Unexpected Realms

Perry's Blog: October 27, 2014

One of the things I’m looking forward to the most on this film is the learning process. As an actor, it’s almost always my favorite part. And now, as both director and actor, it is even more vital. For this project, and for this role, I must learn a great deal more about the scourge of Alzheimer’s and dementia; the film has that brutal condition as part of its core.

Jana has done a superb job of laying out the structure, through her research and through her own experiences with others in her life. Everything she has written rings so true. Now, as the director, I have to understand it as well as if it were true for me, and, as the actor, it must be my personal life. One of the most wonderful things about film or theater is the way it takes you into unexpected realms, places you would probably never venture otherwise. The subject of failing mental powers is so prevalent today, but I’ve already discovered that in the 70s it was almost a secret, and a mysterious affliction that no one wanted to acknowledge. I lived through that time as a young man, but looking back now, much of it seems almost unreal – our attitudes and behavior, by todays standards, seem in retrospect almost barbarian. This film should be a trip back to that time; so close, and yet so different from today.