OWN WORST ENEMY -- WITH IMAGINARY FRIENDS LIKE THESE, WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?

When I was a kid I once had an imaginary friend called Philip. He was about average height. Average build. And when he wasn't writing stories, he kept on telling me about his black comedy involving a man who's imaginary friend had an imaginary friend. Oh! Wait a minute. Philip wasn't my imaginary friend. He was the creator of...





1) What are your own origins, Philip? Plus what path did you take in life prior to getting to where you are today?   I’ve always been interested in telling stories and writing is a major passion of mine along with filmmaking and photography. What I do now is a perfect marriage of my biggest hobbies. I studied filmmaking at university and the first thing I did when I left was start work on an anthology film called, 'One Minutes', which did well on the festival circuit in 2009 playing internationally and picking up a bunch of awards.

2) What inspired the creation of ‘Own Worst Enemy’?   The initial starting point for 'Own Worst Enemy' was the idea of a guy who was so crazy that his imaginary friend had an imaginary friend. Everything else just spiralled from there.

3) In your own words how would you describe this story?   'Own Worst Enemy' is a pitch black comedy about Andy Cummings (Mike Baughan), an agoraphobic man struggling to stay sane within the confines of his pokey flat as his newly formed imaginary enemy, Mr. P (also played by Baughan), taunts and ridicules him at every opportunity.

Added to this, with heavy rain pouring in through his leaky roof he becomes convinced that the local weather presenter (Terri Dwyer) is deliberately predicting bad weather in an attempt to flood his house. With nowhere to escape to and nowhere to hide he must remedy the situation as best he can as the line between fantasy and reality blurs.

4) If this film omitted a collective odor, what would it smell like and why?   Must!

5) What song would you say best represents your wares and why?   There's an old song by 'They Might Be Giants' called 'Now That I Have Everything' that sums up the film for me. There's references to the narrators reflection for not wanting to have anything to do with him since he is a changed man -- for whatever reason. Narratively it's very different to 'Own Worst Enemy', but thematically it's pretty spot on.

6) If you could get a known celebrity – either living or dead – to promote this flick, who would you choose, and why would you want this particular person?   Living; Brian Blessed. Because Brian Blessed is not only a living legend, but he's also a man you wouldn't say no to if he told you to watch a movie.

Dead; Bea Arthur. Because if Bea Arthur came back from the dead to promote a movie she wasn't in, why wouldn't you watch it?

7) What were the main obstacles you had to contend with along the way?   Aside from the typical indie filmmaker problems stemming from lack of funds, I'd say having Mike Baughan flip between two very different characters was more problematic than either of us had anticipated. Mr. P is a very dominate character in the script and that transcended from the page into real life. If we went from filming some scenes with Mr. P to filming some scenes with Andy it would take forever to exorcise Mr. P from Mike's portrayal of Andy -- despite all our rehearsals and preparation. 

Mr. P wasn't going to be outshone by Andy!

8) If ‘OWE' had a motto, what do you think it would be?   With imaginary friends like these, who needs enemies?

And on that note, dear reader, I'd like to thank Philip for telling us about his black comedy, 'Own Worst Enemy', as well as direct you towards his official website, facebook, and twitter pages.