We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Zak Lee Guarnaccia a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Zak Lee, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
What others call failure, I learned and call the increasing of opportunities. From a young age, I was and still am an unstoppable entrepreneurial and physical risk taker, following my passion to achieve my dreams. Im a stuntman and actor, sometimes called stunt-actor, or action-actor, through my life journey to pursue my dreams, I became a world-class professional martial artist, a fitness trainer, a fitness inventor with a few full-patented products in the market, and also at the early stage of my life I became a fine artist graduated, photographer and illustrator worked for some advertising agency, and finally I had to cover one field that I was trying to avoid to become, taking the risk to be the Executive Producer of my passion film. Today I want to tell a specific story, how I got to the point to take the risk, how I managed my challenges, how I got inspired, and how long it toked me to achieve to produce my passion feature film, a martial arts musical comedy “The Next Big Hit,” a movie has never been done before in the film industry, and now has been produced under my company LightRow Productions, LLC. It all began with my vision from my early 20s.
Zak Lee, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I realized I always had a clear idea of all of my dreams from my childhood, and today, still going stronger to continue establishing my career as an actor and stuntman, even though I had many setbacks, from people trying to detour me rather than support me. My dreams started at five years old; after begging and annoying my parents for several years, I finally convinced my father to sign me up for Martial Arts school when I was nine. Kung Fu, to be exact, but my father chose a Karate school because he wasn’t sure about the whole “Kung Fu thing.” I wasn’t thrilled much, but at least it was a start.
My parents, relatives, and friends never really influenced or supported me. It’s the image I had in me that I used to create, rehearse, and learn to act in movies. Although I did have my outside influencer growing up that was Bruce Lee, and because of him, I was able to continue my dreams and life purpose, then I discovered two other inspirational talents in action film genera, Terence Hill an Italian actor that was filming all his movie in the USA made to be mainly released in Europe, using the slapstick action comedy choreography, and in the early ’80s, I discovered the versatile iconic Jackie Chan that was closer to my vision. One of my challenges was, and still is today, that I often realized my creativity always to be about ten years ahead and unable to fit in the present time; sometimes, pioneers might get burned before even starting. Back then, in Italy in the ’70s and early ’80s, as martial artists, we weren’t exposed to too many professionals, so Bruce Lee then Jackie Chan wore the main guys that I emulated. I wanted to make movies and do stunts just like them, but with my twist, I never found the opportunity in Italy as no one didn’t understand what I was trying to accomplish. I continued training, and several years later I won the Martial Arts and Kickboxing Italian Championship multiple times, the European Championships title twice, and the World Championships. I trained in China and England, but with all my craft and dedication to what I accomplished, I couldn’t receive that acknowledgment and respect from friends and family, and the media back then didn’t care much about martial arts. One of my challenges in my life was and still is constantly surrounded by naysayers who tried to keep me from living my dreams, but I kept dreaming and living.
Now in my early twenties, I turned into a fitness expert. After the unexpected loss of my mother passed away at age forty-two in 1985 and the loss of my gym in 1989, I decided to move to Los Angeles in 1990. With broken English, I pursued an Action-Actor career, but it was challenging to survive with only $400 in my pocket, so I continued competing in the martial arts tournament circuits to get into the system. A few years later, I fell again into another long vortex of fifteen years of personal pandemic trying to survive in Los Angeles, hitting rock bottom; I had to reinvent myself several times, although I kept my robust health and stayed fit as I was in my prime. Destiny and one struggle after another, I was good enough to work in more than 70 films, TV series, and Live shows including my old successful exercise video TaiBox-KickTo Fit that I star and produced. It toked one year of struggling to finally found one distributor, with the only offer I couldn’t refuse, but unfortunately, the deal was in favor of the distribution; I wasn’t able to earn the breakthrough of my hard work, even if the video reached #6 on the Billboard video chart. A great experience that, many years later I was able to learn and make better choices to continue pursuing to reaching my ultimate dreams. I stayed focused on my goals, and my struggles developed my strengths, which make me who I am today. When I’m going through hardships and decide not to give up, that feeds my desire to succeed.
The Next Big Hit is a film project in which I had my first epiphany in 1985, a concept idea inspired by the movie “A Chorus Line.” Even when I reached rock bottom I never stopped writing and creating, which kept my dreams alive, and feeling that was happening. Consequently, in 1999 I pitched my treatment to my screenwriter friend to help write The Next Big Hit’s first draft. Everyone loved the idea, and I felt again that was my time, my breakthrough, but it wasn’t, and even if I had the resources to contact some celebrity to be part of the film, the networks I was surrounded by were looking to take away the project from me.
After many years passed by looking for funding that never arrived, I had to focus again on surviving, and in my early till the late-’40s, I worked in many jobs like many people did to pay the bills, jobs that I never thought about it to do, primarily when I worked as a bouncer fighting almost every other night to make few bucks, building up lots mix emotion sadness, anger, and frustration, it was my life pause, I felt like a tiger in a tiny cage not be able to run, turn or breath, but I stayed focused on my dreams.
My first partner and I knew there was an audience out there for The Next Big Hit hungry for something unique, and authentic that the Hollywood industry had yet to do. Today we have the technology we didn’t have back in the day to make this film without breaking the bank for a budget, although I used every possible resource. Through many years I was able to generate just enough funding and became the Executive Producer of my passion film, “The Next Big Hit.”
