Navigating the Acting World with Vincent Donato

Experience the rollercoaster journey of an actor's life with our guest,  Vincent Donato. From a high school audition that didn't pan out to appearances in renowned productions like Storm Boy and Heaven's Burning, Vincent offers a peek behind the curtain into the unpredictable world of acting. We also touch on the fascinating duality of his life, as he expertly juggles a thriving acting career with the responsibilities of a family business.

Spanning the spectrum from big budget films to indie projects, Vincent opens up about his varied experiences on both sides of the camera. Hear the insider's perspective on the importance of extras on-set and the distinct differences between TV and film projects. Vincent also candidly discusses his admiration for actor Damon Herriman, and the invaluable advice he received from him. From his work as a body double in the Netflix movie Run Rabbit Run, to his passion for independent films and their unique challenges, Vincent's insights are as varied as his roles.

Wrapping up our enlightening conversation, we delve into Vincent's philosophy on balancing self-promotion with humility, and the critical role of networking in the acting community. You'll hear about how he navigates the digital world to build a public profile, despite being self-confessedly not tech-savvy. Finally, we bring up Vincent's own work, including his short film Wrong Tracks and the comedy project Stuck Together. This episode is a must-listen for all aspiring actors and film enthusiasts for its raw and real glimpse into the world of acting.

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Transcript

David John Clark: 0:45

Hi everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is David John Clark, your late bloomer actor, and I'm the host of this podcast. Obviously, hey. Today we're chatting to a South Australian. We're bringing it back home and talking to Mr Vincent John Donato. He's an Australian actor, model, voice artist, director and writer. He's appeared on television and in the screen in iconic Australian movies and series such as Wanted Storm Boy and Heaven's Burning. He's also voiced two characters in the Phoenix Files, which is an Australian podcast based on Chris Morfews Phoenix Files novels. Vincent is a father of two teenage children and is happily married to Joe Donato, who's also an author of Crossfire and Secrets.

David John Clark: 1:26

I first met Vincent back on the set of Legacy, which was a student film where his son, ethan played my younger son, and we also appeared in two movies of that year's Charlotte and Shrapnel. Vincent also wrote and directed Wrong Tracks and a web series stuck together in 2020. This is a great and insightful chat. We have Very, as I said, very close to home. We've got a lot to do with each other, so I wanted to chat to him about his experience on set and what he's getting out of acting and where he wants to take it. So I hope you enjoy and I just want to quickly say again I always like to read it.

David John Clark: 2:05

Thank you very much for listening to the podcast. I would love to see some reviews. If you can, jump on your websites, your podcast players, and leave us some reviews, it does help in the analytics of the show getting out there and going around. So it's been just coming up to the end of the second year of the podcast. I'm very happy with that and thank you very much for being on board. So please, if you can this is a call to action to jump on your podcast platforms and leave a review and some ratings. Follow the Facebook pages on Instagram and TikTok and share amongst your friends and family and see if we can get this show a little bit more wider out there and get a bit more of a following. That would be fantastic. But for everyone that's stuck with me for the last 18 months, I hope you've enjoyed. Thank you very much, and here we go with Mr Donato. Thank you, mr Vincent Donato. Welcome to the show, mate, welcome.

Vincent Donato: 3:02

Thanks for having me Much appreciated.

David John Clark: 3:04

Good morning. Good morning, thank you for coming on. It's a nice winter's day here. At least the rain stopped, so we won't have the sound of the rain on our roofs while we're chatting.

Vincent Donato: 3:15

It's quite good currently yeah.

David John Clark: 3:16

And now beautiful Vincent. Vincent, we've known each other since, I believe, 2017. When we first met, it was actually for Ethan, your son.

Vincent Donato: 3:28

He was yeah.

David John Clark: 3:29

We played a role on Legacy, a student film, so correct. And then, I think of the same year, we were both in a movie together, not that we filmed together, but Charlotte and Shrapnel, that's correct, isn't it?

Vincent Donato: 3:42

Yeah, a couple movies, yeah.

David John Clark: 3:43

Yeah definitely.

Vincent Donato: 3:44

I don't think we've actually filled side by side yet. No, no, it was gone back. Yeah, yeah, no no.

David John Clark: 3:51

We've been around, but we I think we're doing the TV series together as well. Again, our characters are not some blood city, correct?

Vincent Donato: 4:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're not together yet. Yet who knows?

David John Clark: 4:06

what season two brings, that's right so. Vincent, before we go too far into chatting, how about you let the viewers know a little bit about yourself, your background, where you grew up and where you are now, and how you got into acting?

Vincent Donato: 4:22

Sure yeah, no worries, happy to do that. All right, cue the Italian music. Have you got that little Italian?

David John Clark: 4:27

I can put that in post.

Vincent Donato: 4:30

Yeah, check that in post. Now look I, I let's start. Let's start from, say, year 10, year 10 high school. So up until year 10 high school, pretty much into sports and stuff like that. Big in soccer, really enjoyed soccer, Cricket, love my cricket.

Vincent Donato: 4:48

Left hand bowler. I used to bowl around the wicket left arm, because I'd always watched the cricket games and you'd see the right arm was bowling on the left side. So I just figured, oh yeah, you've got to bowl on the left side of the wicket, so I would be a left arm around wicket, which I didn't realize at the time. And there I was pretty successful at that, actually in swing it to the right hand, beautiful. And then in year 10, I always did drama and I always enjoyed creating stuff. Even when I was in primary school really really enjoyed creating stuff and you know, doing assembly and stuff like that. So that's sort of one thing. And then you know, continued drama in high school.

Vincent Donato: 5:24

And then in year 10, there was a. They were auditioning for a movie and I have no idea what the movie is to this day, but we had a chat with a director and producer and whatever, and it was just. It was just in the drama room, so anyway. So yeah, had a chat with that, and then I got a callback, and then I got another callback and I thought, oh, this is pretty good. The drama teacher sort of said oh look, you know, vincent, you know, congratulate Vincent, pat him on the back. He's done really well. Blah, blah, blah. Okay, well, that's good. But I didn't get the role. Apparently and this is ironic I was too tall at the time.

Vincent Donato: 6:06

And anyone that knows me. I'm five foot seven and a half, and I say a half because every half counts when you're, when you might hide.

David John Clark: 6:13

Fair enough.

