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Caley Bisson

CaleyBissonCaley Oakes-Bisson: Coming Back with Cloverfield’s Helpful Provocateur By Brian Kirst

Caley Bisson’s dramatic pedigree has led him from the sports field to the stage and recently the silver screen. Best known to horror fans as co-writer and co-star of the mini-zombie epic The Day They Came Back (co-starring Friday the 13th Part 3’s Paul Kratka), Bisson has also been proving his worth with smaller roles in the horror smash Cloverfield and on the television series Bones.

Caley is definitely on the rise – and not as in rising from the grave, if you know what I mean – and can be kept up with at www.caleyoakesbisson.com.

Brian: Who were your first performing influences? Will Smith taming them in the Wild, Wild West? – MacGyver and his fancy gadgets- An Uncle with a passion for tap shoes and bugle solos?

Caley: Well, my parents were both dancers/choreographers so I practically grew up on a stage, but once I was never really interested in performing as a profession. I focused more on academics and athletics. I was a National Honors Society student and a conference champion wrestler who trained year round. I eventually started writing for the school literary magazine, which somehow led to starting a rock band, which somehow led to acting. When I chose a college, I gave up the wrestling, academics, and writing, to focus on acting and music, which is why I chose to major in musical theatre at a music school. I quickly found out that show tunes weren’t for me and I focused more on my acting and, once again, on my writing. So, I definitely owe a lot of my creativity to the genes I got from my parents and the wonderful environment they raised me in. At the present, I would say that I have the most respect for artists who apply the utmost artistic integrity to their work and who really do something positive with their influence and wealth. I wish I could do more.

Brian: What was your inspiration for writing The Day They Came Back?

Caley: I’m not sure I had a specific inspiration. I was only a co-writer of THTCB; it was Scott Goldberg who originally conceived the idea. Basically, I came on-board as a writer after I had been cast as an actor. I had only been in one horror movie before and wasn’t, by any means, a regular to the genre. That being said, as a writer, I found some problems with the script. Writer/Director, Scott Goldberg, was generous enough as an artist to bring me on board and let me really run with things to rewrite his script. Throughout the whole process, I worked closely with him to make sure I, while attempting to construct a story with realistic characters and motivations, was still on point with being true to the genre and with what its fans expect and love. In essence, it was an exercise in applying my skills to someone else’s style. It turned out to be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the feature length script that Scott and I created had to be cut down to a short (albeit a long short) film after production had already begun. After principal photography, Scott had to make some more changes to make it make sense as a short film. I was not around to participate in those rewrites or re-shoots. While the finished product wasn’t exactly what I had envisioned, given the circumstantial changes, it was true to Scott’s vision, and I respect him as an artist, especially as an artist who knows a whole lot more about horror films than I do. It would be great if, someday, we got the funding to go back and re-shoot the original script; I was really proud of what Scott and I had written, and have, since then, come up with some more ideas for it.

ON20THEIR20OWN120smVBrian: With TDTCB, was it difficult to perform something that you had written – or did that make identification easier for you as an actor?

Caley: Not really. At the time, I had just finished performing off-off Broadway in a play that I had written. I don’t know that it makes identification any easier, but it certainly makes memorization easier.

Brian: What was it like working with director Scott Goldberg and F13 – Pt 3 actor Paul Kratka on The Day They Came Back?

Caley: Scott was great! He and I were coming from totally different perspectives on the industry so, at times, it was difficult to reach a middle ground, but I think that the film may have benefited from the creative challenges we provided each other. – Paul was awesome! Unfortunately, I didn’t get to spend too much time working with him. All of our scenes together were shot in a single day, but I’d definitely work with him again!

Brian: Do you have any particular memories about working on the star studded set of Emilio Estevez’s Bobby?

Caley: It was hard work, but it was worth it. To watch such incredible actors work. Really… it was like a master class every day I was there.

Brian: If I Vanished and Spinal sound like spooky and interesting projects – can you give us a little background on them?

Caley: Well, Spinal was one of the first films I acted in. It was also the only other horror film I was ever in. I played the hero, but I was also a stoner, so that gave it a bit of a campy twist. It was about this evil doctor who would turn his victims into puppets. It was a lot of fun and I loved the final product. – If I Vanished was a short film that I co-starred in with my girlfriend, actress, Kaitlin Clark. It was not a horror film, but a drama about a guy so obsessed with his ex-girlfriend, that he envisions that she is still there. – More sad than creepy, really. It’s based on a short story and was a lot of fun. Sean is a great director and Kaitlin is an absolutely brilliant actor.

200px-Cloverfield theatrical posterBrian: As an Axe model, what do you suppose would happen if that term was taken literally – as in, you became a model with an axe? (Good-bye competition…Unyielding agents…Janice Dickinson?)

Caley: When my Agent told me that I was going to shoot an Axe ad, I joked that I was going to show up dressed like a lumberjack. She didn’t find that very humorous. Although there must be ads for axes somewhere, although I bet they just use girls in bikinis to model them. “If you buy this Axe you’ll get more “babes” than Paul Bunyan.”

Brian: Are you currently working on any writing projects?

Caley: There’s a lot going on right now actually, for writing and acting. As you may know, this is my second season playing a Lab Technician on Fox’s Bones. I am basically just in the background, working on paleontological investigations and such, so no lines yet, but it’s a great work-environment, the cast is great, and I have a lot of fun at work. You may recognize me as the bartender at the party in Cloverfield or as a Busboy on HBO’s True Blood. Those were both a blast! I’ve also been working on a ton of writing projects. I have eleven scripts that are in varying degrees of revision and at least two that are ready to shoot or sell. Right now I’m working on rewriting a drama I wrote about human trafficking. I’m also shopping around a comedy and a sci-fi/action/adventure script.

Brian: Lastly, any words of wisdom (IE: Don’t go dancing in your underwear in a zombie break-out) or future projects that you’d like to let us know about? And thanks – it’s been a limb throwing blast!

Caley: I’ve been focusing on writing a lot for the last two years, and really hope to switch gears and land an acting role I can really sink my teeth into in the near future. As far as zombie attack advice goes: The best two weapons that I can think of are hand-grenades and ninja swords!

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