The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Elizabeth Von Isser Talks New Film “Kate Hugo” and Acting Journey

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

Elizabeth Von Isser Talks New Film "Kate Hugo" and Acting Journey Elizabethvonisser.com Katehugo.com About the Guest(s): Elizabeth Von Isser is a seasoned multi-hyphenate professional in the film industry, known for her extensive contributions as an actor, writer, and producer. With over 30 film credits and numerous voice acting gigs, she has carved a significant niche for herself. Transitioning from a career as a manufacturing engineer, Elizabeth embraced her passion for acting in 2013, leading her to write and star in her own feature-length screenplay, "Kate Hugo, Murder After Mayhem." Her varied career is a testament to creativity and persistence, inspiring others to pursue their ambitions regardless of age or background. Episode Summary: Join Chris Voss as he engages with superlatively talented Elizabeth Von Isser, a film industry veteran known for her roles both in front of and behind the camera. Dive into Elizabeth's transformative journey from a Midwest upbringing and a career in engineering to producing and starring in award-winning films. With a lens on her latest project, "Kate Hugo, Murder After Mayhem," this episode offers a fascinating exploration of breaking age barriers in Hollywood, overcoming obstacles, and nurturing one's creative passions. Elizabeth vividly shares her inspiration behind creating "Kate Hugo, Murder After Mayhem." Specifically inspired by the ingenious crime-solving style of the first female Pinkerton detectives, Elizabeth brings forward a compelling narrative set in the near future. Her movie, a blend of historical inspiration and futuristic imagination, acts as a beacon for talented, yet undiscovered local actors and crew from Tucson, Arizona. Moreover, the episode delves into Elizabeth's trials in raising funds and navigating the challenges of producing a SAG-compliant film, aiming for theatrical releases across domestic and international markets. Key Takeaways: Elizabeth Von Isser transitioned from engineering to the film industry, combined her technical background and artistic aspirations to pursue her passion. Her latest project, "Kate Hugo, Murder After Mayhem," reflects not only innovation in storytelling but a tribute to historical female detectives while presenting futuristic outcomes. Despite societal age norms in Hollywood, Elizabeth successfully charts her path by creating roles and opportunities that diversify typical portrayals of women over 55. She highlights the intricacies of film production, including regional issues and unique experiences in the cinematic landscape of Tucson. Project insights reveal her strategic plans for distribution and expansion into possible future sequels or series adaptations. Notable Quotes: "I didn't wanna make a movie about Kate Warren and the Pinkertons, but I was inspired by the way that she solved that crime." "I think I'm pretty equally left, right Brained." "I never expected it to, I guess we went SAG ultra low budget and so we have some SAG actors in it, and that created a whole nother level of complication." "With every year that I got older, it seemed like the opportunities were less and less." "The vast majority of our cast was also local…that created a whole nother level of complication in that, you know, we had to make sure we were following all the SAG rules."

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready. Get ready. Strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hey, folks. It's Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com.

Ladies and gentlemen, the interlatest things that makes an official welcome to the show. For 16 years and over 2,100 episodes, you've been listening to the Chris Voss Show with all the most wonderful, brilliant people, the smartest people in the damn world. That's probably what we should call the podcast. The smartest goddamn people in the world. Or else. I don't know what that means. Anyway, guys, welcome to the show. Go to Goodreads.com, Fortress Chris Voss,oss, LinkedIn.com, FortressCrispFoss.

Crisp Foss is one of the TikTokity and all the crazy places you can find us on the internet or not on the internet. You can find us in real life too. We're available there. Anyway, guys, we're going to be talking to a wonderful young lady about her amazing new film that she's done and she's put a lot of work into it. Darn it. We're going to find out what it is about and how to check it out in probably theaters or maybe online near you elizabeth von isser is a multi-hyphenate actor

writer producer with over 30 film and numerous voice acting credits to her name originally a midwest girl she arrived in tucson in 1984 to pursue a career as a manufacturing engineer, but never lost her desire to perform. Her first shot at film acting in 2013 sparked an interest that has grown into a passion, and she recently wrote her first feature-length screenplay, Kate Hugo, Murder After May line. Which has won five awards and currently in post-production. She's married to her best friend of 36 years, has two adult sons

who continue to bring them joy and laughter. That's good. Most people you know, with kids, they just bring sadness and crying. I think that's if they're teenagers. Is that how it works? Anyway, welcome to the show, Elizabeth. How are you? Thanks, Chris. I'm glad to, welcome to the show, Elizabeth. How are you? Thanks, Chris.

