Jason Dohring has often portrayed mercurial characters in film and TV projects, ranging from a love-to-hate bad boy in Veronica Mars all the way to a vampire in Moonlight. In The Squeeze, his real-life affinity for golf reveals itself in his role as a hot shot associate of some shady characters. Needless to say, I had some expectations when I asked him his Five Favorite Films, but his list couldn’t have been more earnest and filled with open affection. Guess you can’t believe everything you see in TV and the movies.
This has to be up there. There are parts of this movie that I think are perfect — like when [Andrew Lincoln] is flipping the cards for Keira Knightley. I just died. I think I was in love with Keira too; when I would see her, I could get that heartbreak he felt. For some reason, there’s so many aspects of love in that movie — it all resonates with you one way or another, and there’s such humor and different stories, young and old. There’s all kinds of relationships — it’s family and taking care of them even if you have to sacrifice your own romantic love. I always watch it and am always overwhelmed with how good it is. It’s amazing.
I grew up not understanding racism — I was never around anything that would have led me to that. All of a sudden I went to the premiere of this film and it struck me so hard. It made me brothers with my fellow man more than any other film that I’ve ever seen. It changed my life. The perspective it gave me was incredible. I don’t have a lot of films that changed my life, but that one made me realize we’re all in this together. Michael Pena is a good friend of mine, and this was the first film that put him on the map. He was so good. When the lights went down in that movie, we were taken away. It was unreal.
RT: Please tell Michael Pena I also love End of Watch, and Cesar Chavez was also great.
Yes, I thought End of Watch was amazing, I’d put that in my top 20. It was that good.
For no other reason than it just kicks ass and inspires you. There’s no other reason. I remember watching the love scene when I was a little kid and I was like, “This movie sucks; it’s so gross,” but since then I get pumped up because it’s so kick-ass and cool.
This movie is unbelievable. It was my first introduction to Peter Sellers and I was like, “Who is this guy?” He is so funny and innocent, and so perfect — and what a story, man. The end scene where he walks away on water, I thought, “Oh my gosh, this guy is God. He’s so simple, but he touched all these people and changes them.”
It’s so funny, I was literally laughing out loud. I heard it was on Quentin Tarantino and Ed Norton’s list of top movies ever of all time, and I didn’t even know what it was. I’d never heard of it. I heard it was a huge box office flop, and then I saw it and wondered why it isn’t more known. I think people just don’t know what it is or don’t understand the idea. These guys are in North Africa, in these awful situations, with the mafia involved. It was totally over the top. For me, it was so funny. Such a great story, so original, just hilarious. I have very rarely laughed this much in a movie. I have no reason why it wasn’t a huge smash success, in the top five funniest movies ever. It’s Dustin Hoffman — I could make a Top Five just around him. Like Rain Man. Watch that again. It will touch your soul.
The Squeeze opened on Apr. 17 in wide release.
