Oliver Ridge – Last Days of Summer

By: Lisa Steinberg

Movie producer Oliver Ridge is getting a lot of buzz for his award winning debut feature Last Days of Summer, which has become something of a darling of the festival circuit. His latest stop with the drama, starring William Fichtner as a married man dangerously obsessed with his pretty young neighbor, is Canada’s Whistler Festival where we caught up with him between screenings and meetings.

Q   How did you get involved with working on the film Last Days of Summer?

A) I was reading every script I could get my hands on. If I’m honest, I wasn’t sure what I was looking for until I found it. A friend of a friend passed me this script. I read it, I loved it, I skyped with the writer and director and the rest became history. I loved its elegance and its simplicity.

Q)   You moved from Britain to Hollywood, what was your motivation?

A) I was living in England, but performing in Shakespeare plays in Vancouver. I came down to LA during a break from one of the shows and I decided this is where I had to be. So much of what I love is born from Hollywood and though it is the toughest for competition, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

Q)   You get to work with William Fichtner on the film, what kind of balance did he bring?

A) Working with Bill was incredible. He brought a wonderful balance to the project, but also huge creativity and professionalism. He is the film in lots of ways. We had long days and long nights, but he was always there with us. He is an incredible actor and he shines in this role.

Q) What do you think the movie industry is lacking? What are some of the changes and movements that you’d like to be a part of?

A) It is an exciting time for the industry, diversification is being highlighted more and more and that is giving birth to some really creative and beautiful projects. But what I would like to see is studios trust their audience more. We see incredible directors get over run by the studios thinking that they know what their audience wants, but we are seeing that push people away because right now moviegoers are more demanding than ever. They don’t want the same thing a hundred times. Take Deadpool for an example, that was a wild success, but faced huge resistance from the studios as an R rated comic book film would affect its potential to hit a wide audience of teen and children. But what it really did was galvanize an older generation by giving them something different and something that they have wanted for a very long time.

Q)   What inspires you the most and how do you draw from that?

A) It sounds morbid, but my biggest inspiration is my own mortality. I have always wanted to make films because our lives as humans aren’t long and I wanted to leave something behind after I am gone. Film, after all, is forever.