Perry King is done with acting.
He's willing to walk away from the career he has loved his entire life because he can't imagine ever being involved with another project that will give him as much pleasure or show off his acting skills as much as "The Divide." The film for the 70-year-old Ohio native is the accomplishment of a longtime dream.
"I have always wanted to make my own movie," King says. "I knew I wanted to make a western. I knew I wanted it to be in black and white. I knew I wanted to shoot it on my own cattle ranch. I wanted the movie to have the theme or redemption because I have always loved that theme. Who doesn't need redemption for something?
"I also wanted it to be about a father and a daughter because I have two daughters."
The first step to making his dream come true came when he was approached by Jana F. Brown, who wanted to interview King for a story about the prep school he attended in New Hampshire. The pair hit it off so well, King suggested she write a screenplay, despite never having penned one before.
The ideas King brought to the project became the basis for "The Divide," a western set in 1976 that revolves around Sam Kincaid (King), a grizzled rancher dealing with Alzheimer's. His memory is drying up as fast as the land is being drained by a long drought. The only thing that remains vivid is something he would like to forget. It was Brown who brought in the element of memory loss for the central characters.
King's ideas for the kind of movie he wanted to make flies into conventional thinking in Hollywood that there's no audience for a western and even less interest in a film presented in black and white. He treated the pushback the way he's dealt with so much over the years.
"All my life, all I ever heard was 'no,'" King says. "No, you can't do that. No, you shouldn't do that. As an actor, all you hear is no, but you learn to ignore it. What I learned from this film is that you really don't have to know how you are going to get where you are going to go. You just say that's where we are headed and you keep bulling ahead. You just keep after it."
King dealt with those who didn't have faith in his project with the advice his father gave him before he made the decision to be an actor. His father wanted him to be a surgeon, but knew that after a few school plays, King was determined to be an actor. The advice his father gave him was to figure out the kind of work you would do for free because you love it and then determine how to do that and make a living.
He's been doing that for more than four decades starting with the feature "Slaughterhouse-Five." His other credits include "The Lords of Flatbush," "Riptide," "Captains and the Kings," "The Quest," "Almost Home" and "The Trouble with Larry." Except for one episode of "Riptide," King has been directed by others.
When the discussion of shooting in black and white would come up, King would explain he wanted the final product to show how harsh the land was after the 1976 drought.
King also was adamant he would not only star but direct the movie. Brown wrote the role with King in mind so there was no one else more suited to play the character. As for directing, that has always been a major part of King making his own movie.
If this is to be his acting swan song, King wanted to make sure the film would be entirely his vision. He considered bringing in someone to direct the scenes he was in, but King decided he was able to handle both jobs.
"People kept telling me I shouldn't do that or that I couldn't do that," King says. "I told them that when they had their movie, they could do it the way they wanted to do it. Today, it's my movie and we are going to do it my way."
Now that he has made a movie his way, King is ready to take it easy and work his Northern California ranch. He says he's done something he's proud of and that's a good way to end his days as an actor.
"The Divide" also stars Bryan Kaplan, Sara Arrington, Levi Kreis and Luke Colombero. It's scheduled to open in selected theaters Friday.
