Brad William Henke, Denny in Clark Gregg's Choke recently had a chance to sit down with one of FlickDirect's staff members, Marco Chacon, and discuss the upcoming DVD release of Choke...
Marco: Why did you do Choke? What attracted you to it?
Brad: I didn't know a lot about it. I read the script the night before, and I like the character a lot. I felt he was the heart of the film. He grew, healed, and helped his buddy heal. I was really attracted to that. Also, they told me Sam was doing it, and I liked Sam.
I also read the book and liked how close the script was to the book.
Marco: Are you a Chuck Palahniuk fan?
Brad: Since I saw Fight Club, I have been. I was flying to Hawaii, and I started reading Haunted. That is a book you really need complete concentration for. I also met him during the filming. He's a really nice, unique guy.
Marco: What would you tell a non-Chuck Palahniuk fan who is thinking about seeing Choke?
Brad: Well, if you saw Fight Club, you'll like it. It has some of the same elements. Guys-guys will like it. It has some sexy stuff like Sam's character who sees a girl and imagines what her breast will look like. For everyone else, there is a lot of redemption in the movie -- so many deep things about how you search for lost love as a kid ... and search for hope.
When the movie came out, I went and watched it -- just as a movie. I thought it had a really good message.
Marco: The movie has a lot of stuff in it about therapy. The main characters are recovering sex addicts. I know that Chuck Palahniuk spent time visiting 12-step meetings, but not as a person in recovery -- he was a driver for people in rehab. Do you have any background in therapy? How do you feel the movie treats the subject of recovering addicts?
Brad: I have had one-on-one therapy quite a bit. For the show, we went to some sex addiction meetings. In the movie, there are guys and girls there; and I thought this would be kind of sexy: people talking about having sex. When I got there, it was all guys and I thought ... okay, this is different.
Then you hear some of the saddest stories ever. They get on sex, and lose their jobs; it is horrible. This guy had a business meeting that went wrong. He went to his office and started watching porn on the Internet; someone came in and saw him. and he got fired. It is a mood addiction. Where I might eat a burrito, they would do a sexual thing.
When Sam and I heard this, we went "Oh crap--this is a serious thing and we need to be serious about it." I think the film treats it with respect.
Marco: You are in JJ Abram's new Star Trek movie. Can you tell us anything about that? Were you on any cool Star Trek sets?
Brad: I think if I say anything they can possibly sue me for my house or something like that. They dropped the script off -- just my scene -- in what appeared to be an armored truck. I had to sign for it. What I can say is that Kirk, when he was a boy, lived on a farm and had an abusive uncle. That was me.
We did the scenes in front of a farmhouse, but there was also a model of a futuristic farmhouse -- a small one -- that we were in front of. The model was only a few feet high, so I don't really know how it is going to look.
Marco: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us. Have a nice day.
