- [Announcer] Funding for this program was provided by... - [Broadcaster] Chattanooga Funeral Home, Crematory & Florist, dedicated to helping you celebrate your life or the life of a loved one for over 85 years.

Chattanooga Funeral Home believes that each funeral should be as unique and memorable as the life being honored.

- [Announcer] This program is also made possible by support from viewers like you.

Thank you.

- [Alison] This week on "The A List" I sit down with a multi-talented entertainer who spent his career sharing his creativity with audiences.

- You start to come to this understanding of that's where the art happens.

The art is not in me.

And the art is not in the audience.

The art is in this amazing, magical, mystical place in-between us where what I'm putting out and what you are seeing and hearing are interacting in completely unpredictable and strange and mysterious ways, depending on who you are and where you come from and what experiences you brought to the theater or to the movie theater that night.

- [Alison] Join me as I talk with Dylan Kussman, coming up next on "The A List".

(upbeat music) (bright music) Dylan Kussman is an actor, screenwriter, musician, filmmaker, and teacher.

He may be best known for his breakout role as Richard Cameron in the 1989 classic film "Dead Poets Society".

But with more than four decades in the entertainment industry under his belt, this Los Angeles native has amassed an impressive array of credits.

Now he lives and works right here in Chattanooga where he's lending his many talents to a thriving arts community.

I had the chance to catch up with Dylan at the Chattanooga Theater Center, a place where he no doubt feels right at home.

(cheerful music) Well Dylan, welcome to "The A List".

- Thank you.

Honored to be here.

- Well, I wanna just start with what everybody's sort of thinking right now.

If they recognize your face it's because you're everywhere.

You've done everything.

You are probably best known for your part in "Dead Poets Society".

And we're gonna get to that.

But I was joking with you before that there's a lot of performers who are triple threats and you are, I was gonna say a fourple, but you're a quadruple threat - Mm.

- because you do so much.

And I can't wait to sort of go through that narrative of your life and all of the different avenues you've taken.

But let's start with where you grew up and about your childhood.

- I grew up in Glendale, California.

I am the oldest of three kids of two entertainment industry parents.

My mom is an actor and my dad worked for ABC Television for almost 50 years as director of production services on the prospect lot, which meant that he oversaw the shop floor where they did sets and lights for shows like "General Hospital" and "Grey's Anatomy".

And they built the sets and lights for the "Academy Awards" show every year.

So I just grew up around the business and watching my mom prepare for roles.

And... And it just seemed natural when I started doing it myself.

At age nine I was in my first real play.

But my first on-camera job I was six weeks old.

- You were in a commercial, right?

- I was.

And apparently - What was that commercial?

- [Dylan] I was very good.

(Alison laughing) - You were a natural.

- I was a natural from the outset.

It was unbelievable.

It was a commercial for, I think it was for an insurance company.

No, I did a Gerber's baby food commercial at that age.

- Oh, that was you.

- When I was six months old I was in another commercial for an insurance company.

And my job in that commercial was there was an old man sitting there promoting the insurance company, and my job along with a bunch of other six month olds was to crawl around on the floor around him.

- Mm.

That's high pressure (laughing).

- Apparently I was very convincing.

(Alison laughing) - So was this something your parents always encouraged or was it more they just let you, I mean, no pun intended, but take the lead when it came to your acting career?

- My mom drove me around to auditions like that.

And I obviously was not, you know, that was not of my own volition.

- Right.

- She took me to places and I auditioned for things and I got a couple of things.

She got tired of that and I stopped doing it for a long time.

When I was nine my mom was directing a play for a college course she was teaching and she needed another actor and she said, "Will you do this?"

And I said, "Sure."

And I had two lines.

And I must have gotten the bug there because two years later I said, "Can I audition for something else?"

And she said, "Okay, there's a local community theater, "the Glendale Center Theater, "and they're doing a play."

You know, she looked it up.

"They're doing a play.

"You can go audition for that."

And I auditioned for it and I got it.

And that started sort of a three-year run with the Glendale Center Theater where I was getting a lot of things I was auditioning for there and really catching the theater bug.

- Did you feel this sense that there was pressure culturally because of where you grew up, that everyone was sort of on this track and you had to do it?

Or did you just know from an early age, this is what I'm good at and this is what makes me happy?

- It's so interesting to talk to people who go into the business of acting and some of them talk about difficult childhoods or wanting to be seen or wanting to be heard.

I can make no such claim for myself.

My parents were very attentive, very loving.

We were a nuclear family.

I have a younger sister by five years, a younger brother by 13 years.

And it was a house full of love and support and creative support.

Obviously, my mom was an artist so she encouraged artistic pursuits.

I was athletic.

I played soccer and baseball.

I didn't have any compelling, I don't have any compelling reason for why I needed to be individualized or be validated.

