The stars came out for the red carpet premiere of director Ryan Curtis’ latest action noir offering, Hollywood Grit. Starring Max Martini as the titular Grit Thorn, alongside Linda Purl, Patrick Duffy, Nikki Howard, Linc Hand, David B. Meadows, Caylee Cowan, Benito Martinez, Ysabela Espinosa, the film centers around a fallen detective who must confront his past demons and navigate a treacherous path of corruption and deceit to find his missing, estranged singer daughter, unearthing a conspiracy that shakes him to his core.
I had the chance to speak to several of the cast and crew members on opening night about their roles and why its still important as ever to have fun with and at the movies.
AMC The Grove
“We shot everything here in Los Angeles, on location, some really phenomenal locations. The Hollywood American Legion we completely transformed into the nightclub in the movie, so that’s something I’m really proud of,” said co-writer/director Ryan Curtis. “Come to the theater. Grab popcorn. Eat it. Completely get lost in the movie… I want them [viewers] to walk away having a truly great time and movie experience that was character-driven, new, fresh and slightly has that thing from the past that has people say ‘you know what? That’s the movies that I used to love!'”
AMC The Grove
“This was only a couple of months from concept to being in pre-production, maybe two months,” said Hollywood Grit co-writer Kristina Denton. With Ryan Curtis revealing that writing began fresh out of the 2023 SAG-AFTRA Writers’ Strikes, Denton explained that “I really love writing for actors I know,” in regards to the casting of Max Martini.
“As an actor, your job is to be moldable. Whatever changes — if you’re supposed to shoot in a car, and you don’t have a car? Shoot at a table. Or you shoot on some steps, and your job is just to make it work. And so I pride myself on being able to make it work,” Linc Hand, who plays Detective Ian Wright, the partner to Tyrese Gibson’s character, expressed. “There’s definitely a sense of comfortability and safety on set knowing my choices will be supported and accepted and vice versa,” said leading lady Nikki Howard, speaking on the atmosphere on set.
AMC The Grove
“As far as elements, there’s so many elements to this film,” said veteran actor and star of Hollywood Grit, Max Martini, “the music is fantastic, it plays a big character in the film. One of the things I love about this movie is there’s no visual effects — there’s no computer generated imagery which we’re bombarded with these days. For that reason alone, people should see it, it’s a quintessential independent movie.”
Hear more from the cast of Hollywood Grit here:
