Richard Karn – Horse Camp: A Love Tail

By starrymag | June 15, 2020

By: Sammi Turano

 

 

 

Q) Please tell us the premise for Horse Camp: A Love Tail.

A) This is the third movie in the trilogy. I was in the first two, but not as prominent. In this one my character has emerged as someone the girls can gather around to improve his love life because he is miserable at it. He doesn’t realize it, but he is not very good.

 

Q) How was your character Jerry originally described to you?

A) He is a guy who was happily married and his wife passed away twelve years back. He has this job that doesn’t test him too much…He is a maintenance guy at a horse camp. He has those skills and knows what he is doing with that, but any time he has to socialize with other people he is a little shy and not in his element. He has been there for a while and stayed out of the way of thirteen-year-old girls, which is saying a lot.

 

Q) What attracted you to the role?

A) This started three or four years ago when we did the first one. Joel [Paul Reisig] called me out of the blue. I worked with him before. I played a narrating Santa in A Dog for Christmas that Joel directed.  He called to see if I wanted to play a handyman who works at a girl’s summer horse camp. It was a low maintenance character who throws out pearls of wisdom but he didn’t have to be charming or suave and sweep someone off their feet. Jerry, in this horse tale, feels like he has to step up his game and feel like he can date again.

 

Q) What were some challenges of playing the role?

A) This biggest challenge, I think, is making the scenes where he meets Bonnie (Teri Lee). The hardest part was making the uncomfortableness seem real. He is shy. He has been married, so he is not an imbecile, but dating again at a later age is difficult for a lot of people, especially for Jerry who keeps to himself. He is not as socially inept as his brother, who comes in to make him jealous and make the next move.

 

Q) Were you familiar with any of your costars before working with them?

There were a few people, like Kristin [Mellian] was in the other movies and she comes back as someone who left and was wanting to come back and do something because it was her legacy. Also, Rachel [Sowers], who is one of the head counselors, and Carl [Harry Carlson], who played my boss, who were in the other movies. I have known them for a few years, but only on set because I think they all primarily live in Michigan.

 

Q) You filmed on location. What was a typical day on black River Farm and Ranch like? 

A) It is gorgeous. It gives a real nice authenticity to the look and feel of things. Plus, you are doing something for the local community, such as bringing in jobs and things like that and people get to see that part of the world, which is not a Hollywood backlot. It is 100% American made in Michigan. As an actor, you show up, learn your lines, hit your marks, confer with the director to try different things to collaborate. For the character, Jerry is a maintenance guy and all the things that need to be fixed are fixed, painting, making sure things are safe for the girls and that is his life there.

 

Q) What were some of your favorite scenes to film?

A) I really like the scene where Jerry’s brother shows up. It befuddles him because his brother is very easygoing with other people. They are in mid conversation and Jerry is like, “How do you know each other?” And there is a sibling rivalry there that goes back a ways and I think the girls at the camp stage the idea of bringing in his brother to kickstart him into admitting he likes Bonnie.

 

Q) The movie focuses on friendship, relationships and love. What are some lessons you took away from the movie?

A) Be open to new experiences and new relationships. That is something you should do in life anyway. For the girls, I think it was a team building exercise. They had a goal together that they can do besides riding horses and regular camp stuff. It was another way for them to connect because they were helping Jerry find someone for his life.

 

Q) There is also a message of strong female friendships. What do you hope the young women watching learn from watching the females on the show?

A) I think they are learning how to get along with other people. You have strong characters who are bossy or archetypal young girls. You have the ones who don’t care about anyone, but their phone. The ones who are shy or boy crazy or the ones who can’t talk to other people and this brings them together in a central focus…a central goal, which I think is really nice. Plus, you have something for the parents, which is finding new love and figuring out how that works now. Plus, the counselor who pretty much started the camp years ago, this was her first summer away after retiring and coming back and having to deal with working with people who are in charge instead of taking over. There are a lot of relationship issues kids can find without it being beaten over their head.

 

Q) If “Home Improvement” were to reboot, where do you see Al today?

A) When we last saw him, he got married. It could go in a lot of different ways. He could still be married, divorced, his wife could have passed…That is something the writers would come up with. But I see him still comfortable and competent in what he does and in some sort of home improvement situation. Whether he went into just doing remodeling or building in a small scale or on “Tool Time” still. There are a lot of different ways it could go, he could have kids…Al as a father could be very interesting. When he was around Tim’s kids…If it was putt-putt golf, he was very selfish…Now, he is in the sense of shaping young minds and doing the right thing and be the right kind of father for his kids.

 

Q) What did you personally take away from working on this special series?

A) Every time you do a movie, you get a little more experience, get a little better and also when you see self later, you learn from your mistakes and seeing things you didn’t think you were doing and see you were doing it without realizing it. Whatever you do as an actor helps you grow as a person and an actor.

 

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who are fans and supporters of you and your work?

A) Thank you. I have been able to be in this industry for a long time. I started off in theater, which was a small audience that was whomever showed up to the play, wherever it might be. Once you step into a network show like “Home Improvement,” your audience gets much bigger. We were at the end of the golden age of three to four networks and now you have everything streaming. Shows now are segmented and niche, people watch this or that. People watched our show because there was not a lot else to watch and it was a family show people could feel comfortable to watch with their kids.