The Long Long Night”: TV Series to Air at Ashland Independent Film Festival
“The Long Long Night,” a six-part comedy-drama series by Barret O’Brien was screened at the Ashland Independent Film Festival October 4 and 5, 2024. “The Long Long Night” follows Pete and Carroll, childhood best friends, who are scrambling to build meaningful adult lives. Created by real-life childhood friends Mark Duplass and Barret O’Brien — who also directs and acts in the series — the production took over two years to plan and execute. Barret O’Brien, producer Rory O’Neill Schmitt, and cinematographer Gary Lundgren participated in a talk-back during the event where they discussed their creative partnership and more.
Award-winning actor and author Barret O’Brien hails from New Orleans, is a graduate of Yale University, and has appeared in more than eighty plays and films. A playwright whose work has been performed at venues across the country, he garnered a Storer Boone Award for Best New Play, was named a finalist at the William Faulkner Literary Festival, and his work was published by Yale Palimpsest, Jefferson Journal, American Dog Books, and Smith & Kraus Books New American Playwrights: The Best Plays. Also a filmmaker, his movies tend to be rooted in environmentally-conscious storytelling that is dedicated to sustainability, inclusiveness, and joy. Barret is also the founder of “New Tales,” national education workshop that emboldens youth to share their stories through theatre.
Barret recently discussed his craft and career via an exclusive interview.
Meagan Meehan (Q): How did you discover your love for acting?
Barret O’Brien (BO): At nine, I played one of the sons in Ernest Ferlita’s Black Medea. Black Madea is a retelling of the Euripides tale set in New Orleans in 1810 that posits Medea as a Voodoo priestess and Jason as a French colonial aristocrat. I had one scene, no lines, and a cool costume. It was super fun. Because my scene was in Act I, I went home at intermission. Since the brutal murders of Madea’s sons happen offstage in Act II, I didn’t realize until years later that I was killed every night. But that is one of the key things I discovered about acting: it’s a craft that plays with and explores big ideas in a safe and constructive environment. Even death is inside its purview. I grew up in a theater family. My parents ran an Equity theater company in New Orleans called Southern Rep. Because the theater’s business office was the garage of our home, there was always a steady river of actors, directors, designers, stitchers, fundraisers, poets, dreamers, playwrights, visionaries flowing through our house. Eventually, I carved out a canoe and joined the river. Still have that canoe.
Q: How did acting lead you into writing?
BO: I have written poetry for as long as I could hold a pen. It’s a modest operation; I sell the slim collections on my website. I keep a big file of poems, and when I have enough of them that want to be shared, I do. It’s a patient process, sort of like tending coral. My first collection took twenty-years. It’s a good thing I’ve other interests. Acting, by its very essence, has space between work. It has to. It’s too demanding to do 24/7/365. When I think of Viola Davis (one of my favorite actors) I know she must have space between playing Ma Rainy in Ma Rainy’s Black Bottom and Nanisca in The Woman King. (I mean, she had time to write a memoir, audio record it, and then win a Grammy for her recording.) So, I write in order to always be making stuff. I just really like making stuff. It’s also a way for me create work for my friends who may be in need. I write to their strengths, work that can be filmed or staged for small budgets. I’ve shot a film inside my car. I’ve staged a play in an abandoned bar. It’s important to me to find ways to make work, to keep those doors wide open.
Q: What gave you the idea for “The Long Long Night” and what was your favorite part of writing this show?
BO: The idea came simply from the simple question: “What is pressing most in my curiosities at this very moment?” And, for me, the answer was: “Is there a action one can do that truly helps, on an individual level, create a fully sustainable and socially-just world?” Not in fifty years or a generation, but that helps right now, today. That’s where The Long Long Night grew from.
Q: Why did you decide to make this to a TV show rather than a play or film?
BO: The Long Long Night being a TV series was Mark Duplass’ idea. He envisioned the story as that — saw it unfolding patiently in chapters — and lobbied for it. The idea of that framework really excited me, so, being one to recognize brilliant collaborators when I’m in their midst, I gave a big, hearty yes.
Q: How much of yourself is in the character that you play here?
BO: I learn from my character Carroll’s access to innocence. He’s almost puppy-like in that sense. He leads with his heart. Always. Yes, this gets him into a bit of trouble because he neglects to use logic, but his approach to the world is something I really enjoy embodying. Without his radical innocence, the characters in The Long Long Night would have no adventure at all, would all, most likely, not have come together on this particular night. Maybe they would have just had a good sleep. Or read a book. I have a dear place in my heart for the sixth episode of the first season. Honestly, I feel that by that time in the process, the borders of Carroll’s journey in the show and my own journey of making the show were fairly indistinguishable to me.
Q: You have been friends with Mark for years, long before he had his major successes with media companies like Netflix. What is it about such a long friendship that made it ripe for a creative spring?
BO: I’ve been inspired by the work Mark has been knee-deep in all the way back to This is John, his first short film at Sundance. My vision for The Long Long Night, from line one, was to make this story with him. I am so happy he took a chance on me and Rory (the lead producer). He is an incredibly diligent artist. We rehearsed the piece like a play, even going to far as to block the motel scenes so that, once on set, we could do 10- and 15-minute takes and just play and let the story live. You have to be opposite an actor you trust and who is wildly prepared to do that. Mark is both. Our decades-long friendship deepened by the process of making this first season together. To both of these aspects, I am very grateful.
Q: What is your favorite thing about this show and why?
BO: My favorite things are that it is kind. And that it is intimate. There really is nothing we’re hiding behind. I am a huge fan of Mr. Rogers. How, in his work very little happens and it happens really slowly. I am uninterested in cinematic work that relies on fast cuts, explosions, violence, characters being cruel to each other. And, lucky for me, there’s plenty of that out there, plenty of extraordinary artists exploring those realms. So, there is great room for me not to have to. I embrace the fantastic opportunity to create work that has patient editing, zero explosions, and violence only when it’s honest and really silly. I can dedicate my explorations on characters who are doing their very best to be kinder and gentler than they were the day before.
Q: What are your ultimate goals for “The Long Long Night?”
BO: I am so grateful for where this series has taken me and Rory Schmitt already, I am almost shy to speak of goals. I mean, we’ve gotten to share our work at Tribeca and South by Southwest, and now Ashland Independent Film Festival as the featured artists. However, since you ask, I will stretch my arms and say I envision the series being welcomed onto a major streaming platform and being shared widely with an international audience.
Q: What is coming up next for you and is there anything else that you would like to mention?
BO: This past winter I had the absolute joy of playing a traveling poet in Gary Lundgren’s feature Above the Trees. The film follows an unsolved mystery that happened in Oregon. The film is in theaters now all along the West Coast. Gary is the cinematographer on The Long Long Night and a dear friend. He and I are committed to forwarding the light-footprint production style utilized on The Long Long Night and Above the Trees. It is so totally fun. Some days on set there were only four or five people, actors included. We just wrapped principle photography on our next feature collaboration, Pelican. It’s a four-character movie set on the coast of Southern Oregon. It will be released in 2025. To see where Above the Trees is playing or to to learn of Pelican’s premiere go to jomafilms.com
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To learn more about Barret, visit his official website: www.barretobrien.com
