“D(e)ad” is a dark comedy exploration of grief through the different lenses of a family. Tillie, a young woman lacking purpose, is the only one in her family not haunted by her father. While every other member of her family can communicate with him, much to their chagrin, her strained relationship continues in death. Now, it’s up to Tillie to mend her broken relationship in order to end the haunting for everyone else.

“D(e)ad” is written by Isabella Roland and directed by her mother Claudia Lonow. Roland and Lonow also star in the movie along with Roland’s stepfather Jonathan Schmock, her grandmother JoAnne Astrow, her grandfather Mark Lonow, and her husband Brennan Lee Mulligan. “D(e)ad” also stars Craig Bierko, Eddie Pepitone, Nick Marini, Vic Michaelis, and Zac Oyama. “D(e)ad” was crowdfunded on Kickstarter with over 5K backers pledging more than $250K to the project.  

In an exclusive interview with Temple of Geek, Vic Michaelis shared why they wanted to join “D(e)ad.” The also discussed how the movie explores grief reflected on working with Roland’s friends and family. Michaelis also pitches a hilarious “You’ve Got Mail” sequel focusing on a ghost.

Vic Michaelis Compliments D(e)ad Writer “Izzy’s Brilliant”

Vic Michaelis:

“My biggest fear always is, because Izzy made very clear to her sister. She was like, Violet is a fictionalized version. It is not you. It’s like you, but it’s a very different character. But Natasha is the absolute best. I was like, as long as I didn’t do anything to ever make Natasha mad at me, I feel fantastic. And she gave the thumbs up. So we’re all good.”

Temple of Geek: Can you talk to me about your first impressions after reading the script of not only your character Violet, but just the story as a whole?

Vic Michaelis:

“Izzy pitched the script to me and I signed on without even reading the script. The second she pitched it to me, I was like, yeah, I want to do that. I want to do that, and I want to do that with you, and I want to do that with your family and then I’m your family. So I felt pretty good about that as a decision making process. I think it was the best decision I’ve made in a long time.

But first impressions upon reading the script. I mean, I think it is such a unique thing. Loss in general is such a tricky and complicated thing to navigate in that, especially from the outside. I think it can be really confusing to see people laughing really hard or making dark jokes or things like that. And then you get inside and it’s like, no, that is just kind of what it is.

The world keeps turning and you still have things that you have to do, and you’ve got your everyday sort of activities that you have to go about. You can only call out so long from work when people are kind like, I know it’s so sad, so are you going to be back on Monday? That type of thing. And I’m like, I don’t know. Humor is such a huge way of coping with that.

You’ve got these big swings in the other direction that I don’t think, at least in my experience, don’t happen as often as you would think or are portrayed in media. But I don’t know, it just felt a very unique take on the grieving process and what it means to be haunted by death in a metaphorical sense and what it means when you’re not. It really is, I think, really interesting. I mean, Izzy’s brilliant.”

Temple of Geek: Completely agree! One of my favorite parts of it truly was we don’t see enough of people dealing with grief and the death of someone that they had a complicated relationship with. It always is portrayed as like, oh, they were perfect and amazing and this is just sad. And it’s like, no, sometimes you have a difficult relationship with someone and you get to continue dealing with that. I liked that Violet, she knew she had a bad relationship with her dad, but she almost didn’t want to accept it. We see that journey. What was that journey like for you when you were trying to really toe that line between someone that is trying to really just focus on the good parts, but is cognizant that it was not great?

Vic Michaelis:

“Yeah, I think it was really interesting where it is that thing of, I think, there’s an expectation around death where you don’t speak ill of the dead. Personally, my personal beliefs on it, I think it’s disrespectful to people’s memory to not think of them as whole people. I think it’s really easy in death to sort of go like, well, they’re gone now and so there’s no point in focusing on the negative. I’m like, well, they kind of disappear completely if you forget the parts that made them a whole person.

Then that person actually didn’t exist. This fantastical version of them is the only thing that’s left. Then it’s more of a character than it is a person. So that was something I thought a lot about throughout this shooting process. I think a lot about, in general, when it comes to remembering people, I do think it’s important to remember them as whole living, breathing people that made mistakes and atone or didn’t atone for those mistakes. And that just kind of is what it is.

