Press Kit

GRINDER
“It never really dawned on me before watching Grinder
how rare the male perspective about the consequences
of selling yourself for sex is in film.”
- Ali Naro (critic Movies Over the Rainbow)
Grinder is a powerful story about the search for fame in America.
In Grinder Luke (Tyler Austin), an innocent teenager, leaves his home in the suburbs and his abusive
father (Jose Ramos) for the promise of a modeling job in New York City. Once there he meets Rich
(Jon Fleming), an unscrupulous model agent and is dragged into the dark world of New York nightlife.
Tim (Brandon Ruckdashel), a photographer who leads a double life in spite of being engaged to a
young woman (Sarah Lazar), becomes obsessed with Luke and destroys his relationship with her.
Grinder reflects Brandon Ruckdashel’s personal experience as a young actor coming to New York.
Brandon has become well known on stage and on TV, playing Zach on the HBO/Cinemax series CoEd Confidential and for the hit New York play Ascension. He was lead in the Los Angeles productions
Twist and Next Big Thing. His past films include Changing the Game (Lionsgate) and Boy in a Bathtub as well as a guest star on The Lair (HereTV!), Life on Top (HBO/Cinemax), and the Jerry Zucker
pilot National Debt (TBS).
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Grinder stars Jon Fleming, well known for his roles in comedies and horror features as well as the lead in numerous TV series and guest star on many more. In
the popular Dante’s Cove (HereTV!) series he played the lead role of Adam, a
drug addicted trust fund party boy. In Will And Grace (NBC) he played the trainer
Russell. He recently has done numerous guest star roles in series that include
Castle (NBC) and Medium (NBC).
Grinder also stars Jose Ramos, a well known New York City Latino actor. He
studied at at The Atlantic Theater Company and was most recently seen on
stage in a production of Fish Eyes and one act play Addiction at the Northport
One-Act Play Festival. Films he has worked on include What It Was and Grinder.
On television he has been seen on One Life To Live and All My Children as well as other various independent films, commercials and stage productions.
Grinder introduces teen actor Tyler Austin. He was hired after an exhaustive
search for a young actor capable of playing such a complex and demanding
role. This is his first professional feature film, previously working at local theaters
in and around Buffalo, NY. His roles included Richard (The Lover), Antonio (The
Tempest), and Sir Thomas Grey (Henry V).
Grinder was produced by Barney Oldfield, who has produced numerous projects at Angelika Films including the award winning Too Much Sleep and Cablevision’s MetroAngelika series as well as the controversial Zero Day feature. He
also produced two series, Easy To Assemble with Ileana Douglas and Jeff Goldblum and CTRL on NBC with Tony Hale and Steve Steve Howey. He is chairman
of nonprofit Anthology Film Archives, brought the Havana Film Festival to New York and is started the
weekly New York & Los Angeles NewFilmmakers series.
Popular Latino publication CROMOSOMA already has called Grinder one of the
five best independent movies of the year along with Carol, Freehold, and King
Cobra. Other critics have been less supportive, finding the film “disturbing” and
the last scenes “extremely troubling.” All agree that audiences should be advised about its content.
The Film will have its premiere at the Minneapolis Twin City City Film Festival,
writer and actor Brandon Ruckdashel’s home town before playing a limited number of national and European film festivals. It will be theatrically released next
year.
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Tyler Austin - LUKE
Tyler Austin was born and raised on Long Island, NY and studied theatre and film production at the
University at Buffalo. Although his training included being behind camera (focused mostly on cinematography and editing), his passion for being on stage and in front of the camera kept him from staying
behind the scenes for too long. This is his first professional feature film, previously working at local theaters in and around Buffalo,
NY. His previous roles include Richard (The Lover), Antonio (The Tempest), and Sir Thomas Grey
(Henry V).
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Jon Fleming - RICH
Jon Fleming is best known for his roles in comedies and horror features as well as the lead in numerous TV series and guest star on many more. He is lead in the upcoming feature Grinder.
Jon was born and raised in Wisconsin and spent his time playing sports before he got into acting. He
would use his background in sports in numerous roles. On CSI: New York he played a pro baseball
player who got kicked out of the league for cocaine use. In Will And Grace he played the recurring
part of Russell over its five year run as well as a guest star as Diego, a trainer, on another James Burrows show Gary Unmarried.