Vincent Donato: 6:14

So but back then I was probably tall for my age, which I think I was, so anyway, I didn't get the role, but I kind of I don't know, probably probably fell in love with the image and the and the thought of acting and being in the movies and stuff like that. So I continued drama year 11 and year 12. Year 12, I decided to go with it was peasant sass back then, this in 1992. So I went with sass because it was more performance based and I ended up with a 20 out of 20 for drama and they got scaled down to 18, but it was 20 out of 20. Based on performance.

Vincent Donato: 6:54

I did a great monologue which was really proud of and I thought, geez, okay, well, actually I'm not too bad at this. So I thought, well, you know, let's, let's try acting after school, which is what I did for probably three years between, I just say, 17 and 20, 21, something like that. So I went to act as ink and studied and then just kind of felt my way around acting, I suppose, and then kind of really got a little bit it's the word Patured, or a bit down on myself, I suppose, because I mean, obviously back then things are different. You've got no mobile phones, you've got no internet. So you go to an audition, you're in a room, everyone looks like you, most look like you, but better looking or whatever, and you know then you're waiting for the phone to ring and it doesn't ring.

Vincent Donato: 8:01

So at that stage I was probably putting a lot of pressure on myself to succeed and you know that wasn't forthcoming. So I just took a break and it was okay. And at that time anyway, I had a girlfriend and stuff. He's my wife now, joe. And you know I had a different focus, I suppose. So probably from the age of 17 to 21, and not really knowing what I wanted, wanting to be this iconic James Dean sort of stuff. I mean, let's be honest, right. So you know, and it was like you know, there wasn't a lot of opportunity really, anyway for that age group.

Vincent Donato: 8:41

I think that age group is really a harder age group anyway, and then, yeah, so then mum and dad had a business that they wanted to sell and couldn't sell. It was a seven days supermarket. I had no job and really no prospects, really let's be honest. So they kind of said, well, look, you and a mate, we can't sell this business. How about you buy it off? Us Bate wouldn't give me a loan. So basically that's what we did. It was a seven day week, eight to eight at night supermarket back in the day, and our best day was, honestly, easter day and Christmas day. They were our busiest days. So we stayed open and we eventually, you know, paid it off. When I say, yeah, it was a mate of mine from high school and we sold it and that was kind of a stepping stone into, you know, my life, career, whatever.

Vincent Donato: 9:37

So we had that for about four years and then bought a snack bar with my wife in the city working five days a week and then on weekends I'd help the old man in the building industry and I was never gonna do the building be in the building industry because you know stuff that. But here I am. So after we sold the business and had kids, I just stayed with him pretty well and went back to school, got my own builders license and now it's been. How old am I now? I'm 48 this year, so probably 10, 20, 19 years, I reckon, to me.

Vincent Donato: 10:10

So that I've been building and we build new homes for clients now and then, at the age of 40, I thought you know what it's now or never. If I wanna act, now's the time to start. You know, getting stuck into it and giving it a crack, giving it a crack. Yeah, the kids were a bit older and I thought you know I had the focus on the kids. I've always been into sports, I've been coaching, I've always coached the kids and all that sort of stuff, so I really enjoyed doing that. But I thought you know, let's, you know work life balance and let's really try to hit the exact thing thing. So yeah, so from the age of 40 to 48, here I am.

Vincent Donato: 10:46

So, yeah, that's a little bit. I'm gonna not that brief. You might have to edit that. Let's spice it up.

David John Clark: 10:52

No, put some Italian music to it. Yeah, it's interesting because age wise is pretty much the same as my journey. I think it was about 40 as well that I've jumped on board and I did the actors' courses as well. So we're pretty much I'm surprised. We didn't even cross paths in that area there. So I'm 50 already. So you're two years younger than me, and so your business that you run now is Donato Homes.

Vincent Donato: 11:23

Where Donato Homes? Yeah, I don't know.

David John Clark: 11:24

I'm pretty sure that this episode is sponsored by Donato Homes.

Vincent Donato: 11:28

Yeah, Donato Homes Except.

David John Clark: 11:33

And obviously that's interesting for your acting career. How does that work running your own business, especially something in the building and home making? I know it's a tough industry, especially coming out of COVID et cetera et cetera. So how do you balance all that? Obviously, I'm a bit of a guess here, but your business would have to be your priority, because that pays the bills.

Vincent Donato: 11:59

Good guess. Yeah, certainly it's 100%. Look, I do enjoy building, so I'm lucky enough. It's a family business, so I'm involved with my cousin, my dad, myself and my uncle. My dad and I started it pretty well, and when I say started it, we kind of fell into it. So dad was semi-retired buying a place, renovating it, selling it, so he was a flipper and I was helping him out and that's where I learned all the skills, just on the job. But then I went and got my license after doing it for probably five or six years and I said no, I want to build for clients. Dad and dad was like oh yeah, that's a great idea. But anyway, here we are. So we built clients now.

Vincent Donato: 12:46

So I'm lucky, I'm fortunate that I've got, I mean, and this is my baby, so the business is my baby, but unfortunately enough, I do have the family helping me out and we cover for each other where we can. Uncle's just had a hard operation. His son has just had knee operations, so it's just myself and my dad pretty much. We got subbies too, but running the show at the moment. But they understand that acting is very important to me, which is really good. So whenever there's a gig. I have their blessing, and sometimes it's tricky to try to balance, but we make it work, which is great.

David John Clark: 13:27

So it's really good to have that. That's awesome. Yeah, we talk a lot on previous episodes and stuff about trying to find that plan B, that plan that makes things work. So this is great. So this is an area that allows you to do your acting sort of thing. So if you get that call for an audition, you've got the space where you can do it, and if you have to be on set next week, then you've got that support network there to help you out, which is brilliant isn't it, I love it.

David John Clark: 13:52

Yeah, it is, it is, it is yeah, awesome Really fortunate, so I'm coming back to the acting world a little bit.

Vincent Donato: 14:00

So I've written here.

David John Clark: 14:02

With your extensive experience in both television and film, could you share some insights on the key differences between the two mediums? How does your approach to acting change when you're working on television versus film? And obviously, indie films are a lot different, and we'll talk a bit later about you making your own work, of course.

