Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian O’Hare.
Hi Brian, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My story begins in a Baltimore bar—the infamous Club Charles. I’m there with two other black leather jacketed Marines, looking to start a rumble, and I discover filmmaker/writer John Waters (‘Pink Flamingos’, ‘Female Trouble’, ‘Cry Baby’) sitting there, looking every bit like an undertaker enjoying an after-work vodka martini. At first, I think, no way, I’m not gonna bother this guy, not in Baltimore, where he’s like the KING of the underground. But I say, ‘fuck it’ and tell him how much I enjoy his movies and books. To my surprise and delight, this leads to a three-hour vodka martini (him) and beer (me) fueled discussion of movies and books. And then he PITCHES me ‘Cry Baby’—how I’d be PERFECT for it. Two weeks later, I’m skipping out on the Marines to shoot at the Maryland House of Corrections, the prison, with Johnny Depp. It was my first time on set, my first ‘real’ creative endeavor. John treated me like a creative collaborator—that by my presence, I was making ‘Cry Baby’ a better movie. Up till then, my story was like an 80s John Hughes movie—’Breakfast Club’ or some other Tom Cruise All-American movie: I was captain of my high school football team, got good grades, graduated from the US Naval Academy, spent six years as a Marine Officer, saw combat in the Persian Gulf War—the ‘golden ticket’ to the American Dream.
Much to my father’s great displeasure, I chucked it all and became a storyteller—both in film and writing. And guess what? I made the right decision. The so-called ‘American Dream’ translates for most as simply making a fuckload of money. (According to my father, I should’ve been a rich corporate lawyer.) Fuck that. Betting on yourself and dreams is ALWAYS the right decision. It ain’t easy tho. And about six years ago, I began writing ‘Surrender’, my Syracuse University Press 2021 Veterans Writing Award-winning book of short stories that came out in November. I launched the book at Book Soup on Sunset in West Hollywood. One of the best bookstores on the planet. Just last week, with LA’s amazing WORDTheatre, a story from ‘Surrender’ was presented with the work of writing legends Tobias Wolff, Tim O’Brien and Richard Bausch—read by an amazing cast of actors: Sharon Stone, Bill Pullman, Griffin Dunne, Chris Gorham and more. Where else can that happen? The response to the book has been phenomenal—and LA is a BIG part of that success. We have a freedom here that doesn’t exist elsewhere. For its many challenges, its epic frustrations, this town can be strangely welcoming to those betting on themselves. Opportunity abounds. The city is full of good, talented and generous people. I love LA—it’s tattooed on my forearm.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
A smooth road?! What’s that? My road has been filled with dark pits, broken glass, the twisted wreckage of shattered dreams—pockmarked with land mines, booby traps and what I suspect are broken hearts. Anything BUT smooth. I don’t come from a family or place where people become writers or filmmakers, so there was always ‘intimidation’ or ‘fear’ surrounding the process of creation, something that ‘other’ people, more educated and brilliant, did in faraway places, like Los Angeles. For the first 28 years of my life, I was on a fairly ‘straight’ path—’smooth’ by the standard of many. I was a high school football team captain, a Naval Academy midshipman, a Marine Corps officer—and yet, when I got out—I had ZERO ideas how to achieve my dreams. I knew no one. Knew nothing. And nobody cared. So, like the good Marine that I was, I began moving forward with no idea where I was headed. I consumed movies and books, knowing that somehow they held the key. I put myself out there, acting in movies, music videos and commercials, I wrote screenplays and I never stopped working. I took a lot of punches. A couple of decades into this process, I felt like I MIGHT have something to say; that I MIGHT be able to say it with some degree of authenticity or something approaching ‘truth’. I began writing fiction, and after years, alone in my LA garage, I won a major award—and things…changed. What the future holds—who knows? I’m (cautiously) optimistic. And despite the road ‘smoothing out’ somewhat, all kinds of challenges lay ahead. My skin is thick. My heart is strong. I’m ready for whatever comes.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a storyteller: both writer and filmmaker. Sometimes, it feels like a fever. (Or something.) I can’t help it. I’m known for questioning mythologies. Why we believe the things we believe—what we accept as ‘truth’. I spent six years as a Marine officer. The Marine Corps is justly famous for its martial prowess, but what it does best is pass on its culture—a mythology rivaled only by the great religions. That’s what attracted me to the Marines—that mythology. Spending years inside that mythology was a transformative experience. I’ll always be a Marine—a ‘true believer’—but as I get older, and hopefully wiser, I have a need to reconcile being that ‘true believer’ with what I know as reality. That’s a fascinating place to explore—a unique position from which to tell stories—about America. The Marine Corps IS America—the most diverse ‘tribe’ in the history of humanity. It gave me a lifetime of stories to tell. Rather than just punching my ‘golden ticket’ to the American Dream—shutting up and cashing in—I have a powerful need to make sense of it all. To question the ‘unquestionable’. I’m most proud of my Veterans’ Writing Award-winning book of short stories, ‘Surrender’, published by Syracuse University Press in November ’22. National Book Award winner and fellow Marine Phil Klay was the judge. I just had a story from ‘Surrender’ read along with the work of American literary giants Tobias Wolff, Tim O’Brien and Richard Bausch. I’m like the rookie who came off the bench to hit a walk-off home run in a big game, getting slapped on the back by Hall of Famers. And I’m very excited to be making films with my producing partner Azadeh Navai, she’s an incredibly talented filmmaker and a powerful voice. It’s a great combination—the Marine from Pittsburgh and the Muslim from Tehran. It’s what the future looks like—and could only happen in a town like LA.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
Gah! What a question. Hmm. I’d have to say it was reading ‘Catcher In The Rye’ for the first time. I was headed to football camp in the backseat of my parent’s Chevy Suburban the summer I was twelve. It was raining. And humid. The air conditioning was on full blast. Sitting in the big backseat, sprawled out like I’m on our living room couch, no seat belt of course, and I read those magical first lines: “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it if you want to know the truth.” I was hooked. Holden’s sarcasm and wit made me choke with laughter, and yet, as I read, it was Holden’s loneliness that got me—it wasn’t a funny book at all—but a profoundly sad one. The realization hit my heart like a sniper’s bullet—and that’s when I knew. I didn’t want to be a professional football player anymore, I wanted to be a writer. A storyteller. That’s when I knew. Picking up that book on that wet Pittsburgh afternoon changed my life. Changed the way I see the world. Thank you, JD Salinger…
Contact Info:
- Website: https://brianohare.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bohare13x/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brian.ohare.7
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-o-hare-3933a210a/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bohare13x
- Other: https://www.studiodastanfilms.com
Image Credits
Doug Hinebaugh Joshua Śliwa Laura O’Hare
