HV Featured Member Nick Hansen took some time to chat with us recently about his latest release THE GROOMSMAN. Nick is a filmmaker, writer, actor, and producer from Duluth, Minnesota. When Nick’s not filming in his hometown or Miami or LA, he’s also an avid tennis player, poet, and mental health advocate
Still haven’t seen the first episode of THE GROOMSMAN yet? Watch it on HV!
HV: You directed, co-wrote, and starred in The Groomsman, but your mom actually wrote most of the series. Do you want to talk about that?
Nick: It was probably for the best – I wrote the first few pages and they read more like a Coen Brothers inspired script! She was able to craft the story and script into an actual romantic comedy that was really fun to make!
HV: What was the funniest thing that happened to you while filming The Groomsman?
Nick: The funniest thing was during the Duluth flashback scenes we crashed an actual wedding to get film of my character Will dancing wildly and I ended up seeing a friend from the film school where I worked as a janitor on the dance floor!
HV: What movie and/or TV show would you recommend for anyone interested in becoming a filmmaker?
Nick: I learned everything I needed to know about filmmaking and life from The Sopranos.
HV: You’re also a poet. Are there any particular poems you find inspiring?
Nick: I mostly like to write poetry and don’t read very many poems. At the risk of being pretentious, I will share one of my own poems (really one long sentence) that I wrote on a night in 2011 where I couldn’t fall asleep:
Pleasantly pervasive melodies echo through my tangled mind and overpower seemingly insurmountable cosmic circumstances of intense duress and for capsules of time I’m able to construe calamitous wonder of the wandering that ensues as I dance from folly to triumph and the careening path that inevitably connects the two that becomes the one in the bleeding sun that glistens on my wet forehead as I sometimes traipse, sometimes amble through the circumstantial mist of harsh light that bites the mystical fruit off the tree of life, negating the blind strife of life with the pills that dull the senses and bend whims into realities, not random causualities called coincidences that do not exist at least not where I was stationed to sweep up the mess that always persists in transitory objectification of dull blades that strike at the thin air or bare bones that rot in mildew fields that deer peck at with their teeth as lumberjacks take axes to trees that fail to fall due to the gravitational pull of One who holds a much higher toll in the palm of His hand and plays with His band of angels whose pleasantly pervasive melodies heretofore did not exist but at last I subsist in odious disarray only to reassemble in perfect and harmonious Oneness that only occurs completely in an event ceremoniously close to spontaneous combustion but known here only as love, grace, and creativity which is what I believe in tonight.
HV: Did you try any new hobbies or adventures during the pandemic?
Nick: I went on daily meditation adventures with the app Insight Timer – I would highly recommend it to anybody – truly life-changing!
HV: Forehand or backhand?
Nick: Backhand all day.
HV: Last question. You played a cowboy in Salvo. What’s your best cowboy skill?
Nick: Squinting into the sun.
