Conversations with Harry Kakatsakis

Today we’d like to introduce you to Harry Kakatsakis.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was raised in New York City by acting-teacher father, Charles Kakatsakis, and Academy Award-nominated actress mother, June Squibb, so show business was in my blood. Monster movies were my escape from the big, scary city as an only child. As I grew a little older, I came to appreciate the great genre movies of the late 70s and early 80s, which became the main inspiration for my cinematic style. I was an art major in High School, at a school that was a combination of Music and Art and Performing Arts, or the “Fame” school. I graduated from the University of New Hampshire as a theater major, which actually turned out to have a very strong theater department, where the undergraduates did all the mainstage shows.

After graduation, I cultivated a community of fellow actors and filmmakers in New York. I did several stage productions as an actor, writer, and director, and I directed a handful of short films, culminating in the second-most votes in MoveOn.org’s “Bush in 30 Seconds” P.S.A. contest for the 2004 election.

I moved to Los Angeles in 2005 as a filmmaker and writer. I immediately got a job writing a movie-of-the-week for the Sci-Fi channel that was never produced. I went on to direct three short projects, including the multi-award-winning short, “Admissions”, a story of peace and forgiveness starring Academy Award-nominated actor James Cromwell.

Most recently, I moved to San Diego with my significant other during COVID and have been concentrating on writing. I wrote a Romantic Dramedy about a doomsday prepper that placed in several contests. Then, after flooding from an upstairs neighbor led to some water damage and a claim that was rejected by our neighbor’s insurance company, I was so frustrated that I wrote a screenplay about a monster who kills the greedy employees of an insurance company, called “Lord Avarice”. I am now working with L.A. producer Jane Petrov of Skytown Entertainment to get the low-budget horror film funded as a writer/director. A project I hope to shoot in my new hometown of San Diego.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It was anything but smooth. I’m on the older side for someone looking to direct their first feature film. I have had the good fortune to work on many quality projects that I am proud of, which taught me much about what it takes to make memorable films. I think where I have struggled goes a little beyond mere rejection and is a reflection of where I have been emotionally. I always believed I had talent, but I lacked the wherewithal to withstand the criticism it takes to be better, and I was afraid to assert myself, especially when it came to networking. I believe this is a struggle for many. Through persistence, stubbornness, and years of therapy, I am in a much better place and hope to succeed where I came up short in the past. Filmmaking and creating give me joy, and I wasn’t going to give up on that.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’ve loved monster and superhero movies since I was a kid. That means I pretty much live in the horror, sci-fi, and fantasy genres. Most of the scripts that I have written reflect this. Having the acting pedigree that I do also means that cinematic integrity and acting mean a lot. As far as past work, my genres have been all over the place. I have made dystopian, time-travel, and Lovecraftian horror pieces, which play to my passion, but I have also made dramas, comedies, and PSAs.

My most accomplished work, and the one I’m most proud of, is Admissions. It was a passion project for the writer John Viscount, who wanted to make a testament to peace and forgiveness about an Israeli couple and a Palestinian who meet at the entrance to the afterlife. It fulfilled a desire for me to work on films with a socially conscious message, something I try to do, especially in my preferred genres of horror, sci-fi, and fantasy.

As a writer, except for a comedy road film I wrote for my mother and family friend, Margo Martindale, and my doomsday prepper romantic dramedy, I stick pretty religiously to scripts with monsters, often creating hybrids that mix horror with action, fantasy, or police procedurals. This doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to branch out in the future, though I know it’s easy to get pigeonholed once you pick a genre. Other than monsters, I like to explore wounded people and how they navigate life, maybe solving their problems, maybe not.

No matter the genre, the craft of cinema excites me. Integrity and quality excite me, so whatever I do, I try to be emotionally authentic, with a high degree of verisimilitude in an attempt to make something that mirrors life as much as possible, even if it’s about a monster. Something I intend to accomplish with my latest project, “Lord Avarice”.

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I try to always be reading something new. Right now it’s Ray Bradbury’s “The Martian Chronicles”. It’s usually fantasy, classic sci-fi, or screenwriting books. Reading often helps me come up with new ideas. I’ve read Save the Cat three times. Not so much because I love the writing, but because it has good, actionable tips that anyone can use. My favorite book about screenwriting is Billy Mernit’s “Writing the Romantic Comedy”. Not so much because I love writing romantic comedies, but because he does a great job of tying theme to character and story structure. And it’s a fun read.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.harrykakatsakis.com/
• Instagram: @thelordavarice
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/harrykakatsakis
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harry-l-kakatsakis-191419427/

Image Credits
Rob Beckwith = Head shots