Friday, October 23, 2009

The Davis Shoat Interview

Editor’s Note: I don’t often get to talk to famous people, but just the other day, I was able to sit down with award winning actor Davis Shoat. What you might not know about Davis is that when he was in college, Ellen’s cafĂ© was a regular hangout for him. Of course, her grandparents were still running it back then. That wasn’t where I talked to him. Instead, I managed to grab a little of his time between takes on his latest movie. It’ll be another blockbuster, I’m sure.



Timothy Fish:
Mr. Shoat, thanks for agreeing to talk to me.

Davis Shoat:
Call me Davis; all my enemies do.

Timothy Fish:
Thanks, I’ll do that.

Davis Shoat:
That was supposed to be funny.

Timothy Fish:
I’m sure I’ll laugh later, but they said you don’t have much time—five minutes, I think.

Davis Shoat:
I’m sure we’ve got more than that. The director just says things like that so the actors won’t wander off. They don’t like tracking everybody down when their ready to start shooting again.

Timothy Fish:
I’ll try not to take too much of your time anyway. A couple of months ago, you were back in Missouri. How about telling us what you were up to.

Davis Shoat:
Oh, I went back to there to promote a movie and to give my old school some support.

Timothy Fish:
So, how did that go?

Davis Shoat:
I thought it went pretty well, but there’s a few people who’ll tell you it was a disaster.

Timothy Fish:
You did something a little different; you put on a one act play.

Davis Shoat:
Yeah, I thought it would be fun to get the students involved. I didn’t realize it would be so much trouble. The University was all for it, but we had to convince the studio and then we had to get the lawyers involved. Then the studio got real picky about which students they would let in it. The girl they wanted decided she didn’t want to do it, so I flew out there and we talked to her. We had her talked into it and then it blew up in our face.

Timothy Fish:
But you were able to pull it off.

Davis Shoat:
Yeah, but not with the girl we had hoped to us. We ending up using this girl that the studio had vetoed from the start.

Timothy Fish:
But you gave her high praise when it was over.

Davis Shoat:
She deserved it. She’s a born actor if I ever saw one, but I’d hate to have to work with her on a regular basis.

Timothy Fish:
Why’s that?

Davis Shoat:
She a stuck up snob and she insists on getting her way. She’ll learn when she gets into the business, but I’ve seen actors fired for less. If she gets on a movie set, she’ll spend all day in her trailer and nobody will get any work done.

Timothy Fish:
I can see where that would be a problem.

Davis Shoat:
Sure, it’s a problem. When you consider the money it takes to pay all these people each minute, any delay is costly.

Timothy Fish:
You never do that then?

Davis Shoat:
I won’t say never, but I pick my battles carefully. Sometimes, the only way you can get a director to listen is by wasting money. They’ll do anything they like until they get a producer breathing down their necks.

Timothy Fish:
You aren’t afraid you’ll get fired. I know its different with a big star like you, but…

Davis Shoat:
That’s why I pick my battles carefully. I’m not above getting fired. I was working on a film a while back and my co-star got fired in the middle of shooting. She had a million dollar contract and they just wrote her out of the script.

Timothy Fish:
Well, thanks again, Davis. It looks like they’re about ready for you. I’ll let you get back to work.

Davis Shoat:
Glad to be able to help. Maybe we can talk again sometime, when I’m not working on a movie. Give me a call and we’ll set something up.

Timothy Fish:
I’ll do that.