Cool Married Guys Vol. 12: Mark Lazarus

This month’s CMG dropped me on my head as a baby.  No, I’m serious.  He was holding me over his head, I puked on his face, and he dropped me.  So in many ways he is at probably somewhat responsible for my…..I don’t know…my humor?  I’m not sure if that’s the least bit true, but sometimes I read some of the things I write and go “Man, I must be at least partially retarded.” But this ain’t about me.  Mark Lazarus or “Big Laz” as we’ve always called him, is a stand up guy.  Not like a comedian, but more like the infinite respectable, big brother type.  He’s polite, he’s jovial, and an overall fun guy.  He’s a husband, a father, a filmmaker, and in his words a bit of an “expat.” Currently his main project is a horror movie entitled The Loved Ones that I featured here a few months ago.  With the movie gaining critical acclaim, and making it’s mark (pun intended) in film festivals and theaters across the globe, I sat down with Mark to catch up on life, producing movies, and how he balances everything he’s doing professionally with being a father, husband, and overall Cool Married Guy.  It went down a little something like this….

State your name:

Mark Lazarus

Where are you from and where do live now:

I am from the great state of North Carolina.  I went to Duke, C.E. Jordan High School, and Beth El Synagogue Hebrew School (on which I played for the notorious, purple-silk-shorted Beth El Blazers hoops team).  Since then, I’ve lived in Philly, NYC, Perth Western Australia and now live in Sydney in Australia.

What’s your story:

Some of it is above but the real story….. hmmm… cool married guys are a sum of their experiences, especially if you take a psychoanalytical approach.  What made me is pressure to do well in school, having my mom die when I was 20…I am now older than she was when she passed away – is this too dark?

Nah man, I want the real stuff.  Continue:

and then getting a decent education and then following my joy.  I love writing, telling stories, excitement.  the money is always second to enjoying what I’m doing. I started off after University in publishing in NYC working for the Stereo Review group of magazines, but left to follow my wife into film while we were living in NYC.  I was temping and then would take a few weeks off to work on indy pix.

What kind of projects did you work on in the beginning:

I worked on SGT KABUKIMAN, NYPD as a location scout – that was my first movie gig. It was made by TROMA, INC., famous for b-grade movies with hilarious titles like: THE TOXIC AVENGER, SURF NAZIS MUST DIE, NYMPHOID BARBARIANS FROM DINOSAUR HELL, STUFF STEPHANIE IN THE INCINERATOR, CONFEDERATE ZOMBIES…

Ha! I definitely saw Toxic Avenger, and Surf nazis when I was a kid on Cinemax, but I don’t remember much about them, other than when the janitor fell in the toxic waste. Pretty groundbreaking stuff.  Did it wind up being a good experience:

It was a great, extremely poorly paid experience.  Just like the one I had a on a Chinese arthouse picture called FAREWELL CHINA.  We got to our last exterior set in a park in Chinatown at the end of the shoot and there were police barricades up.  We didn’t know why.  What we didn’t realize was that Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung were huge movie stars and thousands of agitated old Chinese ladies showed up a few hours later to scream at them.  What a trip.  I had no idea who the actors were but I do now.  I was a shitkicker on the picture, so one of my jobs was cleaning up this park in the middle of China Town for the shoot.  Two of the weirdest things were in those leaves:  half a pig’s head split down the middle and a live turtle – in the middle of Chinatown.  Weird.  They needed extras in the pic, too, so in one scene you can see me playing baseball in the background.

So you’re saying you’ve done some acting too then?  Wow man, you really are a renaissance man! So how the hell did you wind up moving to Australia:

So it was Duke, then Philly, then NYC and I was with my future Australian (but born in Swaziland) wife, Malla Nunn – now a fairly well-known crime novelist in the USA with two books out:  A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO DIE and LET THE DEAD LIE.  (I have to plug the reason I’m a cool MARRIED guy).  She also got nominated for the EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD last year.  She is amazing.

