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Published Newspaper Article
- Tuesday - 11/21/2000 GUNNING UP FOR THE REEL LIFE |
| Kew
Gardens Lawyer gets an acting break as criminal in
"Sudden" by Nancy A. Ruhling |
| Victor Knapp doesn't know where to put the gun. He tries the Colt automatic in the breast pocket of his brown-suede sports jacket; he puts it through the belt loop of his jeans and finally decides to wear it down the small of his back, gangsta style. |
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"Guys with guns usually keep them back here" he says
as he lies in wait by the Dumpster in the abandoned Huntington
Station lot. It turns out to be a smart move because as the
terrified woman runs by, he grabs her, whips out the pistol
quick as lightning and puts it to her head. "I've got the gun...I've got the chick", he yells to another pursuer. |
| "Which one do you want, the guy or the girl?...I'm taking the girl." Since he's been on the set of the suspense film "Sharp and Sudden", it's been a busy time for Knapp. So far, he's been arrested in Jackson Heights for harassing a hot dog vendor, he's used that same Colt to stop the clock of an enemy, and it's not even noon and he's ready to blow this poor kid's brains out if she so much as makes one wrong move. |
| And all of this has been particularly trying for Knapp because he's used to being on the other side of the law. In real life, Knapp is a Kew Gardens entertainment lawyer. In reel life, at least for this film, Knapp is Bruno Phence, an associate of a terrorist group. |
| "Bruno's a killer, and I'm having a little trouble adjusting to that," says Knapp. "Bruno is an egotistical, aggressive-assertive type of individual. We all have a little bit of greed and nastiness in us, and the key for an actor is to access those parts and use them as a springboard for action. I'm trying to tap into that side of my personality for this role." Knapp got bitten by the acting bug three years ago while attending a course at the Learning Annex in Manhattan taught by Arthur Reel. He performed in several student productions and then went on to study at HB Studios in the West Village with Ed Morehouse and Michael Beckett. |
| Since then, he has appeared with small theater groups and has had roles in over a dozen plays and several independent films that have not been released yet. The key supporting role of Bruno in "Sharp and Sudden," a production of Huntington Action Films, is the biggest part Knapp has landed. |
| "When Victor auditioned, he was pleading a case at Rikers Island, and he kept calling me on his cell phone saying he was being delayed," says Glenn Andreiev, writer, producer and director of "Sharp and Sudden." "He just gave this dynamite audition, and I don't know whether Rikers Island had anything to do with it." Rikers Island not withstanding, the 46 year old Knapp says that acting has changed the direction of his private law practice. He is taking on entertainment law cases in addition to criminal ones and has eight more credits to go before earning his master's degree in intellectual property from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in Manhattan. |
| "The emphasis of my study at Cardozo has been copyright, law, music, media and Internet law," he says. "I wouldn't mind getting involved with film and theater production, which involves the merger of creative collaboration with the legal business side." Knapp says that at least for him, acting and law go hand in hand. "My skills in acting have helped in court," he says, "Acting has given me an opportunity to really look at human psychology and behavior. It has helped me understand motivation." For now, on the first of four days of filming, Knapp has only to understand what makes Bruno, his trigger-happy character, tick. "I break down the script line by line and look at what's behind each line. "And then I try to visualize it." He's more used to live theater, where actors have more opportunities to explore their character in rehearsals. In films, scenes are often shot many times and usually out of sequence, so he doesn't quite know that to expect. "We haven't even rehearsed," he says. "It's kind of like a trial run. I'm not really nervous, because I always have a lot of nervous energy." When Andreiev yells, "Action", Knapp's blue eyes turn to steel as he holds that gun to the heroine's head and runs through his "I've got the gun" line flawlessly. |
| "That was good right off the bat," Andreiev says. "I didn't even have to look at the script." Knapp seems surprised that he could pull it off so easily. "Acting is fun," he says. "It's like play. I fell in love with it." While Knapp won't give away the plot of "Sharp and Sudden", which revolves around a fashion model wrongly accused of terrorism, he will say that just as it does in a court of law, "good always triumphs over evil." That doesn't sound too good for our villain Bruno. But if Bruno does end up needing a lawyer, he'll find Knapp waiting in the wings. |
