...UP!
(Kevin Note: He's kidding. I used to joke with Rick about how he was always ruining my movie)

Paul Kangas began to do my make-up at his house which kept us on schedule. It made driving to
different locations interesting. The two week shoot went as well as low low budget Independent will allow.
(Kevin Note: It was three weeks.)

Kevin was able to put together a decent B horror movie that Lionsgate found and knew they had
a product that would translate into big dollars just with the name and front cover.

I realized half way through that I was killing everyone during the day due to the fact we had very few lights. Strange, a killer clown can stalk through neighborhoods in broad daylight without trouble. In the Kangas world anything is possible and probable.
(Kevin Note: Uh...he only killed 1 person in the day, though he stalked Jacky/Rick once. I think Mark's delirious from the Brazillian heat)

Then came the theater...our best location. We would arrive after the box office closed and all the employees left except for James, Kevin's friend and projectionist. He allowed us access to the theater in exchange for Shivers killing him on screen. My second favorite killing after the decapitation, of course.

Chasing the always desirable Jacky Reres through a dark theater...good times!

The production ended and I moved to New York to continue my acting journey. Two years later Kevin sent me the script for FOC2... to be continued

Below is the picture that drew me to Mark originally, which he HATES. But that is the mental picture of Doug Richardson that was in my head LONG before I ever saw it...