Actor Dan Fogler recently spoke with “Breakthrough Entertainment” about his new comedy “Don Peyote,” which he also wrote and directed.
In “Don Peyote,” which opens Friday, May 16, Fogler plays an unemployed stoner who suffers a midlife crisis over his upcoming wedding. Fueled by vivid apocalyptic dreams, he becomes obsessed with Doomsday theories and decides to make a documentary on the subject while his fiancé is busy planning their wedding.
Listen to “Breakthrough Entertainment’s” full interview with Fogler by clicking HERE. The following is an excerpt from the interview in which the writer/director/actor discusses his motivations for the movie.
“[‘Don Peyote’] came from a lot of my life experience; just where I was at the time when I was making the movie. I was about to get married and I was kind of stressing out about the future. I think a lot of people were and I wanted to capture that energy in a movie. I had this story that I wanted to tell that was kind of like a modern street-prophet’s journey. I thought that it would be interesting if you had a regular Joe Schmoe bump into a guy with an ‘End is Near’ sign and he’s like, ‘What does that mean? Is the end coming?’
“He starts collecting all of these interviews from wise men and tries to make a documentary about it while trying to get to the bottom of a lot of his questions. He learns that maybe the world is not ending but maybe it is just a change of consciousness. Then he goes down that rabbit hole and even though everyone is telling him, ‘Don’t worry,’ he still worries and gets so swept up in the fear of not knowing what is coming that he loses his mind.
“The message that you can take away from it is that we are actually much more powerful than we realize as individuals and as a whole species and that happiness is literally our choice in the moment. I think that a lot of people are scared and worried. But just like in ‘Star Wars,’ that leads to the dark side of the force. If you do not worry, then you can stay on the lighter side and really affect things for the better. Because if you worry about it, then you just add to the chaos.” – Dan Fogler
