walter-posterWalter (Andrew J. West), a mild mannered ticket-taker at a movie theater, believes himself to be the son of God with the responsibility to judge whether people will spend eternity in heaven or hell. When a ghost stuck in purgatory interrupts Walter’s daily routine, his world is turned upside down forcing him to reassess the meaning of his life. As a young man still living with his doting mother (Virginia Madsen), Walter’s job makes it particularly easy for him to decide the individual fates of large numbers of people as they obliviously enter the theatre. Enter Greg (Justin Kirk), a ghost stuck in limbo. Greg senses that Walter could hold the key to his own fate, and wants him to make the decision that will send him to his final resting place, be it heaven or hell. But reminded of the terrible power he wields, Walter finds his bargain with God increasingly hard to keep. Walter, directed by Anna Mastro and written by Paul Shoulberg, also features William H. Macy, Neve Campbell, Milo Ventimiglia, Leven Rambin, Jim Gaffigan, and Peter Facinelli. I talked to director Anna Mastro about this unusual and surprisingly moving film.

Danny Miller: I love Walter’s delusion. I think I’ve gone through periods where I want to walk down the street judging people that quickly and harshly. With Walter thinking he’s one of God’s son, do you worry about people thinking the film is sacrilegious?

annamastroAnna Mastro: It’s come up. But I didn’t set out to make a religious movie at all — I just wanted to look at alternate ways that people go about creating coping mechanisms for themselves. For me, the only real religion in the movie is the idea of the theater as church.

Oh, I can totally relate to that. Movie theaters are my main house of worship!

Mine, too! But I really appreciate religion and what it does for people — I’m not trying to make fun of it in any way.

For a tiny film like this, the cast you assembled is unbelievable. How did you manage that?

It is a really small film and every actor got paid scale. I was just so lucky. We knew we had Andrew J. West since he played Walter in the short film that this is based on. He wasn’t that well known at the time but since we wrapped he’s done an entire season as Gareth in The Walking Dead, the lead cannibal, so now people are kind of obsessed with him. And Leven Rambin, who plays Walter’s love interest, is going to be on the second season of True Detective.

I remember her, I’m embarrassed to admit, when she was Lily Montgomery, Erica Kane’s stepdaughter on All My Children. It’s easy to see why Walter would be hopelessly in love with her!

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Oh, she’s got so many layers to her, that girl — so much raw talent. It’s so cool to watch these guys explode on the scene.

What about Virginia Madsen and William H. Macy? 

Virginia was the first person I cast after Andrew. I sent her the script and we met and had such an amazing meeting talking about her character. She is so great. And it was a dream come true getting William H. Macy. It was so wonderful to work with him — he’s such a smart actor and director.

That may be my favorite depiction of a psychiatrist I’ve ever seen in a film! You must have been pinching yourself to work with actors of this caliber.

I was. Of course I just had to keep moving. The whole movie was shot in 21 days. But the cast coming together like that was crazy. I had worked with Milo before and when I first showed him the script, he said “Um…I don’t think I’m quite right for Walter.” And I said, “No, no, no, you’re playing his obnoxious, crass friend, Vince!” And he was like, “Oh, I can do that!” He was the coolest. And I knew I wanted Jim Gaffigan in the film, I kept saying “We are working with this guy whatever it takes, I don’t care what we have to do — film his scenes on the weekend or whatever.” The guy is touring constantly, he’s the busiest person I know! And I thought Justin Kirk was so perfect for that role, he’s got this incredible sense of dark comedic timing. I was a huge fan of his work on Weeds and Angels in America and so many thing’s he’s done.

It was nice to see Neve Campbell again in such a poignant role.

Oh, Neve Campbell, are you kidding me? She’s such a wonderful actress who’s going to make the comeback of a lifetime, you just watch! So beautiful and talented and wonderful to work with. And Peter Facinelli I’ve known for years and was so lucky to have him in the film. Everyone was great, even the little kids. Of course the tiniest kid was my nephew since we ran out of money for anyone else!

What I love about these supporting characters is that they are so unique and vulnerable that I could watch a whole movie about each of them. I know you’ve worked a lot in commercials and music videos, but what surprised you the most about making your first feature?

The hardest part with something like this is that it doesn’t easily fit into a genre. I mean, it’s not a horror movie, it’s not a typical comedy, I’m a first-time director, so it was an incredibly hard and long process to cobble together the funding. I think I underestimated how tricky that would be but I just wouldn’t quit even though it took a really long time. Shooting the film itself was incredibly fun even though we had to do it so fast.

Have you had a chance to see it with audiences yet?

Yes, we took it to Cannes and had a great experience there and at other film festivals including Palm Springs where we had three sold-out screenings. It was so gratifying because when you’re making something like this you just don’t know how people are going to respond!

Walter opens in select cities on March 13, 2015, and is available on VOD.