Talking "Fat Girls" with writer-director-actor Ash Christian

I'm convinced Ash Christian is some kind of Steven Spleiberg-like genius in the making.
Think back to when you were 22, what were you doing then? I was in college drinking beer from a keg pretending to like girls. Ash would never have had time for that. He was too busy making his first movie - "Fat Girls" - a movie that is superb and finally getting a theatrical release when it premieres at LA's Regent Showcase theater Nov. 2 with plans for expansion after that.

Ash has created this wonderfully enjoyable movie about a gay high school kid and his "Rubenesque" best friend Sabrina who are suffering through the indignities of being "different" in high school. While Sabrina is indeed a fat girl, the point of the movie is that anyone who has ever been an outsider has an inner "fat girl" and can identify with the characters in this touching, and very, very funny movie.
“There are so many movies out there of the hot people having sex in the bathroom or whatever," Ash told me recently. "When I was growing up in Paris, Texas, I didn't have a movie that I understood. I just really wanted to do something that captured my life so I didnt feel like an outsider. I wanted to make people feel normal."
Ash survived growing up feeling like a loner by putting a lot of energy into his art. He left Texas at 17 moved to LA where he was soon getting scores of acting jobs including a role on "Six Feet Under." He wrote "Fat Girls" at 19 and directed it at 20.
“I raised the money, I was always going to be the [lead] guy. That was never really an issue. It was such a low budget, under $100,000. I raised it in about a month and wrote it in about a month."
Key to the flm's success was the casting of Ashley Fink as Sabrina.
“I audtioned her in LA before I went to Texas to fund raise," Ash said. "I met with 15 actresses her size and she came in and she was Sabrina.”
Fat Girls" was set to film in Canton, Tx. but the day before the 18-day shoot was to begin, the city government put the kibosh on things after they learned the main character in the film was a gay teen. Nearby Waxahachie, Tx. welcomed them and the movie got made on schedule.
“We shot for 14 days which is crazy, unheard of. We had locations locked in Canton and we had deposits on a hotel, props and food. They kicked us out. They said, 'You can't shoot on any public property, you can't use our schools, we don't want to be a part of this.' We went to Waxachachie and with little fighting, we got free reign.”
So how did this kid not even old enough to legally drink able to remain focused in the face of that kind of potential setback?
“I made up my mind early on that this was going to happen no matter what, come hell or high water and was going happen no matter what. We made it happen because we had to."
Once the movie was made, it was a matter of getting it accepted into film festivals and Ash caught a big break when the film was chosen to have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. Now that it is finally being released, Ash said, “It feels great. It's been a really long road to get it here, really fighting all the way. It feels awesome for your first movie to be in theaters, especially when you're 22 years old. We still had to really fight to close out a deal. it was always a battle. But i liked it., it's fun to fight.”
The theatrical run will be followed closely by the DVD release around Christmas.
Sounds like the perfect stocking stuffer!
Ash is busy working on his second movie, "Mangus," which he hopes will begin shooting this winter. He will again star and direct. He describes it this way: "It's about a boy who wants to play Jesus Christ in his high school's production of "Jesus Chirst Spectacular" but loses his legs in drunk driving accident. The school board takes away his roie and it's about his fight to become Jesus Christ again."
But for now, it's all about promoting "Fat Girls" and hoping audiences will embrace it as much as film festival crowds did: “You’ll never see another movie like it. It's a fun comedy in times that are very funny and you should probably laugh It was healing for me. I don't even feel like so much of a fat girl anymore.”

Here is a link to the film's OFFICIAL WEBSITE