I remember hearing a story about Martin Scorsese who made a film early in his career called Boxcar Bertha for Roger Corman.  After John Cassavetes saw it, he told Scorsese “You just spent a year of your life making a piece of garbage.  You’re better than that…don’t do it again.”  Cassavetes then asked Scorsese if there was a film he really wanted to make.  Scorsese said there was.  Cassavetes said: “So do it.”  It was Mean Streets.

At the risk of sounding grandiose, Sex & Sushi is my Mean Streets…if for no other reason than it deals with a subject which I have always been passionately interested in: The concept of monogamy. 

I want to be in ONE healthy, committed relationship with a girl I love.  I also want to sleep with every third girl I see.  This conflict is primarily what Sex & Sushi examines.

Is monogamy natural?
Is it realistic?
Is it worth it?
I hope so.

About the Production

If anyone ever tells you that they want to write, produce, star in, direct and edit a film….try to talk them out of it.

Sex & Sushi was written over three months in 2004.  During the writing process, I consulted with two friends regarding my intention to produce and direct the film alone.  The first was Nick Styne (an agent at CAA) who wasn’t particularly encouraging but suggested I shoot the film anyway and consider it a learning experience, Another friend, Gary Winick (Tadpole, 13 going on 30) was more sanguine about the process and also provided invaluable technical assistance.

After completing the shooting draft in May 2004, I began assembling a crew and breaking the script down for schedule and locations.  Sex & Sushi was intended to be an authentic NYC film…NOT in the traditional “Hollywood” sense with the generic shots of the Central Park fountain, 42^nd street at night, or Soho Boutiques.  Instead, I wanted to show the real, gritty, multi-textured New York City that I know; grafitti’d walls on the Lower East Side, the winding alleys and mobbed sidewalks of Chinatown, Upper East Side townhouses spilling out their over-privileged residents, etc.

I have a love/hate relationship with NYC but in terms of the look of it, Manhattan is incomparable.  Graffiti on the exterior wall of a pizza place in the East Village simply cannot be “set decorated” in Toronto or Vancouver or a sound stage in Burbank.  However, ours wasn’t to be the type of production that went through traditional channels like dealing with the Mayor’s office for shooting permits.  Instead, I learned that if you’re exceedingly polite, keep a low profile (and tip well), restaurant owners will generally let you shoot in their restaurants without interference.

As for shooting on the streets without permits, most pedestrians were respectfully intrigued by us (if they even paid any attention at all).  I also cast my friend, NYC Police Detective Pete Panuccio in a key scene which turned out to be fortuitous on the day we were shooting on the Upper East Side and noticed we were surrounded by six uniformed officers with their guns pointed at us.

Regarding casting:  Four of the five main parts were written with friends already in mind including Lucas Papaelias (School of Rock) who plays my brother.  The major exception was the part of “Rachel Williams” which (along with 27 other speaking parts) would have to be cast through more traditional means.  After seeing over 2,000 headshots, reading with and rejecting more than 150 girls (including a two-time Emmy winner), Ashley Carin (The Devil’s Own) walked in and we hired her on the spot.

July 27, 2004 was the first day of shooting and we were still doing pickups as late as January 2005 while editing the film.  Things just seemed to fall into place during production.  For every location we were forced to leave, our location manager stumbled upon a better one.  Every time a mentally unstable street person wandered into frame during a take to ask me if I’d ever been to France, there would be a better take with bystanders happy to accommodate use.  For every restaurant owner who wouldn’t turn down their music there would be another one, in a better location, who obliged and threw in free sodas for the crew.

With the clarity of hindsight, it seems now as though the project may have been somewhat blessed.  Our luck seems to be continuing as evidenced by the legendary Ira Deutchman getting his hands on an early cut and (after receiving his wife’s blessing) agreeing to represent the film.

I once heard an old man reminisce. He said:  looking back over his life, the only thing he would have done differently would be that he wouldn’t have worried so much.  All this being said, would I recommend doing what I did? Absolutely not. Would I do it again?  Without a doubt.