Wrath Mercy

"Wrath Mercy" is literally a 25 year dream come true for me. And one that has both a complicated and fateful journey.

I first saw Ben Craven's play, "Wrath Mercy," when I was in college at the University of Southern Mississippi (my home state), all the way back in 1998. I had always imagined adapting it as a film for myself as an actor. Over the years, after moving from Mississippi to NYC, I drunkenly offered the role of "The Woman" to many, many actresses, with the intent of playing Nigel myself.

As I began to adapt the play. Nigel became Adam. And instead of being a straight guy who steals diamonds from a club while high on ecstasy, dreaming of getting back to his childhood sweetheart, he became a gay crystal meth addict, hoping to find a way out of his small town, to escape the pain of his traumatic past. He still encounters the mysterious woman, and the stakes remain the same. "Nothing left to lose, nothing but his life."

Ironically, what I didn't yet know about myself at the time was that I was a drug addict myself. In 2014, after a disastrous year in LA, becoming homeless and hopelessly addicted to crystal meth, I went to treatment back in Mississippi, a place I swore I would never return.

One day I quite dramatically told my therapist that my dreams were dead - that my biggest regret was throwing away a promising career as an actor and director. He asked if there was anything I might work on while still in treatment. Like a flash, I remembered "Wrath Mercy." I dusted it off, took another pass at it and became determined to make it happen. Not as an actor this time, but as a director.

After moving back to Los Angeles, in the middle of the pandemic, Oxford Film Festival produced a virtual table read of "Wrath Mercy." We were on our way. A few months later, I met Natanya Ross, child star of the 90s, also in recovery from addiction with a similar, if bigger, story to mine. I'll never forget the night we read the screenplay in my living room. "The Woman" became Irina, and I suddenly knew this role was always meant for her.

Thanks to an IG post by a casting director friend of Deb Radloff (Mall in "Wrath Mercy") and an intentional search for an openly queer actor, we found our Adam. The amazing Matthew Zimmerman in his film debut. Fate. I believe it was fate all along.

In May of 2023, I went back to Mississippi, this time gratefully, to make "Wrath Mercy," the greatest three days of my life. With the guidance and friendship of my Co-Producer, Glenn Payne, an amazing camera team led by my vision-making Cinematographer Michael Williams, a wonderful, local supporting cast, crew and a slew of donations from $5 to $5000, my dream finally became a reality.

"Wrath Mercy" is an allegory. A fantasy based in reality. I wanted to show people what it FEELS like to be a gay crystal meth addict, why we might become addicted in the first place, while asking what may be the unanswerable question of why some drug addicts live and some don't.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoy our film.