With a host of acting credits under his belt, self-proclaimed character actor Dominic Pace is actively petitioning for the role of a lifetime. Pace has undertaken a self-promotional campaign, championing his desire to be considered as cinema’s next Lex Luthor. Does he have the chops and insight to face off against the Man of Steel? Take the jump and find out!
Major Spoilers: First of all, when did you first become acquainted with Lex Luxor character?
Dominic Pace: I first became acquainted with Lex from the incredible performance given by Gene Hackman in the original feature. I was about 5 (years old). I remember owning the 3D Masterview discs that you would flip to each movie still. I also had a box filled with Superman and Grease trading cards my mom would buy me.
Major Spoilers: What compelled you to undertake a promotional campaign to win the role of Superman’s greatest nemesis? What type of reaction have you encountered from media and fans? Have you considered attending any pop culture/comics conventions, in character?
Dominic Pace: This past summer, I noticed the photography work of Eric Curtis right around the time I heard a new Superman movie would be released. I told my agents in LA that I had a very strong vision of Lex (how I would play it), and I wanted to send them some photos after the shoot. That photo shoot changed me. Something snapped! I began losing more of who I was, and whatever emotion I triggered was more of this character, and I felt ALIVE.
I just finished watching Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. Natalie Portman’s character BECAME the Black Swan from what life had given her. All the anger, lust, greed, hate and love that comes from life…we’re able to pour it into our craft, and create something we feel very passionate about. I’ve had a very tough journey in this business, as well as through life. There are many different levels to Lex, and I’ve never felt more in touch with an intense amount of energy I can bring to the role. That is why, unlike any role I’ve vied for, I have made this push.
In terms of fan reaction up until now, many are naturally questioning my ability, type, and ‘who the heck is this guy?’. I don’t blame them. I was a huge Star Wars fan before the last 3 were released. Just like Superman fans, I was very passionate about who would play the legendary Anakin Skywalker. Just like many fans, I wanted to see a star like DiCaprio whom I love. His work is ‘spot on’ every time.
As far as any Comic Conventions, I think we’d be straying into a ‘Cheese’ factor if I do that. I think the Facebook Fan Page, as well as interviews, are perfect, but I’m dead serious about my pitch and I’d hate for it to get passed off as a joke by posing along with everyone else dressing as Superman and Spider-Man. I might as well go on Hollywood Boulevard and stand next to Elmo and Cookie Monster with the tourists!
Major Spoilers: From Gene Hackman to Kevin Spacey, the big screen portrayals of Luthor have left some mighty footprints. What are some of your favorite and least favorite character attributes that we’ve seen thus far in the Superman franchises?
Dominic Pace: I love both Kevin Spacey, and Gene Hackman, as well as their take on Lex. Throughout their careers, they have made every one of their characters ‘lifelike.’ From Kaiser Soze in The Usual Suspects, to Gene Hackman in Hoosiers. However, without even reading the new David Goyer script, unless the studio intervenes, I am confident they will have a different take on the Superman Universe. I have my own personal artistic choice on Lex, which will most likely be darker and more imposing than the previous portrayals. But I am also not one-dimensional. I am very much aware that Lex is not just the ‘Evil Thug’.
Regarding Lex, I mentioned in a previous interview that I could not have more respect for all of the A-listers that would be considered for Lex, should the role be written. I’m just very confident in my ability, as well as my take on it should there be a screen test.
Major Spoilers: Same question as above, except this time for Superman.
Dominic Pace: I have loved both Reeve and Routh. Reeve is legendary, and Routh was solid. I remember my cousins and I would always wave ‘hi’ to the TV when Reeve would give that signature nod at the end of each film
Major Spoilers: You have considerable acting experience. Can you give us your ‘origin story?’
Dominic Pace: I was born and raised in a town one hour north of NYC, Ossining. I was raised by only my mom, so there was a lot of frustration and anger without a father. My Grandfather was a World War 2 Veteran who hit Normandy. He was a tremendous influence on my upbringing. Sadly, we lost him last year.