Jon got his start in daytime t.v. He played the role of Clem in Passions and the Mystery Man in Days
Of Our Lives. He was Speedo Guy on MADtv, the jogger on Desperate Housewives, and more recently various characters in Deadly Sins / Deadly Affairs.
Jon made the move to feature films with horror films including Camp Slaughter, Frat House Massacre,
and Violence Of The Mind. In Grinder he plays Rich, a manipulative model agent.
In addition to film Jon develop a large fan base for his work on television. In the popular Dante’s
Cove series he played the lead role of Adam a drug addicted trust fund party boy. He also did numerous guest star roles in series that include Castle and Medium
Jon studied acting in New York and Los Angeles and resides on both coasts. When not acting he enjoys poetry, music, and hiking.
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Brandon Ruckdashel - TIM
Brandon Ruckdashel is an actor most known for playing Zach on the hit HBO/Cinemax tv series
Co-Ed Confidential. He is currently shooting Grinder, a thriller set to shoot in New York in April of
2015. In Grinder, Brandon plays a photographer who tries to save a young runaway from the clutches
of a ruthless pimp. His past films include Changing the Game (Lionsgate) and Torino Film Festival
stand out Boy in a Bathtub.
Brandon has appeared as a guest star on The Lair (HereTV!), Life on Top (HBO/Cinemax), and
Deadly Sins (DiscoveryID). He also starred in the Jerry Zucker pilot National Debt (TBS).
Appearing on the stages of New York and Los Angeles his performance as Lorenzo in Ascension
(Lion Theater) garnered him praise from New York Times critic Anita Gates.
“...But the entrance of Lorenzo (Brandon Ruckdashel) changes everything.
The 23-year-old Mr. Ruckdashel is making his Off Broadway debut and it is a stunning one.
This is partly because he has the intense blond good looks of a young Brad Pitt with a soupçon
of James Dean.
But Mr. Ruckdashel’s performance is also noteworthy because his Lorenzo vibrates with the
smug and nonchalant power of youth. Father Calvin, it appears, is determined to resist him
physically, but the odds aren’t good. It’s not clear who could resist when Lorenzo whispers:
‘God’s not here now. It’s just you and me.’”
Brandon is a Minnesota native and also lived in Utah and Virginia while he was growing up. He attended East Carolina University and holds a BFA in Theatre Arts. When not acting, Brandon volunteers as the program director for NewFilmmakers New York, a weekly film series which screens nearly a thousand films a year, and serves as a juror for the Asian American International Film Festival.
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Jose Ramos (Dwayne) & Tyler Austin (Luke)
Julian Gavilanes - Austin
Seattle, Washington native, Julian Gavilanes studied at The New York Conservatory for Dramatic
Arts. Notable credits include Matthew Lillard’s Fat Kid Rules the World (SXSW Audience Award) and
21 and Over (Relativity Media). Most recently he was seen in Z Nation (SyFy) and Star Leaf.
Sarah Lazar - Sarah
Sarah Lazar, originally from Rochester NY, attended college in Buffalo where she graduated with a
BFA in musical theatre. Various theatrical credits include roles in Hedda Gabler, Spring Awakening,
RENT, The Rocky Horror Show and Les Miserables, She has also worked with RWS & Associates as
an entertainer for various projects over the last two years. Grinder marks her film debut.
Jose Ramos - Dwayne
Jose Ramos is a New York City based actor and career firefighter. He studied at at The Atlantic Theater Company and was most recently seen on stage in a production of Fish Eyes and one act play
Addiction at the Northport One-Act Play Festival. Films he has worked on include What It Was and
Grinder. On television he has been seen on One Life To Live and All My Children as well as other
various independent films, commercials and stage productions.
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Jose Ramos (Dwayne) & Tyler Austin (Luke)
Joshua Dye - Christian
Born and raised in upstate New York, Josh was recruited to play college football at a private university
and studied acting at The William Esper studio. On television he has been seen in the pilot of Boardwalk Empire (HBO), MOMsters (DiscoveryID) and a national commercial for Playboy fragrance. On
the New York stage he has been seen in the off Broadway drama Confessions of Poverty (NYC
Fringe Festival) and is a cast member of the interactive theater company LiveInTheater (Drama Desk
Nomination). Josh has worked on films The Goddess, Waves Full of Bliss, and upcoming Grinder.
