As part of the 25 Days of Sine Fine Films extravaganza leading up the 25th Anniversary I have decided to write a series of posts celebrating the 25 actors who have been the most dedicated by participating in the most productions.
Actor of the Day: Chris Hutchens
Chris was a part of the company right from the beginning when we filmed Destiny in the summer of 1996. He has participated in 11 productions as cast and/or crew.
I met Chris during grade school (we went to a school that was elementary and middle school combined). Although he was two grades behind me we were both in a theater production at school that my father directed called St. George and the Dragon in December of 1992. He played the Turkish Knight and I played the Dragon. I didn't see him again, or honestly really think about him, until the summer of 1996.
I had written Destiny and arranged for the first day of filming, but the original actor I cast quit at the last minute. It was a day before the shoot and I called every guy I could think of who might be willing or able to do it. No luck. I even resorted to asking random strangers in the hallways at high school if they wanted to be in a movie and for obvious reasons they all said no. My father suggested people who had been in plays with me - I'd been down that road but he said there were some people I hadn't considered. What about Chris who was in St. George and the Dragon with you?
I was worried because he had been kind of small and young and I wasn't sure he could pull off being a heroic prince and male lead. My father reminded me that was four years ago and funny thing about kids is that they grow up. My dad is always right. I was so desperate that I looked up the contact info and gave Chris a call. I will never forget that call. A man with a deep voice answered and I asked to speak to Chris. He said he was Chris and I asked to speak to his son Chris. He said he was the only Chris in the house and I was like "holy crap his voice got low!" I told him the situation, about the part, and asked if he wanted to do it and he said yes.
I asked where he lived so I could drop off the script. He said he lived just down the street and he would walk over and get it right away. I wasn't sure what to expect but in my mind of course he still looked like the little 6th grader. The deeper voice should have clued me into the how much he had changed but I'm kind of dense at times. When I opened the door I was shocked to see a guy taller than me who looked completely different because OF COURSE HE DID! He took the script and I tried badly to cover my surprise and we agreed to meet the next day to film. He was the 12th guy I asked to play the part which made him the 12th Ketlan.
The first day of filming was great, he did a wonderful job in the role and got along well with everyone. Throughout the summer I was impressed with his ability and was so happy to see him seamlessly integrate with the rest of my friends group to the point where he became a part of almost everything we did. I cannot say enough how grateful I am that he accepted the role and how happy I am to know him and film with him all these years.
In the winter of 1996 I began to film the prequel to Destiny, the obviously named Destiny II. The set up of the film was that Esteban tells the story of his past to Ketlan. I asked Chris to reprise his role, which he obviously agreed to, and luckily there was only one day of filming for him so it was really easy. Easy and fun.
Destiny III was inevitable and we filmed in the summer of 1997. There were a lot of hot days, long shoots, and probably mosquitoes, but overall it was a lot of fun and Chris did an even better job as Ketlan then he did before. When I picture Ketlan in my head he always resembles Chris. There wasn't a big part for him in The Dragon & The Unicorn which makes sense since three of the four main characters were female. However, when I needed someone to play a newscaster Chris agreed to throw on a suit, sit in front of a wall, and seriously talk about a fictional plane crash.
While filming The Dragon & The Unicorn I was also taking a class at Parkland College in studio production. For my final project I did an the scene from Trojan Women where Menelaus and Hecuba confront Helen of Troy. I asked Chris if he would be willing to play Menelaus. He agreed and did a great job, although it was strange to film a whole scene start to finish with lines that actually had to be memorized.
The King of Elflin's Daughter was the next movie I did, although it was produced simultaneously with The Perfect Combination. I cast Chris as Hill, one of the minstrels in The King of Eflin's Daughter because he had the right look and because I think I knew that he could play the guitar so he would be able to fake it really well. Or maybe I learned that on the set and it was just a happy coincidence.
Filming for the The King of Elflin's Daughter was pretty brutal at times. The first day of filming was really really cold. The actors had to wear their costumes over clothes to keep warm because they couldn't wear coats. I'm such a sadist. There were also several filming days for the minstrels where it was raining most of the time. It wasn't a downpour most of the time, but a steady sprinkle that doesn't seem so bad at first but over time you get just as soaked. Hopefully he didn't catch pneumonia from that.