Vincent Donato: 14:23

Yeah, sure, they've got enough. It changes too much, to be honest. Often in a film you've got, it depends on the role. To me, if you ask me, it depends on the role, because if you're in a series and you're filming currently and you're in episode 1, 2, 3, 4, whatever your lead role, you've got to follow what you've created and you've got to be consistent with what you've created. You know like I'm very, very big on mannerisms and things like that. You know, obviously you don't want to overdo it, but you want to create something that's quite interesting as well. So for me it's about consistency. So I mean, obviously I haven't had a huge amount of experience on film, to be honest, so I probably I don't know, it's probably only a couple feature films really that I've done, to be honest, maybe three, and most of them I've been fortunate enough to be filmed concurrently. So we're filming scenes within three or four days.

Vincent Donato: 15:37

I did a really good movie with Alice Mayo Macke she Tooth for Tooth. That was a vampire film, great film. We were filming there between I reckon we started at 8 at night and finished by 1 or 2 AM and then get up and go to work again and of course, I've still got my makeup on and stuff like that, but that was a pretty good lead role for me and that was something about the same thing create that character and stay consistent within that character. So for me, film and series is not. I don't really adjust anything in terms of my acting. Obviously, theater's different again, theater's whole other other kerrons. I've done a couple theater productions before which I enjoy. It's just hard to find the time to do that, to be honest.

David John Clark: 17:27

Yeah, because they have a lot more. I mean, I'd say me personally. I can't do theater because of my shift work. I just can't commit to the rehearsal periods and obviously with a full-time business you would have the same. So it's choosing your priorities for a living yeah, 100%.

Vincent Donato: 17:43

I mean, look, I could do it, but family's very important to me as well. So it's work, family, and then it's the acting career. So, it's all about it.

David John Clark: 17:54

You mentioned before about developing a character. So how much you mentioned you said you'd done some training with Actor Zinc. Have you had any other training on that and how do you approach character building for your roles?

Vincent Donato: 18:09

So yeah, so I trained at Actor Zinc for probably two or three years I reckon that was when I was younger 17 years old to about 20, I reckon and then obviously got back into acting, did a stink with AAA talent back then 10-week course I reckon it was. That was a prerequisite, getting on the books with them, which is great. And then obviously I'm with a new agent now so I've done a just recently completed course with them. So I've done a few courses here and there, nothing really specific, to be honest. But when I created character I I really want to get into the what, where, when of the role.

Vincent Donato: 18:53

You know, why am I here?

Vincent Donato: 18:55

Why has the right? I'll try to get in the writer's head what is the writer looking for within this character? That's where I sort of begin. And then my mannerism is generally I kind of I try to relate my character to, say, an animal, where possible, you know, if it's a shark or if it's a you know baboon or whatever lion you know, and that's going to for me anyway. That helps my my, so what I'm looking for, my grasp, I suppose, of the of the character and how I'm going to play that role.

Vincent Donato: 19:35

So once I make a decision. I kind of stick to it. However, I like to stay open and adjusting. So you know, when I'm, when I'm auditioning, for example, I'll read the script, you know, a bunch of times, maybe, maybe 10 times to start with, get a feel for what I think, they think the character, they want out of the character, and then I'll film it one way and then I'll play around with it and turn it on its head a little bit, just to give a couple of options where they, where they allow you to do that. Obviously, sometimes they do allow you to give you a, give them a couple of options.

David John Clark: 20:10

Sometimes they don't you know? It's interesting talking to different actors about how they, how they draw on certain thoughts and feelings to to make their characters work, isn't it so? I mean, there's a myriad of different methods out there. Oh, there's so many different things.

Vincent Donato: 20:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 100% I mean. Look, I think, at the end of the day, with me as well. I try to relate. I figure whoever's writing something has has obviously seen movies and they and generally a lot of things. You see mirror, mirror things and you know the more and you kind of get a feel for what they're looking for based on, you know, a previous film or whatever. So I kind of you know, you kind of look to that as well, where you can Try to get in the headspace, I suppose.

David John Clark: 20:57

And I believe you've done some voiceover work as well for Phoenix Files podcast.

Vincent Donato: 21:03

I did yeah.

David John Clark: 21:05

So is there any? Is there any clarity difference on how you develop a character that you're only portraying voice wise as opposed to being on screen?

Vincent Donato: 21:13

Voices. Voices are a lot of fun. I really enjoy voice, but the difference is, yeah, you want to you well, for, for me anyway, you want to get your point across to you. Obviously, you're using your, you know your your kind of, you know you're hitting and you're punching, you're actually moving and you're and you're playing that out, but you're playing it bigger. You have for me, anyway, you have to play it bigger.

Vincent Donato: 21:37

I did a bit of voice training as well with Zoot online I think that was Zoot on top, I think that's what they're called and yeah, basically, basically that's for ads and things like that. You know, you know only $199 and you know, make sure you bring it big, and you know, because otherwise it's just going to be pretty dull, so, so, kind of with the Phoenix Files, that's that's what we did. We bought it, we bought it out, we bought it a little bit bigger and it does. It doesn't come out unnatural, which is, which is strange, because you're listening to it and I think you need to get a a, a, a judge of the action, and I think that helps you when you're listening to it, get, get a feel for the action of it all. So, yeah, so that's pretty much how we approach that one, just a little bit bigger and a little bit bolder.

David John Clark: 22:25

You know how do you find it when you're in that I've done. Did one film recently where I did the voiceover and it's it's hard trying to picture yourself in the scene. You're in a tight booth, it could be hot, a bit stuffy. You got the headphones on and the microphone there and you can see the guy through the window. So I felt it really not not disturbing, but difficult to sort of find yourself in that moment. And then you started getting direction to oh, can you deliver a more punch here or a less punch here? And you start to go oh, lose your place in the scene. Did you find that much?

Vincent Donato: 23:01

One thing, one thing I find with acting I didn't in this particular case, but one thing I find in acting is that you really have to concentrate. Concentration and blocking everything out is the key and obviously, learning lines inside out. But you know, in the past, yeah, I've definitely lost my way when a, when a director's given me too many instructions, but you know, you find your way back. I think, for for the big thing that I've sort of learned over the last eight years of doing this, or seven and a half or two it is it's just be prepared to play with it. You know, don't be set in your own way of doing something, because your way that you think is the is the bottom, may not be the right way, and just be open to change. That's one thing that I would sort of say to everybody just, yeah, just don't be set in your way, be open to change.