He is currently filming The Dirty Thirty.
Jay Reum - Michael
Hailing from Seattle, Washington, Jay worked with various youth theatres and currently trains at the
UCB Theater. On the New York stage he has been seen off-broadway in Quit the Road Jack (TheatreLab), Eclipsed! (Braodway Comedy Club), and The Lower Depths (The Producers Club). Television credits include Monsters Inside Me (Animal Planet) and I’d Kill for You (DiscoveryID).
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Joshua Dye (Christian) & Brandon Ruckdashel (Tim)
Derek Means - Cinematographer
Derek’s love for stories started when his father dropped off a dusty box of crumbling sci fi novels in
his room when he was 8, and matured as he devoured literature and film through high school and
college. He didn’t pick up a camera until he had completed a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.A. in
Justice; worked for the US Secret Service; helped to develop software to teach ESL students english
through a web-based phonetic speech recognition system; spent time as a professional sailor in the
Baltic, Atlantic, and Mediterranean; sweated on an asphalt road construction crew in the Colorado
Rockies; instructed Muay Thai; and completed over 300 skydiving jumps. It was while hitchhiking and
walking 14,0000 miles from Munich to Cape Town that he became fascinated with the camera as an
expressive device. Visual media became a way of reflecting on unconsciously held perspectives and
assumptions as his travels took him further from the known.
Derek returned to NYC in 2010 and since then has dedicated himself to learning the filmmaking skills
necessary to visually explore the slippery nature of experience and perspective and how this impacts
human communication. To this end, he has worked on film sets as craft services, production assistant, camera assistant, grip, camera operator, cinematographer, and director on a diverse assortment
of projects. He currently works as a freelance Director of Photography in the NYC indie film scene. On
the side, he works with Nikki Holck and Gina Schiappacasse exploring the ways in which physicality
is its own form of communication.
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Chris Claypool - Sound
Chris Claypool 35 year old Audio Engineer who spent 8 years working in Hollywood’s Sunset Sound
and Sunset Sound Factory, as well as many other private studios in the Los Angeles area. Chris was
invited on set in LA to shadow an A list mixer on an insecticide commercial, and fell in love with the
craft of location sound. Already looking for a change, he decided to pick up his bags and headed off
to NY. With a few conversations with other location sound people local to NYC, he found himself busy
and moving fast. NYC is the place to be! Searching for gigs on Craigslist, he got into contact with
Brandon Ruckdashel and jumped on board for the GRINDER location sound position. The rest is history.
Chris Winham - Composer
Chris Winham is a musician that wears several musical hats. With a formal musical education of
composition and improvisation at New York’s Bard College, Chris went on to perform as a pianist/
keyboard player with a number of Jazz, Rock and Pop artists and groups around the world.
In 1993 Chris opened his own ‘Project North’ recording studio in Rhinebeck, NY. There he would not
only produce and engineer for a litany of respected artists but would also compose and record his
own music for various visual media. Chris’ music can be heard in hundreds of documentaries, TV
Shows and advertisements.
In 2007 Chris was a founding member of Fliktrax LLC (www.Fliktrax.com), a Music Library/Production
company that continues to thrive to this day. Chris is Fliktrax’s head composer and handles almost
all the commissioned custom music work that the company accepts. Due to the varied client base of
Fliktrax, both Chris’ vast library music and custom scores can be heard in a myriad of reality shows,
commercials, trade show presentations and feature films.
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Krystal Michel - Special Makeup Effects Artist
Art has always been a way of life for Krystal Michel. Born and raised in NY, Krystal found her desire
and inspiration for art since childhood. Her career began when she became a licensed esthetician
and a micropigmenation specialist. The art of tattooing makeup became a thrill for her as she permantely left her marks on thousands of woman’s eyebrows, eyes and lips. Krystal spent some time
in Singapore studying eyebrow and eyelah services which heightened her skill level as a technician.
Shortly after that she made her way to Hollywood, CA to attend Joe Blasco Makeup Training Center
to train as a professional special effects makeup artist.
She specializes in all aspects of makeup including body painting, airbrushing, special effects and the
making of prosthetics for film, television, print, and theatre. She is a natural born educator and also
freelances throughout NYC as an instructor in many schools. Krystal has aligned herself creativity with some of the most talented people from around the world, working for established production
companies and photographers. Recently she has started working for Lexicon Inc providing special
effects makeup for military combat training throughout the states.
