Joe Reegan had to use his imagination when it came to fighting alien invaders on the set of "Alien Outpost" (director Jabbar Raisani would digitally add them in later), but the force of explosions and the sting of dirt and debris in Reegan's eyes were 100 percent real.
"There was little acting required at moments," the 32-year-old actor tells Headlines & Global News. "When an explosion went off, my ears were ringing and there was dirt in my eyes. The guy firing his gun next to me kept hitting me in the face with his gun shells."
Reegan stars as Omohundro, one of six U.S. Marines stationed at a one-world army base to fend off a second wave of extra-terrestrial attacks, the first of which had already caused a massive human genocide. "Alien Outpost" takes place in the not-so-distant future and unlike other post-apocalyptic movies, humans use much more primitive weaponry than their alien foes.
"The world of the film puts you in a much more current place then you would come to expect with a sci-fi, futuristic setting. It's definitely not like Star Trek or Star Wars where there's flying space ships and cool technology. This is a bit more regressed," he says.
Raisani kept the battle scenes as real as possible for his actors in the rural outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa where filming took place. His documentary shooting style allowed Reegan and his co-stars to improv some of their dialogue, but the explosion sequences had to be highly choreographed for everyone's safety.
One explosion took three days to set up and the shot had to be completed in one take. The pressure on the actors to get it right the first time paralleled the same pressure the characters were facing at that time in the movie. Luckily, they were able to execute the scene perfectly on the first take.
"It was the biggest explosion I've ever felt or seen in my entire life," he says. "We were inside this armored vehicle and you could feel the oxygen in the air literally get pulled out of the vehicle and then blasted back into it. The sound wave was incredible."
Since the actors faced no real aliens during filming, Reegan focused on the "honor and authenticity" of his role as a U.S. Marine. He spoke with several soldiers who fought in Afghanistan and incorporated their experiences into his character.
"I tried to make it real and pay as much tribute to the guys that really were in Afghanistan," Reegan says.
"They had very specific opinions about the politics of Afghanistan and that parlayed into this film as well. You'll leave the movie wondering, is there a greater good in something so horrific and apocalyptic? Can a moral compass exist in a time of war and mass genocide?"
Reegan credits his director for seeing him as an actor who could play such a disciplined character compared to his numerous TV credits that usually cast him as psychotic criminal, which he calls the "fun roles" on television.
"A lot of the times I do play some of the crazier characters. I take a few people hostage. I'm running around with a gun and doing something crazy," he says.
He'll next guest star on the new CBS spin-off series, "CSI: Cyber." He insists his streak of playing disturbed characters on network dramas is in no way intentional, but rather allows him to keep working on his craft.
"You're always the new guy at the office. You really have to go in, be as efficient as possible and be the best that you can be in that short amount of time," he says. "At the end of the day, being a working actor is really important to me and I'm most happy when I'm on set doing a job."
The periodic work has provided the actor flexibility to act in indie films such as "Outpost," but Reegan has not ruled out a full-time TV gig. "Give me a great cable TV show, I'll take it," he says, referencing "American Horror Story" as a dark, meaty series he'd love to star on.
In the meantime, he's working on two passion projects. He optioned the off-Broadway play "Kid Champion," which starred Christopher Walken in the '70s, about a disillusioned rock star. He's also working on a screenplay with "Dallas Buyers Club" co-writer Craig Borten.
The project has taught Reegan a lot about the long and difficult process of making a movie, which he describes as "putting together a circus." The two have been working on the script for three years and will soon go back to make corrections.
"I had a very naive approach of what it took to get a movie made. When you go behind the scenes and you do a little bit on the producer side you almost think, 'How in the world does a movie even get made?' It's like winning the lottery," says Reegan.
"Alien Outpost" is available for download at Amazon, iTunes and other digital outlets.