There is no, I should say, very rarely is there a perfect ending. My husband’s grandfather died at 92 in his sleep having just had dinner with everybody the night before. And I’m like, that kind of is as good as it gets, I think. Just like no pain. Literally just went to bed after a steak dinner one night and was like, okay, clocking out. That’s sort of is what it is. And I’m like, that was still sad to deal with. But I think in thinking about it, I’m like, that’s how I think that is as good as go gets.”

Temple of Geek: Can you talk to me about working with Izzy on the relationship between Violet and Tillie? Because it feels so real in the fact that they will butt heads forever, but the second something real matters, they’re there immediately.

Vic Michaelis:

“Oh man. Do you have any siblings?”

Temple of Geek: I don’t. I’m an only child.

Vic Michaelis:

“Okay. So honestly, to me, I think about my own relationship with my siblings. All of a sudden you’re in a knockdown drag out. My sister has this really famous family story where my brother was teasing her at one point “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” show was doing open calls for Orcs. And so my brother was like, oh, Hannah, you should audition to be an Orc, and you don’t even need to wear any makeup. Ha ha ha. And then Hannah turns around and is literally like, you’ll never find love in your life. And then we got ice cream and we were playing a movie game.

That just kind of is what it is. So I think that just being my relationship with my siblings, and I know being Izzy’s, but having that being just sort of close to her relationship with her sister, it just felt very natural. Also Izzy is one of my best friends, and that’s sort of how we talk with each other as well.”

Vic Michaelis Talks Collaborating With Nick Marini & Izzy Roland’s Family

Temple of Geek: What was it like filming with Izzy’s family? Because it was so cool that so much of her family is in this movie, and it’s such a personal story. And then there’s you and Nick and Craig that are coming from the outside and getting to experience this with them.

Vic Michaelis:

“It was really cool. Especially Izzy being one of my best friends in the world, and Nick being one of Brennan’s best and oldest friends. It really very quickly felt very natural. We had some of the built-in work done for us that was really nice with me and Nick’s characters also not knowing each other that well. So it became really becoming family throughout that process. And so I just think it was so fun. Mark and JoAnne are two of the funniest people on the planet, I think.”

Temple of Geek: Yeah, I completely agree. I have to talk about your character and Nick’s character. He is so funny. It’s one of those things where I’m like, I don’t understand how they work, but they also seem perfect together. Can you talk about working with him on that?

Vic Michaelis:

“Oh yeah. I mean, Nick and I had a conversation pretty early on where we just decided that a lot of the tenderness and love for these characters, and they could be kind of a little bit kookier and crazier and be a little bit bigger. In my character it gave me license to be a little bit meaner and a little bit, not being afraid to show that side. Because we decided really early on that those two characters were just going to absolutely adore each other.

That there was going to be no sense that these characters were embarrassed of each other. There was going to be no sense that these characters had any, they just really loved each other. I think that having that tenderness and that core with these two characters gave us a little bit of agency for Nick’s character to be goofy or my character to be a little more stern. It just was really lovely.”

Temple of Geek: I just love so many of the small moments where it’s like, babe, I’m getting cauliflower ear. She’s like, that’s great.

Vic Michaelis:

“She’s so proud. Yeah.”

Temple of Geek: Can you talk about working with Izzy, not just as a co-star, but as a writer and working with her mom as a director? Was there a lot of improvisation? Was it more stick to the script? How did that kind of work?

Vic Michaelis:

“The process I think was really wonderful in that we did typically passes of the script where we were very much on script, on book. The writing was really wonderful and really lovely and was written in a way in which people speak, you know what I mean? Sometimes you get writing where it’s very stylized, which is really cool and unique in its own way, but it is harder to inject character moments into their sometimes depending on sort of what it is.

But with this one, yeah, we’d always do a pass that was stick to the script, and then oftentimes we’d be allowed to do a pass where we could sort of mess with it a little bit. It’s cool because on the final product of it, it is I think a lot of what was written because it again, just was very natural and felt really good. The improvisational moments felt very in character and were very informed by the writing. Izzy’s just I think, the most brilliant writer in the world.