I was pushed around as a kid and I kept a lot of those emotions internal. I discovered acting when I was 16 and the energy was electric! I left college after my first year, as I knew acting was all I ever wanted to do. I left for LA in my early 20’s and began the grind of working in restaurants while appearing in various TV shows. I was running Ashton Kutcher’s restaurant, Geisha House for a couple of years, along with a restaurant on the Sunset Strip called Ketchup, made famous from TV shows The Kardashians and The Hills.
I have a wife and two beautiful boys. In September, after the heartache of losing my Grandfather, I wanted to move back to NY for at least a year. My agent is on both coasts, and I missed my family and friends. I was content with my ‘Character Actor Run’ in Hollywood and wanted to shake it up a bit with some NY stage and film. In the meantime, I’m dropping weight to resemble more of a leaner Lex, rather than get passed off as more a kingpin and thug.
Major Spoilers: The original Superman films started out strong and lost their way as the sequels mounted. Superman Returns was a modest success and garnered mixed reactions from fans and critics. What do you think the critical components are for a good Superman story and do you think that based on the uneven performance of the combined franchise that there may be extra pressure on the new film to exceed expectations?
Dominic Pace: Regarding the success and future of the Superman franchise, I think a lot of thanks is owed to Christopher Nolan and the success of The Dark Knight. I believe the studios have acknowledged that a strong script and strong character development not only rakes in revenue, but receives the admiration and retention. I believe that there was more of an emphasis on the ‘Kid-Friendly/Jar-Jar Binks’ crap earlier on, which made for crap sequels.
Major Spoilers: Major Spoilers focuses a lot of its attention on comics. Are you a reader? If so, what are your favorites?
Dominic Pace: Due to my obligation with supporting my family, I rarely have time for comic books nowadays. I was an avid reader as a kid, and a huge Star Wars collector. I even own a replica of Luke’s Lightsaber and only just recently sold a life size Han Solo in Carbonite that I owned for a few years. My hobby has actually been visiting famous movie locations with my family. This summer we actually headed up to Oregon to visit two of my childhood favorites, Goonies and Stand By Me.
Major Spoilers: You find yourself in an elevator with Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan. You have 45 seconds to make your pitch. GO!
Dominic Pace: My 45-second pitch would be simple…’Let me audition.’
Just like employees, we can all talk a good talk, but if we cannot deliver, we do not belong in the Big Leagues and I’ll lose respect from just BS’ing.
So whatta’ you say, Warners Brothers? Let’s at least give the guy a shot at his dream.
For more information about Dominic Pace and to keep track of his developments, please check out his Facebook Page.
26 Comments
GOOooooo Dominic!
He’s got my vote!
NO MORE LEX LUTHOR!!!!!! Please….. It’s like taking the time to make sure joker is in every Batman movie. Superman has other foes.
iv gotta say i agree with tea on this one the new superman earth one book was amazing and i think superman has had to much lex ,,,,,,why does he need to always be there there are so many better characters,, and no offence to dominic even lo he will be offended if they can get greats like hackman and spacey your going to need one hell of alot of luck to step into there shows
p.s first time writing on this site yet i read it ever day you guys are amazing
one more thing dominic if there is a lex and you get the part make sure you come to ireland a superman premire here would have me camping in wait so do your best and make the dream
yes, because what we need is another lex inspired by gene hackman..
No, for gods sake no! If lex should even be in another superman movie, which I don’t beleive he should, We need someone who is inspired either by the comics or the animated series. A lot of people say hackmans performance was great but whenever I watch the old movies I just think “the TAS luthor is so much better”. We need a superman that takes its cues from TAS and the more recent comics, Zod knows we’ve seen far too much stuff inspired by those terrible movies.
