I'd been wanting to do an edgy, hard comedy short for a while and had been noodling around on the page with this "Chuck Norris of love" type character when an random image of Lou Diamond Phillips serendipitously popped in my head. Who knows where it came from (or what messed up muse sent it my way), but I decided to run with it and thus... "Lucy in the Sky with Diamond" was born.
The problem is when you write a short film that revolves completely around Lou Diamond Phillips, it usually helps to actually know Lou Diamond Phillips, which I didn't. But I had a script and through our producer John Patrick Jordan (who also stars in the film) and a series of agency and management relationships, we were able to get it to Lou while he was on set in New Mexico shooting his TV show "Longmire". We literally sent it to him blind and had no idea how he would respond to the material; some of it is pretty racy and a bit self-deprecating so we were banking on our own unsubstantiated perception that he would just be a super cool guy. And as it turns out, he is. Not only did he love the script, but he had hilarious ideas on how to push the material even further.
When we found out how excited he was to jump in the sandbox with us, it just validated how awesome of a guy he is. I mean, I remember watching La Bamba over and over as a kid with my siblings, quoting it, singing along, and acting out scenes. In some ways, Lou was to us what Travolta was to Tarantino. The guy brings such a unique mythology along with him as an actor; he’s played so many iconic roles across such a wide range of ethnicities. Adding a tongue-and-check twist to his persona gave us an opportunity to create some amazing comedic moments.
We shot the short over two days at a Denny's out in the valley. I was lucky enough to con my DP, Marcos Durian, who has shot many of my music videos, to come on board. We decided early on that the visual look and feel would kind of revolve around Lou who plays this hyperbolized, larger-than-life version of himself known as the elusive and mysterious “LDP”. He's a kind of renegade, spirit guide, life coach character who attempts to help one of the other characters in the film get over a particularly disconcerting ex-girlfriend. It's a hilarious turn from him and was a blast to make. Definitely nice every once in a while to just get out there and do something for the love of it...
Joey Boukadakis