It delighted me.

It brought me joy.

A lot of my early work was comedy.

The Glendale Center Theater did a lot of raucous comedies.

So my lines and my scenes that I were in there elicited laughter and response.

And I think I really got a charge out of being responsible for that response and feeling the feedback loop of an actor live on stage.

- Do you remember a moment or a period where you decided to turn that joy into a professional path where you said, "I think I can do this for a living."

- There was an amazing actor in one of my last plays there who looked at me and said, "Dylan, you're an undiscovered talent."

And I said, "I don't know what that means.

"I'm only 13 years old."

(Alison laughing) But the director of that show knew an agent that specialized in child talent, in young talent, Judy Savage, the Savage Agency in Hollywood.

And she said, "I can get you a meeting with her, I think."

And I went in and I did an audition for her and she signed me on the spot when I was 14.

And I think my mom was probably rolling her eyes going "Oh, here we go."

I'm back to driving him around 'cause he doesn't have a driver's license.

He's 14.

And now he's gonna start auditioning for this, that, and the other thing, which I did.

I auditioned for and I got a role in "Silver Spoons".

I got a small role on "Days of Our Lives".

I got a couple of commercials until I got my driver's license and I could start driving myself around to auditions.

(upbeat music) - [Alison] As a young, aspiring actor in a city full of young, aspiring actors Dylan's talent set him apart.

And throughout the 1980s he continued to book parts on hit TV shows like "Punky Brewster" and "Married with Children".

But he could have never known that the experience he was accumulating was preparing him for the role of a lifetime.

(groovy music) So let's talk about the role of Richard Cameron.

Now "Dead Poets Society" for me, and I realize it's because we are literally the same age.

And I think back to when "Dead Poets Society" came out, that those were like, you know, 19 years old.

And here we are, you know, in the middle of probably a stage of our lives where it really was transformational, informational, educational.

I'm so curious to know how you got that audition and what it was like being part of the poets.

- I got the audition the same way I got all of my auditions.

Then Judy Savage called me and said, "They wanna see you for this project."

I had no way of knowing it was something special.

I auditioned and then I got a call back and initially the film was going to star Richard Dreyfuss and directed by Jeff Kanew.

And the project fell apart for whatever reason, the way projects get shelved all the time in Hollywood.

It gets to a certain point and then they decide not to go forward with it.

And it went away for a long time.

And it wasn't until I think a year later that they said it's been picked up again and now Peter Weir is directing it and Robin Williams is attached.

And the director has gone through all of the old tapes from a year ago and saw yours and wants to see you again.

There was a screen test in New York after that and that's where I really kind of brought it home and got cast.

And the shoot was amazing.

It was three months in the dead of winter in Wilmington, Delaware.

And all the seven poets were on the same floor of the Radisson Hotel in Wilmington, Delaware.

And we all became fast friends.

And working with Robin was something I'll never forget.

He was a kind, generous soul who never failed to make us feel like peers and not like junior actors to his superstardom.

There was never any of that.

He was a very lovely man.

And...

I just wanna fast forward about a year after the movie came out.

One of my most memorable moments with Robin Williams and Peter Weir was not during the shoot itself, although we had a lot of great memories and I'm very proud of the film and of my work in it.

But I guess it was two years after the film came out.

I had gone to school at UC Berkeley and I'd been cast as Romeo in the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival in Golden Gate Park, free Shakespeare in the park.

And I was so excited to get to play Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet".

And the show was going well.

And one afternoon we were performing the play and I finished the first half of the play and we took an intermission.

And I was backstage at the trailer where we changed.

And a stage manager came up and said, "There's two people who wanna see you."

(Alison laughing) And I walked out and I looked and it was Peter Weir and Robin Williams.

'Cause Robin was from San Francisco, as you know, so.

And I just, I couldn't believe it.

They gave me big hugs and they told me how proud they were of me.

And they said, "We might not be able to stay 'til the end, "but we want you to know that we're here "and you're doing such a great job."

And then they walked away and I turned around and the entire cast of the show was standing there like.

(laughing) You know?

Wow, that was a visit.

But that's how they made you feel on set too.

They were fans.

They were artists.

They were appreciative of you as an artist.

And that whole experience felt that way.

I also made good friends with Norman Lloyd on that set who played the headmaster.

And I said to Norman Lloyd while we were shooting, and I said, "This is such an amazing experience "making this movie.

"I feel like this should be my last movie "that I ever make."

And he said, "No, it's good that it's your first "because now you know how good it can be."

- And that's a perfect segue to understanding where you went from there and how that experience literally set the stage for not only your continuing acting career but your expectations for you as an evolving and emerging artist.

What did you take from that experience?

Because that is fairly young to be in something so identifiable, right?

And that had such accolades.