Vincent Donato: 23:59

And I remember I did a Thea McLeod class and and I was just sat back watching and listening to the others and whatever. And there was a. There was a particular student there who was, you know, he was all right, good, good guy, whatever, but he had some sort of some sort of role that he that he played I can't remember what it was and he set a certain line, a certain way, like a granny, like oh, grandma, and she said oh look, can you change it up? Can you do this, can you do that? And he took it on board and then gave her the exact same thing. So right then I was like no, yeah. So obviously you know, you got to change it up. And the other thing I find as well is I'll do audition, I'll do a bunch of audition tapes and I'll do it the way that I think is the way that's the way.

Vincent Donato: 24:48

And then I'll change it on its head, I'll do it another way, and then I'll watch it back and I'll be like oh, hang on, actually you know. So that's that's my advice is just, you know where you can just change it up. But, like you said before in the booth, yeah, there's people pointing at you, looking at you. It's stuffy, it's. You know, concentration is important and if just use your imagination, imagination is definitely the key. Put yourself in that situation where you can.

David John Clark: 25:16

But yeah, and now you've done a little bit of work on some of the bigger productions I think wanted in Storm Boy Both I've done, both myself and Heaven's.

Vincent Donato: 25:27

Peer.

David John Clark: 25:28

Yeah, what's some of your most memorable? Moments on those sets and what did you take away from being on those huge sets compared to independent films, which are a lot smaller, obviously?

Vincent Donato: 25:41

Yep, definitely Okay. So I'll start you off with Heaven's Burning, because I was 17 or 18 years old when I was an extra on Heaven's Burning and there was, so Russell Crowe was obviously in it, there was Robert Mamoni and South Coco, which I'm not sure if you're familiar with either of them but at the time they were pretty big. There was a show called Heartbreak, high Yep the actual Just being read right now.

Vincent Donato: 26:08

I know Exactly, this is the original. This is the old one, anyway. So South Coco was really big on that. So basically, I was an extra on set for three days I reckon it was right, and I'm on set and it was filmed in the CBD, so there's people everywhere watching and we're there on set and I'm getting touched up by makeup and whatever and I'm like this is pretty cool and anyway. So I'm hanging out on set with South Coco and Robert and we're just chatting and pretty much shooting the shit and whatever, and give me a bit of acting advice and whatever. And I knew who they were and I didn't know the role they had or whatever. Anyway, this whole thing culminated into one scene where they rob a bank and I'm just an extra walking into the bank. Pretty well, that's pretty much it.

Vincent Donato: 27:02

So the rob a bank, come out of the bank, shoot no, they get into a getaway car. I think the police officer or whoever's in the bank, what are they called? The guard shoots the car as they come out of the getaway and it crashes into a florist. So that was the scene. Russell Crowe was on set, but he didn't really hang around with us peasants, unfortunately. He did his thing and went back to the trailer, but it was really good.

Vincent Donato: 27:31

So hanging out with those guys it was like, wow, this is this. That was my first real taste and I was like, geez, I like this. This is, this is great. You know action, you get the megaphone action, you do your thing and then you know, fast forward to say Storm Boy wanted, and stuff like that. Yeah, just just good fun to be on those big sets. To me there's not a huge amount of difference from the big to the to the small, Obviously, it's more set up.

Vincent Donato: 27:58

There's a bigger set up, it's. I mean, I've just been an extra on these. So let's, let's be honest. You know they're not very personable as you probably come across. You're just a number, you do, you see it's one thing they might.

David John Clark: 28:13

My auntie once said to me, because I said I'm just an extra and she said, no, you're not just an extra.

Vincent Donato: 28:18

So we always had to.

David John Clark: 28:20

You know it's still part of the movie. The movies don't work without us. So, spot on, spot on, I do the same. I tend to want to talk it down, but hey, without the extras the movie didn't work and you never know where it's go. I think you agree with me that a lot of people say I don't want to do any extra work anymore. I'm an actor, yeah, but unless you're getting job after job after job, the extra work, hey, it's money in your bank and be you just don't know where it's going to go, do you?

Vincent Donato: 28:51

That's true, that's true. I mean, look, I've, you know, I've seen lots of extras that sort of get held up to, you know, feature spots and whatever as well. So you never know on the day what you're going to get. That's one thing with being an extra and it's great fun it is. It is great.

David John Clark: 29:06

And you're getting paid.

Vincent Donato: 29:08

So you know, I recently did a bottle body double, was a body double in run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run rabbit run yeah.

Vincent Donato: 29:16

That's on at the moment on Netflix. So I got mum. I was just at my daughter had a show for her drama for school and I went up with an old schoolmate from of mine who was there and mum's like, oh, Vincent's on Netflix. Now I'm like, oh God, I'm a body double on Netflix. So it was like wow, but that was good fun. I'm being a body double for Damon Herriman. Oh wow, he's a great actor. Yeah, Well, obviously we're similar size.

David John Clark: 29:44

Yeah, another short actor Another short ass. But he's a bit older than you know. He is.

Vincent Donato: 29:50

He is. So that was a drawing shot. Um, great, it was really good. To what? Um? I mean, I didn't know what to expect. Once again, you rock up. You don't know what to expect, um, but they showed me video of what he did. So I looked at the video of what he did about three or four times Um and mimic that, and that was really cool. I thought, wow, this is really cool, Um. I haven't seen it as yet, unfortunately, Um, but I wouldn't mind giving it a crack. Just check out the movie.

David John Clark: 30:14

Um.

Vincent Donato: 30:15

I reached out to Damon as you do afterwards. Um, very nice guy, very down to earth, very nice guy, yeah so he knows, he knows his stuff.

David John Clark: 30:25

I've done a few um zoom calls, um uh through stage milk where he's um done the interview and stuff. Really so so open uh to to helping other actors. I love it. I love it. It's very down to earth, very humble, yeah, so now, uh, going back a little bit, um so our relationship, as I mentioned at the start of the podcast, we started, um, we first met, um uh legacy, when the younger version of my son in the film so uh as a father of, uh, two teenage children.

David John Clark: 30:54

Now that may, or Ethan has, and now I know they do a bit of acting. So has your influence on acting being inspired them, or the other way around, or how's? How's that work as a family of actors?

Vincent Donato: 31:07

Yeah, yeah.