Nice!:

So I’m telling you about her because after living in the East Village (10th st. between first and second ave – across the street from the original location of the Second Avenue Deli) we decided to visit Oz (Australia) because she hadn’t seen her family in 5 years.  We trekked through Southeast Asia for two months and landed in Perth on Xmas day, 1989.  We’d let everything in NyC go – and the longer I stayed in Oz, the fewer reasons there were to go back. And Malla had told me that the secret to being an expat was to not live like one – whatever it is you wanna do – just do it right then and there and don’t put it off. So I did.

That’s incredible.  More so because I just had to Google the word “Expat.”  So how’d you get your feet wet in Oz?

We made short films and wrote screenplays.  I worked as a cameraman at the country horse races until I kinda wormed my way into the local film scene. I had produced two pix written and directed by Malla and then got a good job at the Film and Tv institute helping young filmmakers.  I got into the Australian Film TV and Radio School after about 3 years in Perth and made the move to sydney to attend a one-year producing program.  I’ve now lived in Sydney longer than any single place in my whole life. Since I graduated from there, I’ve worked on movies, been an executive, produced a few pix which is, or was until recently, my main game.  After film school, I started working on a US studio pic shot in Queensland in the jungle near the great barrier reef called THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU and then worked on others.

Totally saw that in the theater in high school, and again, remember almost nothing about it other than the fact that Brando was in it, and creeped me the hell out.  Now I know that one doesn’t just decide to be a producer, so how exactly did you get into producing movies:

My wife needed a producer for her two shorts.  I was sleeping next to her  so I got asked.  I’ve always been a good organizer.  I’ve also learned through my experiences with her (I also help her by doing a little editing on her books) that yes, I am a creative person, but that i am also an effective creative collaborator.  Sometimes I am good at helping people make what they’re working on a little better. I know that’s true in the case of THE LOVED ONES and also of my first pic, AUSTRALIAN RULES.   Producing was a thread I started to pull when Malla asked me, and I’m still pulling that string.  I think I’d rather be a rock or porn star, but those things haven’t worked out for me.

Well, fortunately for you the other two career paths are probably a little less conducive to a marriage.  Do you have a day job at all at this point or are you fortunate enough to do what you love all day everyday:

My day job is in movies and tv drama – it’s great.  And producing is part of that same world.  I make a living in movies and I am seriously grateful that I have supported a family in film since the early 90′s. It’s a great privilege, and at times, a great pain in my butt.  but I am not bored and I use my higher brain functions. I also get to go to cool parties and work with amazingly smart and creative people.  And in producing, there are occasionally moments of pure ecstasy at work… I feel privileged to have experienced that.

So how long have you been married:
I’ve been married to Malla for 12 years, but we have been together for 23 years. Which is a miracle in 2010.  Seriously.

Yeah absolutely! How do you think marriage has changed you or your state of mind:

Calm.  Support.  Love.  Both to be loved and to have someone to love. The human task – the ultimate human task, whether it’s with a wife or children or whatever.  I have a supportive wife who makes me a better person by making me want to aspire to be more (careerwise, man-wise) and she is nurturing.  Also, I think I was an angry young man, and she taught me that wouldn’t fly.  So it doesn’t much anymore.

What do you think is particularly cool about marriage:

Marriage is cool because you always have a date. On cold nights there is extra heat in the bed.  No one should go through life alone – it’s much better with a partner.  Laughter (there better be some because life is hard).  Love.  Sharing moments completely with another human being.  The moment we got the call that Malla’s first book had 4 offers for North America and it was now going to go to auction, on her BIRTHDAY, I did something I’d never done before: I danced spontaneously.  I actually did a jig.  I didn’t know people actually did that in real life.

I’ll have to take your word for it.  You have 2 kids right:

Yes. Elijah, 11 and Sisana, she’s 9.