I half agree with you. I don’t want Lex Luthor to be a major player in the new Superman movie at all, but I have no qualms about him being a background player. Like if he’s just a business man that’s mentioned on occasion and possibly pops up for a few minutes and then goes away, and maybe in a later movie he can be teamed up with another villain, and for a little twist from the movie norm, he can have some other kind of motivation beyond just greed. As in, some kind of dillusional view of being able to thwart the villain from the inside and be the hero and of course he lets his desire for what he wants to become his only priority and he starts hurting people to get to it and in comes Supes to the rescue and Lex looks bad in the public eye and there you have some real reason for Lex to hate Superman. Could then set Lex up as the main baddie for the third movie (if it makes it that far). I’m tired and rambling, but hey, I’d watch that movie even though they won’t make it like that, ever.
Even with that opinion expressed, I’d still much rather see Mr. Mxyzptlk or Parasite than another iteration of Lex Luthor.
And what exactly makes this guy any different than thousands of other actors without enough creds who think they deserve a role( paycheck) in a corporate blockbuster? Get real, dude. If your agent can’t get you in, then this embarassing tactic of dredging up fan support sure won’t. Gah.
Great article! Go Dominic!
He looks the part! Best of luck to Dominic
I think it’s going to be tough to beat out an A-lister, but this guy definitely has the look, and respectful credits. And for Allen, he’s admitted that he’s not with a major agency. Sometimes you may have the talent as an actor, but your agents’ calls are not answered. Doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have a shot. It’s not always an actors fault if he can’t get the audition of this magnitude. The agency is sometimes to blame.
You clearly know the biz. I work in casting. Casting one of these monstrous corporate blockbusters is all about merging different audiences for maximum profit. That’w why a guy like Common was cast as John Stewart GL in the never produced JL film. There are thousands of well trained theater and film actors who could act circles around Common, but he was cast because he would attract the hip hop fans. It’s just the way these things are done. If Lex is a character in the new Supes film t, then they will cast a bankable, known to be cerebral and possibly nasty from his other films( a la Kevin Spacey) actor for the role. He will be younger than Spacey to get maximum mileage out of him, so look for the Gosspi Girl type. Maybe some of the Twilight actors.
I saw unknown actor who campaigned for the Captain America role too and I don’t know….I was amazed at the lack of understanding of the biz. And I found the pandering to fans a little yucky too, somehow.
I’m confused Allen. If you know that I know the biz, then why did you post a comment like your first? If you’ve read Dominic’s articles, he is simply campaigning for an audition. If you’re a casting director, then it sounded really bitter and unprofessional on your part.
Were you amazed at the lack of understanding of the biz on so many unknowns that DID push for a shot? Not so much like this one that Dominic is doing, but similar?
Also, Dominic seems to have legit credits. Not one of an A-Lister, but definitely enough to get an audition. You should give him that level of respect. Your original comment should’ve been left to yourself. Most professional Casting Directors would never go out of their way to post something so negative to an actor that has garnered this amount of attention. Whether you think it’s realistic or not. What do you cast btw?
Just read the comments. Allen. If I told you the head of The Cape casting called me because of this, and even though I’m repped, a major agency called me in on Monday to meet with me, would you still think this was an embarrassing move?
I don’t expect you to understand Allen, as you most likely quit your acting career a long time ago. You went to a safer place where you can judge artists, and feel secure by selling $250 seminars viral on how to make it in the biz, even though your casting credits probably amount to nothing. But because you’re a CD, you have a following.
I wish you the best of luck in your career Allen, but people like yourself have never stopped me from consistently booking in this business. The one that you quit a long time ago, but made an excuse that you’d rather go into casting than act. Because being told that you were too ugly was too much to handle. Love the book btw.. but stay out of the way of artists like myself.
Dominic, you’ve proven everything I suspected about you and more in this petty, childish post. It’s really sad that you go through all the effort to get interviewed on this site to build a positive image only to screw it up by coming down to the level of one of your detractors and acting like a fourth grader by slinging a bunch of snarky( and off target) insults.
