Spotlight – An Interview with Eric Schumacher

Hey, this is Steve Bloom, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. You are tuned

in to Steve Megatron on Altered Geek. Hello,

and welcome to Altered Geek. I'm your host, Steve

Megatron Phillips. Today, I'd like to welcome

to the program Eric Schumacher, film and TV actor,

producer, director, owner of Sealy Studios, and

proud geek. Welcome, Eric. Thank you, and I'm

very glad to be here. Thanks for having me, Stephen.

Yes, thank you for joining me. So, just for the

listener's purpose, could you tell the listeners

a little bit about yourself? Sure. Well, the

short story is I am a geek of many kinds. I'm

an acting geek. I'm a filmmaking geek. I'm a

geek geek. I was raised by a family of actors

and began my training, well, the earliest that

I remember was six years old, although my dad

insists it was earlier. And fell madly in love

with the art. And as I continued to pursue an

acting career, I eventually decided to start

studying the filmmaking side of things as well,

mainly so I could better understand how that

side worked to be a better actor. And I realized

I had some talents on that side as well. So I

started making commercials and movies and a variety

of other things. currently, I guess, best known

for I'm one of just a very handful of actors

I'm proud to say who have ever played both Doc

Holliday and Wyatt Earp in two separate nationally

publicized productions. And I am a big fan of

science fiction, fantasy, geek culture sort of

stuff that tends to be mainly the bulk of what

I end up producing and or directing his stuff

in that genre. And, of course, as you mentioned,

I'm the current president of the production group

Sealy Studios, which tends also to specialize

in some of those genres. Awesome, awesome. Yeah,

I was doing some research earlier, kind of checking

out some of the stuff that you guys have done.

The science fiction aspect always piques my interest

because I'm huge into sci -fi. I never would

have guessed that about you. Yeah, it's a sickness.

But yeah, Star Trek. Sci -fi, Star Wars, time

travel, any of that kind of stuff. You can't

see me giving you the Vulcan live long and prosper

symbol right now, but I'm doing it with both

hands. Skype has that as an emoji now, which

is funny. What are you talking about, Willis?

I didn't know that. That's awesome. Yeah, because

I almost did that earlier, and then I was like,

I don't know. Because it transports away. What

have been some of your, because I noticed that

Sealy Studios is promoting the My Stolen Time

Machine. Yeah, well, that's a project that is

in post -production right now. We had a bit of

a hitch. Unfortunately, my very wonderful business

partner, Don Demme, passed away just a couple

of months ago after a long battle with cancer.

And that was a project that he produced and I

directed. In fact, it was the catalyst to me

becoming a partner in the company. But we're

expecting that to finally launch about the middle

of this year. It's a science fiction short episode

series, currently about 26 episodes long. And

the gist of it is a... A teenage girl genius

steals her father's half -made time machine to

cheat on a history exam and accidentally almost

destroys the universe, making multiple versions

of herself throughout time and space, and now

she has to work with herself to fix it. Wow.

If it weren't for the fact I'm very into sci

-fi time travel aspect, that would sound very

confusing. I imagine your audience won't find

it confusing. No, not at all. Not at all. I've

given them the lowdown on a screenplay I wrote

similar to, well, not similar. It's past and

future, but it's superhero based in time travel.

So I wrote that in a college course. So that

was very convoluted. Very cool. Very cool. So

what are some inspirations for your various projects,

whether it's acting or writing and directing?

Well, you know, I think that's a difficult question

to answer. It really depends on the project.

But there are projects that I partner. or we,

I should say, partner with others on, and sometimes

they're brought to us and we partner in producing

them. Other times they're things that we generate

ourselves. I would say that since I'm now in

charge of things, the types of projects that

we initiate tend to be on... Typically, science

fiction, fantasy, what we look for in a project

that we want to sink our teeth into is a unique

angle, a unique twist, and a statement about

something that will hopefully generate conversation.

So, you know, for example, My Soul and Time Machine,

when Don and I created that series, the intention

was to, in fact, create... you know, kind of

a girl time traveler before Doctor Who did. And

we wanted to have a female -led show that was

very much, that had the side effect of exploring

a young woman as she finds out who she really

is. And so the fact that she has multiple selves

allows her to examine. um who she is as a person

and who she could be as a person if she if she

makes the right moves or the wrong moves examine

her own insecurities through a um you know a

a comedic script and uh so we're always looking

for things that uh have personal meaning to uh

to our audience and and things that uh we feel

deserve to be explored in in a unique way um

in terms of my work as an actor though it's you

know of course part of it is what I'm offered.

