Trevor St. John Opens up About His Powerful New Movie (EXCLUSIVE)
Soap fans know that Trevor St. John is a talented actor from his performances as Todd/Victor on ONE LIFE TO LIVE and his current role as Tucker on THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS, but now they’ll be able to see that he’s also a talented writer and director as well with the release of his new movie, A Good Enough Day! The film stars St. John as Tyler Hamilton, a terminally ill man who prepares for death by reaching out to those he’s neglected and try to heal old wounds before it’s too late. Soap fans will also recognize Sherri Saum (Keri, OLTL) as Tyler’s ex-wife and Josh Wingate (ex-Carter, GENERAL HOSPITAL) in the cast.
St. John’s stepfather, Don Hamilton, offered to fund a movie if he and his cousins, Brett Clothier-Sharman and Graham Sharman, could come up with a premise that would fit within the limited budget. “Don had always wanted to shoot a feature and we’ve always wanted to work together,” the actor confided to Soaps In Depth. “We’re all family.”
Setting the film in Hamilton’s actual photography studio in Spokane, Washington where St. John grew up, the three writers decided to center it around a character who was experiencing his final day. “It’s got to be about his relationships,” St. John explained. “It’s got to be about estranged relationships and he’s got to mend them in this short period of time. And so, from that kind of spine, we created all the relationships and the history between the character that I play and his family, particularly his daughter from whom he is estranged. That was the germ of it.”
Although St. John had never directed anything before, he felt sure he could pull it off. “I don’t know if my confidence was born of ignorance or arrogance or whatever,” he chuckled, “but I knew I could do it. I’ve worked with so many great directors and I think through osmosis I gleaned a lot. And on every set I’ve ever been on, I paid attention. So I felt very confident that I could direct it.”
While working on set as both the actor and director, St. John admitted that he was able to separate out the two jobs by relying on co-writer Clothier-Sharman and cinematographer Hamilton while shooting. “I would do everything as a director; where the camera was, making sure the shot was what we wanted,” he revealed, “and then I just let that go completely and entered into the actor mode and let that happen as it did.”
Shot during the heart of the pandemic in the spring of 2021, they decided to include the COVID precautions in the film for both practical and creative reasons. “Brett, one of the co-writers said, ‘It actually works,’” St. John recalled. “‘There’s a physical distance when he has created this tremendous emotional distance. It goes parallel.”
A Good Enough Day screened at film festivals and was picked up for distribution by Good Deed Entertainment for release in 2023, though the strikes ended up bumping the release to the following year. But on Tuesday, Feb. 13, the movie will be available to watch on AppleTV, Amazon, and Tubi and St. John hopes viewers enjoy it, despite the heavy subject matter.
“The one thing we’re hearing is that not only are people leaving the screening in tears,” he confided, “but it’s making them think quite a bit about the relationships, about the nature of how much time we have left and what’s important. Those are universal topics.”
Check out the trailer for A Good Enough Day before streaming the full movie on AppleTV, Amazon, or Tubi!