In The Perfect Combination, also filmed in spring and summer of 1998, he played one of the lead characters. Raymond is the uncle of two...unique children who tells them the story of how their parents - an assassin and a thief - met. Most of the movie is a flashback story told by Raymond, who also is a spy and goes by the codename Lyric. Chris did a great job as always but he had one problem on set that wasn't something he usually had to deal with: he's allergic to cats.
Very allergic.
I didn't know this until I made him wear a sweater covered in cat hair in the first scene. He begged to take it off and of course I...eventually allowed it (we had to finish the scene first because I'm, once again, a sadist). He was miserable for the rest of the shoot, constantly sniffling and sneezing. We had four cats in the house so it must have been rough for him whenever we had to film there, but to be literally covered in cat hair was the worst.
The other main location we filmed in besides the Homestead was Kate Weber's house - where she also had four cats. Chris was okay until he had to sit inside a couch which the cushions piled on him and of course the whole thing was covered in cat hair. I'm so sorry Chris. You were such a trouper! Thank you!
From the fall of 1998 through the spring of 1999 we filmed one of the best SFF movies, Mind Games. There were only four main characters, two leads and two supporting, so it was a close cast. Chris, who by now had a beard, played the gruff and serious gunner Chevron, who was also a trigger happy maniac when behind a gun. He totally looked like a South American dictator in his costume and for some reason always wore sunglasses even though the whole thing takes place on a space ship, but it somehow really worked for his character. He did an amazing job, as did everyone in the movie, and it was great to see him in a role that was so different from anything else he had ever played.
In the summer of 1999 I was going to film a movie called The Devil in Disguise and I had cast Chris as the Devil. It would have been his first time played a villain so we were both looking forward to that. Unfortunately - or fortunately depending on your opinion of the script - I chose to continue filming Pandora's Box instead. I had cast Chris in Pandora's Box as the evil General De Carlo who has a change of heart and joins the rebels.
Everyone in Pandora's Box did a fantastic job and it was really fun to see Chris play a bad guy, although he didn't get to be evil nearly long enough. He had fun fighting, smirking, and kidnapping people but was still okay with his character changing into a good guy even if playing him wasn't quite as fun at that point.
Pandora's Box was only supposed to be filmed over the course of 5 weeks. It lasted 18 months and only stopped when the actors basically said "no more scripts". That was fair. Chris was a trouper the whole time and put up some brutal film shoots in freezing cold weather, boiling heat, and pouring rain. He even had to film in a place I nicknamed "Mosquito Island" where he and Margaret Olson spent two hours being eaten alive by hundreds of blood suckers. Chris never once complained. I still think De Carlo is one of his best performances.
We began filming Pandora's Box in the summer of 1999 but in the fall I left for college at SIUC. That semester I took my first real film class. I came home to shoot my class projects - on actual 8mm film! So cool! For my final project I decided to make a comedy about the production of a silent film, called The Long Take, where everything goes wrong in the last and final scene they have to shoot.
Chris agreed to play the villain who had a sword fight then a cheesy, overdramatic death. It was supposed to just be one night of filming, but I got the exposure wrong on the first shoot and we ended up having to do another. He was great both times and I think it was a lot of fun to film. At least there were no cats around to make his allergies miserable.
After The Long Take we went back to filming Pandora's Box for several more months and eventually wrapped shooting for it at the end of the summer of 2000. Although I have gotten to see Chris from time to time I have never been able to film with him again. As much as I would like to film with him I know he is really busy with work and family these days so it's unlikely to ever happen. As long as I can still see him and hang out with him every know and then that's good enough.
Chris is a talented, funny, smart, kind, and all around great guy. I'm really lucky he was willing to play Ketlan, not just because Destiny wouldn't have happened without him but also because he's just a fantastic guy. Thank you so much for filming with us, Chris! If you every want to film again - or even just hang out - let me know!
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