When we arrived at the outdoor cafe in Beverly Hills, Damian Chapa was holding court with a table full of actors, agents, creative types, and assorted beauties.  Chapa exuded a tangible energy and charisma — and an open friendliness that seemed contagious.  As an actor, Chapa has had a long history in film and television. A few years ago, he decided to seize all the reigns and produce, direct, co-write, and star in his own movies.  In these auteur films, the versatile Chapa has portrayed a range of characters, including an Irish rebel, a very Polish Roman Polankski and, in his most recent venture, a Mexican Gangster.

Buzzine sits down with Damian Chapa and gets the inside story about his new film and what motivates an artist to swim against the Hollywood stream and chart his own challenging course.

Richard Elfman: What can you tell me about your upcoming film Mexican Gangster?

Damian Chapa: Mexican Gangster is about people who band together to survive in a world that’s not really theirs.  The character I play, Johnny Sun, didn’t really have an education; he had to do everything on his own, but he wanted to change and become an upstanding citizen, so to speak — especially because of the influence he had on his little brother. So he tries to get out of the gangster world and open up a business, and he brings all these guys with him on this path of trying to make it in the real world without trying to steal or be a gangster.  The story shows you that sometimes in life, the choices you make early on affect you so much that you can’t change.

RE: Where does the story take place?

DC: Mostly in Los Angeles, and Las Vegas also.

RE: You directed this and also starred, co-wrote, and co-produced?

DC: Yes, I always co-write my stuff. I love to start with a story, and then I bring my co-writer in, Carlton Holder, who’s a fabulous writer, and we create together and develop the foundation.  Then the story turns into a screenplay and I take the screenplay and, against all odds, raise the money [laughs] –- any filmmaker would understand that -– and I shoot it. I think the difference between me and most filmmakers, though, is that I don’t wait around. I actually make posters before I even start a movie because I’m a very faith-based kind of person. I wake up every day and there are things that I don’t have, but I have to have them. People will say, “We don’t have these. How are we going to get them?” Well, you have to work hard. Doing what I do -– writing, directing, producing and starring -– is something that’s a 20-hour-a-day job. And I mean literally sometimes 20 hours, sometimes 16 or 17 hours, but if you don’t work that hard, you cannot make it, with or without money, I think.

RE: I see you’re a man of a thousand faces. You’ve been Roman Polanski Polish, I.R.A. Irish… How did you get into this and become so versatile?

DC: I started out in theater, and I was doing 80-seat theater in an off-off Broadway for many years. So for me, I come from a real acting world. Acting, for me, was a life. It wasn’t about being famous, about having a lot of money -– it was really truly about being an artist. I was always acting. I had a difficult childhood so it was a way to get out of reality. That’s why I think a lot of artists go into music, go into poetry, go into acting — they want to change who they are for the moment to get over things, and that’s what I did. I always liked changing. At first it was entertaining. After a while, you see people react to it so you find love that way as an artist –- the love that’s lacking in your life you find as an artist by changing different characters.  So I found it fascinating how people thought it was interesting and I could do it well. Doing Polanski was a challenge because, first of all, most people would look at us and we look nothing alike.  So as an actor, you have to start by believing that you’re that person. I began to feel his emotions. I learned about all the things he was going through as a child, having to deal with the Holocaust with his parents…and the thing with the women –- I found things about myself that were similar and I brought those to the character.  And then the makeup artist puts you in the makeup, and you just become that person. I think part of why I’m able to change is because of different life experiences.

RE: You shot your I.R.A. : King of Nothing in Ireland, correct? Did you embrace the culture?

DC:  Yes, we shot, I.R.A. in Ireland.   I was married to a beautiful Irish woman named Ciara O’Brien — about as Irish as you can get — and she was from Belfast. She used to tell me stories of what it was like growing up in Northern Ireland and about the history of discrimination and troubles.  I’d listen to the Irish and pick up the accent until I started becoming my character.  It’s all a game and it’s fun in one aspect –- as an actor — although the role was quite serious.

RE: Both directing and acting is such an enormous challenge. Do you have certain team members that you really rely upon?

DC: That’s a very good question because I think it’s a very important part of how I work. For example, Pierre Chemaly, my director of photography, is not only the best person on my team to help me, he’s my best friend. If I’m the guy out in the field, he’s my righthand-man. We did Polanski together, we did El Padrino together, we did Man of Faith together with Faye Dunaway — which is strange in that I worked with Dunaway as did Roman Polanski — but without my director of photography, I’m nearly nothing. And, of course, we just shot Mexican Gangster together.

RE: What was a particular challenge you’ve had to face?

DC: It’s very difficult raising money for independant movies. I consider myself a guerilla filmmaker, so to speak.  On El Padrino: The Latin Godfather, some of the unions came on the set to close me down.  They thought I had this big budget because of the cast –Faye Dunaway, Robert Wagner, Gary Busey, Kathleen Quinlan, Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif — but we were very minimally budgeted. I had three people trying to intimidate me on the set. But I grew up on the street so it couldn’t affect me, and I knew, at that point, that was a life-changing experience. Here I was a filmmaker trying to make my first real film with no money –- and I mean no money for Hollywood terms — under half a million dollars — and here I was with all these wonderful people that were helping me. They were doing it for less than they usually do because they loved the script and they wanted to do it and they believed in me.  And it really pissed me off and made me realize that the unions should handle these things differently.  It alienated me from my own union.

RE: Is there a particular filmmaker who has influenced you?

DC: Federico Fellini is my favorite director. I learned how to direct by watching Fellini.

RE: Tell me a little bit about some of your key cast in Mexican Gangster.

DC:  I chose actors from the theater and people that are coming up that were very hungry and wanted to work hard. I didn’t have time for any primadonnas on this one, so it worked out.  The lead actor is Christine Manoukian. She’s a new-comer. She hasn’t done a lot of stuff, but she’s wonderful. She plays the Armenian gangster, and she’s just this little petite girl, but she’s like a firecracker and her emotions are so raw –they’re readily available for you, whether they’re tears or crying or laughter, she’s one of those actors that was really the backbone of the movie for me. My son Ricco played -– and this is a bit of nepotism, but I hired him because he was the best for the role. He actually plays my little brother, which is strange for your son to play your little brother.

RE: You look young too.

DC: Right, so I was like, thank God somebody told me that my son could play my little brother. I said, “Okay, if you believe it, I’ll believe it,” and I believed it, he believed it… He played older, I played younger, and it worked out.

RE: Tell me a little bit about your other cast members.

DC: Augustine Torres, Monica Ramon, and Stanley Griego are very wonderful Latino actors that came on board to help me with the Mexican gangster characters. We were out in the middle of the desert shooting in 120… Do you know what it’s like in Palmdale in the summer? These guys stuck it out with me.  

RE: What is it that motivates you most?

DC: I love doing the kinds of films I do. I make films that I want to make, that I want to create as an artist, and I don’t care what anybody thinks about it. I don’t care if 100 people see it or 100 million people see it, because I’m not creating for money and fame. I’m creating because I like to do this.

RE: What have you learned from making films?

DC: What I’ve learned from making films is this: I respect any filmmaker.

http://www.mexicangangsterthemovie.com/