“Royal Ashes’” actor, Luke Sage is no stranger to Cross Purposes Productions. This is his third film with the production company but his first in a leading role. Luke turned out for auditions for the short film “Cross Purposes” back in 2019. He was auditioning for the role of Jamie, a sixteen year old cancer patient. At the time, Luke was about the right age for the part, but he read much older on camera and despite a strong audition producers were unable to cast him in the role. However, the director didn’t want to lose this talented young man so a new role was written into the script specifically for Luke to play. In 2020, “Found.” was produced and once again Luke was too mature for the leading role and not quite mature enough to play a father figure. He was caught in the middle again. 2021 is a different story. The main character in “Royal Ashes” is nineteen year old Paul Royal, the eldest brother of five siblings who by default finds himself trying to raise his three brothers (one of whom is autistic) and baby sister on his own.
Luke didn’t get the role automatically. In fact there was more competition than ever as not only local actors but actors from talent agencies from across the country were now auditioning for CPP roles. Royal Ashes Director, David Alford explains, “Luke had some stiff competition and he wasn’t a given for Paul. I had an actor in Chicago that I was looking at very closely after the first round of video submissions. But my attention shifted as I was watching Luke’s screen test. There was a dramatic scene where Paul is pleading with a county courthouse clerk for help. I literally got choked up watching Luke go through the scene. It was very moving. Luke has always been a powerfully committed actor who will bring the juice to any role. What I’m seeing now is that he has learned when to pull back that strength and let vulnerability into a role. That’s a potent combination and a game-changer.”
“Royal Ashes” is currently in Post Production having completed principal shooting in July and should be available everywhere in 2022.
