Actor and Comedian Dillion Dilligaf took the time to talk with Horrornews.net in an exclusive interview. Dillion Dilligaf has a new film coming out called, Hell’s Coming For You, written by Tim Chizmar, Dillion Dilligaf, and Mark Savage. The film was directed by Mark Savage. Dillion produced The Nudels of Nudeland. Check out the interview.
Hi Dillion, how are you?
D.D.- I’m great. How are you?
I’m doing good, thank you.
D.D.- It’s nice to talk to you. I’m looking forward to this.
Oh, I’m so glad I got to talk with you and also thanks to Tim Chizmar. He’s so positive and inspiring. I feel like I can conquer the world talking to Tim. I’m excited to talk about Hell’s Coming For You and all the amazing projects you’re working on.
D.D.- Yes, Tim has been such a great cheerleader. He’s an amazing person. I have a lot of respect for Tim.
So, first off, how did you get started with everything?
D.D.- Oh yeah, my schedule is busy. The short story is… I retired from NASA in 2008.
NASA!!! You worked for NASA. What did you do at NASA?
D.D.- I had a great job, it was the coolest ride ever. I was into a little bit of everything. I was in charge of the maintenance for all the research airplanes that they had, and classified stuff. It was a twenty-six-year career. So, I was retired, and my wife and I did some traveling. We had a big motor-home that we traveled around the United States in. We put 50,000 miles on our RV in ten years. We saw everything, America is amazing. If you haven’t been out to see America, you need to do that. We had this book called, “Eccentric America” and it had all these weird places to go to. That was really fun. So, fast forward, around 2014 I was retired and around the house. My wife said, you need to do something. So, I said OKAY, I had always been the class clown, the cut-up, making everybody laugh. When I was working for NASA, I would always be the emcee for the dinners or anything they had going on. So, I decided that I would try stand-up comedy so, I found a comedy partner and the next thing I know, I’m doing stand-up comedy all over the Las Vegas area. I did that for quite a long time and I met Tim. I hired Tim to be my manager to get my comedy to the next level. That’s when everything started happening in a positive way. The next thing I know, Tim introduced me to Mark Savage who’s an amazing director. We collaborated and we said, we should do a movie featuring a disabled person on a mobility scooter. We wanted him to be an action person, and the next thing I know we wound up sitting in my living room writing the script and we filmed that movie in 2021. It’s been an incredible roller-coaster ride.
That’s amazing! What’s your favorite place that you have seen in America so far?
D.D.- This was incredible. We got to park within 100 feet of Niagara Falls at night. They have lights underneath the waterfalls and they change the color of the lights.
That’s amazing because I would love to travel across the country. I always love hearing stories from people.
D.D.- It’s great.
So, I spent ten years of my life in my wheelchair. I felt so inspired because growing up it wasn’t easy. There wasn’t much support. No doctor wanted to work on me cause of being a kid.
D.D.- I had a spinal fusion when I was eight years old. I don’t know if you experienced this when you were in wheelchair but you become invisible when you’re in a wheelchair. It’s kind of stealthy, I like it.
Yes, it’s sort of a good thing and sort of a bad thing because people would sometimes ignore me and talk to the person who was pushing my wheelchair or standing behind me, and I was like, I can talk. (Laughing)
D.D.- Yes, I had that same experience.
You have to have a sense of humor and that sarcasm.
D.D.- Do you think it’s that people are afraid to talk to disabled people? You think that’s what it is?
I think sometimes. I found that some people would just talk to me, some people would treat me as if I couldn’t talk. Some people wouldn’t talk to me at all.
D.D.- Yes, people would ask my wife, “what does he want?” She would say, ask him yourself.
Yes, it kind of became funny after a while. What was it like working with Mark Savage?
D.D.- I never had a lead role before so I was a little bit nervous as you can imagine. The first day of shooting, I’m really nervous because I got a lot of lines I got to remember. We were doing this scene and on one the takes my scooter went off the sidewalk and I fell over, right in front of everybody. I thought my movie career was over because I didn’t know if I had broken anything. Mark is the most amazing director ever, he’s so patient and nurturing. He knows what he wants, and he knows how to get people to do what he wants without yelling and screaming. He’s an incredible guy, if you ever get a chance to get to work with him, he’s absolutely amazing. I’m fortunate that I was able to work with him.
What was it like working with Tim Chizmar and this amazing cast?
D.D.- I don’t know how well you know Tim but he is incredible. He is such a motivator; he has been such a cheerleader for me and my career as well as an inspiration. He’s driven and he keeps me inspired. He’s a great guy and I’m so fortunate to have found him. We put together an amazing cast, everybody did an amazing job. Everybody worked together and everybody was great to work with.
Did you have to do anything to prepare to play your character? I don’t want to give spoilers but I feel like your character is like a bad ass Tommy Lee Jones, Denzel Washington in Man on Fire, Liam Neeson’s character in Taken. You know the type of characters that are gritty and awesome, they don’t take any shit from nobody and they don’t hesitate. They handle shit in a calm, cool, and collected manner.
D.D.- That’s exactly what we designed. When we wrote the character, I didn’t want to copy or emulate any of the other people but my inspiration was Liam Neeson in his movies. I wanted the character to be strong and silent but to be effective. We wanted him to be quiet, silent, and deadly. The real me, I’m not that guy, I’m a comedian. Mark Savage (Painkiller, Purgatory Road, Stressed to Kille) is a great director.
Yes, he is one of my favorite directors.
D.D.- Mark Savage is so receptive and I was so lucky to have him as my first director.
I thank you so much Dillion for taking the time to talk with me for Horrornews.net. It was an honor talking to you. You’re so talented and I can’t wait to see what’s next for you. Thank you.
D.D.- It’s been a pleasure. Thank you, Janel.
You can’t let people tell you what you can and can’t do. Dillion Dillagaf
www.imdb.com/title/tt15558212/
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