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Gregg Colbert - Executive Producer
Birthplace: Shreveport, La, and moved to Atlanta Ga in 1996. Studied Cosmetology at a Guys
Shreveport Academy of Cosmetology. Studied with Vidal Sassoon from 1997-2000. Employeed with
Van Michael Salon in Atlanta Ga. Since 2000 where he has been acting New Talents Director since
2006. Having always been an avid lover of film and stage, Gregg produced his first film “Playing Warhol” which was directed by Wes Cole.
Wes Cole - Executive Producer
Originally from Birmingham, Alabama Wes is a lifelong creative rebel and former party boy. After serving in the 82nd Airborne and spending a number of years in sales Wes became a filmmaker. His first
film “Playing Warhol” was an Official Selection of NewFilmmakers New York. He counts Andy Warhol
and Rob Zombie as his creative inspirations.
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Barney Oldfield - Producer
Barney grew up in New York City in a family long associated with the film business, his grandfather
the founder of an early Hollywood studio and his uncle a partner at another.
Barney started as a booking agent at a small music agency. He soon became Director of Club Booking at Music Productions, a major New England agency, and Talent Coordinator for its On Stage television series. While still a teenager, he became a General Partner and Director of College Booking at
Sundance Music, where he developed major concert packages and worked with record companies to
introduce new artists to college markets.
Barney then attended Harvard College but managed to keep up his ties with the entertainment business as the New England columnist for the alternative Houston Southern Voice newspaper. In his
senior year he and his roommate began Musician’s Magazine in their dorm room. After graduation
they worked full time on their magazine, which quickly grew into a successful and profitable national
publication.
After selling Musician’s to a media company, Barney moved to New York City where he worked for
Forbes Magazine and attended New York University’s Graduate School of Film, Video & Broadcasting. Barney became a Board Member and later Chairman of Anthology Film Archive, New York’s Center for Experimental and Independent Film. There he was instrumental in bringing the Havana Film
Festival to New York and became a member of its Festival Board.
After graduation in 1996, he drew on his booking agency experience and started Barney Oldfield
Management. The company managed then, as it does today, only a small number of clients. In addition to traditional talent management functions, he worked closely with directors and producers to
develop and to finance independent and studio projects featuring his clients. The company opened
offices in New York and in Los Angeles.
In 1997 Barney also became General Manager of Angelika Entertainment Corporation and was responsible for its restructuring and daily operations as well as for the use of the well-known Angelika
trademark. As a resource for the filmmaking community he began NewFilmmakers, which weekly
screens new independent films in New York and in Los Angeles, and the Harvard Film Group, which
has over 1000 alumni members nationally.
At Angelika Barney produced the popular Too Much Sleep feature, nominated for the Independent
Spirit Award, and the controversial Zero Day feature, winner of Best Feature and Best Actor Awards
at the recent Slamdunk Film Festival. In addition to successful film projects Barney developed and
produced the MetroAngelika series and popular television & Internet programming for Cablevision
and other clients.
In 2009 Barney executive produced two Internet branded series. Easy To Assemble with Ileana Douglas and Jeff Goldblum was sponsored by IKEA and CTRL on NBC with Tony Hale and Steve Steve
Howey by Nestea. He returned to film with three features in production.
Barney lives in Los Angeles and New York. He is member of the Harvard Clubs in Boston, New York,
and Los Angeles. He is also a member of the Union League Club in New York, the California Pioneers
in San Francisco, and the Friars Club in Beverly Hills.
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Brandon Ruckdashel - Director
This is Brandon’s directorial debut and his second feature behind the camera working in production.
He came to directing through the non tradional route of industry experience and necessity. At 16 he
started out doing post production sound design and after moving to New York was advised to start
working as a fashion photographer by one of his mentors. These side gigs eventually began merging
together after the advent of digital cinema.
In addition to acting over the last ten years Brandon has worked with his producing partner, Barney
Oldfield, as the marketing director for New York based film series NewFilmmakers and became the
program director three years ago. He is responsible for programming over 55 film programs a year
and overseeing the screening of nearly 1,000 films anually.
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Production Notes
Grinder is a story that is very close to my heart. Each year young men come to New York chasing after their dreams of becoming actors and models. These aspiring artists meet with various characters
over the early parts of their career and it was my hope to breathe life into a few of these people.