I'm glad to be here. I'm doing great. How are you? I'm doing excellent. The jokes are flowing. So that's all that matters, really, to the show. So Elizabeth, giveusher.com. So where do you want people to find you on the interwebs to get to know you better?

Sure. So just in general, for the different projects that I'm working on, they can go to my website, which is elizabethvonisser.com. And last name is V as in Victor, O, N as in Nancy, I, S as in the American film market in Las Vegas pitching, they can go directly to katehugo.com. katehugo.com, the name of the movie. Yep. Yep. I'm trying to put that into my browser here.

Give us a 30,000 overview. What's inside your new movie? I started working on it a couple years ago. I was reading a book all about the first female Pinkerton detectives way back in the 1850s, and they were sort of case files of how they solved different crimes. First of all, I was amazed that there were female Pinkerton detectives way back then. And that was pretty impressive. And then one of the case files that I read about was one that Kate Warren had solved, and she was the very first female Pinkerton detective. And it was so out of the box,

so creative, so unusual, that I thought that would make a really good movie. I didn't want to make a movie about Kate Warren and the Pinkertons, but I was inspired by the way that she solved that crime because, you know, there's virtually no that is based in the near future after a cataclysmic geomagnetic storm solar flare, which we do have frequently. And in this one, it sort of knocks technology out. It devastates the Earth's electromagnetic field, knocks out technology, kind of throws us back about 100 years technologically wise. Yeah, so that's how I started writing it. And the screenplay started winning some awards. And I had writing sort of mentor, Rich Goldstein, who said, you know what, this is a great story. I'd really like to direct it.

And we just went from there, step by step. And you starred in it as well. Yes, yes. I play Kate Hugo. Yeah. You know. That's the great thing about writing your own screenplay, you know. I think Stallone did that.

Sylvester Stallone, if you remember. He wrote the screenplay and everything, I guess, whatever. Yeah. For Rocky. And they were like, we'll pay you the money if you don't appear in the show. And he's like, no, I won't appear in the show. That's a horrible...

No, Adrian, I want to be in the show. Wait, did I just do Arnold Schwarzenegger? Same people, really, when it comes down to it. One's Italian and one's got an overgrowth problem with his pituitary gland. I'm throwing shade at Arnold Schwarzenegger for no reason whatsoever this morning. He's going to call me. Yeah, poor Arnie. Poor Arnie. I'm sure he'll live. Him with those donkeys. What is it that he keeps in his house? He keeps donkeys or lawnmowers? Oh, I think so. Yeah, I saw his documentary. It was pretty good.

Women get cats when they get old, men get donkeys or alpacas or whatever. I don't know. He shares his plate of food with them, which is pretty. Yeah, that's a little odd. You should have him in your next movie. And Kate Hugo, too. So you won lots of awards. Let me see if I can read them a few here.

International Film and Script Festival, New Lotus, 2024, International Film and Script Festival, Great Feature, Best Feature Script. I can't read the other one. It's really small. Yeah, they're kind of small. Yeah, it doesn't blow up well. The Santa Barbara International Screenplay Awards in 2023. Finalists, semifinalists for world's fastest screenplay competition?

There is. They give out awards, I think, every month or two. Yeah. I just write a short film then. That way it'd be fast. And most people do, but apparently I'm crazy

and decided to just jump into the deep end and write a feature. You know, it was to the point where I'm 65 now, and the opportunities for a woman my age are really few and far between. And so that's why I decided to write my own content. Let's first say that a little bit. Tell us about your upbringing and your influences. What gave you the acting bug, actress bug, acting bug? Sounds like a disease you pick up in Thailand on a trip to Thailand.

