Some of you are old enough to remember the old Mac vs. PC ads. The ever brilliant John Hodgman played the stodgy, pudgy PC, in a smackdown against the handsome/slick guy played the Mac, who always won, a little smugly.
I had the idea to write a play where one of the ads sort of goes off the rails and slick Mac guy gets put on the defensive and sort of breaks down. As I wrote it I pictured Damon Bonetti in this part, and I was lucky enough to get him to do it in a night of one-acts. Later we shot it as a video with friend, actor and fellow playwright David Lee White. It was honestly one of the most fun projects I've ever worked on.
What's great about Damon is he's naturally likable, and he's able to use that to play assholes in a way that assholes are in real life. Many assholes seem like nice guys, or do really good impressions of nice guys.
While I know Damon has a great range as an actor, when I had a slick lawyer part to cast in my movie. I was like: I need Damon Bonetti. And man did he nail it. In three very different sequences he embodied, in a nuanced, complex way, a likable asshole lawyer. He surprised me with different moments in different takes (that I didn't notice until editing). The performance is a real difference-maker and I appreciate it so much.
Consummate pro, producer of challenging and interesting theatre, genuinely nice and funny guy. The asshole bit is acting.