CREATURES OF HABIT (2024)

A reporter going over his work in a bar is joined at his table by a stranger who seems to know too much about him.

Much too short  short needs desperately to be expanded. Running only six minutes this is a creepy film that is a great presentment of a moment of time but leaves way too many questions to be fully satisfying. Make no mistake this is a great film, but the lack of a definite anything makes it feel like a proof of concept film rather than a full formed film.

Highly recommended none the less the film will make you hope this is expanded into a feature.

Live Health (2021)

Timothy Cox and his wife  have codirected and written one hell of a short film. The film is a day in the life of a therapist  working remotely with his patients. It will move you.

As much as I don’t like computer screen films, the Coxes have made a film where it adds to the film. This is a film about among other things isolation and the use of the people on screens trying to connect is key to the film working – not so much for the people who are unloading on therapist Cox but for how we see Cox himself. He is isolated from the world. We see life outside of his window and we see the people talking to him but we don’t see his connections to the world except via the screen.

The most amazing thing here are the performances. The Coxes have assembled a stellar cast of patients who bleed on screen. Its painful to watch some of their stories. They are all so good that I can’t believe they aren’t actual patients spilling their pain for the camera. And holding it all together is Timothy Cox, giving one of his best performances. A pretty much wordless performance we watch as he sits and listens to his patients. In a stunningly modulated performance Cox slowly gets worn down as he takes on the pain of the world upon himself. It’s a gloriously subtle performance  that reveals just how good Cox is. Why isn’t he getting the big roles in Hollywood?

LIVE HEALTH  is a stunner and a must see.

PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR: AN AMERICAN POET (2021)

Small chamber film about the meeting of poet Dunbar and the mayor of a town where he is to speak. The mayor is hesitant  to let Dunbar speak fearing that Dunbar’s activist side would cause a stir.

A mannered film  about a moment in time the film springs to life when a raging Dunbar recites I Know Why The Cage Bird Sings and the hairs on your arms stand up in as an electric moment as you will see all year. It’s a stunning performance that should put A. Slate on everyone’s list of go to performers, not to mention  into awards consideration, but the aversion of most people to seeing short films may keep this happen.

Still if you are reading Unseen Films you can track the film down and see this small gem of a film and the moment where it captures lightning in a bottle.

Talking With Timothy Cox About Acting Part 2

The many faces of Timothy Cox- Actor

This is the second part of my talk with the great Timothy Cox from last December. (If you haven't read Part One go here)

Here our discussion shifts away from the stage and focuses more on working in film.

As this part concludes I want to again than Tim for taking the time to speak with me  and for his patience in the long road it took to  getting this interview up.

Tim: All I've ever wanted to be is a working actor. If I could leave here and go rehearse a play, perform a play, go to a film set, that's heaven.

To be a working actor, I think that's what most actors really want.

And you have to stick with it. Nothing is going to happen overnight. You have to stick with it and you have to be relentless.

And most importantly, it has to be about the work. Whether it's a web series or a film or a play...work is work.

Steve: You’ve made well over 125 films. I know you've produced some of them, you've written some of them. You haven't directed anything. Why don't you direct?

Tim: I'd be terrible at it. I directed a one‑act play in college and it wasn’t the right fit for me. It’s not where I belong. I also don't have the patience and the temperament to be a director. I marvel at the patience of many of the directors that I have worked with in the theater and on film.

Steve: There's a friend of mine who does short films. He's trying to get some features stuff done. But he'll act in some of his films. But he's got it like in his head, and he's like you do this and this... And I’m like, "How do you do that?" He knows what he wants.

Tim: Sean Meehan, who I've worked with many times since 2010 does the same thing. He edits the film in his head as he goes. He knows exactly what he wants, goes in, gets it, and moves on.

Steve: How do these projects come to you? As I said, you’ve produced some. You've written some. How, you know, does people just come to you say, "I want you to do this," or how do you...

Tim: Most of the time, it’s hitting the pavement, every day, and auditioning. There are times though, like in the case of Total Performance where Sean sent me the script to read, as he had a part in mind for me. I read the script, loved it. I thought it was so unique and different. I read the part of Walter and I told Sean that I clicked with that character and he said, "That's the part I wrote for you." It’s just a tiny part, but the character jumped out to me when I was reading the script.

And from a producing standpoint, I assisted with auditions as did my wife Jamie.

