ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Expectations are good in a lot of ways. They hold us to a standard and promote accountability. But they can also be creatively limiting. For actor and executive producer Glen Steele of the film INFINITELY DENSE, who you heard in the intro, he took the shackles off the word expectation and made his art, giving the middle finger to age or any other perceived limitation.
INFINITELY DENSE is having its market screening at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 16th, 2026. If you have the ability to go, you should. It's a near-realistic sci-fi look at what happens if a guy unhappy with his life experimented with augmented AI.
I'm also joined by writer and director Ace Thor, who met Glen through his mom's acting class. This is an insane story of two people pushing the boundaries of independent film, both through the subject matter of their work and their overall art.
And -- Ace Thor & Glen Steele should be in a cop buddy comedy, right? I'd love it, because it would be another opportunity to have them on the podcast.
In this episode, Ace, Glen, and I talk about:
- how they describe the film;
- the many hats that independent filmmakers have to wear;
- the crazy story of how they ended up working together and how they got involved in filmmaking;
- the reality of acting in your 60s;
- making a scifi film that feels realistic and not having genre as the focus;
- casting for this film, why Ace watched every single tape, and why Glen kept his hands off the process;
- Glen's feelings on massive influencers taking over acting -- it's been happening for years in different forms;
- the process of a market screening at TIFF;
- should more actors get involved in making their own roles;
- advice for raising a family while acting and directing;
- what's next for them.
Ace's Indie Filmmaker Highlight: Nicolas Roeg
Memorable Quotes:
" It's more of a story of what happens when we are only in relationship with ourselves."
"It's just like no matter what you try and do in my family, if you wanna do something else, it's just not possible."
" No one's gonna hire me to be a lead in a movie at this point in my life."
" I didn't want the sci-fi to be the focus, right?"
" It's hard for the 64-year-old Glenn to tell a 25-year-old what to do because I wouldn't have listened to me when I was 25.
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