When I first met writer/director Taylor Thompson outside his apartment one afternoon in Pasadena, a chance conversation led to him asking me on the spot: “Do you want to be in my film?” Welcome as a breeze on that summer day, I accepted. I just got a good feeling about him, on top of Taylor already being a mutual friend of my friend and cinematographer Jacob “Kuba” Bojsza. It’s not always that easy asking someone to join you on an adventure. In this case, join the cast of People Person, a film that follows a lonely chatterbox and his quest to find a friend at all costs.
Thompson’s film asks a sad, secret question that I’d wager many a big city dweller confront in the back of their minds: “Am I not cool enough to be here? When will I find someone? Does anyone want to be my friend?” Just as Thompson reached out to invite me to play a role, Dennis (in a ferocious and sympathetic performance by Joseph Schwartz) is searching for connection. Through a series of curdling, awkward encounters, we discover Dennis’s prison of loneliness may very well be due to his own making – but it’s equally heartrending and hilarious to watch him still try to break free.
Clark (Sean David Christensen) shares a tense afternoon in the park with Dennis (Joseph Schwartz).
“Dennis is the personification of my battle between social anxiety and desperate need for human connection,” says Thompson. “The hard part about making a movie is you can’t do it all by yourself. That meant I had to talk to people. I asked favors from everyone I knew…the majority of the crew being my friends.” Not unlike Thompson’s casting process with me, Dennis boldly asks for help in People Person. Much to his displeasure, the world has changed since the days he remembers, mirroring out own. According to a recent poll by the Wall Street Journal via Axios, “the share of U.S. workers who say they know their coworkers on a personal level has fallen from around 80% in 2019 to around 67% today. In Jan. 2020, 47% of American workers believed someone at work cared about them, per Gallup polling. That’s fallen to 38%.”* Couldn’t all of us relate just a little?
Sumptuously shot by “Kuba” Bojsza and populated by a colorful array of performances, People Person assures us in measured and mischievous tones, that loneliness can be embraced and transformed into something unexpected and beautiful. I was honored to play a small part in it.
October 24th, 2022: Sean David Christensen on location for People Person with cinematographer Jacob “Kuba” Bojsza, 1st Assistant Camera Aaron Cheung & clapper/loader Johnny Biedenharn. (Photo by Taylor Thompson)
*Excerpt from article by Erica Pandey, Axios (5/31/24)