The low-budget film “Knuckleheads,” shooting now on the East End, is a story about second chances—not just for its characters, but also for lead actor Steven Bauer, who is starring in the $100,000-budget film nearly 30 years after his glory days portraying the second lead, Manny Ribera, in the 1983 film “Scarface” alongside stars Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer.
“The situation isn’t sentimentalized for my character. It’s very, very real in the way of that desolation that a man feels who’s had everything and suddenly has nothing,” said Mr. Bauer during an interview at East Hampton Studio in Wainscott on Thursday, March 31. “I think that’s something that a lot of people can relate to. And I certainly do.”
On Saturday, the star wrapped up a six-day shoot, beginning March 28, for his scenes in the film. The plot revolves around two men—Manny, who is played by Mr. Bauer, and JP, portrayed by Jaime Zevallos, who also wrote the script—who develop a kinship similar to a father-son relationship as they overcome crises in their lives.
The story is based on real people and real events in the world of the writer, who wrote the film in six months. Mr. Bauer’s character, a former real estate agent who made his fortune through fraud, is estranged from his children and is being evicted from his dilapidated home after his wife dies from cancer. He meets JP, a security guard at a bank who is struggling to earn his GED while grappling with his commitment to his pregnant girlfriend. The two men latch onto one another.
Mr. Zevallos explained why he wrote the script, and his feelings about how the role of Manny should be a plum one for Mr. Bauer.
“I love the underdog, because I’ve always felt like one and I still feel like one,” the writer said during an interview at the studio in Wainscott. “I feel in the bottom of my gut that this is going to get Steven a second opportunity. He’s not playing a villain, he’s not playing a drug dealer. It’s going to be a memorable piece for him.”
Mr. Zevallos added that he knew upon meeting Mr. Bauer that he was the perfect actor to play Manny.
“It’s really a coming of age story for Steven, for Manny’s character,” Mr. Zevallos said. “He is, in some ways, Manny. In his career, he’s in the same shoes as Manny, where he was once at the top and he’s working his way up again.”
As for Mr. Bauer, he said the film’s material drew him in right away.
“I think Jaime found a balance between tragedy and an uplifting story of regular people,” he said. “It’s a story that can be very inspiring to audiences without relying on special effects, gratuitous violence, or shtick, yet there is a lot of humor in the film. I was immediately able to find a lot of passion and emotion to invest in this because the characters are very real and very human.”
There was one particular scene in the film that really struck a chord with Mr. Bauer, he reported. The scene, which was shot at the train station in Bridgehampton, has his character contemplating suicide by train.
“It’s a turning point in Manny’s life. He’s thinking about ending it all,” Mr. Bauer said. “Luckily for me, the trains there don’t come for, well, a while,” he added with a chuckle.
It is this scene where Manny meets actor Gregory Vahanian’s character, Phil, a retiring security guard at the bank who helps get Manny hired as his replacement. JP steps in to train Manny, which is the beginning of their friendship, according to Mr. Vahanian.
“For me, the story’s beautiful because it’s like a butterfly,” Mr. Vahanian said. “There’s a transformation that takes place for the principal characters, and there’s a redemptive theme.”
The East End wasn’t Mr. Zevallos’s first choice to film, he said, but he added that he quickly fell in love with the area. In addition to Bridgehampton, the film crew used a house in Southampton as a set and traversed the streets of Sag Harbor, filming in restaurants and boutiques, such as Lee Jewelers on Main Street.
“I originally wanted to film in Glen Cove, where my parents used to live,” Mr. Zevallos said. “But this is a great location, everyone’s really chill—and it kind of looks like Glen Cove, the north shore of Long Island. You can’t really tell the difference.”
Unlike Mr. Zevallos and Mr. Vahanian, who both spent time in the Hamptons as children, last week was Mr. Bauer’s first trip to the East End.