Sorry, the jokes are just flowing today. But there was a point, and lead us up to the point where you did become frustrated and you decided to take things in your own hands. me into a different lane, suggesting that I could always act on the side as a hobby, and I should do something that would provide a better income for me. Wow. So I went into engineering. My dad was an engineer, my brother was an engineer, and I did that. That's what brought me to Tucson is a job in the defense industry. So I did that for a while. I kind of came and went a few times as my boys were growing up, but never lost my desire to act and still acted in community theater and that kind of thing.

But when they got to be teenagers, I decided I didn't want two teenage boys home alone for extended periods of time. So I left for good and started really diving into the arts, both visual arts and performing arts. Yeah. It sounds like you have an artist sort of mind. I think I'm pretty equally left-right brained. Good balance. I'm looking over your IMDB.com rating. They have you build this, and correct me if this is wrong, I'm just reading it. Actress in 28 different projects, producer at six, camera and electrical department at three.

I guess they had you do some of the grip work or something. Yeah, yeah. Writer in two different projects, art department. Yeah, you've been in a lot of stuff here. So you've made quite the career. But you found that once you reach a certain age, maybe there weren't as many welcoming roles. And it seems like most of the breakdowns that come through are looking for women who are 25 to 35 years old. And when I started doing this professionally, acting professionally, I was already 55.

You know, the roles were not flooding in, that's for sure. And with every year that I got older, it seemed like the opportunities were less and less. Those that did come across were for, you know, the grandma or the, you know, somebody's crazy aunt or something like that. And pretty much, you know, one or two lines, very minor supporting roles. And I thought, you know, I'm more than that. I don't really fit the, you know, the trope of the grandmother, silver-haired grandmother sitting in a rocking chair knitting. Yeah. So I finally.

You're like throwing shade and shaming. I don't mean to do that. Are you shaming actresses that do that? No, no, no. There's definitely. We're just doing comedy on the show there's definitely a need for that i just thought that's not all there is and as a democrat you know i'm a democrat so i don't want to i don't want to do this joke this is a joke people but i don't want

to do this joke with people thinking oh he's implying something else but as a democrat i know that hollywood is largely woke and Democrat, I guess, for the most part. Did you try telling them that you identify as a much younger woman? It's a joke, people. Don't write me. I identify as a 35-year-old woman. I do that now.

I identify as a 35-year-old. So my dates still aren't impressed. So yeah, that's just a joke people don't write me i know it's tough times nowadays anyway guys so you what what point do you sit down and you go i'm gonna write a screenplay have you ever written a screenplay before what did you did you find the story first and inspired you to write the screenplay about the Pinkerton women? Or did that come through the research of like, God damn it, I'm going to do my own thing and write a script?

No, I was inspired first of all, story that would fit into today's world or even slightly in the future, which is where the story takes place. And yeah, I just sort of felt my way. I had never written a screenplay before. Obviously, I've read a lot of screenplays. Pete Good experience. never written a screenplay before obviously i've read a lot of screenplays and experience yeah so i you know found myself some free screenwriting software and just started creating this story what i didn't realize at the beginning was were all of the rules and regulations that seemed to come with writing a screenplay. Really? Oh, yeah. I mean, dialogue is only this many words, and the action line has to be like this,

and it's perfect present or something like that. I get it, yeah. Yeah. And so, fortunately for me, I have a number of friends, contacts in the area that are screenwriters and were able to give me a lot of notes and feedback. And my director helped me sort of refine some of the actions and some of the dialogue and that sort of thing. But it just sort of blew up, actually, to be much bigger than I originally intended. I never expected it to, I guess, we went SAG ultra-low budget, and so we have some SAG actors in it. And that created a whole other level of complication in that we had to make sure we were following all the SAG rules. And so it ended up being, one, a lot more expensive than I had originally anticipated.

And raising funds, raising money is really not my wheelhouse. And so that's been a real challenge. Yeah. That's the hardest challenge usually in a movie is raising the funds for it, even in Hollywood. Yeah. I think you're right. Yeah. Is, is getting people to fund it and back it. And, and then of course getting the, the people to line up, but you can't get the people to line up if you can't offer them money. You know, it's a real big challenge, you know? And then half the time they're like, it's kind of like getting credit when you don't have credit, when you're a kid, you're like, or you're like, hey, I want a job and some credit. And they're like, do you have any jobs or credit? And you're like, no, I'm just new. I'm young.