Vincent Donato: 31:07

So what? What started the whole thing? Obviously, I was big in acting, um, but Ethan, ethan would watch a movie, but he wouldn't watch a movie, he'd act it. He'd be acting movies ever since he was like three years old. Love, dressing up and being Bob the builder or whoever, um, and using that imagination, yeah, yeah. So, like you know, he'd watch Shrek, and he wouldn't be watching Shrek, he'd be slaying the dragon with Shrek. Um, he'd have his sword in his night, you know, um. So that's all the all, let's get him into acting, um.

Vincent Donato: 31:37

And then, obviously, so they did theater bugs, um, and then may have followed as well, and you know she wanted to do theater bugs, so she did theater bugs, um. So that's sort of what started the whole thing with them, um, and that probably pushed a little bit because of me, uh, with acting, let's be honest Um, because I enjoyed it so much, um. And then, yeah, obviously tried to help them out where I could to get them into feature films and stuff like that, um, you know, and and shorts or whatever, um, so they got started again. When I got started, um, you know, ask the question do you guys want to do it? Yeah, we wouldn't want giving it a crack. So, um, they did, and that's where you can obviously got into a legacy, uh, with yourself, and, and I must say that was, that was a very good role for you. You did very well with that, thank you.

David John Clark: 32:19

That was fantastic. I had fun with that one.

Vincent Donato: 32:20

That was good. Yeah, you did, and you and you could see that as the uh, as the um, aggressive father. I suppose we could say Um.

David John Clark: 32:28

I tend to play bad dads all the time for some reason Doesn't doesn't reflect on my real life.

Vincent Donato: 32:33

No, it doesn't, and I can see that. I can say that with your own kids and stuff and that's that's acting, isn't it? Yes so you know um. So, yeah, that was really good and it was a great experience for Ethan. He loved it. Um, and and I think as well you know, you were really good with him. Um, as well, cause I was obviously just lurking in the background, just sort of making sure, cause he was.

Vincent Donato: 32:51

I don't know how old he was, maybe he's about eight or nine, I don't know. He was quite young, Um, but yeah, so you really enjoyed that and he's very proud of that. Um so that they've had a break. He's he's having a break at the moment from acting. He's just working on career and stuff like that. Okay, um and may. Maya is as well. She's just sort of got on in the background. She enjoys singing now. So, she's participating in her school. You know plays and stuff like that.

David John Clark: 33:18

So that's awesome, yeah, awesome. And um, we got to do uh, just reminiscing a little bit as well. So we did uh shrapnel together and uh, uh resting piece, the director of Sean Watts unfortunately, we lost him a few years years back. Um, how do you, how do you feel when you get into these projects at the start? Yeah, I mean, um shrapnel had all these ideas of where it was going to go. I mean we knew the story and we did the um. You know the table, read the start the film.

David John Clark: 33:50

The film that, that, that, um, uh, I think he did it as a, um, a proof of concept in there.

Vincent Donato: 33:56

Pretty much a proof of concept, yeah, yeah.

David John Clark: 33:58

Again, again, with Ethan getting the handle, the firearm and sneak over while I was hiding behind a uh, an old couch.

Vincent Donato: 34:05

That was great, yeah, that was really good, yep.

David John Clark: 34:08

So, uh, how do you find with those, you know, the independent films and anything that comes up and going, being so excited at the start, then it trickles off and, yeah, there's been a few of them.

Vincent Donato: 34:19

There's been a few of them and I think what it is it's just, it's just experience.

Vincent Donato: 34:24

The more you do, you kind of like, oh well, look, you know, I'll go to give it the best we can, um, and if something comes of it, great, and if it doesn't, well, it is what it is, you know um in a way, acting's like I mean, I don't want to say I don't want to come across the wrong way, so it's not, it's not a hobby, but it's like I look at it, like if I go out, if I go out and I play a game of soccer, I've, I've, I've used a day, um, you know, I've waited, I've wasted a day, I don't know, I've enjoyed myself, I've played soccer. I might have lost five nil. Um, you know, same as acting, if I go on set for a day, use a day, and it never gets shown. Well, it is what it is. And I've had a few of them. Um, obviously, shrapnel, we actually got, we I've got, I've had some of being on I've never seen, ever, you know wasted three or four days If you look at it that way.

Vincent Donato: 35:17

Um, but you know what it's all experience and it is what it is when you're in the independent sort of film. You don't know you know um so meeting people isn't it.

David John Clark: 35:28

It's that networking and that, yeah, yeah I don't.

Vincent Donato: 35:32

I don't have any issues with it, um, cause you don't know, people are at, you know, different stages of their life and a lot of other things going on in the background. So you know, I've made my own things. I don't know how hard it is, so it's not an easy process, you know, um. So yeah, so that's that's what I find. I mean, I had, there was one, there was one role was fantastic, I don't, I don't think I should mention Maybe I'll mention it, and if we don't, if we're not happy, we can pause and turn it over later. But there's Gabriel AD, um, that was very excited about um that was vampire great role.

Vincent Donato: 36:03

For me it was like, wow, this is going to be fantastic. And nothing ever came of it. Um, you know, which was, you know, a little bit disappointing at the time, but you move forward. There's other that one thing with acting and that's the one thing I love about acting is always opportunities. So you know, you can never turn around and think, oh, this is the one, oh, but it there'll be something else, you know. So it is what it is.

David John Clark: 36:27

A lot of uh, it's the background stuff that, um, we don't know what's happening and we can go in this a little bit now because you're making your own work. But, um, warpath Chronicle, for example, is a is a big point that such a big South Australian production that's now finished all the filming and everyone that's been on it is, um, they, they just keep pushing and say where is it, where is it?

Vincent Donato: 36:48

Where is it?

David John Clark: 36:48

What we don't know is what's happening in the background and the difficulties of of finding distributors and meeting guidelines and everything.

Vincent Donato: 36:56

I know.

David John Clark: 36:57

I won't go too much into it because, um, that's up to the filmmakers. But um, yeah, yeah, that's the difficulties of it is we don't see that in the background. You know, the actor just comes on set and does their bit and then goes home and expects a big budget production up on the big screen six weeks later.

Vincent Donato: 37:12

So 100% yeah, that's right.

David John Clark: 37:17

So you're excuse me, so you're making some of your um your own work now too, I believe. So what?

Vincent Donato: 37:24

Yeah, I've slowed. I've slowed down a bit. To be honest. I've got too much going on in the background, um, at the moment. But yeah, I made a few bits and pieces. I started off with a short film, um, wrong tracks.