The seed for Grinder was planted when my long time business partner, Barney Oldfield, and I decided to make an LGBT film in December of 2013. In a typical Arkoff style approach we shot a prototype
poster and came up with a title. A major influence on our selection of title was the famous cover of a
woman going through a meat grinder illustrated by William Nirenberg for Hustler magazine. A Grinder
seemed to be the perfect representation of what New York does to young talent in their first few years
in town.
After several rounds of auditioning we had a cast which we were quite happy with, matching both the
aesthetic that we were going for and the talent to pull it off. The independent market for LGBT films
is saturated with campy comedies and we decided to do something which has rarely been accomplished. I wanted to make a thriller which took the focus off of the more caricatured gay community
and placed an almost uncomfortable lens on the seedier aspects.
I was unhappy with the typical formula of one man, one queen, one lesbian, and a fly. It felt overdone
and if we were going to make an impact in the post ”Looking” (HBO) environment we needed to focus
on characters who came off as more genuine real world people.
The script itself went through numerous rounds of rewrites and I think my good friend Brandon Maxwell deserves a huge credit in tearing me apart on that first script. He saw something greater within
what I was doing and stretched me even further than I thought I was capable of as a writer.
Wes Cole and Gregg Colbert came into the picture in September of 2014. Barney and I were running
our weekly screening series and we had Wes’s film “Playing Warhol” in the program for the night. He
and I spoke and after convincing him horror films were a bad idea he asked what we were up to. The
rest is history.
The true credit for completing this film goes to our crew though. Without Derek Means, Alexa Wolf,
and Ryan Schwerzler we would have no picture to speak of. They carried lights up two floor walk ups
and created a cinematic vision of what had been germinating in my brain. Chris Claypool, who is perhaps the best sound recordist I have ever worked with. In a twelve day shoot I only remember hearing
“BOOM!” once and that is a true accomplishment for his first feature film.
I think everyone involved really has a movie they can be proud of!
Brandon Ruckdashel
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Reviews
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ALI NARO 27 AUGUST, 2016 0
vive and they are paying a high price for that survival.
Grinder
Grinder is about a young gay man (Tyler Austin in an
impressive film debut) who moves to New York City to
become a model only to find out that he has unknowingly become caught up in a porn/prostitution ring.
Grinder is also about the other side of that coin, the
men who recruit the models and the men who take
their pictures. The men in Grinder are either openly
against living such a life or begrudgingly living it or pretending that they are living the dream when in fact they
are as miserable about what they are doing as the
men they recruit. There are no winners in this game.
Starring – Brandon Ruckdashel, Jon Fleming, Sarah
Lazar, Jose Ramos, Jay Reum,
Tyler Austin
Directed by Brandon Ruckdashel
2016
The second film, Grinder, is from the man’s point of
view when it comes to porn and prostitution. And I’m
ashamed to say that it never really dawned on me
before watching Grinder how rare the male perspective about the consequences of selling yourself for sex
is in film. It is a rare area in film where women’s stories
are told more often than men’s, but it is still just as an
important perspective, maybe even more so because
I don’t think men are as aware of the detrimental aspects of porn as women are, whether they are behind
the scenes or in the films themselves, and this is the
story Grinder is exposing. The movie doesn’t pull any
punches or minimize the effects porn and prostitution
can have on the lives involved. Grinder is an emotionally powerful, almost draining film that gets to the heart
and nitty gritty of such a life and breaks all the stereotypes while doing it. Grinder shows us that men in porn
are not living the dream of getting paid to have sex or
recruiting the men to do it. There are no bros highfiving each other saying, “Dude, we’re in porn! How
awesome is that?” These men are just like the women,
they are doing this because they are just trying to sur-
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This is obviously a very personal film for writer/director
Brandon Ruckdashel, whose passion for the story is
in every second of every frame. The camera is always
lingering too long, instead of cutting when you are
expecting a scene to cut, the camera just keeps rolling
and we, the audience, are then forced to sit there in
the misery and pain the characters are going through,
making us all as uncomfortable as the characters living the story. These are bruised and battered people
and Ruckdashel refuses to let us off easy, there is no
piecemealing of reality here so we can get accustomed
to it; we get the reality of the situation right between
the eyes, so that by the time the movie was over, I was
emotionally drained and was ready for a drink, except I
don’t drink, so I had a Cherry Coke instead.