You’ll notice I never called your acting skill into question and , in fact, implied someone like you might be even more skilled than the person they actually cast. Oh well. From the nastiness of your post, I guess there are bigger reasons you lack high level representation, other than your acting skill.
You posted the negativity first Allen. I’m as professional as they come, but I WILL stand up for myself when someone from the industry, who SHOULD understand the hardships, difficulty, etc.. comes on a comment board and blasts me for getting to this point. DON’T do that to any other future aspiree EVER! I don’t care if you’re Mike Fenton. Understand? Nothing personal, but stay out of my way unless you intend to support. I don’t mind criticism, but you should do your research about me, my journey and story before you lump me in with many Unknowns. Thank you.
Whoa, Whoa.. Everybody slow down. I know Dominic. Allen, I think you owe an apology. Dominic, calm that Luthor Blood down. lol. I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding. Dominic is professional to the nth degree. I would just chalk this up as if you both were in person, this would not have gotten so steamed up! Things get lost in Translation.
You’re right Brenda. Apologies Allen. But if you’re in the business, you should know the difficulty of obtaining this type of audition. No hard feelings. All the best. Dom
I appreciate that Allen. I only took offense as, if you’re in the industry, I would expect you to understand the difficulty of what it takes to get seen at this level. I’ve always understood the reality of what will most likely happen.. but I do not believe in sitting at home waiting for CAA to magically call, or my agent to have a dream audition drop out of the sky. My apologies, and I’m sorry for snapping.
Dominic,
For some reason I can’t post a reply to the original thread, so I will continue here. I fully appreciate where you are and what you’re trying to do. My comments were whipped off in two minutes and were from a business perspective only. Harsh sounding? Yes. Meant to cause you personal harm? No.
A thought: If you are intending to continue this type of PR campaign, you will meet many detractors from all walks of life( fans, pros, bozos, etc) in this unfiltered, nasty world of the web and you should have a much more amiable way to deal with them. It benefits you to act like the magnanimous, funny and confident “A List” actor we want you to be. You could dismiss or laugh off criticism, rather than sharpening the knives. It isn’t easy, but it’s what I see the best doing and will most likely will give more mileage to your dream.
Just a thought.
Dominic, Congrats! We’re rooting for you here in Chicago! Do you know the casting director?
Not exactly but there’s only a couple of CD’s that have pissed me off because of this kind of attitude that “Allen” has shown.. so I have a good idea of who it might be. There are 2 CDs on FB who have these fan pages.. And they keep yapping and yapping to many ‘hopefuls’ about the Do’s and Don’ts of the Biz. They make sense often, but they’re so pathetic in that they post what they’re doing every 5 minutes so that they can gain their own attention from actors, and also have them buy their book and classes, while smashing any other way of the biz, but theirs. It’s funny really. Because if you see their posts, they’re on FB and Twitter every second of the day. It can only be those two CDs or someone that is a nobody. No legit CD would post something like that. And I had a few choice words with them both. And I’m so glad that I did. They talk about bitter actors. Someone should write something on bitter CDs. It’s all good though. I have to get used to people like them. Thanking everyone for their support. And thank you Shelley.
Wow. I gained more respect for Dominic from the message board, than the article itself. You tell em Dom! You’ve put yourself out there artistically, as well as on the business side, and anyone who looks down on that is clearly not a professional. This Allen guy is probably some Douche from Kansas that’s just jealous. Way to speak up and put him in his place.
I’d be careful there, the guys that run this site are from Kansas. ;)
dominic i just read these threads after watching the cape its a great show and i cant wait for more episodes hope you get a part its a show thats going placesand with smallville, heros all ending its going to be the next thing, fight for the part man i would love to see you on it just so i could say i read the post the day he got the call, live the dream and keep on fighting i gota love this allen guy coming on here like he nows how thing are done not to mention that breendon roth was someone i never seen before
Thank you so much. Appreciate the support.