INTERVIEW: In ‘The Mimic,’ there are serious questions about the man next door
Photo: The Mimic stars, from left, Jake Robinson and Thomas Sadoski. Photo courtesy of Gravitas Ventures / Provided by press site with permission.
The Mimic, the new comedy from writer-director Thomas F. Mazziotti, features a slew of theater actors having fun with a unique plot line that is actually inspired by true events. Thomas Sadoski plays the Narrator, a man who has many suspicions about his new neighbor, known as the Kid (Jake Robinson). The two prove inseparable because there’s obsession of many kinds on either side of their unique relationship. The Narrator wants confirmation of the Kid’s sociopathy, while the Kid seems like he just wants to be friends.
Rounding out the cast are Austin Pendleton, Gina Gershon, Marilu Henner, Tammy Blanchard and Didi Conn, among others. The Mimic, from Gravitas Ventures, is now screening in select theaters and on VOD.
“The early days, you don’t know what’s happening until after it happens, and then I pieced the whole thing together,” Mazziotti said about the screenwriting process. “So I didn’t write it while it was happening because I had no idea it was happening, so after it happened, I put it all together. And I said, ‘This is really interesting because I’ve never encountered a person like this before.’ So it took me about two years to get it into a form where I think the average person could understand it, who wasn’t there at the time. The opening, the first five minutes, is verbatim. That’s exactly how it happened, and then I wrote out from there.”
Robinson said he signed up for the role because he had never read anything quite like The Mimic, and when he reads a story that is wholly unique and individual, he gets excited for the project. “I got recruited by a casting director to do a live reading of it that was very early on in the stages of the process, and Thomas and I just hit it off,” Robinson said. “He felt like I was the right guy. For whatever reason, I was giving off a serious sociopath side, and he felt like I was right for it. We got along really well, and the rest is history.”
Mazziotti said he enjoyed the experience of working with a cast that had serious theater credibility. The writer-director said the dialogue came easy to the ensemble. “And they like long takes,” he said. “They’re used to doing things like that, so it was a real joy. They all came together, and they picked it up as they do on stage. They went for it. Really no problems.”
To prepare for the role, Robinson read a few books about sociopaths. Antisocial personality disorder, sometimes known as sociopathy, is a mental disorder in which a person shows no regard for right and wrong, according to the Mayo Clinic. What Robinson found interesting about the role is the character’s likability on the page, even though he’s a big source of frustration for the Narrator.
“I was like I want to try to make this guy as true to being a sociopath as possible but still somehow charming to the audience members watching him, so it was a lot of reading and then preparation and repetition,” Robinson said. “And I had an incredible cast around me and incredible scene partner in Thomas Sadoski, who is just so game to jump into this wacky world. Everyone just shone in their individual roles, which made my job infinitely easier and just made it a joy to work on.”
The movie was slowed down a bit because of the pandemic. They were able to get the filming in before the world hit the pause button, but the post-production had to change its schedule. Mazziotti said the movie is now being released approximately one year after its hopeful release date. The actual production took only 18 days, with one day seeing the cast and crew shoot 14 pages. So it was a breakneck pace.
“We finished on time and on budget,” the director said. “They all started on stage, and they all graduated to film. So they’re very aware of the camera angles and what I was trying to get across. The script is very specific, so the way they’re dressed, the sets, everything was written into the script, so nothing was left to chance.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Mimic, written and directed by Thomas F. Mazziotti, and starring Thomas Sadoski and Jake Robinson, is now playing in select theaters and on VOD. Click here for more information.
