Colin Hanks on Lucky, Kickstarting His Tower Records Doc, and Supporting Chet Haze

Did you do much research into the actual love lives of serial killers for the role?

No, not at all. Really for me, my main concern was that we were clear on what kind of movie we were making, trying to focus on being funny and playing the awkwardness of all of those moments. I didn't even think much about him being a serial killer, but it ended up being something I didn't want to focus on. I think sometimes actors really shouldn't judge their characters, because it ends up affecting their performance. So I didn't want to judge Ben, I wanted to make sure it was just part of who he was.

In terms of your career trajectory and the way you've chosen roles over the years, do you feel you've taken any notes, one way or another, from seeing how your father's career developed?

I don't necessarily really compare with him. The only way in which I compare with him is really in the state of the industry when he was starting out versus when I was starting out. When he was starting out there were only three channels of TV; when I started out there were 500. When he started out he was a little bit older; when I started out I was doing high school shows. So I don't really look so much at his career, but I look at the careers of other actors that I find to be sort of inspiring in the wider scope of things, in the long journey. I look at actors like Bryan Cranston, who has worked tirelessly for years and years and years doing all sorts of different things and has now, rightly so, come into prominence for Breaking Bad -- a show in which he is absolutely brilliant. If you had said at the height of Malcolm in the Middle that the dad was going to be playing this conflicted crystal meth maker, you would have been laughed off the road. As an actor who has been acting for over 10 years, it's good to know that you can work that long and it'll still continue to get better. Everything that my dad did, that doesn't happen to everybody. That's rarified air.

Switching gears a bit, you announced that you were making a documentary about Tower Records; where did the passion about this subject originate for you?

I grew up in Sacramento, California -- a lot of people are convinced I grew up in L.A., but that's not the case -- and Tower Records was founded and based out of Sacramento. So growing up it was a great source of civic pride that a large, worldwide record retailer was based out of Sacramento. And the history of the company, I thought, was very interesting; I had a personal relationship with Tower Records because I bought a bunch of records there as a kid, I bought my concert tickets there, it was a place to hang out and being a huge music fan that was one of the places that you went to.

But the history of Tower I found to be fascinating -- the way that it started was Russ Solomon selling used records out of his father's drug store in the '30s and '40s, and it turned into a worldwide behemoth. That doesn't happen very often! When I first started the documentary it was about two years after Tower had gone under, and it was very sad when Tower closed its doors... so once I decided to make the documentary I reached out to Russ Solomon, the founder, and he introduced us to a lot of the people who were instrumental in Tower and I realized that these are incredible people who worked at Tower Records and had great stories... over a hundred thousand people -- and those are just the people who worked at Tower Records -- have a connection to this place. So I felt like there was an audience for this film, not only the people who worked and shopped at Tower but music fans, and it struck me as a great story to tell.

But once you got the concept in place, funding was the next difficult step.

It just so happened that when I was trying to raise funds for it was right when the economy collapsed, and other companies started going out of business, like, almost, General Motors. So I went out trying to finance a documentary about a bankrupt company right when the whole country was going bankrupt. I couldn't really find any takers in terms of people donating money to make the movie, so it sat around for a while and eventually I discovered Kickstarter and said, you know, I might be able to not only find my audience for the film but get them involved, an in a way, sort of create the same sort of vibe Tower had. Give people a sense of ownership in the store, make it their movie. That's what we've been able to do with Kickstarter and it's been really exciting.

That's the great benefit of Kickstarter for independent filmmakers, that it allows them to finance projects by going directly to the community for help. But some might ask why a celebrity like yourself might need to ask financial help of their audience to fund a project. What's your response to that?

Well, Steven Spielberg doesn't make movies with his money -- he has other people to give money to him to make movies. And I tried doing that; I tried going out and fundraising the normal way, I took meetings, I did those kinds of things, and I couldn't get anyone interested enough. I couldn't get anyone to back the movie, for a number of reasons. So for me, Kickstarter was sort of a last-ditch effort to try and raise money so I could tell this story. I understand people being confused, but I don't have the money laying around to make this movie. I've got a wife and a kid, I've got to work. So I don't have money to spare on things like that. I'm only asking people to give what they're comfortable giving, and I only ask them to if they really want to. If they don't want to, they don't have to, I understand. But it's a chance to be involved in something special, and the people that worked at Tower Records that have that bond with the store feel the same way -- they want to see the movie made, and they believe that we'll be able to tell the story in the best way we can.

I take that very seriously, and I don't take it lightly that people have backed our film. It's a great privilege and a great honor, and comes with a lot of responsibility. I look forward to involving them and making the best movie that I can. It was the only way that I could make the movie, and if that's the way it needed to be, that's the way it needed to be. And in a strange way, it was destined to be this way because now we're in contact with people it would have taken years to get. Now, we have people that are in positions of power that have money to finance films reaching out to us, saying, "How can we get involved?"

So the Kickstarter campaign helped raise awareness of the project to the point that you've gotten financiers?

Yes -- and distributors. So, in a strange way, we are a bit of an experiment but we are a new way of making movies.

How much of your initial goal have you achieved?

We achieved our goal! We're just trying to raise more money on top, because the more money we make means the better movie we can make. And we're just trying to come up with cool incentives for people. We're making DVDs, we're making t-shirts, we're going to be pressing our own records. So we're trying to make it as fun and exciting as we can to include people. It's not like I'm just trying to make a movie to scratch a dramatic itch here. Not a lot of people try to make documentary movies.

The success of Michael Rapaport's Beats, Rhymes & Life is a good example of that working out in the best way.

Which I cannot wait to see! I'm so excited to see that movie and so relieved that movie got theatrical distribution, I think that's great.

Do you feel like it paves the way for you, in a way?

I feel like any time a documentary film gets released in a theater, it's a good thing. For me, more than anything, I'm excited about that movie because I'm a big Tribe Called Quest fan, so I want to see that movie. I think the interesting thing with documentaries is that you can learn about something that you're already interested in, or you can learn about something completely new. And I really like that aspect of documentary film. I'm interested more in documentary film than narrative film, some of the time. So it's exciting for me creatively, and exciting and stimulating as a creative person. I'm really excited about the opportunities that we have and the doors that have opened up, and I'm looking forward to finishing the Tower story and then who knows what's going to come up later?

Speaking of music, Chet Haze announced on Twitter that he was shooting his latest music video, so I'm curious: How involved might you be in his future endeavors?

As all young 20-year-olds are, they do everything on their own and they don't need any help! [Laughs] I'm very proud of Chet and very proud that he is as passionate as he is about his music as I am about film, and I support him a hundred percent. He's trying to make a name for himself, and he's trying very hard at it, and he cares about it and has a passion for it, and I support that a hundred percent.

The whole family shares that love of music, it seems!

Yes! Well, each sibling is different in their own way.

Pages: 1 2