Today we’d like to introduce you to Kim Bass.
Hi Kim, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
When I was seven years old, living in Utica, NY, my grandfather took me to my first movie. The experience was so profound that I knew right then and there that I wanted to make movies. Though sidetracked at various phases of my young adult life with college, lack of funds and unfulfilled, meaningless, dead-end jobs, I always held onto my Hollywood dream. After two- and one-half years of working as an international flight attendant, I moved to Japan. I had spent time there one summer as part of the “Experiment in International Living” program. While living and working in Tokyo teaching English conversation I was “discovered” by talent agent Junichi Takahashi who facilitated my being cast in various television shows, movies and even a big production stage play. I was eventually cast in a featured role opposite Jackie Chan and Danny Aiello in a film titled “The Protector.” While filming in Hong Kong, I found myself observing the director and crew doing what they do between scenes.
As I recall, during one particular setup for a sunset scene, there was a manic discussion between the director and the DP about how to capture the scene, actually the information between the characters in the scene in the short amount of time remaining before the light was lost. In my naivete, I offered what I thought would creatively solve the issue. The director responded with a very loud and clear: “You just shut the fuck up and stand where I tell you to stand and say what I tell you to say when I tell you to say it!” That’s when I knew it was time to get a little more control of the stories in which I would be involved. The director bug bit me hard. I decided to return to the good ol’ US of A and stake my claim. Well, it wasn’t exactly a triumphant return. I soon got hit in the face with the reality of the biz. I managed to land a few on-camera gigs as an extra but that was all. Once my funds were depleted, I had to get a “civilian” job.
Fortunately, I became somewhat conversant in Japanese, during my five years in Tokyo, which allowed me to land a decent-paying job that I was otherwise unqualified to have. It worked out well and I was asked to accept a promotion that would relocate me to Texas. Needless to say, I decided to turn down the promotion and quit my job. I decided my way in would have to be by literally taking control of the narrative. I would write a screenplay for myself! It took six months and my mother helping me with the rent to get my first screenplay written. I finished it on a Thursday and optioned it the following Tuesday and have never looked back or had any job other than writing or directing. I’ve been lucky! Oh yeah, I never did go back in front of the camera.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Life is full of obstacles and challenges, no matter what your goals and aspirations are. The trick is to figure out your way around, over, under or through the obstacles that are challenging you. I have found that most obstacles can be found while facing a mirror. But in that same mirror is the answer to overcoming the obstacles. I believe we/you are the best answer to whatever is keeping us/you from achieving goals. Don’t let other people or policies be an excuse not to dream and achieve.
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 am a writer-director who is very eclectic in my choices of storytelling. I have written sketch comedy (HBO’s Not Necessarily The News, FOX Television’s In Living Color). I have written sitcoms (Created the series Sister, Sister and Kenan & Kel as well as having written for the FOX Television series True Colors). I have written animation for CBS (Men In Black: The Series, WB’s Static Shock as well as animated endeavors for Paramount and DreamWorks. I have written plenty of feature film screenplays. A Thin Line Between Love & Hate (starring Martin Lawrence and Regina King), Junkyard Dog (starring Vivica A. Fox and Brad Dourif), Kill Speed (starring Andrew Keegan, Reno Wilson, Nick Carter, Greg Grunberg and Robert Patrick), Day of Days (co-written with my brother Kyle Bass and starring Tom Skerritt and Claudia Zevallos), Tyson’s Run, (starring Amy Smart, Rory Cochrane, Barkhad Abdi and Major Dodson), A Snowy Day in Oakland, (starring Nicole Ari Parker, Lorretta Devine, Kimberly Elise, Deon Cole, Claudia Zevallos, Reno Wilson, Tony Plana, Arden Myrin and Marla Gibbs), the last five of which I also had the privilege to set up for production and direct.
I am most proud of being able to continue to tell stories in an unforgiving business that more often than not, disappoints those who dare to dream.
What sets me apart from others? Hmmm… I suppose it is the same thing that makes everyone special. We all have a different set of circumstances that brought us into this world and then different experiences along our journey of life that differentiates us from one another. But it is those differentiations that make us interesting to one another. Being able to use my own personal journey and life’s view to tell the stories I want to tell sets me, and everyone else, apart.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
What I like best about our city is that it is full of dreamers and magic-makers. The weather ain’t awful either. It is exactly what I thought it would be like when I was a young kid dreaming of coming here. Palm trees, swimming pools and movie studios!
What I like least about our city is how easily some people are allowed to fall through the cracks and be forgotten. We as a community are often better at glossing over issues that should be addressed in a more substantive manner. Sometimes posturing and presentation trumps politics and social responsibilities.
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Image Credits
Photos provided by: Kayla Madonna Wes Stewart Michael Moriatis Darlene Mowry
