Coming home to the theater

Jennifer K Mahal

NEWPORT BEACH -- Reg Rogers tried a lot of different things before he

settled down to become an actor. The Corona del Mar High School graduate

was an architecture major for a while, studying math and engineering. He

bounced from San Diego State University to San Francisco State

University, where he graduated.

Finally, he ended up at Yale Drama School.

It was at Yale that he met Jeremy Stein, a lighting designer. They

fast became friends. The fruit of that friendship is “The Photographer,”

a film starring Rogers and written and directed by Stein that will screen

at the Newport Beach Film Festival tonight.

Stein said he wrote the part of Max, a “sucessful” photographer who is

empty-handed on the eve of his next big show, for Rogers.

“I think Reg is an absolutely wonderful actor,” the first-time

filmmaker said. “The best actor I’ve ever worked with in theater or

film.”

Told using magical realism, the film follows Rogers’ character as he

tries to find a set of 10 stunning photographs that could potentially

save his career.

“The fear of failure is something I could really understand because

you get somewhere, and you start to believe it’s everything,” said

Rogers, who once won a trip to Disneyland for delivering the Daily Pilot.

“You start to believe that what you’re doing is so important, when really

it’s not.”

In terms of his own career, Rogers seems to be doing quite well. On

Broadway, he has performed in “Holiday” at Circle in the Square and

“Schools for Husbands.” Off Broadway, he just finished a run in a new

John Patrick Shanley play about the sculptor Cellini. He will start

rehearsals later this year for a new Richard Greenberg (“Three Days of

Rain”) play and for a television pilot. Rogers’ film credits include

“Runaway Bride,” “I Shot Andy Warhol” and “I’ll Take You There.”

“I can live off theater, and I never thought I’d make a living with

this,” said the man who remembers seeing “Star Wars” at Edwards Big

Newport theaters, “so as far as I’m concerned, I’ve already succeeded.”

The independently financed “Photographer” represents a departure in

acting style for Rogers.

“I tend to be bigger than people like,” said Rogers, crediting his

theater experience. “I enjoy that, like Al Pacino in ‘The Devil’s

Advocate.’ That size of performance is fantastic.”

Stein said that while he recognizes Rogers does like the theatrical

style, his performance in “The Photographer” was sucessful in portraying

a complicated character. The friends worked on refining both the acting

and the script in rehearsal, with one sometimes affecting the other.

“He said to me at one point, ‘If I don’t need to say it and can do

without saying, I would prefer not to say it,’ ” Stein said. “We cut a

tremendous amount of dialogue because of that.”

Past the film festival, the prognosis for “The Photographer” looks

good, as HBO has expressed an interest in buying it, Stein said.

“This was one of the submissions we got at random,” said Marjoe

Aguiling, director of features programming for the festival. “It was one

of the first ones screened. We all loved it.”

The story, which Aguiling calls “unique” and “very potent,” coupled

with the cinematography and production design was appealing. Of course,

that Rogers is a native son did not hurt.

“That helped it keep on the top of the pile,” Aguiling admits.

Stein said he doesn’t remember how he decided to enter the film at the

Newport Beach festival.

“It was probably advertised, and I saw the Newport Beach festival and

I knew that Reg was from Newport Beach, and I thought, ‘Why not?’ At this

point, I enjoy having the film seen in film festivals.”