The Mysterious Man

Inspiration always seems to hit at the most ungodly hour... here it is late on a night before work and I realize that writing about the film does not have to just be about each day we shot, but could also be about the characters George created. I will begin with The Mysterious Man (Jesus/Dracula)... all the guys who showed up at our auditions wanted to read for this part. So who is this guy? Let's talk.

If you were immortal... the only one on the planet, how would you handle that? What would you do with your time? Would you be the average caveman, chasing down the beasts of the day for food and procreating as necessary? Would you have become one of the clergy, in the days when only the clergy could read or write? Would you be a patron of the arts? Would write symphonies and learn how to play every instrument that existed because you have the time? Or would you watch from time immemorial and then step out into the fray and tell stories about what you had learned in parable form? Would you allow a band of followers to declare you the messiah... when you knew them to be incorrect, just to get your ideas out there? Would you be hurt and injured on a soul level when humanity tried to kill you for your ideas or would you turn the other cheek... as you had advised them to do, so many times? Would you seek revenge by becoming a "vampire"? The do exists you know... they drain you of spirit and energy (what is blood really when it comes right down to this metaphor we live?).

Jesus/Dracula has been drunk since they killed Martin Luther King. And then he met Eli. A kid in a parking lot. A kid who looked lonely. A kid who probably needed to meet someone like this guy and because of that talked to him in a way no one had in years. Or maybe he was just being a kid... open and interested, polite and straightforward. Imagine being the only immortal man and meeting a child again after years of sloshing in your own vitriol. Imagine how refreshing a kid's perspective could be... when you are ancient and a kid is innocent.

J/D in my mind... is the man we never want to have to be in this limited life. He is stuck in physicality, but infinite in time. That would be torture, never being able to forget or leave tings behind. No wonder he is so embittered and at the same time, so willing to listen. He wants what we all seek really, I think. Honesty, authenticity, generosity, kindness and maybe even love.

Yeah. George... it is all love. Eli and the Mysterious Man are seeking the same answers. Why do people hurt one another? Why can't they just all get along? Why can't they see the infinite connections?

Our Mysterious Man brought all of his dedication to this role. He dieted to look gaunt. He ate miso soup for months. He froze his ass off during our Hannaford parking lot shoot. He stopped a police car on Congress street the day we shot his last scene when he rises from a gutter covered in his own blood. Nick embodied J/D the whole time he played the role and all the time in between... He endured cold and beard issues and the now famous "blood bowl".

The Mysterious Man... Jesus/Dracula... no one wants to be him and yet everyone wanted to play him. How intriguing.