Richard Roye. You may not know that name now…but you will soon enough! Fitness and Mixed Martial Arts trainer turned stunt man and actor, Roye recently collaborated to create the award-winning 7-minute short film “Buyer’s Remorse” as a part of Chicago’s 48 Hour Film Festival. Tasked with using specific items, themes, and phrases, the group of 12 calling themselves the Stunt Muffins, wrote, directed, filmed, edited and starred in a hilarious movie about real estate open houses.
Talking with Roye via Zoom, he shared with me how serendipitous a window sticker could be as it changed the trajectory of his career life. Asked to move his car by another driver, the man who he later knew as Chris Nolte who trains stunt actors, noticed Roye’s MMA sticker and invited him to train. This paved the way for Roye to take his natural talents and re-create himself as a stunt man. Currently working to hone his knife throwing skills as well as dance moves, Roye learned about the 48 Hour Film Festival. Quickly gathering his eclectic group of talented stunt people, most of whom are of color, “Buyer’s Remorse” gathered steam as they wrote the script on Friday, shot the footage on Saturday, and edited on Sunday, with the premiere set in Chicago on a fall October evening.
The genre was “mockumentary” and a required line to be used was “let’s go back to the beginning.” What followed was a hilarious romp through a cast member’s house doubling as the open house for the story to unfold. Roye shared that after a few glitches on the opening night, the event was “surreal” with a “line outside” awaiting all of the short films to be shown. “Buyer’s Remorse” won for Best Choreography as the stunt actors were knocked off one by one in the story.
Delving more deeply into the making of this film, Roye shared that it “forced us to really step up … and see who’s down to work.” He continued, “I honestly could not have asked for a better group. Everyone there came ready to work. The actors that came to act were willing to hold lights, whatever needed to be done, everyone was willing to do it and that’s what made it run so smoothly.”
While these festivals take place all over the country, what makes Stunt Muffins so unique is that the majority of members are of color. Roye said, “Look at the faces and who they represent…film is very important because film can change certain narratives that are out there. Images are very powerful and what I hope to do as a person of color is to relay a better message than what’s out there.” This group organically developed out of a love of stunt work and film that will surely convene again to give us another entertaining film that leaves us yearning for more.
“Buyer’s Remorse” the director’s cut will be available to stream soon.
*Edits for space and clarity