An Interview With Ivan Djurovic Actor, Writer, Producer

November 18, 2016

Written by Kelli Marchman McNeely

Kelli Marchman McNeely is the owner of HorrorFuel.com. She is an Executive Producer of "13 Slays Till Christmas" which is out on Digital and DVD and now streaming on Tubi. She has several other films in the works. Kelli is an animal lover and a true horror addict since the age of 9 when she saw Friday the 13th. Email: horrorfuelinfo@gmail.com

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I sat down to speak with actor-writer-producer Ivan Djurovic about his past, present and upcoming projects. In particular we wanted know more about ‘It Watches’, in which he stars. He also co-wrote the film, along with Dave Parker, and produced it.

He began by speaking highly of the cast and crew of ‘It Watches’.

ID: “It Watches would never be what is with out the amazing cast and crew. They believed in the project and gave it their all. It’s really humbling that people will go out of their way to help when they believe in something. My mother came out to L.A.. She did all the catering for the movie. She made two meals a day for 20 to 30 people a day in my little apartment.”

 

Horror Fuel: “You Play both character roles and suit characters, do you have a favorite?”

ID: “Yes. For suit acting I would definitely say, I’ve had a lot of fun with a bunch of different roles, but I love being the gorilla for Gorilla Glue. It’s something that I really enjoy. It’s difficult and exhausting and demanding, but I love hearing people talk about the commercials and react to them. It’s got a really friendly vibe. It’s fun to be able to go back and every time I’m on set to work with the same people and to know that we have such a repore. Everything just kind of goes very easily. Kids and dogs, I have a lot of pictures in the suit with dogs. It’s actually pretty funny. That would be, for the suit work I’ve done, my favorite. Just as a regular actor, it would be Andre from It Watches. It’s such an interesting character. He does have a lot of characteristics of me. It has a lot of my personal experiences in it. How can I phrase this without giving away too much? For Andre, there’s a lot more than that top layer. It’s fun and it’s challenging.”

 

 

Horror Fuel: “What do you do to prepare for a role?”

ID: “It really depends on each role, from sometimes doing research. For example, with Andre, I went in and did improve classes at U.C.B. It was a great experience. I plan to continue it. There is also a different kind of approach which was doing home video diaries in character for some time before we actually started filming. I found it very helpful. It’s a situational type of thing. For me it’s always about finding out what drives the character, figuring out where the character is going to go.”

 

Horror Fuel: “Do you prepare differently for suit roles, like the monster you played in Under the Bed?”

ID: “That was very different situation. I Did Lost Tapes on Animal Planet. I played a vampire creature and with those it’s a combination of what I bring to it and what direction I get from the director. Sometimes they give me examples of what they are looking for or homework to get inspiration. It also depends on what the creature is.  For Under the Bed the movement had to be created. What is this creature and How does he move? How does he react to things? You have to take into consideration what type of creature it is. For the Vampire creature in Lost Tapes there was a specific walk, very low to the ground crawl to get that very menacing look. A lot of it goes back to working very closely with directors and figuring out what they want and trying to deliver.”

 

 

Horror Fuel: “Is it harder to play a character role vs. a suit role?”

ID: “Well, playing a suit role physically, it’s very, very physically demanding.  You have to bring it to life. For an actor to bring a certain character to life is challenging. Every character has different emotions, personal traits and what-not. For me, I find it more challenging to play a traditional character. I guess suit acting comes naturally to me. If that makes sense.”

 

 

Horror Fuel: “Tell us more about your character Andre in It Watches.”

ID: “Andre was recently in an accident and injured his arm and leg. He has a lot going into this house. He’s having trouble remembering things. He’s in a strange place and feeling a little disabled, and feeling quite like himself. He’s soft spoken. There is a lot more to him, he’s more complex than you would take him for. Everyone has their own angels and demons. That was a big thing about this film. It was a lot of fun.

My writing partner,Dave Parker, has a traditional horror background.  I myself have come to love the horror genre. Growing up I would watch the horror classics, but I wasn’t a big avid fan. Us teaming up to write this film was an interesting combination because he was coming from that world and I was coming more from that general audience. And it helped in many ways, especially with the fact that we to have that compromise where it was appealing to the genre, but at the same time we wanted it to appeal to the general audience as well. We wanted to have that slow-burning, unnerving type of suspense rather than the traditional blood and guts horror type of feel, to be relatable to everyone.”

 

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Horror Fuel: “What can we expect from It Watches?”

ID: “Everyone can expect a different type experience, a full journey. It’s the type of film that you have to commit to it and really pay attention and go for the full ride to have it pay off. It’s going to be really fun to start seeing people’s reactions. It will keep you guessing at all times. I love that when I go to see a movie. I love when I’m sitting there thinking I know what’s going to happen next, but then it turns out I’m wrong. To me that’s a pay off to itself.

People’s attention spans are shorter, it’s more difficult to create something unique.  It Watches is a unique, beautiful thing. It’s more experimental. It was shot in 3 ways, traditional, found footage, and handheld.

Here’s a funny story about filming It Watches, I knew James Duval had joined the cast. But I didn’t meet him until our scene where he knocks on the door and I open it to see him standing there. He has now become a great friend.”

 

Horror Fuel: “You were on an episode of 1000 Ways to Die, tell us about it, please. I loved that show.”

ID: “That was when I first moved out to L.A. The show was really fun. I actually still get phone calls about that episode. I played the “hunky stock boy”.”

 

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Horror Fuel: “What was the name of the episode?”

ID: “It’s funny, Killdo. It’s about a woman who dies while using a carrot to you know, masturbate to while she’s thinking of me. I look at it as a stepping stone. I was thankful to be on set, observing it all. There’s so much to learn. The set, that’s where I love to be. It feels like home.”

 

Horror Fuel: “Are you working on anything now?”

ID: “I have two movie scripts and a television script, a ‘dramody’, that I’m trying to get off the ground. I wrote the TV script in two nights. I thought that my computer was saving the draft automatically. So I didn’t save it. I freaked out and ran to my neighbor, who is an I.T. guy to see if he could find it. I lost 90%. I stayed up all night rewriting it because it was such an amazing idea and I didn’t want to loose it.”

 

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Ivan Djurovic is a very humble man. In between questions he spoke highly of those he works with and his life in L.A. He is an all around pleasant man to talk with, who loves what he does and always looks forward to learning from those he encounters.

It Watches’, directed Dave Parkerwill, will premiere this December on Digital HD from Uncork’d Entertainment.

Ivan Djurovic (Zoombies), Rick Irwin (30 Minutes or Less), Sanny van Heteran (Hellraiser: Revelations) and James Duval (Donnie Darko) star in this film that will “keep you guessing the entire time”

 

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Andre, recovering from a recent accident, agrees to help his friend Robert by taking over a house sitting job at a creepy home nestled in the hills above Los Angeles. As night comes, the house reveals its insidious nature as Andre begins hearing ominous sounds and experiencing strange occurrences throughout the house that lead him to believe he is not alone, and that someone, or something is in the house with him.

‘It Watches’ will arrive on VOD on December 6th followed by its DVD realese on February 21, 2017.

For more on Ivan Djurovic and his projects follow him on Facebook,  Twitter, Instagram and visit the official website for his production company, ID Entertainment.

For more on ‘It Watches’ be sure to follow on Facebook and Twitter.

 

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