And that must have set the bar very high for you as a performer.

- Well, when I talk about doing it for the joy, it brings me delight to do it.

Whether or not I'm good at it or not, it brings me joy.

That same feeling that I was having as an 11, 12-year-old theater actor in Glendale Center Theater when I would say something and an audience would get a response and there would be a feedback loop, just continues on in different forms through different projects.

You start to come to this understanding of that's where the art happens.

The art is not in me.

And the art is not in the audience.

The art is in this amazing, magical, mystical place in-between us where what I'm putting out and what you are seeing and hearing are interacting in completely unpredictable and strange and mysterious ways, depending on who you are and where you come from and what experiences you brought to the theater or to the movie theater that night.

I was addicted.

It was like a drug.

It was...

It's an amazing feeling.

And so I brought that with me.

I went to school.

I went to college.

I did not stay in Los Angeles.

I went to college up in the Bay Area and I did a lot of theater.

I started doing Shakespeare.

I did "Rome and Juliet".

I played the title role in "Henry V" in a pizza parlor basement with the Shotgun Players, this really young and exciting theater company.

I worked with Aaron Davidman and the Berkeley Theater Project on a really radical adaptation of "Allison in Wonderland".

Little houses, 40, 50, 70, 90-seat houses.

Just in it.

Just in the process of what is storytelling?

What is this thing that happens between a storyteller and the listener?

And in the meantime, I got my bachelor's in US history.

I love to read.

History to me is just one great story after another.

I think it's just inspired a love of story in me and storytelling in all of its various forms.

(groovy music) - [Alison] That passion for storytelling has clearly been a driving force as Dylan has navigated a lengthy and varied career in the entertainment industry.

And though he'd experienced early successes as an actor, it became clear that the business offered many paths for Dylan to share his talent with the world.

(groovy music) So when did you decide to try your hand?

I'm using so many different play on words.

I'm so proud of myself, right?

- You're doing really well.

- Play your hand at screenwriting, right?

So there's all these avenues we talk about, right?

So the acting is part of it, but I have to imagine once you're on set you start realizing not just how many components there are to creating a certain project, but how many things you might be good at.

- Mm.

- Between the filmmaking, the screenwriting, the directing, which, you have done all of those.

- [Dylan] Mm-hm.

- But what came after acting?

Was it the screenwriting?

- Yes.

It was.

And that is purely a product of every time you work as an actor somebody hands you a sheaf of papers.

And, you know, if you're strictly thinking as an actor you're like, "These are my lines and these are my scenes."

But if you do it long enough I think any actor starts to go, "What is this?

"Who wrote this thing?"

You know, who wrote this Shakespeare play?

Who wrote this Pincher play?

You know?

How did they... How does this work?

Because as an actor you're just a spoke in the wheel.

The play is doing so much work.

David Mamet talks about this a lot in "True and False", like one of my favorite books about acting ever, which is the actor's job is to embody the character and go after what they want.

The actor's job is not to create the character arc.

But as you start to look at the script and you go, well, what if I wanted to have some impact on this part, the creation of the story, or the character arc, or what the meaning is of doing a piece of theater or a film in front of an audience.

And I think that natural fascination just led me to want to try it and see what would happen and what would come out of me.

I'd always enjoyed writing.

Through school I had some great teachers, great history teachers, great English teachers through high school.

I mean, teachers are my heroes, which is why I'm still teaching to this very day.

'Cause I honestly, of all the people who I emulate and admire, I want to be more like the great teachers in my life than I do my favorite actors, directors, and screenwriters.

That's just...

I think that's just honestly true about myself.

And my first screenplay got produced.

It got optioned for a dollar by a couple of friends of mine in Los Angeles.

And they raised the money and they shot it.

So I got to feel that feeling of something going to completion very early.

My first play that I wrote also got produced by Aaron Davidman, the Berkeley Theater Project.

So I got some early successes as a writer that made me want to keep writing and keep trying.

- So let's talk about "The Mummy".

- Yeah.

- This is one of those credits where I think when people see you on screen you are still so identifiable.

When I see you in a credit off screen it kind of takes me aback going, "Well, hello".

I mean, there's Dylan.

How did that come about?

Because I know that was also evolutionary in nature.

- It was, but it can all be tied back to "Dead Poets Society".

- Okay.

All roads lead back to "Dead Poets", right?

- Well, they keep saying it's all who you know.

Hollywood's all who you know, and whether or not that's true or false or good or bad, it's inherently true with me because I've made relationships and they've led to other relationships and they've led to work opportunities.

On "Dead Poets Society" I met Ethan Hawke.

Ethan Hawke grew up in Princeton Junction, New Jersey with Christopher McQuarrie.

I met Christopher McQuarrie in Los Angeles when he came out to LA to see a movie that Ethan Hawke and I were in, a short film.