So after over three decades, I decided to call in, skipping the big studios, and take this film, this project with my own hands! Some people still think that I am crazy to risk so much, and I might be, but my dreams and my passion are the way of living my life, many of them still interpret that I’m a stubborn man, but actually, they might get confused, as I have a stubborn heart means passion, dedication, persistence, and discipline. Now that I have built many resources in the film industry, as time flies as usual, and timing is everything in any field, I think this is my time; even if I think and act way younger than my age, still, I’m not getting any younger, so I chose to roll the dice; I’m all in, committed to delivering and make my passion film, “The Next Big Hit,” a “HIT,” no matter what! You can visit us at http://tiny.cc/NBH and TheNextBigHitmovie.com. So now it’s time for this story, and stand out, to get one step closer to my ultimate life purpose.
I don’t make films just because can be profitable and fun; I’m making films because I’m a member of the human race. As part of the human race, I’m full of passion and creativity, like an artist painting on a canvas. Engineering, lawyers, doctors, and entrepreneurs are typical pursuits necessary to sustain and make a comfortable life, is nothing wrong with that, and not my choice, but my film, its field with dreams, beauty, action, romance, and love, these are what I stay alive for. If we train our life to be realistic we might become pessimistic.
I always aim high, shoot for the impossible, and eventually land where I want to be. The key to creating the tremendous visionary martial arts musical comedy is a buddy story that will get a “Kick” out of you! By combining a mixture of unique story elements from these defined genres (Martial Arts, Mobster, Musicals, LGBTQ+), The Next Big Hit combines new and innovative landscapes for martial arts to be highlighted and crosses all boundaries within the film marketplace, increasing its ability to become a breakout hit with a broad cross-section of audiences worldwide.
It toked more than a village to make The Next Big Hit, and here is the solid team and leading cast; me, Zak Lee Guarnaccia (as Dino Benito), Red Notice, Barry, Judas and The Black Messiah, Live By Night, The Morning Show http://tiny.cc/ZLG919 Perry Anzilotti (as Shawn Benito) Gang-Related, Crossworlds, Bean. Cerina Vincent (as Sarah) Cabin Fever, A Disney TV series Stuck in the Middle, Not Another Teen Movie, Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, and the iconic incredibly talented Marlyn Mason (as Madam Veronica Castile), her best known cinematic part as Elvis Presley’s girl in one of his final films “The Trouble with Girls,” and critically acclaimed series in the ’70s “Longstreet,” as a love interest to James Franciscus working side by side with Bruce Lee.
Pat Battistini directed the film and delivered his brilliant comedy craft based on my vision with a dash of an Italian attitude thrown in for spice; the film will be a limited theatrical release and submitted for the SAG and Academy Awards by 2023 and many other valuable Films Festivals. I’ll see you all at the Oscars!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I was learning most of my life lessons way too slowly, and it was hard to recognize my pattern, as I realized at a later time that if I wanted to make a difference to achieve my dreams, I had to unlearn some of my life thoughts and behaviors that weren’t beneficial for my dreams. It took me almost a lifetime to learn old patterns that detour and slow me down. As I started recognizing those old patterns, I created new ways to reinvent my life several times, stayed focused on my goals, and my struggles developed my strengths, making me who I am today. When I’m going through hardships and decide not to give up, that feeds my desire to succeed. Not an easy task to let go of my comfort zone, as nothing is easy in life, but I was able to apply some of the new patterns to make a difference and continue to pursue my ultimate dreams. It is risky to make any changes, the fear can build up the uncertainty of the outcome, but all those changes are essential as the previous pattern wasn’t working anyway, so why hold into it? I realized to embrace fear, in the same way when I was a child, with a higher desire.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I’m an intense animal activist and environmental defender; I’m Vegan, loved animals deeply from a young age. The primary purpose in my life is to give incredible support to this planet and to achieve my life purpose, helping in my best capability Mother Nature. I fell in love with the entertainment business to generate my little financial resource to help rescue animals and support Mother Nature. However, I’m not a scientist, Doctor with an MD, Ph.D., or any qualifications that my input might get people’s attention; although philosophers and historical people for thousands of years, no one was qualified with any of those degrees, simply because that system didn’t exist yet, it was merely an ongoing personal experiment and theories, trying and errors from those people that studies life, environment, space and progressively making discoveries. Science is a continuous discovery, transformation, and rediscovery of something we thought we had discovered, and we keep rewriting some history.
I’m aware that the universe we live in it is in an ongoing transformation. We have theories and a general idea about which direction this world might go, and we must let continue to do is course. I wished to be that environmentalist Batman or Superman to keep this earth or the universe the way it looks today as long as I can, with all the challenges and imperfections that this world already has and all the human mistakes. Still is a beautiful life the way the earth breathes today; I think we are living in the best moment of the earth’s life; it is wild, scary, and sad, with its vicious circle of life, I wish to keep like this forever that would be awesome, but deep inside we all know, as beautiful it might appear, kipping everything forever as is it might develop other challenges that might lead to other disasters.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.zaklee.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zakleeguarnaccia/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZLG919
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zaleeguarnaccia/ https://www.facebook.com/TheNextBigHit
Image Credits
©Property of LightRow Productions, LLC (my company)