Right. I want a job. What's your experience? I don't have any. I want a job. We only give jobs to people with experience, and we only give credit to people with credit. I remember being 20. But yeah, raising money is hard.

And were you doing this in Tucson then, not Hollywood? Yeah. All of our crew were local, Tucson, Southern Arizona. The vast majority of our cast was also local. We did bring in Will Roberts from L.A. He was General George C. Marshall in Oppenheimer, and he plays one of our major characters. That's the only person we really brought in who we didn't consider local, or who didn't consider themselves local. And yeah, and that was part of my mission too,

is there are a lot of very talented people cast and crew actors and crew here locally that don't necessarily get an opportunity to to show their stuff and i wanted to provide that opportunity and so what do you think now after going through you know there's there's been a lot of great actors and actresses that wrote their own screenplay and then took it to the thing when we mentioned sylvester stallone a few other people that have done that and they they kind of found themselves between projects or out of work for a little time where maybe they weren't in the you know the hot a spotlight of the a-list actors whatever and they go hey i'm going to do my own thing. And that usually can propel them, or maybe their further work they'll do will propel them into maybe stardom or be more successful.

Do you ever hope to go to Hollywood and become a big actress? I don't hope to go to Hollywood. I like staying right here in Tucson whenever I can. You like scorpions a lot, basically. Yeah, scorpions and rattlesnakes are my friends. You should see a therapist about that. Or maybe they should see one about you. I've seen my therapist and he has seen me.

So what's in the future for you now that you've produced this movie? Is work anything else new? Yes. So I just returned from Las Vegas for the American film market. I had meetings with some sales agents and some distributors. I was actually hoping to be able to find some finishing funds while I was there, but that didn't happen. But I made some great contacts.

And once we do finish up, I'll have contacts to go back to once I have a screener ready. But we're pretty far along. We've raised over 80% of our budget. And we're in post-production. We've got a picture lock that's with our composer right now. So all that's really left is color grading, visual effects, audio mixing, that kind of thing. So hopefully we'll be able to actually finish up within the next, you know, by early 2025. And then I've got another shorter film that's going to go directly to streaming as a part of a mystery series.

We start filming that this Thursday, so in two days. And then I've got a couple other films in development that are just sort of in the screenplay stage that I've started working on. So for acting, I've got plenty of irons in the fire and wearing lots of hats. Yeah, you wear one in the movie and wearing lots of hats. Yeah. You wear one in the movie, too. Yeah, I do. It's a really cool hat. Yeah, it's a cool hat.

It's one of those. Is it an Australian hat? No, I think it was like a Park Ranger hat or something like that. But I think it's vintage from maybe the 40s or 50s. Yeah, it does look like. Yeah. People can check out the trailer online. There's a YouTube video of it.

Do you guys have a distributor yet for it? Are you thinking about taking it to Sundance, maybe? Oh, I doubt if we'll do any of the giant film festivals. We'd like to just take it directly to distribution if possible. We'd like to have a domestic theatrical release if possible that would move then into an international theatrical release and then go into streaming. So that's a, that's a big goal. And, but you know, we want to remain optimistic.

Yeah. I mean, Sundance is a great way to pick up a distributor. Yeah. You know, you've seen so many movies, especially they were low budget. You know, I think what was the famous one that really came out of Sundance that was made for 30 grand? It was the horror film that was really scary in the woods. Oh, I can't think of it. It was terrifying. Not to mention, you wanted to throw up watching the screen rattle around. Right.

Like, I couldn't watch it. I was just like, I'm going to puke. But some people could. And i mean it was scary i finally saw the end and it was it was it was scary i'm getting chills right now but yeah i mean they made it for like 30 grand and and you know it's not there's not a lot of acting in it really it's just mostly just running through the woods but and some other bit things but yeah it created a lot of suspense it it engaged a lot of people it was a hit but you know you know streaming is offered so many opportunities like amazon netflix um disney i don't yeah even youtube youtube is is developing its own tv channel and to be and yeah yeah so