But especially since I'm now running the company,

I'm being very picky about what I take on because

I don't have a lot of extra time, so I really

have to make sure the projects that I agree to

as an actor are things that I believe have some

artistic worth or are particularly well -paying

or good for the career. Certainly the opportunity

to play Doc Holliday a couple of years ago, that

was one I wasn't going to pass up, especially

since it was directed by Alex Cox, who's a very

brilliant man. You may know him from Weepo Man

and Sid and Nancy and a bunch of really amazing

films like that. So likewise as an actor, though,

if I have my choice, if I have my druthers, I'm

looking for stuff that allows me, well, for one,

and also to go into a, I like going into a deep

character or a meaty character. I'm one of those

actors who tends to disappear into a role. When

I've gotten, I've been very honored that some

of my filmmaking friends have seen me in principal

roles and things and didn't realize it was me

until the credits. And that was about the nicest

thing that could ever have said to me. Those

are always the most amazing roles to me are the

ones that can blend in like a chameleon. Yeah,

yeah. And they're the most, for me, they're the

most gratifying to play typically because, you

know, it allows me to really kind of, it forces

me to take a completely different person's perspective

in life and find a way to play that truthfully,

which means that I, The side effect is that I

grow as a person because I'm not just playing

something that's so close to me that there's

not a lot of necessary emotional growth. Mind

you, that being said, the right thing that is

kind of close to me I'll take. We're finishing

final post -production after a... soft world

premiere of the feature film Revenge of Zoe,

which is incidentally set largely in a comic

book store and involves an imaginary superheroine

and screenwriting. It's a really funny comedy

co -produced with TV's Meteorite Men's Jeffrey

Notkin and Marty Campbell and Cliff Cattola of

Pondo Enterprises. And I played a character in

that that was actually... A lot like me maybe

20 years ago. And actually still fairly a lot

like me. My real personality tends to be the

type that's very driven and serious and uptight.

And this character was that to the nines. And

also an uber geek. Yeah, that's definitely...

and awesome getting to kind of feel it out and

be able to play yourself in a sense throughout

whatever role you're playing. What were some

of the characters that have inspired you when

you've gone into character, when you've gone

into your blending mode? That's a good question.

I rarely look at the work of others. when I'm

going into character, unless I have a very specific

reason to do that, I try to... So I kind of try

not to reference too much other people's work

at all, and instead just go into a process of

building a person from the ground up. But certainly,

I mean, you can't help but be influenced a bit

by other people's work or by other characters.

So, I mean, I think as I was a decent example

of that is when I was playing Wyatt Earp for

a television show called Legends and Lies, The

Real West for Fox. I do recall mentally referring

to some of the better kind of tough guy roles

that I'd seen played over the years. Um, you

know, a lot of, a lot of the scenes with Wyatt

were him intimidating somebody. And so I, uh,

I remember looking at the way that, uh, maybe

Sylvester Stallone had played a role or looking

at, you know, I didn't necessarily go and watch

the films. I just kind of remembered the scenes

and thought about, you know, how did they come

across as unflappable and very tough. Um, and

then the rest again was just a lot of character

research and trying to figure out who I thought

this person was and how they would, emerge through

me. That's awesome. Having looked at your list

of credits, it's made me want to go back and

watch some of the series or some of the films

that you've been in because reading the premise

of a lot of them just has me interested. Thank

you. like the the revenge of zoe like that has

me interested a little bit like i'm i love anytime

like comics or or just different things that

you just don't normally see kind of come out

anymore because it seems like everything is like

uh a continuation of a franchise at this point

very true uh yeah i know exactly what you're

talking about and that's actually as we're building

uh sealy studios and and moving our current plans

forward, that's a lot of our goals are to help

get very unique and unique good stories out there

that are not necessarily just a repaste, you

know, not cut, paste, repeat necessarily. You

know, we like the idea of creatively, I suppose

you could, to quote my Kung Fu grandmaster, having

wings of mind. And, but, you know, certainly

not in a way that's just a disorganized mess.

They still have to be projects that people can

understand and that are commercially viable.

But, you know, I'm only, again, looking for that

unique concept or, I mean, if there is really

anything unique anymore, but something that's

not just the standard. If we're doing a superhero

storyline, I don't want to do the standard superhero

storyline where Much as I love a lot of the more

recent superhero releases, about five minutes

in I can tell you the entire plot line and most

of the dialogue. Yeah, yeah, it's gotten pretty

formulaic. It has, and that can be satisfying.

I mean, that's the payoff that I want emotionally

if I'm going to see that particular kind of movie,

but there's a point where it's like, you know,

okay, I'm enjoying the visual ride and the performances

are good, but I have seen this movie. What are

some projects that you enjoy taking on? Do you

enjoy doing feature films or web series or I

saw in there, animation? We've done some animation.

The bulk of the animation that was done in the

past was under Don's leadership and I wasn't

directly involved with most of those, although

it's stuff we can do. But I do love animation

projects. And I should add, by the way, that

I'm also a voice actor. And one of my teachers,

some of your audience might remember, was a gal

who passed away recently, Lucille Bliss, who

was the original Smurfette on the NBC cartoon

show. Oh, wow. Yeah, she was awesome and kooky.