How has fatherhood changed you:

Lawdy.  Raymond Carver once said that his greatest influence as a writer was his children – because without them he would have been such a better writer…. I don’t believe that, but it’s worth remembering his words when considering what a massive commitment parenthood is, if you’re going to do it properly. All that work, sleeplessness, pain…

Jesus…

It’s all totally worth it.  If you want to live in three dimensions emotionally, have a child and love it. It is the greatest adventure and gives you all that hard stuff, but also an indescribable joy.  I don’t go out as much but who cares?  I have less money, but it’s only money! And I am not religious, but I am so grateful to the higher power whatever that is for these two annoying midgets.

Haha, awesome! Tell me about The Loved Ones:

It’s a fantastic horror movie starring Xavier Samuel and Robin McLeavy.  Xavier just finished shooting ANONYMOUS for Roland Emmerich and before that he was one of the stars in TWILIGHT ECLIPSE.  Robin got back recently from playing Stella in a stage production of STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE with Cate Blanchett playing Blanche in NYC and DC.  Robin won the Helen Hayes award for her performance. I mention this because this ain’t no regular horror movie.  It has a great story, spectacular performances, great thrills and it is really entertaining on top of being scary.  I’ve seen it play in Melbourne, Sydney, Toronto, Ghana… all over the world and every audience has LOVED it.  Screaming and laughing.  It’s very gratifying to see my work received that way. It’s also played in LA, Hong Kong, Spain, Torino… all over the place.

So good reviews then I’m assuming:

The reviews have been awesome.  You should check out our website www.thelovedonesmovie.com.  Our trailer is a hit on the internet, especially for a non-studio movie.  The stats on Trailer Addict are outrageous and growing all the time.   Also, your readers can like us on Facebook.

How did you get involved:

I was producing and asked my agent buddies to send me their best horror scripts.  I got TLO and went to a doctor’s appointment and started reading and couldn’t put it down.  When they called me in to see the doctor, I looked up and all the old people in the waiting room were staring at me.  I think I was making weird noises and whispering “Get the fuck outta here!” and “Holy shit!” and stuff like that while I was reading.  I finished the script, picked up the phone and called up the agent and started the process of optioning the script.   I found out that the writer wanted to direct, but lucky for me, Sean Byrne already had a bunch of directing awards.  Later in financing, he got a horror short called ADVANTAGE in Sundance which made things even better. (check it out on Youtube).    Financing was hell.  4 years of financing.  but now we have a great picture.  I just wake up every morning wishing the global financial crisis was over.  It has deeply affected acquisition prices all over the world.

I understand it’s out in select markets now, but when can we see it in the US:

We are still working on USA distribution, but we are getting seriously close.  We’ve had many offers, we’re just working on the best one.  I hope to be able to make an announcement very soon.

And I understand it won a bunch of awards. Tell me about those:

We won the Cadillac People’s Choice Award for Midnight Madness at the Toronto International Film festival – that’s the major award it has won.  and we’ve been in a ton of festivals including South by Southwest, (SXSW) in Austin, Hong kong, Torino, Sydney, Melbourne, Sitges in Spain, Fright Fest in the UK, and many others.  Festivals love the pic because it makes for a great late night screen event.  A lot of major fests have started sidebars of late night “out there” films.

Do you ever think you’ll move back to the states or are you a full-on Aussie now:

I want to live in the USA again.  I want to spend time with my friends and family, not rushed quick trips, but a long time. I want to get back to nyc for a while.  I was there recently and felt those sidewalks under my feet and it was sweet. I love New York City.  I love the Bay Area. and after all, I’m an American. I miss it.

Do you have any other projects you’re working on now, or is it just The Loved Ones full blast:

The Loved Ones will wind down.  I’m enjoying my job and I think someday I’ll go back to producing.  At the moment though, I’m too stretched to think about another 4 years of financing hell!

If people wanted to follow you, your production company, or The Loved Ones where can they go:

www.thelovedonesmovie.com, our facebook page, and at my job  www.screenaustralia.gov.au (although I’m not sure how exciting a government website actually is…)