David John Clark: 37:36

Um once again.

Vincent Donato: 37:38

That was primarily a vehicle for my children. Really I wanted them during the holidays. It was shot during the school holidays, I think two weeks of the holidays we took. I thought give them a bit of said experience, onset experience and role and whatever. So I wrote that for them. I wrote that we were on set once again, myself and the children were on set for playing with fire together. That was in McLaren Vale. We did that. It was three or four days. They made some really good friends with some other children, actors.

David John Clark: 38:11

Awesome.

Vincent Donato: 38:12

That got me thinking oh, hang on, there's a story here. So I wrote a story about that and we made that film Once again, no huge intentions. We put it out to festivals. We got mentioned in a couple of festivals and stuff. It was all right. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Obviously it's a short film. You're governed by, I think it's like 10 or 12 minute timeframe, that's the max. That's the max. So we cut heat off, but it kind of works. It sort of ends probably a little bit abruptly, but I'm pretty happy with the performances.

David John Clark: 39:45

For the first time, of course.

Vincent Donato: 39:47

Yeah, so, and I enjoy writing too when I can. So yeah, so I did that. And then obviously from there I thought, oh, let's do a bit of comedy. So that was a drama we went to, comedy did, stuck together that sort of had high hopes for.

David John Clark: 40:02

That was good. That was good fun to watch. I enjoyed that.

Vincent Donato: 40:04

It was good fun to make.

David John Clark: 40:08

You can see that just in the characters, like you can almost envisage the background, and I think you showed a bit of outtakes and stuff like that too, so you could see everyone having fun together.

Vincent Donato: 40:18

So it was good fun. It was good fun and I've written other episodes as well, but I'm not going to say never, never, say never. But at the moment it's sort of a bit far from my mind. If I have what I'm finding for me to, because I wrote, directed and acted in it, it's too much for me. I can't do everything, I'm not good enough to do everything. I'm not Jason Bateman, he can do anything. But if somebody saw it and said, look, I wouldn't give this a crack with you, I would probably look into it Because I know where I want it to go. So I did have a chat early on with quite a few people that were a bit higher in the industry, but it's very hard to get that across.

Vincent Donato: 41:12

But, yeah, so we did that and then I wrote a bit of a mafia sort of spoof type of thing that I started making and I sort of put on hold for the time being.

David John Clark: 41:25

Yeah, it can be tough. We're both involved in a lot of indie films. It was Blood City at the moment. We mentioned before that we're both on. So that's a production that's the good Adelaide filmmakers have put together. So I haven't seen. Can you talk much about your role on Blood City and what your involvement is?

Vincent Donato: 41:47

I don't want to say too much to be honest, because it hasn't come out yet. Mysterious, mysterious character. Yeah, look, he's involved with the lab side of things, just kind of a in a way. Is it like a DC or a what's the other one? Marvel type of bad guy sort of character? Yeah, ok, in the lab creating certain things for money, if that kind of makes sense With a special I want to use the word special with a certain link to the boys. Let me say that, nice, nice.

Vincent Donato: 42:35

Yeah, I don't think I've got too much.

David John Clark: 42:39

No, mine's quite a similar story as well. I just more wanted to touch on Blood City, just with the promotion of it.

Vincent Donato: 42:46

But the guys have done.

David John Clark: 42:47

It looks fantastic From where they started, really focused on their fight scenes, which is great Now do you get to do any fighting.

Vincent Donato: 42:56

No, I'm disappointed in that actually. Yeah, One of the things I said to the boys that guys, I've done, I did karate for four years I'm down. Oh, sorry about that. That might have been me. I did karate for four years. I'm down, but no, unfortunately, no, not yet, not yet. I'm hoping.

David John Clark: 43:17

I mean, it's a certain school set itself, isn't it on screen fighting? So I've done a little bit and it's certainly something you really really need to focus on. So it takes a lot of concentration.

Vincent Donato: 43:27

I've done a bit where I've been hit and spitting blood and whatever at the right time and holding the blood in your mouth and you know getting it right. Oh shit, I spit it out too early, or I get that, I get that.

David John Clark: 43:45

But now you've got a very creative family. So your wife, joe, is an author. How many books has she?

Vincent Donato: 43:53

She's written two books. She's written two books, yeah, and she's writing another one. However she's gone through the process, similar to what I did with acting. I think she went through the process. She's you know this is really hard. So she's just got herself a full-time job. She's been working for about a year now. When I say a full-time job. She's got two jobs. She works with children, which she loves. She's at a school. She does the Osh after school here.

Vincent Donato: 44:22

And she works as an SSO with a child with needs, special needs. So she's working nine to six, every day five days.

Vincent Donato: 44:31

And then obviously trying to catch up at home and whatever. So her writing has been put on the back burner a bit. But it's the same as us. You know we're creative, we're always thinking, there's always something going on in the background. You know, the thing I love with Joe is she looks at everything slightly differently to what I do. You know it's similar, but she's got a creative. You know her writing, her writing creative sort of way, you know, and it's really good. It's really good to see that. So Awesome.

David John Clark: 44:59

Any plans to collaborate together on a project, maybe turn one of her books into a movie?

Vincent Donato: 45:03

I would love to. She's got a book that she's written that would make a great series. I've got a role picked out for myself which she thinks I'm not good enough looking for, which is disappointing when your wife says that.

David John Clark: 45:18

But I'm honey.

Vincent Donato: 45:20

Yeah, ok, so, yeah. So she's got a really good one. It's called Crossfire and I think it's about it's a very, very similar vein to Gosh. What's that one? What's what's the vampire one called? Again, yeah, which one? The one with the one the one with Edward, and I should know it. It's pretty I should?

David John Clark: 45:43

I don't think. I don't know it either. No, I don't know. Is that it's a teenage, teenage girl? So is that?

Vincent Donato: 45:50

what you're talking about. The one with Robert Pattinson in it.

David John Clark: 45:55

Oh, I've asked Connor. Connor's not in the background. It's not that hard Anyway we'll come.

Vincent Donato: 46:00

We'll think about that later, but it's very, very similar to that in a way. It's about a 17 year old female, harper, who is going to the formal. She kind of sees shadows. She goes to a formal with her best friend and an accident occurs that flips everything on its head for her and she ends up sort of being committed into an asylum type of scenario where these these figures manifest themselves and, yeah, kind of play it's. It's like a good versus evil type, but it's, it's very good. I like the way she writes. She writes in a first person narrative and it's very easy reading.