And so that was – she was – where I learned cartoon

voiceover. So I dig that stuff. I just haven't

had a lot of opportunity to do cartoon animation

as a producer. To answer your question, though,

yes. I like it all. When we're working on what

projects we're going to put onto our slate, To

me, I guess this is where the gut comes in. We

might be given a screenplay and it's like, this

is amazing. I've optioned a couple just recently

that are fantastic and they're perfect as films.

There are things that we start developing and

we look at them and I can kind of go, okay, yeah,

this smells like a series. I want more time to

tell this story. And I think that's what's going

to sell here. This feels like a feature film,

and that's how we're going to develop this. So

really it just kind of comes down to what is

the right media to tell that story, and that's

what I like. But I can tell you that I am particularly

fascinated by the concept of the web series,

which now is a television series, let's face

it. It's all blended. Oh, yeah. And I love the

idea, in principle, I love the idea of being

able to really spend a lot of time with characters.

I really, really get to know them over time.

I do really enjoy the feature film process, and

I really enjoy watching a feature film. But if

I had to choose between the two artistically,

then I would probably go with the series concept,

just because if I really love the characters,

I want to be with them for a while. Yeah, I can

totally relate to that. I mean, there's the potential

with film, but you're still kind of limited to

the amount of story you can tell with that block

of space as opposed to the web series or the

television series. There's just so much more

breadth that you can put into a series, and it

allows you to take your time a little bit more.

Awesome. So what are some projects that may not

be listed or that you can speak about that you

have coming up? That I can speak about. That's

a good one. Well, we are also working on doing

a final launch target for a narco -crime drama

short series called El Patron the Master, which

was co -produced with a number of great people

who shall become evident soon. And actually that

went through a film festival run recently and

won some awards. Revenge of Zoe, of course, I've

talked about. We are in the process of doing

a lot of audiobooks right now. And I'm working

on a program that I can say very little about,

I'm afraid, that is somewhat related in partnership

with my friend, author, and publisher, David

Lee Summers, who's a fantastic sci -fi, horror,

and steampunk author. And so we're creating some

really exciting programs that are designed to

help grow the work of authors. And I can't say

too much more about that. But I will say that

audio books are a part of that. And we're working

on a number of those right now. And this is really,

you know, I think overall, I was developing a

strategy with Don before he passed away. Ultimately

what it came down to was the concept of, you

know, we really believe that artists working

together in the right way, in ways that make

sense commercially and in ways that make sense

in terms of doing honor to each other, allows

everyone to win. So we were developing a strategy

which we're in the process of launching that

is designed to help a lot of artists have better

careers. and to also create a lot of really excellent

media for audiences. And that's why I have essentially

no life right now. I just work all the time.

It's a very difficult strategy to launch, but

we believe it can work very, very well. And I'm

quite excited about it. I look forward to seeing

how that turns out. I'm a fan of audiobooks,

especially because of commute times. It just

makes it easier to listen to something on the

go, no matter where you're at. So that's always

something that interests me. And then the voice

acting aspect, whether it's reading or it's voice

acting in the audiobooks, that always... That

piques my interest. But us on the network, we

really enjoy voice actors. So that's something

that resonates really well with us. Right. Well,

you know, a big key to, I mean, we're doing a

lot more than just audio books. We're doing a

lot of video work, et cetera. But a big key to

a good audio book, I mean, it's a performance.

Even if it's one actor reading, it's still an

actor ideally reading. If it's a fiction book

and if it's a non -fiction book, it's still a

performance. There's both a matter of technical

performance skill that needs to go into it and

there needs to be heart. And I think heart is

the major point. It's got to be a heartfelt performance

or it's not going to engage. It's not going to

resonate. That field is just too competitive

right now to do any less than your best. Exactly.

So how can the listeners get a hold of you and

find out more about you and Sealy Studios Online?

Well, I am all over the place. I'm on Facebook,

Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. You can go

to my personal actor website at ericschumacherfilm

.com. Schumacher is S -C -H -U -M -A -C -H -E

-R, for those of you who aren't native German

speakers. And, of course, we have two other websites,

well, three really right now, seeliestudios .com.

That's S -E -E -L -I -E. That site, by the way,

is being completely rebuilt, so it's an older

site that you'll see right now, but it's going

to have a lot of exciting things on it very soon.

And also our website, pulpgamer .com, which is

largely targeted to the board game and role -playing

game, analog gaming world, which is where Don

came out of, actually. And, of course, to find

out more about the film Revenge of Zoe, there's

revengeofzoe .com. Zoe is Z -O -E. And that site

is nearly fully built as we're getting ready

to launch the film. But ericschumacherfilm .com

is a good sort of central place for people to

find me. And, of course, just look me up on social

media. And I'm not hard to find there. If folks

want to reach out to me directly, I tend to be

a little bit slow on getting back to people because

I get a lot of messages, but I do really try

hard to get back to everyone. And I'm always

happy to hear from folks who are fellow artists

or would -be fans or people who already know

my work or whatever. I like people. As do we.

So I thank you, Eric, for taking the time. out

of your busy schedule to hang out with us here

on Altered Geek. My pleasure. So until next time,

get Altered Geeky with the Altered Geek.