mastermind
IDENTITY RISES
“I broke someone’s nose for calling me a hipster,” says stage actor DOMINIC BOGART. That only happened in the original cut of his Sundance Film Festival movie I am Not A Hipster. But if there’s a label he can relate to, it’ll have to be the geeks, especially since he has “interests, hobbies, and habits that scare people when he’s inspired.” Proof: he has seen Joe Wright’s Pride and Prejudice too many times for comfort. By Rita Faire Photographed by Coy Aune
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ccording to Dominic Bogart, there’s more to our bespectacled, fixie-riding brethren than their off-thewall tastes and antique vinyl collections. “People I’ve met that some might call hipsters hit me as being creative, intelligent, child-like, artistic, positive, curious, and tolerant,“ he says. In I Am Not A Hipster, Dominic plays Brook—a wellrespected indie musician who, despite his local popularity, has decided that art is a waste of time and that he should quit the game altogether. Dominic shows vocal chops with his raw and grating melodies that play a nice homage to Sundance darling Glen Hansard, who played a fellow struggling artist in Once. But Peter is far from the disillusioned wreck that his character insists on being. “I think people get addicted to a rush when they find something new or some new way of expressing themselves,” he describes the allure of living the bohemian life. He goes on, “They want to touch people by articulating something about us in a creative way, and when they do, it can be the most rewarding and euphoric sensation for an artist.” When asked about whether or not his
parents had ever told him to get a real job—because let’s face it, startup music acts don’t usually get a lot of green in their bank account—Dominic admits, “I’ve heard only a couple of times, out of concern for our mental and physical health, a suggestion of maybe trying something else.” For better or for worse, he didn’t take that suggestion. Before playing Brook, he ran with the national tour of Broadway hit RENT where he suffered an Alphabet City veteran malady. Dominic recounts, “I played Mark in RENT and had a strong case of what many Marks before and after me call ‘Roger Envy,’” he confesses. “I made sure to shred my vocal chords to pieces every night singing Mark, just to prove that role could rock just as hard.” Never one to say never, Dominic is quick to dismiss any threats of typecasting in his new festival feast Extracted. This time, he plays an ex-con used as a guinea pig for newly developed memory invasive technology, which is an experience he likes to compare to Radiohead’s “Creep,” summing it up as stimulating “massive guilt, depression, regret, and a tiny bit of hope.” With too many roles to play at any given day, Dominic is able to turn labels into real characters. After all, it is a truth universally acknowledged that an actor in possession of good fortune must be in want of a plot that portrays real life.
dominicbogart.com
“I THINK PEOPLE GET ADDICTED TO A RUSH WHEN THEY FIND SOMETHING NEW OR SOME NEW WAY OF EXPRESSING THEMSELVES.” 72 - statusmagonline.com