Vincent Donato: 46:44

So anyway, I'm, I'm her husband, so I'd say those are things.

David John Clark: 46:50

I love it. I love it, but that would make me well, yeah, definitely, definitely, and it's great that you've got that, that you're all together, so you could the word collaborate came up before so you would be able to collaborate and say, you know, get her sort of idea of how you want to make it to a movie, because writers are much different from what they're putting into a book to what they want to see on on film, so to speak, don't they?

David John Clark: 47:16

And as an actor and a director and a writer, you're now building a very diverse skill set.

Vincent Donato: 47:23

How do you see yourself?

David John Clark: 47:24

evolving as an artist in the future. I know you didn't want to use the word that. It's a hobby and you're a lot like me. You treat it professionally. Are there any specific projects or roles that you'd like to do in the future? Where do you want to see yourself?

Vincent Donato: 47:39

Yeah, I've got a clear. I've got a clear mindset of what I want, which I never had previously, which is, which is good, I suppose.

Vincent Donato: 47:46

Look, I would absolutely love to be you know, have a, have a, you know that the lead role, but a role in a good Australian film or series, that's definitely what I, that's definitely on my bucket list, that's, that's a clear goal. What I mean, obviously, if something international comes up short too, that'd be fantastic. But you know, obviously, obviously is where I want to want to begin, if I can. I like the idea of being a character type actor. That's that's what I'm nice, you know, not not so much the lead, I'm not, I'm not really, you know me, if that came along, great, but the character sort of actor, the memorable type actor. You know that, like I Know Christopher walken sort of type of guy, that sort of you know he's not there for long, but he's there and he leaves an impression.

Vincent Donato: 48:34

That's what I like. That's what I like. Yeah, so that's that's kind of the goal. Yeah, I mean, and obviously, like you know, I'll get an audition in from my agent and I will work subtly for that, solidly with that script for a couple days and, you know, try to send out my best work in an audition. You know, I don't, I don't, I treat it very seriously. I don't muck around. I mean, I play around in this in the studio at home and muck around different characters or whatever, but it's, it's serious, I don't you?

David John Clark: 49:05

know, I treat it very seriously and that's a lead to it Like the the business side of acting. Now you run your own business with tonight at home. So do you take that skill set into your acting as well and run the business side of the acting professionally?

Vincent Donato: 49:21

Yes and no, I probably could do a lot more in regards to that, but it's I'm not tech savvy, so that that puts me behind already. So you know, getting show rules edited and stuff like that, I need to go externally to do that, and my children aren't really tech savvy in that way either. Yeah so, which is interesting, but yeah so, you know I could do, probably could do a lot more, but it does, I know it's a bit of a bit of a fine line, I reckon as well. Yeah, yeah, I don't know, you don't want to self promote too much, and then you don't want to put yourself, not put yourself out there in our Feather, so it's exactly a bit of both. One thing that I'll mention, though with yourself, with Warpath, I reckon I contacted you with Warpath and I saw something on probably on your Adelaide extras or maybe on your One of your posts with Warpath, and I contact you and you said, look, have a chat with Aaron. He's a good guy. And I did so. You know, I didn't know him for a bar of soap. I contacted him and yeah, it went from there and obviously we've become really good friends since and he's doing blood city, obviously. He did Warpath and you know we're gonna, we're on really well and again I got a small part in in Warpath which is really good, and you know.

Vincent Donato: 50:43

So my advice to anybody is, you know, don't, don't feel Too silly to not contact somebody because you don't know. You know, always obviously be humble and be nice, but don't be afraid, because when you're afraid is kind of Leave yourself wondering. You know what if I'm, what if I contacted him, wonder what would happen or whatever. You know, yeah, so I just give it a crack. I think I've wrote something like I looks apologize if I sound a little bit, you know, weird or odd to contact you like this or something. You know I said something weird like that, but you know, is it how you going? I heard you don't walk past. There's a role for me. I'd be really interested. You know, it's something like that, nothing that's what's great about Aaron, is he.

David John Clark: 51:31

He loves this South Australian acting community, both crew and actors, and he's open to people knocking on his door like that.

Vincent Donato: 51:38

So that's really really good.

David John Clark: 51:40

Yeah, and that's the thing it's. I hate the word networking. I've hated it in my my full-time job, though I do. But yeah, it depends on how you do it, and I don't like I've always talked the concept of networking as the jobs for the boys, so to speak. I don't like that aspect of it.

Vincent Donato: 51:57

But knowing people in the industry and having Knowing what they can give you and what you can give them, being in the right circles, like so when I, the difference between when I was younger to now Is obviously the circle and a lot of that's probably from you, from Adelaide actors and and extras, like it's kind of the group that I've fallen into with with yourself, tim Hawkins, aaron, patty, jason now and Mark Clement. You know all those sorts of guys, stephanie and girls, crystal, like you said.

David John Clark: 52:36

Work with Eva as well, haven't you Eva? Don't forget Eva. No, I forget.

Vincent Donato: 52:40

Eva, yeah, eva, you know, carolyn, rebecca, you know all those sorts of people. Um, it's a really good group, you know, and it makes a massive difference. And if there's a new after on set and they sort of say to me, oh look, you know what do I do, can you help me? Or whatever, I say, yeah, look, let's get into that group, I'll put you into this and that and whatever, and and see how you go. Um, go from there. I mean, can't guarantee success. I haven't. I haven't reached a success that I wanted yet, you know.

David John Clark: 53:14

But you know it's the journey.

Vincent Donato: 53:17

Hmm, is it not? It's the journey. So, you know, I'm prepared to go on the journey and see where it takes, you know, and if I get somewhere, fantastic. But you know, if I don't all die trying, and I think that's important, and you know, I kind of think to myself okay, if I was 17, I stuck it out, where would I be? I Don't know.

David John Clark: 53:38

Yes.

Vincent Donato: 53:40

You know, you would never know, you never know and I've talked about the wood.

David John Clark: 53:43

A good a shooter, yeah, sort of thing you can't look, look back that way. But thank you very much for your comments about the Adelaide actors and extras group, because that's true. Feedback comes back. It's not. It not a not a lot, but it's nice to know that all that, all that community, is working and it's putting people together. I love it, so yeah. So just before we wind up, I did read somewhere that you are a big Elvis fan. Is that correct?

