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

Was "The Wrestler" a movie you looked to for inspiration for this project?

Nemeth: Of course, yeah, I love “The Wrestler” so much. That's one of my favorite lifelong movies. I think “The Wrestler” did a great job of being the first mainstream piece of art or film to say this is what's really like for most of wrestling. You see The Rock and John Cena and Stone Cold and Hulk Hogan, but most of wrestling is the iceberg beneath the surface of the ocean. That was one story and this is the one that's been burning in my brain for months and months. What can I do about it? I can't speak on behalf of these women. You can't speak out on behalf of the victims. It's all on their terms. The one thing I could do is to make a piece of art that deals with the topic and hope that it sparks something in people and inspires them to be aware of this. That's all you can do. You can be an advocate in different ways and this was the one way I could think to do it.

I think Maggie took what we had and made an amazing film with amazing actors. Chavo was the stunt coordinator, we had an Emmy-winning wardrobe guy Rodney Munoz. So many amazing people involved in this and a fair amount of people involved in this project donated their time. It was a union project, so some people were working for not amazing actor rates, but they cared about what this project was and just wanted to be a part of it. I'm just so grateful for everyone who helped and for everyone who worked on it.

CONT'd...