Former Teen Magazine heartthrob, Jason Priestley, makes his feature film directorial debut with Cas & Dylan. In the movie, Richard Dreyfuss plays 61-year-old self-proclaimed loner and terminally ill Dr. Cas Pepper who reluctantly agrees to give 22-year-old social misfit, Dylan Morgan (Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany), a very short lift home. The last thing he anticipates is that he will strike her angry boyfriend with his car, find himself on the lam, and ultimately drive across the country with an aspiring young writer determined to help him overcome his own bizarre case of suicide note writer’s block. Priestley recently sat down with the National Monitor, with back pillows and all, to discuss the film.

Jason Priestley: Which back pillow do you want?

National Monitor: Doesn’t matter to me.

You have to take care of the small of your back.

The older you get…

We have to worry about things like that now. It just doesn’t seem right.

I know. I still feel like I’m 21 sometimes.

Right? I wake up in the morning and your brain fools you. I think I’m still 25. Then I get out of bed and it’s “ouch!” [laughs]

Or when you’re out having a good time and the next morning you wake up and think, “I’m not 21 anymore.”

Not at all. Not at all man. You start planning your night and it’s like wait, I have an 8:30 meeting. You have to be careful, careful, careful [laughs].

It’s like, “damn, I’m an adult now.”

When did that happen [laughs]? Yeah, I could talk about [getting older] all day.

Alright, let’s talk about the Cas & Dylan. Did you always want to direct a feature or did you just feel like telling people what to do at this point in your life?

[Laughs] My first professional directing job was in 1993. I started directing some episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 and I’ve been directing ever since. I don’t know why it took me 20 years to direct my first feature. I was just too busy doing other things right?

Life got in the way.

Yeah, life got in the way. Getting old got in the way. [laughs] I’m glad I did [take a while to direct a feature film], just like I’m glad I was 38 to have my first kid. I felt like I had enough experience and information to tackle the challenges that this film threw at me than had I been a younger man. I might not have been able to rise to the challenge. There were challenges with this movie. It’s a road movie, so there was a lot of territory to cover. Also, for example, I might not have fought for the rehearsal time we had [before the shoot]. With the three of us [Priestley, Dreyfuss and Maslany] locked in a room, rehearsing, working through issues and the two of them spending time together, learning to trust each other and letting them build their chemistry, when the time came, we were just able to shoot. I didn’t have to spend a lot of time on the set talking about issues with the material, etc. We had already done that stuff with just the three of us in a room without 70 people standing around watching us. That decision [to have a lot of rehearsal time] paid huge dividends for us. Rehearsal has become a luxury that a lot of producers forget about. It’s better to have only three people [rehearsing] on the clock than having ninety people on the clock.

You made this a few years ago and Tatiana has really blown up since then.

She actually had her screen test for Orphan Black the first week of our production. We pushed back the shoot so she could screen test for Orphan Black.

And you have a built-in audience of fans for Cas & Dylan from her Orphan Black cult following.

She actually found out she got the part [in Orphan Black] while we were shooting. It was an exciting time to be with her. It’s been really fun to see how this experience has been for her. She really handles it very well. She has her feet planted firmly on the ground, since she’s a Saskatchewan girl [Jason is Canadian also].

I’m a Midwestern guy so I understand.

Same thing. [laughs]

Her fans are very vocal so there might be some free promotion by them for the film.

I hope so. The film definitely stands on its own two feet though. We won Newport Beach [film festival]. We won the California Independent Film Festival. We won the L.A. Comedy Film Festival. We won the Whistler Film Festival. Obviously it resonates with audiences. Those are prestigious film festivals with very film-savvy audiences that understand film. At some of those festivals, we won Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress. We did really incredibly well [on the film festival circuit]. I’m not worried about the film resonating with audiences. I’m worried about the audience finding it. The people that want to see the film, will find the film. It’s letting people know that it’s out there.

Well, I’ll do my best.

It’s much appreciated.

Now that you have directed both TV and film, do you want to pursue one over the other now?

Since I shot [Cas & Dylan], I’ve been developing a bunch of other films to direct. In the meantime, I’m back to directing television, which is kind of what happens. It’s just a different scale, but I just love telling stories. Films take a long time to set up and they seem to take a lot longer these days. You just tell stories differently in film – at the pace you tell them. I love telling stories whether it’s in front of the camera or behind the camera. I am greatly rewarded on either side of the camera. I seem to split my time these days with both equally and I really enjoy both. I did have a great time making this film and I can’t wait to make another.

Cas & Dylan opens in select theaters and on VOD May 1.

Currently available on iTunes, Vudu and Amazon Instant Video.