I first collaborated with Ross and Matthew Mahler on a 48‑hour film project called Dark Romance and we developed a really good working relationship. When Matt was putting both To Be Alone and What Jack Built together, he sent me the scripts and I jumped on board of both right away and I’m glad I did as they are two films that I am incredibly proud to be a part of.

Steve: That was something I wanted to ask you about, in light of What Jack Built and, and To Be Alone... where Michael Caine said that you can make any performance real, but you have to get it in your eyes. You have to look like you're there.

And, it's like that's what you have when we watch some of the films. It's like you're there. You're occupied. You see the character's occupying you. You're not just, "Well, I'm walking through this." You know it's not just a paycheck job or whatever, you know?

Tim: It’s all about immersing yourself in the script and into the character. It’s about going to those places that force you to challenge yourself...mentally, physically and emotionally.

With To Be Alone, it came at a time not long after my brother Kevin had passed away. Like the character of William in the film, my own faith, my own doubts about religion were challenged after Kevin’s passing. You see this man crumbling under the weight of his doubt. It was therapeutic to play that at that time.

Steve: How long does it take to shoot a film like that?

Tim: We shot that over two days. Matt moves fast, because he knows what he wants. Like Sean, he goes in, gets it and moves on.

Steve: You're one of the biggest advocates for short films that I've run across.

Tim: Yeah.

Steve: I mean, I know you're in a lot of them. But not all. How did you become such an advocate for all these films?

Tim: I think it's my relentless nature. If I've done a film, and it gets put out on YouTube and Vimeo and if it's something I'm proud of, I want to get it out there. That’s the purpose in sending the film to critics. Getting it seen. If they like the film, great. If they don't like it, that's fine, too. But getting the film seen, that’s what is most important.

Talking With Timothy Cox About Acting Part 1

This is the first part interview I did with actor Timothy J. Cox.

Tim has worked in theater, TV, and film. He has 125 credits on IMDB — and the number is growing. He's a great actor and a wicked comedian. He's both written and produced films, and is a champion of indie films of all kinds.

I first ran across Tim when he started to send me short films to review. Emails were exchanged where we talked about all sort of things until I finally said "Why don't just we get together and just talk about what you've done?" He — insanely — said yes.

The interview took place in December 2018 at the Westway Diner on 9th Avenue in Manhattan, and it ran over two hours. Tim and I discussed theater, film and the life of a working actor.

In this first part of the interview, Tim and I talk about Yasmina Reza’s play Art. It may sound like a strange place to begin an interview by a film actor, but Tim had just finished doing the play at the San Luis Obispo Repertory Theatre. I'm a fan of the play (I saw it four times, each time they changed the cast on Broadway) and I wanted to know what it was like doing the play.

The play concerns three friends and what happens when one of them buys a piece of art, a huge white canvas, without checking with his friends. Pointed and very funny it highlights the friendship dynamics we probably don’t want to admit are operating in our relationships. The play also contains an infamous long monologue that never seems to end in which Yvan has a breakdown about wedding invitations. It’s very funny, very sad, and never fails to elicit an audience reaction.

Timothy Cox in Art (photo taken by Ryan C. Loyd Of Rylo Media Design)

Tim: When I first moved to New York in 2001, I was exclusively a theater actor. This is the kind of actor that I thought I was going to be; doing Shakespeare, Feydeau, Chekhov, etc. This was heaven for me as at the time all I ever wanted to be was a good supporting actor in the theater. That was the extent of my ambitions. And that's what I did for about the first nine years of living in the city. I worked in and around the city, especially down in the West Village at the 13th Street Repertory Theatre. I learned a lot working at that theater.

And then in 2010, more film work started coming my way and ever since, I have only occasionally returned to the theater but after the productions of both Rounding Third [by Richard Dresser] and Art [by Yasmina Reza] over the last two years at the San Luis Obispo Repertory Theatre, which were very enjoyable and successful, my love of acting in the theater has been reignited. I've been reading plays again, watching plays again, falling in love with the theater again and it’s been great.

Steve: I've gotta ask you. You played Yvan in Art?

Tim: Yeah.

Steve: So you have that long monologue? How did you handle that?

Tim: Luckily, I had about seven months to prepare the role of Yvan. Thank God. As soon as I got the green light on the production, I remember grabbing that script, looking at it and thinking, “Oh, shit... I'm really in it now. There’s no going back”. I just drilled the play...over and over again... just about every day for all of those months, but I saved the monologue for last, because I knew that that monologue was going to be the most difficult part. I affectionately referred to it as "The Beast."

