By: Laura Kristan Wilhelm
West Hollywood, CA (The Hollywood Times) 4/13/17 – In this City of Stars, inspiration can come in a flash and take unexpected forms. This happened to LA model/actor Bo Roberts one day last November while listening to the song “Take My Breath Away” on the radio and looking out the bedroom window. He noticed that the adjacent building’s window matched up perfectly with his.
“It hit me that in all the big cities I’ve ever lived in, I have never known anything about my neighbors except for one,” says Roberts. He thought to himself, “For all I know, someone could be getting killed just past that window and I would probably never even hear about it.”
Roberts claims that this idea refused to leave his mind. He finally decided to “exorcise that demon” and create the 18-minute horror short called “Death Ballad” which took four days of filming this March to complete.
“Death Ballad” features his bedroom window in its opening scenes and was shot mainly in West Hollywood at the actors’ homes.
Old friend David Enrico plays the lead in “Death Ballad.” Roberts and Enrico have known each other for about seven years, mainly through model castings.
Cara Failer (Victim #1) went to Roberts’ acting school. And so on and on.
One of Bo Roberts’ fun-loving friends “rick-rolled” him with a music video for Rick Astley’s now-notorious 1987 song “Never Gonna Give You Up” as he was filming “Death Ballad”.
Roberts decided to end “Death Ballad” this way before the comedic credits. “I want this to be known as the most epic ‘rick-roll’ prank ever,” he said with an invisible wink.
Roberts has a “same team” mentality when creating projects such as this. “I find people I just like to hang out with and find ways to put them into projects I do so we can hang out together on set, and also create something cool together,” he says.
For now films like “Death Ballad” are a labor of love for Bo Roberts and his team. Eventually Roberts hopes to have a “well-oiled machine” of people who are passionate about what they do to keep bringing these concepts to life.
THE HOLLYWOOD TIMES looks forward to taking the next steps along with “Death Ballad.”
Reporter’s note: The possibly lethal anonymity of big cities that Roberts treats in “Death Ballad” has been well examined in major Hollywood releases, most notably in LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR.
The sociopathic drifter has been compared with “existential hero” Meursault in Albert Camus’ famous 1942 novel THE STRANGER.
Directed by Richard Brooks, this underrated 1978 film features Diane Keaton, Richard Gere, LeVar Burton, and Tom Berenger in breakout performances centered upon the real-life murder of a special education teacher (Keaton) by a drifter she picks up in a bar (Berenger). The sociopathic drifter has been compared with “existential hero” Meursault in Albert Camus’ famous 1942 novel THE STRANGER.
About Bo Roberts:
Roberts relocated to New York where MR. GOODBAR takes place as well as Italy. He has been featured in “Cosmo,” “GQ,” and “Men’s Health” magazines among many others.
In Los Angeles Roberts has appeared in 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE (Legendary Pictures), THE MINDY PROJECT (Fox), BURN NOTICE (USA Network), and CHANGE OF COMMAND (Lionsgate).