So first with ToY and now with Grinder, I’m quite excited about the future of independent LGBT filmmakers
who are taking our stories and expanding them into
whole new worlds that we have never been able to explore before, mostly because history, both Hollywood
and societal, never allowed us…that is until now…or
really we just told them to fuck off, we’re telling these
stories anyway.
“Grinder”
Nothing Is As It Seems
Amos Lassen
When I received a request to review a new film by director Brandon Ruckdashel, I had no idea about the film and
I sat down to spend a couple of hours being entertained. I
was entertained but it was a different kind of entertainment
than we usually see in LGBT movies. We all have opinions
about those who sell their bodies and we are certainly
seeing this now with Logo TV’s new show “”Finding Prince
Charming” when the gay bachelor turns out to have had a
past as a male hustler who sold his sexual favors to help
pay for his college expenses. It is purely coincidental that
“Grinder” came out at the same time and while the stories
differ there is something about selling oneself to be seen
here (and it is not pretty although the film is excellent in every aspect). We do not seem to know a lot about the male
perspective about selling sex as compared to the female.
We have, in the past, seen it from the female point of view.
“Grinder” takes us behind the scenes of the industry and
shows the detrimental aspects of porn and sex for pay and
it shows it like it is without minimizing the effects porn and
prostitution can have on the lives of those involved. I found
myself totally drained when the film was over. We see a
side of the industry that is not about money or happiness.
Stereotypes are broken and we see that the men that are
in porn do not have a wonderful life of getting paid to have
sex or recruiting the men to do it. These men do what they
do as a means of survival and it comes at an expensive
price.
It all startss when we meet a young, somewhat naïve gay
man, Luke, (Tyler Austin) who comes to New York City to
become a model after talking to another model on Grinder.
He later learns that he has been unknowingly part of a
porn/prostitution ring. But this film is about those who
recruit others into the business and those that photograph
them. The men that we see here are either totally against
living this kind of life or pretending that it is a dream life
even though they are not at all happy about the way that
they live. This is obviously a very personal film for Brandon
Ruckdashel who wrote and directed the film. It shows his
passion for the subject and the how he feels about it and
this is one of those rare instances when it feels good to
realize that the director is there for every scene. He lets the
camera stay on the faces of his characters as if to show us
what they are thinking and their emotional reaction to what
they experience here. At first, when I stared at Luke’s face
for what I thought was too long, I wondered if the movie
had frozen in my player. Then I noticed slight movements
and I understood exactly what the movie wanted me to understand. The misery that I saw is still with me and it is not
often that a film affects me that way. The discomfort of the
characters became my own discomfort. This is their reality
and “Grinder” wants us to know about it.
Luke is an innocent teenager who is in search of who he is
sexually. He lives with his abusive father (Jose Ramos) and
he leaves home after one of the most frightening scenes
in movies since “Psycho”. He gets to New York where
he meets with Rich (Jon Fleming), a man he met on the
dating site who is an agent for male models and who had
been convincing Luke through their on online chats that he
should become a model. Immediately Rich works to prepare Luke to pose for the magazine “Rock Hard”. He sends
Luke to meet his investor to get him started as an escort.
Luke resists this especially after having seen how another
young man was abased by Rich.
We then meet Tim (Brandon Ruckdashel), himself a former
male escort who now works as a photographer and leads a
double life even though he is engaged Sara (Sarah Lazar).
Tim becomes obsessed with Luke. He thinks that he has
hidden his past and his present gay sex life from Sarah. .
Tim is left to decide what to do when Rich forces himself on
Luke. We, the viewers, are also left to finish the story.
We also learn something about online chats. I would have
never thought that Luke was model material by looking at
him (not that he is not good-looking or built). His naiveté
is a bit too pronounced (and I am sure that was deliberate). What we see is how an experienced person in the
sexual underground can get the upper hand and convince
someone to be what he is not. Luke was so desperate to
leave home; he probably would have been willing to do
anything. Rich made him promises and seems to be just a
great guy, perfect for entrapping a young man who knows
nothing of life in the big city. We learn that Luke has not
yet had sex with another male. Luke is drawn to Rich who
is model good-looking and when he wants a little sex,
Luke is naturally drawn to him. It isn’t how Luke sees Rich
debase another model that he understands that all is not
as it seems. But then he thinks that if he does not make the
same mistakes, all will be ok.
