Allison Volk is a writer/actress/director based in Southern California. A prolific and enthusiastic playwright and screenwriter, her feature film script DEANY BEAN IS DEAD (comedy) was produced in 2018 and premiered in Hollywood, CA at the Dances with Films Festival, directed by Austrian filmmaker Mikael Kreuzriegler. Though many of her short films and plays have been produced in New York and Los Angeles, Ms. Volk finally made her directing debut with the short fantasy/drama WHAT KATY DID in 2018 and is eager to direct her first feature film.
Her dark action comedy feature script TIGER WOMAN won Best Screenplay at the Utah Film Awards 2018 and was recently adapted into a comic book published by Clover Press in 2020. Ms. Volk also co-founded The City Shakespeare Company in Santa Monica where she served as co-artistic director for three years. Her latest film DEANY BEAN IS BEAN releases this month from Global Digital Releasing.
What was it about this particular role that appealed to you, Allison?
I really enjoy Deany’s wacky trajectory. To her, every action makes sense, though from the audience’s perspective she seems more than a little “off.” As an actor, finding a way to make each step of her journey feel completely logical (stalking her ex on social media and in real life, attacking her boss, etc.) is a fun challenge, and one that I found particularly rewarding. I also liked the idea of playing a female character who isn’t locked into a stereotypical archetype; “off-her-rocker jilted ex-lover who’s also sort of clever” isn’t something you see too often in the breakdowns.
Read More: Deany Bean is Dead Review
And is the film based – geez, I hope not! – on a real life incident that you or someone else you’ve known has gotten themselves involved in?
Haha – no! Fortunately not. I admit I was going through a Hitchcock phase when I wrote the script, though. That, coupled with a situation in my personal life that brought up a lot of heavy emotion around the question “am I good enough?” turned into the rollicking romp that is Deany Bean is Dead. Deany feels deeply, and she feels so rejected by Tom and her boss that it drives her to the extreme. Additionally, when director Mikael Kreuzriegler and I first kicked around the idea of shooting a feature film, we knew we would have budget limitations, so I was trying to be as creative as possible with our limited locations.
Is it a dig at all the brutish bosses out there?
Not sure if it’s a dig so much as just a depiction of someone who has a really horrible boss. I did actually have a pretty awful boss at the time I wrote the script; I’m not working for her anymore, but she was a really tough cookie. Micro-managing, nit-picky, condescending to the point where it was damaging to the morale of the whole staff… you know, all the usual horrible boss stuff.
Was “Horrible Bosses” one of the inspirations for the script?
It wasn’t consciously, but you’d be amazed how often I’m asked that question.
How would you say “Deany Bean is Dead” differs from that film?
Overall, Deany leans more heavily toward romantic comedy; the storyline around her boss is not as central a focus as her pursuit of Tom, her ex-fiance. Deany also has a musical number.
Tell us about your director. Did you have a prior relationship?
Yes, Mikael and I shot several short films together before we collaborated on Deany Bean is Dead. I met Mikael after he posted a casting notice for a feature film version of Hedda Gabler that he was filming; I wanted to play the lead so badly! I dropped off my headshot at his office, I emailed him, I left a voicemail on his office line and I Tweeted him, all trying to set myself apart from the thousands of submissions I was sure he had received for the one part. Just when I thought, “Allison, give it a rest, he’s not interested,” I got an email back. He told me I was too young for the role of Hedda but he admired my persistence and wanted to meet. At the time I was running a small Shakespeare theater company in Santa Monica, and he and I discovered that we both had an interest in Shakespeare on screen. We adapted a few scenes from Othello and made an experimental short, followed by several other small projects, and eventually Deany Bean is Dead.
Mikael is incredibly talented, sensitive and artistic. He is also the film chair at Loyola Marymount University. I’m really lucky to call him my producing partner and good friend.
How long of a shoot was this?
It was roughly 14 days in all, although we did have to do some pick-up shots after the fact.
If the film is so successful that the distributor demands a sequel, do you have an idea ready to go?
Of course! Who wouldn’t want to see what kind of troublesome scenarios Deany gets herself into next?
Will look forward to that. Thanks very much for talking with me.
Thank you so much for having me!