M Hello Wiley. How are you doing?
W Tired from trying to find work and promoting Waking Life. I'm back home in Austin and I think I'll probably stay here for a while. I've been in LA and NYC for the past year and a half and it's been emotionally draining.
M Are you glad to be back home?
W Well, I have a strong foundation in Austin and in the Austin film community. I have a lot of loving friends and sharp collaborators here. It will be interesting to see if Waking Life helps get me any acting work but I would be just as happy if it would help me find funding for other projects, like the Zellner Brothers next film or a stop motion short I'm thinking about. I'm also trying to get some space to finish working on my first novel and get literary representation. For anybody interested I've put the first section up on my website www.wileywiggins.com/island.html.
M After the terrorist attacks, how had things changed around you in New York City prior to your going home?
W There is definitely a bad feeling in the air. There is a lot of patriotic rhetoric which is probably comforting to some people but it kind of seems cosmetic to me...it barely covers up all the anxiety and grief in the city. I'll probably return to New York, but not until I'm back on my feet financially and can also deal with it emotionally.
M What were you doing when you heard about it? What is your take on the state of things? (the morale of the city and the "The Kindness of New Yorkers," as the news has been labeling it?)W I was in Toronto for the Toronto Film festival when it happened. I came back in a van with some people a few days later. I think New Yorkers are dealing with it all pretty hero-ically, but still, like I said, it's a mess and I think it's so big that not many people have been able to wrap their brains around it just yet.
M Before your brief stint in NYC, you were a Los Angeles resident. What did you like about LA?
W I lived in LA for a year, on Rampart, near Wilshire. My LA likes are The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, Meltdown Comics and In and Out Burgers.
M Have you done theater Los Angeles, NYC or Austin for that matter?
W No, I've never been a big theater person. I don't like having to project, and I don't like most plays anyway. I'm a film person. I like to create an object out of time, y'know...freeze it. Always be able to replay it and remember how I felt when it happened.
M Many of us have seen you in films like Boys with Lukas Haas and Winona Ryder and Dazed and Confused in the early to mid-nineties. You were a teen back then. How would you say you've changed professionally since those films? On a more personal level?
W I guess I'm a little more cautious and nervous about the whole thing. I'm wanting more and more
to be a part of a creative group and stay out of the spotlight. Personally, I can't say how much I've changed. I don't have perspective.
M Tell us about your new film Waking Life. What makes this movie very different from anything you have done before? How long did it take to make?
W Around two years from filming to animation. It's a very collaborative project with lots of people (actors and non-actors) performing and a lot of very diverse artists contributing animation and ideas. It was a lot of fun. We shot the movie in low end digital video with a crew of like 5 or 6 and then animated over it on the computer. The animation was very time and labor intensive and was done with proprietary software programmed by our art director Bob Sabiston, who also did a lot of the animation himself. I had a dual role as an actor and an animator. From the acting perspective it was interesting because I'm silent for the first half of the movie,
kind of an ever present piece of scenery. I don't have a lot of ambition or ego about acting so that actually appealed to me a lot. It was a cool relationship to have with the animators since I'm communicating totally visually with my performance and they are enhancing it and in a way performing with me. It was a blast. I really enjoyed doing animation myself as well. I'm looking forward to continuing with it.
M How is the dynamic of working with co-stars different in Waking Life than in a live film?
W Well, essentially it was a live film, since it was filmed as a normal movie first and all the animation came after the movie was shot and edited. The real difference was in working with a lot of non actors and a very loose framework. We shot huge reams of material in a single day sometimes. It was great. I preferred it to the politics and posturing on most normal movie sets.
M You are a very talented writer from the short stories I've seen on your site. How long have you been writing? What is your genre of choice? (sci-fi, mystery, drama, comedy, or a fusion of them all?) Your inspiration for writing?
W I've been dabbling with writing for as long as I can remember actively reading. My biggest influences are Jim Woodring, Samuel R Delaney, Haruki Murakami, Peter Carey, Nathaniel West, Richard Brautigan, Frank Herbert, William Burroughs and Phillip K. Dick. I like a lot of Sci-Fi and I would consider the narrative-based stuff I do Sci-Fi but I guess a lot of other people wouldn't. It's not for everybody, but it keeps me from losing my mind.
M You are also an artist of sorts. What mediums do you prefer to work with? Any current art projects you're working on? Any that you are particularly proud of?
W I'm a pretty mediocre visual artist. I do a lot of Photoshop work and I dabble in painting. A company called Puzzle Design is having a gallery show of Waking Life artists work on November 8th that will have some of my pieces in it. I don't have all the details of where etc. yet though.
M What do you do for fun?
W Write, watch movies, listen to music, cook.
M Are you currently working on any films?
W I have a digital movie called Frontier www.frontiermovie.com that is still playing festivals. Other than that, the next projects will probably be a ways off since they're just in the development stage. I haven't taken any parts in other people's movies lately but I suppose I might do that if there is any interest.
M What do you hope to accomplish in say the next five years? Ten?
W I'd like to have a roof over my head and food to eat and not have to work in an office. I'd like to sell a novel.
M Any parting message to the Hollywood hopefuls, aspiring artists or writers out there?
W Good luck, keep your day job. They're out to get you.
M Well, good luck, Wiley, on all of your forthcoming adventures. You have a lot of talent and that should take you far in life!
W Or I will die penniless and insane.