‘SWELTER’: Exclusive Interview with Actor-Producer Daniele Favilli

Desde Hollywood had the honor of speaking with the talented Italian actor, writer and producer Daniele Favilli (Torchwood: Miracle Day, Mob Rules, Bingo). In a candid exclusive interview he talked in-depth about one of his latest projects, the anticipated action drama “Swelter”, where he plays the complex and magnetic ‘Kane’ next to talents like Alfred Molina, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Catalina Sandino Moreno and more.

How did your collaboration with director, Keith Parmer started and how did the concept for “Swelter” developed?

I arrived in LA in 2008 and through a friend’s suggestion auditioned for a movie called “Mob Rules” and that turned out to be Keith’s first movie, that was picked up by Lionsgate for distribution. We became friends since then and he had another script that he was working on at that time and he showed it to me. Although it was still in development I thought it was great. And he started writing Kane for me, based on me. I really wanted to make it happen so I started shopping it around and then Eleanor Dailly, the producer, came on board and made a great contribution.

I have had the pleasure of seeing “Swelter” and it is more than a ‘straight action movie’.

Yes. I think what everybody in the cast really likes about this movie is that it has a lot of layers. There’s a main story but then there are all the other sub-stories; even the smaller characters have personalities and the way he writes them makes it very exciting for an actor. You know that you have a juicy theme and a lot that you can put in the character. The characters are complex and it doesn’t feel like it’s crowded even if there are a lot of them. Everything runs pretty smoothly.

You only had Alfred Molina and Jean-Claude Van Damme for a few days, right?

They’re very strong actors, that’s why they’re who they are, and we didn’t have them for a long time so we had to really take advantage of that. But everybody was ready to go, the whole creative machine from the crew to the VP to the actors around the Director worked really well in this movie. We only had Alfred Molina for three days, yet he’s one of the major characters and he’s all over the movie.

How was your first encounter with Van Damme?

I was a huge fan of Van Damme when I grew up and watched all of his movies and my father was also a big fan, big time fan so it was exciting. And it was funny cause it’s the very first scene that we did together and it was a fight scene, and I was like “Hello Mr. Van Damme” and then we get into a fight and he’s like this martial arts god, although he’s not doing martial arts in our movie so it was very interesting.

My father passed away like a year and a half ago and I remember telling him in the hospital that everything was going to be fine because Van Damme was on board and we were going to make the movie. I’m over here and far away from the family and he was worried about my future so that was the last thing I talked to him about, I said “Everything is alright, Van Damme is on board!” and he was very excited about that. It was actually a very moving moment.

The second day we were working together he comes to Josh Henderson -who plays Boyd- and I, and says: “I’m very excited to work with you because you guys are real actors”. And we look at each other and we go “But you’re a movie star!”.
So that day I walked to him and I told him “I’m very happy that you are here, because it’s the last thing I said to my father” and he was very excited that we were going to work together, and we had this little moment when we got moved and we hugged, it was really cute.

It’s unusual to see a female character like Catalina Sandino Moreno’s being the heart of a testosterone filled movie.

I’m a huge fan of Catalina since she was nominated for an Academy Award for “Maria Full of Grace”. I think she’s a very good actress, she has emotional depth that she brings to her characters and actually I’m really happy that this is sort of an action movie that has female characters that make sense. The girls are not there to be saved; they’re complex and tri-dimensional and are part of the story and move the story forward.

The movie is pretty much sold worldwide. How happy are you about that?

I’m extremely excited. Keith, Eleanor and I have been working on it for a long time. I had constant preparation for my character but we never knew when the movie was going to happen. A lot of stuff happens, it’s kind of hard to put the finances together and find the right partner and then suddenly we are on set. The first week that I had to work with stunt doubles due to the other characters’ schedules it was kind of weird but then when Josh Henderson came to the set and we got this chemistry and my character clicked, it was amazing.

I really had fun and relaxed and the character just came out. And the fact that the movie is getting this great response, to me it’s extremely exciting because it’s very hard to work in this industry; it’s even harder to get a chance to show what you can do. So to finally get the results, I’m really excited for the future, cause I really want to try and build a career of this. I feel very lucky but lucky is the result of hard work and also believing in something and the fact that the movie is going everywhere it’s great.

Follow Daniele on Twitter: @DanieleFavilli. Read our interview with director Keith Parmer here. Stay tuned for more “Swelter” exclusives!