Acre Presents: Ricky Staffieri

Ricky! Thanks for taking the time to chat - could you tell us about your background and how you found yourself in producing, directing, writing and acting?
My name’s Ricky Staffieri - I grew up in Las Vegas, which is a weird, weird spot to grow up. You know, it's kind of a weird town. Back then, like in the 90s, it was kind of culture-less. It's a lot of desert scape - weird stuff. I got into theater at a young age there until I went to Columbia College in Chicago, I wanted the hell out of Vegas - it was kind of bad, you know? Hanging out with the wrong crowd kind of kids growing up. I had never even been to Chicago. I knew nothing about it. I just kind of dipped and went there to study theater at Columbia. I got locked in with a great group of artists there. I loved my time in Chicago. I started working there - I was doing plays in town. I was part of a comedy team that played shows at Second City and all these spots around town. We just started making our own stuff.

After that I moved to LA in 2015 and just dove in. I took every opportunity I could get. I was working in art departments, carrying this or that, you know, slubbing around a cooler as a PA on every single job. I was coming back and forth from here and Vegas and working on features in Los Angeles. I was getting in wherever I could and learning the ins and outs of how a film set runs. Just grinding it out and making my own stuff. Yeah, man, I've basically been doing that for the past 10 years. Making my own stuff and acting here and there where I can. I love filmmakers. I’ve fallen into this great community out here in Los Angeles - a great group of artists I'm working with here and there. Recently I've gotten to work on The Bear, which is great.

I was lucky to get in with that whole crew, you know? Chris Storer, The American Light and Fixture folks over there - Cooper, Josh, Chris and them. Since then it's been one thing to the next. I got to meet Matty Matheson - instant homies kind of thing. When I was an assistant I would take Matty down to the stage, I was his ride down there. At that point, he was co-producing the show and was pretty hands on with the culinary stuff. One time he was like, "you want to have a day?" We just went on and had such a fun time. We went to get coffee, went to some thrift stores and chilled - just became homies, you know? 

That was the best Matty impersonation I've ever heard.
That day was so fun. I sit in the car with that guy every single day to and from work. I literally leave the set and go to his place. We run lines until it's time to go to bed then do it again the next day for months at a time. I love that dude. From there it all kind of snowballed. We had this joke where we were like "Oh, Ricky should play Matty's brother" and yada yada. From there it just kind of became a thing. Chris is such a collaborative dude - he's always throwing shit out there. He's just open to everything. It's the greatest thing. Like I always said, that show runs like an indie movie which is amazing. There's no lines in the sand. Anyone can talk to anybody. It's the best. The producers have built this world where everyone's so respectful of each other. I think on bigger sets there's typically some walls up where you can't go talk to this or that person. Anybody on our crew can walk up to Chris and say what they think. It's a collaborative thing that we're all part of. It's very cool. That's the biggest thing that I will take with me going on into my career after this - it doesn't have to be this uppity thing. No matter how big your show gets or whatever it is, you can set the grounds of respect early on and make it that collaborative thing. It doesn't have to be all “don't look so and so in the eyes.” 

I think people can sense that, right? Even with the shit that we do here at Acre, it's not capital F fashion - we sell stuff that people want to wear on a normal basis, you know? To do it in an unselfish way, or to do it in a way where it's not so boxed in where you're like “this is the way it's done.” To have this collaborative, more open thing, I think people can actually sense that, you know? 
Yeah, man, people feel it. I think that translates through. People are always asking "are you guys homies?" 

I feel like you guys are all homies, yeah?
We're all homies. I think it's gotten to a point where people can sense that through the screen. Beyond the work we're actually putting out there. Yeah, we're chilling. 

You mentioned Vegas earlier - would you say growing up in Vegas helped shape your creative vision?
Absolutely, man. One thing I'm trying to do with my career is make work in suburban Las Vegas. I think it's a world that hasn't been tapped into yet. It's definitely suburbia. It's such a weird thing - Vegas in the grand scheme of things is a very new town. It wasn't even really a town until the 60s, like a booming city, you know? Growing up in the suburbs back in the day, I would leave my grandparents house on my bike, pull out of the driveway and be in the desert. Now it's just housing and yada yada. It was a suburban Las Vegas. I feel it feels almost faceless or maybe lost in the desert. It's like it has no identity. Those copy and paste dirt lots and strip malls and stucco homes. It's all this copy and paste looking thing. It has this mystic kind of feeling that drags you into the desert. It has certainly helped shape the art I want to make. 

I grew up in an Italian household - there are a lot of Italians in Vegas, it's funny. It's kind of gaudy. I love it - that trashy Las Vegas Italian gaudiness. I want to put a microscope over the suburban scene there. 

