Vondie Curtis-Hall is no stranger to portraying characters whose flaws determine their standing in the world. Even when he speaks, the elder statesman from Detroit, who originally rose to fame in the original “Dreamgirls,” carries a gravity to his voice, a man who has seen plenty and brings those lessons into his performances.
In “Sheepdog,” Hall plays opposite Steven Grayhm in a movie the Canadian filmmaker and actor has been working on since 2011. It is here that Grayhm, whose previous film was 2021’s “The Secret of Sinchanee,” swaps a tale of the supernatural for something far more grounded: men attempting to rehabilitate their lives while the outside world often deems them ill-suited for such a chance.
Grayhm calls the chance to work with Hall, who has appeared in films like “Drop Squad,” “Crookyln” and a host of others in his illustrious career “humbling” and “Sheepdog” as his “life’s greatest work.”
Hall portrays Whitney St. Germain, a former Vietnam veteran who returns to his community after serving a stint in prison. Grayhm plays Calvin Cole, a war veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Together, both men are bound by their shared experience of war and grief.
For Hall, the role hit home in many ways.
“I thought this would be a great journey to take because I could relate to some of the brothers who came back from ‘Nam, with various malforms, be it mental, physical, emotional,” Hall tells theGrio in an exclusive interview. “So many of the things that I really love in characters and are oftentimes themes in my movies are second chances. People trying to change their lives.”
The moment was also unique for both Hall and Grayhm, as the two have served dual roles as actors and directors, with Hall famously directing one of Tupac Shakur’s final films, “Gridlock’d.” Hall brought similar gravitas to “Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story,” a made-for-TV film starring Jamie Foxx as Stanley “Tookie” Williams, co-founder of the notorious Crips, another figure seeking redemption through non-traditional means.
“With this person in the journey of trying to change their lives and re-embrace what they lost was really appealing to me because as a Black man, I’ve seen so many of my friends—I’m from Detroit—lose what they had and are sometimes spending a lifetime trying to get it back and never do. And sometimes they make that journey, and it works out. So I thought that really appealed to me.”
Grayhm admits he never thought “Sheepdog” would take years to fully get out of development, but understood that as time passed, the characters had to evolve, too. But he never lost sight of what the purpose of Calvin and Whitney served in telling a greater story, one that prompted him to speak with veterans and hear their stories.
“It was a decision that was made for me,” Grayhm said. “All the people that I met with initially, they got older, we all connected, all the veterans and Gold Star family members, mental health professionals, so many of us stayed in touch. So I got to see their journey, their triumphs, their challenges. And in that, there’s so much life lived in 10 years since your last deployment.”
He added, “For a lot of veterans, it could be multiple divorces, it could be new career paths, it can be whether you have trauma going through treatment, multiple treatment cycles and so on. For my generation, there never was a movie that picked up 10 years after deployment with the two worlds colliding.”
Grayhm pinpoints an early stage of crafting the film’s script: a chance encounter with a tow truck driver who opened up about his marriage, being a father of three, various financial hardships, and more.
“It was the spark,” Grayhm said. “He opened up about all the medications that he was on that were tethered to his traumatic brain injury and his post-traumatic stress. And I wanted to just drive around and speak to anybody, mental health professionals, Goldstar families, anybody.”
Grayhm dove deeper into his research, volunteering at the VA medical center in downtown Detroit, doing honor flights with veterans from Vietnam and World War II and speaking with them. All of it helped shape the characters, and the Canadian filmmaker admits, “nothing was invented” for Hall’s character to say.
Hall, on the other hand, didn’t have to go very far to find a personal connection. The traumas of war had already hit home long before he became a noted actor.
“A lot of folks that I’d gone to school with, I had one of my best friends volunteer after we got out of high school. He got killed,” Hall says. “I had some other friends who went to serve, and so many of them I saw when they came back.”
He pauses, “I got to hear about so many of the stories. I have one friend now who’s got cancer from Agent Orange, so he’s getting compensation from the government for Agent Orange. I saw him, it may have been six months ago. He’s living in France now. So these were people that I knew. I knew the people who came back from Vietnam. I know some of them who went to jail, some of them who ended up in politics, some of them who started businesses, and some of them who just never got it together, some of whom were dope fiends and just never got it back together.”
“Sheepdog” follows Whitney and Calvin as they navigate their paths and rely on each other to survive, both from new tragedies and from a world not easily ready to accept them. Both men lean on family for comfort and guidance, something that spoke loudly to Grayhm and Hall. All Whitney wants is his family back. Calvin yearns for a sense of normalcy after losing it all.
“It’s an unlikely relationship between two men from entirely different generations, entirely different backgrounds, and yet there is so much commonality that they’re about to discover about each other,” Grayhm says.
The heaviness of the film is not lost through a single frame and what both Hall and Grayhm hope “Sheepdog” achieves is letting those who are suffering know they aren’t alone. It’s not merely a military movie, but a family one, where humanity and mental health are the main topics of discussion.
Sheepdog is now available on all streaming platforms via Allen Media Group Motion Pictures. The film stars Vondie Curtis-Hall, Steven Grayhm, Virginia Madsen and Lili Cooper.
