We Chat with Veteran Character Actor Kevin Dunn about MERMAID
Greetings all, and a happy holiday weekend to our American readers! As you know, Memorial Day is the official kickoff of Summer, and with the warmer weather beckoning us to outdoor fun and watery destinations, what better way to welcome Summer than with a movie about the unbreakable bond between a boy and his mermaid. No, not SPLASH, though that’s certainly worth a rewatch this time of year. No, we’re talking about the horror/comedy/drama MERMAID, written and directed by Tyler Cornack, starring Johnny Pemberton (“Fallout”), Kevin Nealon (“Weeds”), Tom Arnold (TRUE LIES), Robert Patrick (TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY), and Kevin Dunn (GODZILLA 1998, TRANSFORMERS, “Veep”).
MERMAID, as you may have noticed, is not a feel-good story, though it does explore Doug’s bond with the mermaid that he names Destiny and the sense of meaning she brings to his otherwise spiraling life. Pemberton’s Doug is like so many of us: reactionary, though slow to be so, staring slack-jawed at a world that exponentially defies understanding and empathy. His bond with Destiny is the realest thing he has going for him, despite being an actual father to an actual daughter who desperately wants to connect to her vapid father.
So when Destiny is stolen and auctioned to Keith in the third act, Doug mans up and mounts an effort to save her. Keith is the perfect sleazy manifestation of opulence: a man who can afford anything finds it nearly impossible to assign value to anything as nothing is beyond his grasp. When he purchases