Ryan Nemeth Interview: "Heel", Bringing Awareness To Wrestling, Filmmaking, AEW, More

How did the idea for "Heel" come about?

Nemeth: I started writing it a few years ago. I approached [the director] Maggie [Levin] with the script. I just wanted her opinion on it because I knew she was moving on to feature films and starting a huge career. I said, “Can you read the script and let me know what you think?” She said, “Let's meet.” You know, back when you could still meet at places. She said, “I want this to be my final short film I write. If you'll allow it, I want to helm this and direct this. I want to make this.” Her experience with wrestling is very limited. She had only come to see some charity shows called Nuclear Heat, she came to a few of those. She said, “Live TV is awesome.” When you're up and close, you're seeing it and hearing it. When she realized the issue I was addressing in the script, she felt really connected to it and knew this was something I wanted to do.

I said, “How much money do we need? How can we make this happen?” I embarked on a very, very daring, risky crowdfunding campaign and I can't believe we did it. We somehow did it. I can't believe we raised that money in 30 days. That was years ago. We filmed it and it had to be delayed and delayed because she was getting booked on feature film jobs and all this stuff. Finally, we got that to shoot, and it was another six months before we got that through post-production. Then it was finally in a place where I was like, “Cool, I'm going to start submitting this to festivals.” And then Speaking Out happened a week later. So, if anyone has the nerve to say, “Hey, you made this because of Speaking Out,” look at a calendar.

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