I drilled that monologue over and over and over again for the last 2 months before we started rehearsals; trying to lay some ground work.When I got into rehearsals with director, Kevin Dale Harris [Artistic Director of The San Luis Obispo Repertory Theatre], he knew the way to approach it and that immediately put me at ease. He helped me find the beats, the rhythm, the music. As soon as I found those beats and that rhythm, I was able to play around with it and that’s when everything in that monologue and that character clicked. It took a lot of practice and focus and every time I went on stage to play the part and that monologue, I found something fresh and new every time I did it. It helps that it’s so incredibly well written and constructed, like a piece of music, but like a musical piece, you had to have all of the notes in place. If I left out one word, the whole thing would fall apart.

Kevin would often say, "Find moments where there are peaks and valleys in the speech...like when you tell a story to a group of friends at a party...because if it’s just you screaming for 5 minutes like a maniac, the audience won’t be engaged.”

Steve: I saw it with every cast on Broadway when they changed, every time the audience would just be sitting there, and you would get this beat of like stunned silence.

Tim: Yeah. I got that after the speech very often. I loved the silence. The speech is very funny, but it’s also a breakdown. He’s falling apart at the seams. This man, Yvan, cannot handle what’s coming his way...marriage, responsibility, having to grow up...and he’s cracking under the pressure.

Every once in a while, I would hear from the audience, "Oh man, this poor bastard." And that was the best. Nothing beats that kind of a reaction from an audience. Because there’s relatability; they relate to this man’s turmoil.

Steve: Zoë Wanamaker said, when she was doing Medea, "I wish you could do it once or twice a week because I'm right where I want to be at twice a week. I'm okay twice a week, and then the rest of the time I'm not. But nobody in the audience is ever aware.

Tim: True. Many times it is your training and your technique that guide you through a performance.

Steve: How did it come together?

Tim: When Travis [actor Travis Mitchell] Larry [actor/director Lawrence Lesher] and I did Rounding Third the previous year, it was going very well and Kevin decided that he wanted to have us back. He said, "OK, guys, what do you want to do?"

And without hesitation... we said Art. We knew it was going to be challenging, but Larry, Travis and I are at that age where we want to do the stuff that scares us. A couple of months later, we got the official word from Kevin that Art was a go and everyone jumped in.

Steve: How long did you do it?

Tim: Three weeks. Eighteen performances. It was tough; emotionally draining, just because of where this character went. It was fun, but it was also painful. Cathartic even. It took me about two weeks to shake the play and the character out of my system as Yvan hit close to home for me. Yvan is a man alone; a man who is floundering through life. I was very moved by him. He was very familiar to me. Yvan is who I would have become if I hadn't met my wife, Jamie [Tim has been married to his wife Jamie since 2013].

You want roles that scare you, roles where you have to dig deep and say to yourself, "Oh, I have more in common with this character than I would probably care to admit."

But then you really have to dig in and be willing to show everything, warts and all.

The character of Michael in Rounding Third required this kind of emotional commitment as well. An excellent play by Richard Dresser.

I don't know if you know the play?

Steve: I know the name, but I don't really...

Tim: It was a play that ran Off-Broadway, I believe, about 15 years ago. Richard Dresser wrote this really sweet, funny play. One could argue that it's The Odd Couple on a baseball diamond. When I first read it, that's what I thought. And then I read it again and again and I thought, "Oh, wow...there's more to this."

Travis played the coach of a little league baseball team, Don, who was the All-American athlete with the “winning is everything” mentality. And then I played his assistant coach, Michael, who basically knows nothing about baseball. He’s doing this to bond with his stepson. And his thinking is, “As long as everybody has fun." And of course that doesn’t sit well with Travis’ character so we are at odds, really, from the first moment we meet. It’s very funny, but then Dresser surprises you with these very real and honest moments that were a real punch in the gut to play.

Like Art, it was challenging, but the challenges are what made both productions so memorable.

Steve: So what's the next challenge you're going to do next year?

Tim: I don't know. Of course, I want a crack at the heavy roles, like the Willy Lomans, but at 42, I am still too young to even think about climbing that mountain.

You have to be patient as an actor. Patience is part of the journey.

Part 2 of my talk with the great Timothy Cox can be found here.