The Boy Went WEST

David Eggers II, star of the bold psychological drama Station to Station, talks about how he crafted his award-winning (and revealing) performance, and shares sizzling new shots with EROTICCO from his character’s “Cowboy” photoshoot from the film.  The film, one of the rare true indie breakouts from the 2021 film festival circuit, made an impression on audiences, juries, and critics alike, with its story of Tom Ryan (Eggers), the David Bowie-loving young son of a maid who flees New York for Las Vegas, to lose himself after learning a long-held family secret.
 

Eggers’s performance as the bisexual Tom is deft, layered, and naked (often literally), as he steers Tom through a wild and indulgent new life in Vegas, forming a new family of choice, until he’s forced to face a long overdue self-reckoning. Eggers, whose biggest credit before the film was as a series regular on the college comedy “New Dogs, Old Tricks,” says it wasn’t the full-on nature of the character he found challenging.

“I had no  issues at all with Tom’s sexuality, or even the full-frontal nudity in Station to Station,” he explains. “That all made sense to me as an actor. The hard part was doing right by this incredible story and complicated character – he’s in every single scene! –  so I put my energy into making sure Tom Ryan was as compelling onscreen for you guys, as he was on the page to me.”

Eggers also praises the Las Vegas setting for the film. “Benjamin [Bryant, Station to Station’s writer and director] told us he was fascinated by the question of where someone from New York—a place where so many go to lose themselves in the crowds of a city that never sleeps—could run to do the same. For Tom, the answer was Las Vegas, with its own crowds and insomnia.

“We filmed on location there during what turned out to be the height of the pandemic, and that posed a lot of challenges, but it was essential to be there for real.  Vegas has a raw, sexy ‘anything can happen’ that was the perfect backdrop for Tom’s self-discovery. There’s a lot I get up to in this film that would raise eyebrows anywhere else, but not in Vegas.”
 

“I’m happy people call it a ‘prestige film.’ That’s accurate. While a lot of the early talk was about the movie’s frank approach to sexuality (and the male nudity, which is still rare in American films), that changed as more people saw it. Then it was all about how substantial it was as a film and story. One reviewer compared it to the classic novel The Catcher in the Rye.” 

Station to Station was chosen to open the 2021 Las Vegas International Film & Screenwriting Festival, where it was nominated for eight jury awards, including Best Film (winning two, including for Best LGBT film) and received the Audience Choice Award. The film ended up with more than two dozen wins and nominations before its festival run was done.

“I can’t say ‘I knew we’d get all of these nominations and win all of these awards during festival season,’ because movies with these kinds of themes and characters don’t always get mainstream acceptance,” says Eggers. “But the honors kept rolling in, and pretty soon it was clear that lots of people were seeing the same things we saw in the film when we were making it. And it definitely was a ‘we.’ Every member of the cast and crew knew we had a responsibility to the messages in the film and everyone delivered. I’m proud of what we made and I’m proud we did it together.”