there's so many opportunities for for companies to pick up your films and, and this may, I mean, this might be a great ongoing series, the Kate Hugo series. That's, that's the idea or that's the goal is that this is a first, the first movie and that there would be sequels. Yeah. And you know what? I, you may have thought of this i i would maybe incorporate into a book a lot of the people we have on the show that end up with screenplays they write the book first and then gets picked up by screenplay and they make a lot of money off the optioning it's crazy because they get paid the option whether it goes to film or not and sometimes it just gets sold all over in different options you make all your money in options right you know it might make a great series it might catch on with women if you create a women's group i know a lot of movies today now target empowered

women you know maybe it's a maybe it's a great character for the future and you know you can you can help drive the machine the popularity or the interest in it with so many different formats of it that's right yeah i've heard that before and it's definitely something that's in the back of my mind yeah yeah the what's his face tried to do that make it into a series the guy who does yellowstone oh costner kevin costner yeah i was with kevin bacon that was way wrong kevin footloose footloose meets yellowstone coming to you in 2025. The new Yellowstone fucking sequel, as if there wasn't enough. Yeah, already. But yeah, I mean, it's pretty good. What did you find compelling about the character, the way you designed the character?

How did you identify with that character and find it compelling to not only you narrating it and telling the story through your acting, but also just you as an actress. You know, what did you find fulfilling about it? Or what did you find that it really captured the essence of you in the part? One thing that I really wanted to explore was the strength and resilience of this woman. She goes through, she has some great tragedies in her life, but she continues to work, she continues to push ahead and overcome overcome the obstacles that come her way. And I'm pretty proud of Kate Hugo and how her character arc goes across the film which i really wanted to to explore yeah fleshing out the human nature and human qualities and different things we go through in cathartic moments as a human being i mean these are what make stories great you know

and story i mean storytelling gets done in so many different ways i mean film tv book print magazines you know people love stories we love to collect stories in life because that's how we learn that's how we educate ourselves what about the film haven't we talked about that maybe we should tease out or or throw out to get people more interested in it to check it out one of the things that's sort of a almost a side story a little bit is we do bring in kind of a supernatural element into it too after this murder occurs and you know the question becomes you know is the victim coming back from the dead to to try and identify their killer? Or, you know, does Kate Hugo have these eccentric methods of trying to solve a crime? Or maybe it's a little of both. I don't know.

It'll be exciting to see if this turns into maybe a series like Kevin Costner did with that new movie series he has, Horizon, I think it is. Yeah, I can't remember. And I don't know that it fared well in theaters but you know putting a movie out in kind of the format that amazon uses or where they do a series kind of interesting way of doing it like i you know like i can't imagine going to a pre-planned godfather you know two three you know that was pre-planned right in fact francis for copa didn't want to do godfather

too i don't think you want to do the original godfather i don't know i'll have to check we've had a few people on the who've written books about the making of the godfather so go back and search that data so give us your final thoughts as we go out final pitch out tell people where they can get to know you on the interwebs etc etc you bet so in general people can reach out to me through elizabethvonisser.com they can find out more about the film and even if they are led to help us finish it they can make a tax deductible donation through our fiscal sponsor right there on the website and yeah that's katehugo.com and you'll'll find out, you'll meet the cast. I've done video interviews with the cast that you can find on some of the past newsletters.

There's newsletter library, that kind of thing, some behind the scenes photos. And so it's full of all sorts of good information. And I was going to say, it's almost the end of the year. So you want to get in your charitable donations for the end of the year because, you know, you want to get those write-offs before taxes kick in, folks. Yep. I know everyone does those last-minute end-of-the-year things. We need to give away money! Give it to me!

Give it to Elizabeth, and then if you have any left over, you can go to buymeacoffee.com or whatever. There's something somewhere on that. Buymeacoffee.com or whatever. There's something somewhere on that. Buymeacoffee.com for us this Christmas. Thank you very much, Elizabeth, for coming to the show. We really appreciate it. Oh, thanks, Chris. It was really a lot of fun to be here. Thank you.

And check out her amazing work. And it's getting shifted on me. Kate Hugo, Murder After Mayhem in theaters near you or your kitchen on streaming, or wherever fine productions are seen and sold. Seen and sold? Yeah, whatever. Anyway, guys, thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other.

Stay safe. We'll see you next time.