Chris and I became friends.

Chris and I would talk about writing projects and we would work as a writer together.

Chris then went on to win an Academy Award for his screenplay for "The Usual Suspects".

And because of that he went on to direct a movie called "The Way of the Gun".

And then he was brought on to start working on-- - Which, you were in "The Way of the Gun".

- I was in "The Way of the Gun".

So I was in his movie there.

Then he got a job directing "Jack Reacher" - Right.

- with Tom Cruise.

- [Alison] Which you were in.

- Because he had written on the movie "Valkyrie" which Tom Cruise was in.

So then Tom Cruise and he became friends and they worked on "Jack Reacher" which I was then in.

And then Tom says, "Hey, you're great.

"Why don't you direct the next 'Mission Impossible' movie?"

So Chris did that.

And I was brought on as a screenwriter onto the "Mission Impossible" movie as a production screenwriter.

I was not credited, but I was brought on as a production writer.

And then when they went to go make "The Mummy", Tom cruise signed on to "The Mummy" at Universal.

Chris said, "I will write that.

"Why don't we bring Dylan in "like we did with 'Mission impossible'."

And all of a sudden I'm on the set of "The Mummy" in London with Tom Cruise for six months as a production writer on that.

And we were in London and we were in Namibia.

- [Alison] And "The Mummy" is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Dylan's impressive career as a screenwriter.

But as we've seen his creativity is expressed in different ways.

After moving from Hollywood to Chattanooga, he made his directorial debut with his acclaimed web series, "The steps", followed by his first feature film, "Wrestling Jerusalem".

He is also a skilled musician and brings his energy and passion to every show.

But even with such a diverse professional portfolio one thing has remained constant, the pure joy of the art.

(upbeat music) When you look at sort of that catalog of arts and performance and directing and writing, what, and I know this is hard, but what brings you the most joy?

What have you been most proud of when you look back on your work so far?

- It's tough to compete with the joy that rock music brings to me.

I tell you, just playing with my band and playing songs, the feedback loop can be so powerful.

We've played a couple of shows at HiFi Clyde's where we've had some truly energetic crowds pressing against the stage.

And that feeling of delivering music to people's faces and ears is something else.

It's really something else.

As far as the work that brings me the most artistic satisfaction, I think directing "Wrestling Jerusalem" was... Well it was unprecedented.

It was my first feature film, and taking that to film festivals all around the country and around the world was the most rewarding feeling.

And it was totally engendered by Aaron Davidman's one-man play that I just saw and it moved me so much.

And I said if we made this into a film somehow, this one-man play into a film somehow, we could get it to a lot more people.

I want everybody to see this.

So there was this kind of pure motive behind it.

It was not to get rich quick or, you know, to wield the directorial baton with my...

It was to set out to make a work of art with a friend whose work I really respected and I just wanted try and deliver it to a new audience.

And it ended up becoming this piece of cinema that I'm very proud of, to have been the director of.

And I would like to do more directing.

I love collaborating with cinematographers and film composers, and editors, actors.

It just feels like there's a lot of artistry around when you're the director.

There's a lot of people doing some of the things that I also love doing.

I love talking to writers about writing 'cause I'm a writer.

I love talking to a composer about adding a bit of music because I'm a musician.

Tell me what you want to do here.

Oh, I love that.

You know?

So... And... And that's also why I love teaching, is I love working with young people who are aspiring and trying to do different things with their lives and seeing what their perspective is on the craft.

- I wanna talk about what might be your most challenging role, being a dad.

And I know your son is also an artist.

He's a dancer.

He's following a path similar to yours, following his joy.

What do you hope he knows about you and your career and what you've chosen to do that will inspire him to also find the joy in his own path?

- I hope I can continue to be a source of the delight of art and the joy of art and the joy of storytelling and creating and dance, which he loves.

And let him see by example that it does bring me joy.

Making art is a joyful experience.

And it's an important thing that we do as human-beings.

Art's important.

- Mm.

Well, and I think the beauty of this is what has brought you joy has in turn brought me and so many of your countless fans so much joy.

And it might be a little trite or predictable, but I think you listened to that charge way back in the 1980s where they yelled, or whispered, "Carpe diem.

"Seize the day."

(Dylan laughing) You have certainly seized every day.

And we appreciate you being with us, Dylan.

- I appreciate you having me.

(upbeat music) - [Promoter] Get access to even more of the shows you love with WTCI Passport.

- [Announcer] Funding for this program was provided by... - [Broadcaster] Chattanooga Funeral Home, Crematory & Florist, dedicated to helping you celebrate your life or the life of a loved one for over 85 years.

Chattanooga Funeral Home believes that each funeral should be as unique and memorable as the life being honored.

- [Announcer] This program is also made possible by support from viewers like you.

Thank you.