Tim, it appears, seems to be honest (aside from hiding
is secret life. He is an associate of Rich and the two men
often work together. Tim falls for Luke but Luke wants to be
faithful to Rich even though he does not know what Rich’s
next move will be or what Rich really thinks about him.
The story is not new—after all, prostitution is the world’s
oldest profession but what makes this film unique is the
way that story is told and the way we perceive it. There is
no moralizing and no judgments—those are for the viewers. Everything about the film is excellent from the cast to
the direction to the camerawork and to what we learn here.
This is the first thing I have seen by Brandon Ruckdashel
and I see quite a future for him and for the future of LGBT
film. This is the first big change to our genre since the new
queer cinema and it is exciting.
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Q&A with Tyler Austin - 5/08/16
Grinder is an upcoming LGBT thriller about a teenage runaway,
Luke, who is seduced to move into New York city by a model
agent from his troubled suburban home. An older photographer,
Tim, becomes obsessed with Luke and tries to pull him out of the
dark world he is sinking into.
screen and what wouldn’t, however, it did walk that line. It’s funny,
because the film you see now, the one that was eventually rewritten, is a completely different tone and style than the one I had
originally signed on to do. I think the re-design was an excellent
choice by all involved.
The film stars Jon Fleming (Will and Grace, Dante’s Cove), Brandon Ruckdashel (Co-ed Confidential, The Lair), and newcomer
Tyler Austin, who plays Luke.
Your background is in the theatre and film production. Is acting in feature films just a natural progression as an actor?
You star as Luke in the thriller Grinder. Can you tell us about
your character?
There’s so much that I can say about Luke. He was a really
interesting character to play. Without giving too much away, he’s a
teenager growing up in a household with a father who has issues
with him being gay. All his life he has been quiet, distanced, and
alienated from the world around him. He finds it difficult to find his
voice in the world and is used to having other people tell him what
to do.
The film deals with many dark issues that are prevalent in the
LGBT community. Did you talk to any LGBT youth or runaways in preparation for the film and your role?
Not specifically for the role, no. But in college, after a rather interesting encounter at a laundromat, I became involved in a program
that helped young gay teens and children deal with whatever
was happening in their lives. Of course this naturally brought kids
and young adults that have been estranged and abandoned by
everyone they know. You learn a lot the first time you speak to
a runaway youth and it’s so easy to empathize with them. I took
what I had learned and experienced, and crafted them around
Luke’s situation while bringing in truths from my own life.
Grinder is written and directed by Brandon Ruckdashel, who
also stars in the film. What was your experience like working
with him?
Never boring, exhausting and educational. Brandon doesn’t mess
around. He wanted to film 13 to 16 pages a day, which is bonkers
if you didn’t know, and he managed to do it by being in control,
level headed and encouraging. He has a very different idea of the
business and knows what he’s talking about. He knows who he is,
where he fits in, and how to do things without having an establishment or system back you up. [He] is a true indie artist.
We read that Grinder is your first professional feature film. How
did you get involved in the project? Were you immediately drawn
to the script and the subject matter?
Did you have any issues making the transition from stage actor to feature film actor?
The hardest thing is the fact that it’s your job to understand where
your character is whenever you’re filming a scene. Production on
a film rarely happens in the order you see it on screen, so making
sure your character makes a natural journey from scene to scene
is difficult. For example, the entire ending sequence of the film
was filmed over multiple days in all different orders.
Without giving too much of the plot away, what are some of
your favorite scenes from the movie?
I’m a big fan of the “mirror” scenes. Most characters have this long
take where they’re looking at themselves in the mirror but directly
into the camera. It visually shows a lot about each character without telling the audience through words about the character.
What do you think movie goers will take away from this film?
Oh man, there are so many things. Some people might be angry
with the material in the film associated with LGBT people, especially the “villains” of the film, but the balance comes from the
gay characters that aren’t “villains” by the time the movie is over.
To me, the LGBT movement in film started because gay people
wanted to be represented as three dimensional characters and
not simply the “gay character.” Well, this film does just that and
shows the ugly side of the gay community as well as the good. It
shows all the colors.
How important are film festivals in garnering attention for a
movie?
