Yedidya Gorsetman [Interview]

Hello Folks! And a happy Friday to you all. Today we have some words from an incredible filmmaker who happened to be the man behind one of my favorite films of the year. It’s Yedidya Gorsetman! Yedidya and his writing/filmmaking partner Mark Leidner are the geniuses behind the film Empathy Inc., which I loved so very much. In fact, you all should be so obliged to remember to tune in tomorrow for our Saturday Special series, for a nice little surprise. Okay, well, I guess it’s not really a surprise….we are covering the film itself. So look forward to that!

But, right now, at this very moment, we have some wonderful questions that were answered by the brilliant Mr. Gorsetman himself, and we are so excited to share them with you today! He’s a wonderful human being, and we are so excited to have him grace our digital pages today. So Folks, please enjoy some great words from filmmaker Yedidya Gorsetman.

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What inspired you to get into the world of acting? Was it something you aspired to do since you were young, or did you happen to find yourself in this world one day?

I was exposed to acting and performance at a young age. My sister was always performing and did stage work for a bit, so there was always a lot of performative energy our apartment growing up. In high school I was stage manager and assistant director for the theatre troupe. The faculty advisor had been a producer on The Fantastics, the longest running Off-Broadway show, and he taught me a lot about how lighting, sound, and sets can help elevate performances.

What was your first paid gig on the world of filmmaking? And where there any sort of lessons learned from this experience that still affect your work today?

I had to make a commercial for a disposable glove company. It was a tiny project, and my producer Josh Itzkowitz and I basically begged a family friend to let us make a video for their company. Miraculously, he said yes and gave us a budget of $2,500. We ran a casting call, scouted locations, storyboarded, and even made call-sheets for our 3-person crew. It ended up being 6 weeks of work, $2,300 in expenses, and the rest my producer and I split, $100 each. Not exactly paying the bills in New York City.  But looking back we learned a lot about the power of prep, communication, and doing a lot with a little. 

I recently had the pure joy of seeing your film Empathy, Inc. and absolutely LOVED it. It is a truly unique type of film that we just don’t see much of these days. So I am curious to know what made you want to bring Mark Leidner’s words to the screen. What made you want to get involved with this very bizarre and wonderful story?

Two years after our first movie, Mark and I were itching to make a new one so we could apply the lessons we’d learned. Once a week we’d send each other story ideas and discuss their strengths and weaknesses. Three months later, Mark sent the idea for Empathy, Inc., only a paragraph long, but in that 3-5 sentences was the entire plot. It was a big story but one that was executable given the budget we thought we could raise. It was also full of humor, fun characters, and it gave us room to explore themes like empathy, greed, and technology, that we were both curious about.

If you were handed the opportunity to create and star in the biopic of any well-known figure in American history, who would it be? 

Maybe Scorsese. He’s one of my favorite directors, so it would be fun to learn more about him and get to play him in scene. In terms of casting, we’re both short and wear glasses. I’d probably have to get coaching though to be able to talk as fast as he does.

What does the future hold for you? Anything you would like to plug to our readers?

After Empathy, Inc. hits VOD on 9/24, we’re going to be working on our next script. We have a few that are complete and ready to pitch. One is sci-fi, expanding our direction from Empathy, Inc. Another is a fun drama based more on personal experiences. We like both stories and would be excited to apply what we learned on Empathy, Inc. to either one.

What was the last thing that made you smile?

This morning my dog peed on my rug, then immediately ran and hid under a chair out of embarrassment. I was a little mad at him but it was so cute and pathetic I had to laugh.