Claudia was so wonderful to work with. Everybody was just so supportive of everybody and what was happening. I guess it’s a beautiful thing of having family. I was always very clear on what was happening, which is good. It’s nice to have clear communication with stuff like that. I feel like sometimes people are a little tiptoe around actors, but I personally always like to know what’s going on and getting direct notes. I think that they do such a wonderful job of making you feel incredibly supported and very clear on what’s happening.”

Temple of Geek: Can you talk about the logistics of the mirror filming and kind for you as an actor, what that was like both in the moment, but also watching as it happened?

Vic Michaelis:

“Yeah, yeah. It’s funny because just by nature of I guess geometry and angles, in order for something to be seen in camera, you can’t always see it in real life. So it was a lot of the times, the angles that you’re sitting, it’s sort of like the acting to a green dot thing a little bit where you’re hearing people’s voice but you can’t see them. And so then in the final product, seeing how beautiful those mirror shots look all practical was really, really cool. And I’m like, oh, it really plays.”

Vic Michaelis On How Grief Is The Heart Of D(e)ad

Temple of Geek: Totally, totally does. I think one of my favorite parts of this truly was just how real it felt and that you guys are all talking over each other so many times in that aspect of it because I feel like we don’t see that enough. And it is very real. You don’t pause and let everyone have a turn talking. It is everyone’s talking over each other.

Vic Michaelis:

“That was a huge Claudia-Izzy thing. They were really adamant on that being a big part of it. That it feeling very real and lived in, and that, especially in their family dynamic is a thing where everybody’s sort of talking, yet everybody is also kind of hearing and understanding what’s happening and the information that’s needed ends up rising to the top. But that was a huge thing that was important to them, and I think really played super well.”

Temple of Geek: Can you talk to me a little bit about the importance of not only independent film but intimate stories? Because I like that this is a story about a family dealing with grief, and it’s not big bombastic thing. You have the supernatural element, but that doesn’t take over the actual intimate family story.

Vic Michaelis:

“Yeah, I think it’s sort of the medium for the story. The thing that is sort of the byline is like, oh, getting haunted by the dad and getting to see all those cool mirror things and making it a really interesting vehicle. But at its heart it always was a story about grief and dealing with grief and dealing with a complicated, messy relationship.

Not only with the person that’s passed, but also your grief interacting with other people’s grief. Sometimes it’s on the same page and sometimes it’s not. I do really think it was such a fun and interesting vehicle to take for, like you said, a very simple story really, which is just a family trying to get through this really traumatic thing that’s happened to them.”

Temple of Geek: And then kind of a silly question, if you could haunt a person or a place, do you have one in mind you would want to haunt?

Vic Michaelis:

“Yeah, I do. Okay, let me think about this. Okay, here’s where I would want to haunt and I feel really strongly about this. I would want the world to be the fictionalized world In “You’ve Got Mail”. I would want haunt Fox Books to scare people away and get them to make Ryan’s little bookstore. And then eventually, I’m assuming I would be living there long term.

So then Amazon would come in and then all of a sudden I’d be haunting people, sort of a gimmick to try and get people to come into Fox Books because at the end of the day, they’re the only ones that are keeping books in bookstores alive, which is really sort of a turn of events. But that sort of would be my arc for that is first time getting people out of there. And then I’m like, well, we got to recalibrate. We got to get people in. So that’s where I would want to haunt.”

Temple of Geek: So you want a “You’ve Got Mail” sequel that’s focusing on you as the ghost.

Vic Michaelis:

“That’s it. Exactly. I want a “You Got Mail” sequel except, and it’s called, “It’s The Ghost’s Turn”. You didn’t know there was a ghost there, but we do a flashback and you can see that I was there the whole time and then I’m trying to get people off of Amazon and people are like, I know people’s immediate question, why don’t you just do that with Borders in the real world? It’s not the same. Tom Hanks isn’t there. And so that’s sort of an important part of it for me.”

Temple of Geek: We’ve got to get a Kickstarter. This is great.

Vic Michaelis:

“We’ve got to get a Kickstarter. I’m launching a Kickstarter today, so we’ve got to get Laser Webber, the producer on the phone, and I feel really good about that. We’re going to get that Kickstarter launched asap. You get writing credit, don’t worry.”

Check out the list of screenings to see if “D(e)ad” is showing near you.