Vincent Donato: 54:12

Certainly am, yeah.

David John Clark: 54:15

Deserve. Does that influence your acting in any way? How does that?

Vincent Donato: 54:22

Okay. So so I I've got my uncle, who I work with now, and he was a massive Elvis fan and I just thought he was the coolest guy ever he would. He would eat you know juicy fruit chewy. He chewed you know juicy fruit chewy and all that sort of stuff. And so I started getting into Elvis and and obviously I Don't know just just fell in love with the music I suppose. I mean I like a lot of, I like a diverse range of music, but Elvis is up there Obviously.

Vincent Donato: 54:47

The Beatles, buddy, holly, that sort of 60 stuff. Then I go to 70s Hendrix, the doors, you know all that sort of stuff. Let's have it. But all this is always had a special. I don't know why, but growing up it was almost like he was an uncle. I don't know, I can't explain it. It's.

Vincent Donato: 55:01

I know that sounds weird, but there's some some sort of affinity. I'm not sure what it is, but so I've been to Graceland. That was a lifelong dream to go to Graceland. I went to Graceland and that was amazing. Some records and all that sort of stuff, and just cruising around in Bill Street in Memphis, tennessee, you know like walking in this amazing. So but now he hasn't. I think he's influenced me in terms of acting other than I Mean. Look, I've never, I've never seen a whole Elvis movie and I can lie to you. So Not saying he was a bad actor, because he wasn't, but the movies are pretty average, but you know the one. The one thing about Elvis is that he lived in a small city, he was a poor guy and he made it, and I suppose it's that story that you kind of think. Well, you know, and there's so many people trying to do the same thing.

Vincent Donato: 55:57

I know that. That's, that's the reality of it. But that's probably one thing that resonated with me the most. You know the fact that you know he was 18 years old and he's working. I think he was either working in the cinema or he was at the cinema with his girlfriend at the time, I can't remember which and they started playing that's all right, mama on the radio and One of his cousins and I think that this this jockey at the time had it on repeat because it was so popular. He just kept playing it over and over again, as you do and one of his cousins. When he got him like Elvis, your songs on the radio, oh shit. And then he went into the radio station with the guy and had a chat with him. You know small town in Memphis, tennessee, wow. So you know all that sort of stuff.

David John Clark: 56:41

I suppose what, what resonates in me, but yeah, so I just just great, yeah nice, a nice little Story there to end in the show on. So Thank you very much. I want to ask you one last question before we let you go. I know you've got some things on this afternoon.

Vincent Donato: 56:58

What I.

David John Clark: 56:59

You can take your time. If you need some time to think about it and I can edit out.

Vincent Donato: 57:03

Here we go.

David John Clark: 57:04

I didn't give you a heads up. My apologies, but okay. You probably already given these anyway, but what three things would you recommend to actors that they develop or build on to enhance their career, whether that's here in South Australia or Australia or anywhere in the world, because I've got listens everywhere.

Vincent Donato: 57:21

Sure, resilience, number one. I Think that's the most important thing. To be honest, just keep taking it on the chin. You're gonna have auditions, you're not gonna hear back. It's gonna get a bit disappointing, it's probably gonna get depressing, but keep going. Believe in yourself and have resilience. That's my number one. Believe in yourself and resilience, as I was two things but Works. So, yeah, that's, that's the first thing you know. And then, like I said earlier, um, learn your lines as well as you can and obviously aim to same as naturally as possible, but tip it on its head where you can, don't, don't be afraid to change. That's the second thing I would think. Just yeah, resilience, don't just keep going.

Vincent Donato: 58:16

Hmm I know it's very simple, but you know, keep, keep going. And I that's kind of resilience too, but that's that's kind of that's kind of it for me anyway, at the moment. You know, it's not so much about where you get, it's the journey to get there as well, because if we all just got there straight away, you know the journey is just as important as the destination, I think.

David John Clark: 58:38

I love that. I love that and you're saying before just learn your lines, do you? Do you have trouble with that or has it come easy to you? Do you have any techniques that you use?

Vincent Donato: 58:49

Oh look, I, I'm finding it easier the more that I do. And it's the same as anything, I suppose. But when.

Vincent Donato: 58:55

I started out, I would write them down. For me now it's a better of just reading, reading a bunch of times over and over again, knowing, knowing what you want to say, knowing why it's written, you know the where, the why, the how, the you know Is important because you know you don't have to get it word for word. I mean, I try to get it word for word where I can because for me, I figure, the writers written that for a reason. But having said that as well, there may be a certain word that Kind of like Doesn't work for me, so I'll use another word in that place. But it's, it's quite specific and I kind of think well, you know what they've written that, so you know.

Vincent Donato: 59:40

But if you know, you know I'm doing the dishes, say your lines. You know brushing your teeth, put them in, you know whatever. But for me and the reason that I've that I love acting as well is I could never switch off with the business. So at night on, things are going over my head oh, I need to get bricks here, I need to do this, or you know, I need to do that. Now I've got lines running through my head.

Vincent Donato: 1:00:04

All the time, whether it's a monologue that I'm learning, or whether it's a script I have to learn, and that really helps me just relax and it's amazing. So yeah, so that's my relaxation technique when I'm going to bed to be honest yeah. Do what was your suppose.

David John Clark: 1:00:23

Well, thank you very much, Vincent. Now when can people find you? You're on social media, so do you have this page.

Vincent Donato: 1:00:30

I've got a Vincent John Donato on Instagram and that's probably and that's not an actors page as such, but that's that's a public Prop page and that's the best one. You're gonna see my silly tick-tock videos and whatever crap I do. That love that, you know, stresses my children out.

David John Clark: 1:00:49

And you've got a nice profile on IMDB as well with your photo up there and People can check that out. I'll put. I'll put some links in the show notes. So I appreciate it, vincent. Thank you very much. This has been brilliant to have a chat to it. So it's, with my podcast being monthly, it's trying to find that balance of getting guests from everywhere and it's nice to be able to come back home and and and have someone local and someone that I've got some really close connections to. So it's appreciate it.

David John Clark: 1:01:17

Thanks for having me, thank you, and we've developed a nice journey together, so I'm looking forward to that journey continuing in future projects as they come up, so 100% thank you very much.

Vincent Donato: 1:01:29

Thanks, thanks very much. No, I see it.