Matthew and I talk about this all the time. I think things can be more interesting when they're not always New York or LA. I think people really lose sight of it. For a lot of young creatives, it's like "I need to get out of here. I need to go to the big city and do the city thing" you know? I think some of the most interesting shit comes from these smaller tertiary cities. 
Yeah, no, totally. Even though I was so ready to get the hell out of there. I love my time there - growing up there was just so odd. I think it was just such an interesting time. My dad's a pit boss there to this day. He has been for twenty six years now. He opened up a bunch of the spots there like Mandalay Bay. He's back there now. He opened up all those spots. He's kind of this tough New York guy who went to Vegas to be a tough guy, but the era was over. 

Well, after so many fistfights, I'd want to get out of Vegas too. 
(Laughs) I mean, that's the thing. That's how it was. So many friends of mine - they either in the casinos or at this same real estate company. All the homies work at the same real estate spot.

I mean, I think that's just growing up, right? You get a normal ass job and a wife and kids?
Definitely. But yeah, Vegas definitely drives me creatively. I think there's like an initiative coming up in that area now. I’m pretty sure Mark Wahlberg's opening up a studio in the South Summerlin with Sony. Yo, what's up, Mark? Let me come make some shit in Vegas!

I read something recently where Chris Storer was talking about how much everyone  brought their own flavor or the personal style to The Bear. How much of your own style would you say you incorporate?
For my character, Ted Fack, I'm rocking a lot of Rosa Rugosa the majority of the time. Although Courtney Wheeler, our wardrobe stylist and I pulled some funny stuff. Speaking of Vegas, I wanted Ted Fack to have diamond earrings with the gaudy double chains and all that. Like “who's the dude swagging out from Kohls?” Like the homies from Vegas. In the last episode I'm wearing a pair of high waisted dress pants with some clean white forces. Kind of a gaudy suburban dude. It's inspiring - everyone has great clothes in this crew. They show up dressed to work. Chris has said before that he respects his job so much that he wants to get dressed up for it. He looks great every day on set - you kind of see everyone else step their shit up, you know? 

Well, it helps when everyone is doing it. It's like the iron sharpens iron idea. He kind of raises the bar and makes everyone want to take it seriously. I think there's a lot of power in that. 
I've learned a mountain of stuff from that dude. I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to sit right next to him at work. I've learned an exponential amount. His understanding of storytelling is mind blowing. Also his willingness to be like, "yo, like this!" He's always been patient and willing to show you for a second what he’s thinking. It's so cool. There's no gatekeeping on the bear. There's no gatekeeping. There's almost always gatekeeping in the film industry - let's get that out of the way. 

I love the days when Chris is excited about something. He and Josh are in charge of the music - he will be like "Yo, dude, listen to this" and play a song from his phone speaker while talking us through a scene. It's the best thing in the world. 

You've produced a couple episodes, right? 
Yeah, man, I'm a co-producer on season three.

In layman's terms, what does producing an episode of the bear look like? 
I feel like for this kind of show, producing for TV and such, it's all about what you're bringing to the table for the show to elevate it. I worked with Matty on season two - like an acting coach helping get him off book. But I'll also have Oliver Platt calling me to his trailer to run lines. I've kind of become the guy for getting actors off of the book. I've been getting my hands dirty with other stuff as well - whatever the producers need to get knocked down. A lot of it comes down to me just being there for the other actors. I'm in there with Eben, Jeremy and Io being on book for them for their scenes. Helping everybody prepare. 

Are you willing to share any remarkable stories from the set? 
We've all gotten into dice. We play threes on the side - we're gambling over here. We're throwing down cash on the table. Sometimes it gets high stakes. 

What does the typical work day look like on set? Are you wrapping up at 3 PM? or 11? 
Chris is so fast - he makes a set. He's built a world where he can move quickly which allows for our cast and crew to have a life outside of the bear. That's not super common in TV. We typically end the day around 3 or 4 PM which allows for some fun to be had in the city. We'll go out to dinner together all the time - a bit less recently though, people are trying to work out. Matty's working out a lot right now. He's got his routine down.

What's the catering table look like on a show about a restaurant? 
It's so insane, man. As you know, we work so closely with a lot of Chicago restaurants and a lot of restaurant groups. One thing we take pride in is that every week we'll set something sweet up from a local Chicago spot - whether it be some bomb empanadas or just breakfast sandwiches. We're hitting JP Graziano, we're hitting subs. We're getting burgers from Small Cheval. It's so hard to stay down on it, you know? Sometimes you'll pull up and eat two breakfast sandwiches back-to-back. 

You're pumping iron, you've got to!
Kind of pumping iron - but some days you're just huffing two fucking breakfast sandwiches and not doing shit. 

Do you have any future projects you have coming that you want to plug? 
Man, not really - I will say that I'm going to be making stuff in Las Vegas. It's going to start coming out next year. Keep an eye out - it's going to come. It's going to happen!