DAVID ADAMS speaks to Australian actor Andrew Steel about playing US Make-A-Wish founder Frank Shankwitz in the film ‘Wish Man’ as well as the non-profit he founded in LA, Flicks4Change…
Last updated: 9am, 7th September, 2022
Australian actor Andrew Steel plays Frank Shankwitz, creator of the US Make-A-Wish Foundation, in the film Wish Man, released on the Wonder streaming platform in Australia on 5th September. In an interview with Sight, the 38-year-old speak about meeting Shankwitz, who died in January last year, what he took away from making the film and his non-profit, Flicks4Change…
Congratulations on the film. Did you know much about Frank’s story before you worked on the film?
“No I didn’t. Before I shot the film, I read his book, Wish Man, and obviously the script and, you know, I got to know him but [before that] I really didn’t know about him. I mean, I knew of Make A Wish, but I had no idea about Frank’s journey.”
Andrew Steel stars as Frank Shankwitz in ‘Wish Man’.
How did you come to the role?
“I met Frank at an event [where] he was being interviewed by our lead producer Greg Reid and…I just went up to him and wanted to shake his hand and thank him for his service. Then I mentioned to him that I was starting a non-profit film festival…called Flicks4Change that focuses on films with important social messages…So I told Frank about what I was doing and what our mission was and he kinda stopped me there and said ‘You know what, somebody like you should be playing me in this movie – Hey, Greg, this guy should play me in the movie!’ And I’m like ‘What movie?’ And he’s like, ‘The story of my life – Wish Man’ and he put his cowboy hat on me and [said] ‘It’s just crazy enough to work’. So I was like ‘Wow!’ – you know, this is my first lead in a US feature…So I went down San Diego for the audition [with] the writer-director Theo Davies and Greg Reid the producer and….they came back said ‘Well, congratulations you’re the Wish Man, you’ve got the role kid’. It was one of those crazy ‘right place, right time’ [situations].”
What was it that attracted you to the role?
“Well, I think it’s so remarkable to see Frank coming from such humble beginnings and it being just…an idea that he had and then following through with a simple act of kindness and seeing what ripple effect that has on the world. If we can share more stories that inspire people to just do good things, you never know what the ramifications are gonna be and the positive impact that you can have in a small scale that will resound the around the world.”
When you were working on this film, do you feel like it changed you in any way?
“Definitely. Getting to know Frank and his story and what’s he’s about, it had me question some of my choices and encouraged me to ‘raise my vibration’…I do think it encouraged me to be a better version of myself. Now I’m happily married with one of my co-stars actually [Kym Jackson who plays Sally in the film] and we have a baby [10-month-old Jackson] together which is amazing…We’re very thrilled that the film brought us together and now we’re [living] happily ever after.”
How does living in Australia (the couple live in Sydney’s Northern Beaches) go with working in the US film industry?
“Yeah, look it has its challenges. There is quite a lot of stuff happening here – we’re actually producing a film that we are about to start shooting…called Other You with Luke Ford in the lead. So we’re very much making our own but there’s a lot of opportunity in the US…”
What’s that film about?
“Other You is about finding the best version of yourself, whether that’s in a parallel universe or not. It’s a guy that is down on his luck and downtrodden by his environment but it takes switching out with another version of himself in the parallel universe to see what else he’s lacking as a person so he brings that back and solves some issues in his life. Kym’s got a leading role in that and I also have a role…It should be all finished and ready to be seen by June next year. It’s Jerry Maguire meets Sliding Doors meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – that’s a nice way to sum it up.”
Christian Ganiere as terminally ill boy Michael and Andrew Steel as Frank Shankwitz in ‘Wish Man’.
You mentioned Flicks4Change. Can you tell us a bit about that?
“I moved to LA and I saw how much homelessness there was there and I had an idea to make a film about it. And then I was thinking [about] where it was going to be shown and what kind of platform that would be, and I realised that there really wasn’t a platform for short films like this. So I decided that I would create the platform and the community by basically inviting great films and film-makers with cause-based films to come and show them at a screening. And that that one little screening [in 2016] grew to five different festivals in Los Angeles alone and two in Washington DC…In COVID it has been a tricky because we had in-person events. So we shifted to online but it loses a bit of the impact. So we’re really shifting our focus now to creating inspirational content and we’ve got a few projects on the horizon in that space.”
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Wish Man was released in the US in 2019. What was reaction like and particularly from Frank himself?
“[His reaction] was definitely the most important one and [that of] Kitty, his wife, and they were happy…We also had an opportunity to travel the world – we went to the Cannes Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival; we had the premiere at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood…So it was very much like ‘Wow, I think this is a legitimate thing that we’re doing here’. It is one thing to make a film, it’s another thing for the film to be good and another thing for it to be seen and people agreeing with you…It’s a beautiful thing to be sitting in a dark room with a number of other people feeling the same emotions and coming out with a shared experience of positivity.”
There’s a lot of familiar faces in the cast – Bruce Davison plays your father and Tom Sizemore a police sergeant – what’s it like working with such well-known faces?
“It was crazy. My first scene of the whole shoot was when I’m marching into Tom Sizemore’s office and calling him out. This is the first day – so I’ve been cast in the role for a year and I’ve been working on everything – accents and riding motorcycles and shooting guns and stuff – and then it all comes down to what’s gonna happen when I walked through [that door]. They call action, I’ve got to barge through his door, pick him up – like, basically throw him up against the wall and give him a piece of my mind – and so I do that and that feels all good…and then I feel this drip on my hand and I see that my hand is bleeding. I’ve grabbed his medals on his police uniform and twisted as I push him up against the wall and I’ve cut my finger….So they cleaned it up and taped it up. And then we go to the next scene and the same thing happens and another finger is bleeding now. So I’m like ‘Oh, this is a tough gig film-acting but somebody’s got to to it’.”
Looking back now, what did you get out of the film?
“I think it’s important to look at yourself and no matter where you are – whether you feel like you’re doing good things [or not], I feel like, often, we can be quite hard on ourselves and we need to remember that at anytime we can turn things around and that the next action is the action that defines you. That we can be better, we can help other people, we can take the focus off ourselves and give back and that in turn fuels our own sense of worth and fulfilment…It’s a beautiful film and I’m pinching myself that I got to play the role.”
‘Wish Man’ is being released on the WONDER streaming platform in Australia on 5th September with 40 per cent of the proceeds from any rental or purchase of ‘Wish Man’ through WONDER going directly to Make-A-Wish Australia.