I found out about the audition at a time when I had just gotten out
of school and kind of starting this journey with my head up my
butt. I came across the film title on the audition page and I was
immediately drawn. I remember reading something about “must
be comfortable with nudity and intense subject matter.” I’ve always
been drawn to characters with private moments and subject matter that is hard to digest, so I was open to anything.
With the Internet and the ability to self-promote being so accessible to everyone in today’s age, it’s probably not as important
as one would think but it definitely helps. It allows your film to be
seen, not only from the people that search it out, but the people
that are just fans of filmmaking as an art.
Were there any surprises once you got on set?
I’ve been told near the end of 2016, but these things can go all
different directions. I want it sooner rather than later!
The film was completely different when I became involved. The
script had me naked a heck of a lot more and had me in many
more sex scenes. It was more of an exploitation film and had my
character being really sexually aggressive while still keeping the
same feel of dark and gritty. I actually signed on to do that film,
and I remember going back and forth not knowing if it was a good
idea or a bad idea. Eventually I said, “Hey, it’s my life and I’m
going to do the projects I want to do.” I knew it wasn’t going to
be porn, because Brandon assured me what would be shown on
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For me, yes. But it’s probably not for every actor. Film comes
naturally to me, because I went to school for film production and
have edited a few feature films and short film projects. It’s hard to
find actors that understand, especially when they are first starting
out, that the production and behind the scenes side of film can
take a long time. Sometimes you can be sitting in one position for
as long as it takes for the lights to look right. So for me it was an
easy transition, but my heart still lies with Shakespeare.
When should audiences expect to see Grinder in theaters?
If you directed a movie, what type of subject matter would
you want to focus on?
Definitely horror! I’ve always directed horror. I think it’s a really
difficult genre to get just right, just like comedy. Scaring an audience is super fun. Thinking of new ways to keep the horror genre
original and creative can be so much fun! Also, blood can be done
so beautifully sometimes. Yes, definitely horror.
International
Press
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Las 5 películas gays que tienes
que ver en 2016
El cine gay llega con fuerza a las carteleras este año. En poco
más de un mes ya tenemos en nuestras pantallas varias películas
de temática LGBT, pero hay muchas que quedan por venir... ¡y
seguro que muchas de las que todavía no sabemos nada!
Repasamos 5 de las que probablemente serán las películas gays
más destacadas de este año 2016. ¿Ya has visto alguna de ellas?
Cuéntanoslo en los comentarios y comparte tus impresiones.
Carol
Justo esta semana se estrena en España 'Carol', la historia basada en
la novela de Patricia Highsmith que cuenta la relación de amor entre
dos mujeres en los años 50 en Nueva York. Ellas son Teresa (Rooney
Mara) y Carol (Cate Blanchett). Ambas actrices están nominadas al
Oscar en esta película que suma un total de 6 nominaciones.
The Danish Girl
Ya te hemos hablado en varias ocasiones de 'La Chica Danesa', como
cuando comentábamos el emotivo tráiler de 'The Danish Girl', la
película con Eddie Redmayne transexual. Más allá de ver a Eddie
Redmayne desnudo para contarnos las vivencias de la primera
transexual de la historia, la película ha sido noticia tristemente porque
muchos jóvenes se reían y burlaban al ver su tráiler en los cines.
Freeheld
De 'Freeheld' hablábamos por su banda sonora, cuando Miley Cyrus
estrenaba 'Hands Of Love', su nuevo single para esta película gay.
Julianne Moore y Ellen Page interpretan a Laurel Hester y Stacie
Andree, una pareja de mujeres que luchan por sus derechos cuando
una de ellas está a punto de morir de cáncer, para que la otra pueda
lograr una pensión de viudedad.
Grinder
¡No confundir con la conocida app gay que no lleva "e" en su nombre!
'Grinder' es una película gay que explorará el lado oscuro de la fama
bajo el punto de vista de Luke, un joven inocente al que una agencia
de modelos seduce para mudarse a Nueva York. Un fotógrafo mayor
que él se obsesiona con este aprendiz de modelo e intenta salvarlo de
su destino.
King Cobra
Los cuerpazos de James Franco y Keegan Allen desnudos en Twitter
fueron el gran aliciente para que todo el mundo empezase a hablar de
esta película. 'King Cobra' nos contará la historia que rodea al
asesinato de un empresario en el mundo del cine porno gay, Bryan
Kocis en 2007. ¿Adivinas quién hace de Brent Corrigan?
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