Melvin Gregg's influencer past informs 'Share?' movie

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Melvin Gregg said his prior career as a social media influencer informed his new movie, Share?, in theaters Friday.

In Share?, an unnamed man (Gregg) wakes up in a room where he must perform for rewards from viewers watching in other rooms.

"It's definitely stressful every day having to create and keep this audience engaged," Gregg, 35, said of his influencer days. "Keep the likes up, make sure you post consistently."

Gregg ran a profitable Vine account and transitioned to YouTube, Instagram and Facebook when Vine closed. Gregg said his social media success only landed him one role, in the Hulu series Freakish.

However, the money from profit sharing allowed him to support himself while he looked for acting work. Social media videos also gave him useful skills for auditions, like his role as a high school basketball player in The Way Back.

"Being an influencer, you write, you direct, you distribute, you do everything," Gregg said. "When I was able to get in the room with [The Way Back director] Gavin O'Connor and audition, I knew my tool because I had edited thousands of hours of myself working."

In Share?, captive performers can be burned alive if they fail to earn enough endorsements to pay for their survival. Real-life social media wasn't that deadly, but Gregg decided in 2018 to focus entirely on acting.

Roles in the Netflix series American Vandal, Steven Soderbergh's series High Flying Bird and films including The Way Back and The United States vs. Billie Holiday followed. Gregg said Share? producers pitched him an earlier version of the film when he was still a full-time influencer.

The film had another false start in 2020 when they attempted to film remotely in the actors' actual houses during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. When Share? was finally able to film on sets in 2021, Gregg read Ira Rosensweig and Benjamin Sutor's script and agreed to play the lead.

Rosensweig directed and Gregg became an executive producer. Gregg said Rosensweig was receptive to his creative input during an early preproduction call.

"I think they would've been open anyway, but I had a lot of insight into this world because I came from a social media space," Gregg said. "I had a lot of input into what the character was going through, how he felt, what this world looks and feels like."

The camera in Share? never moves. It captures a static shot of the room.

Occasionally, windows of other rooms occupied by other prisoners appear in corners of the screen, and Gregg's character can talk to other hostages, played by Bradley Whitford, Alice Braga and Danielle Campbell.

The film transpires over several days, so it cuts between significant scenes in the room. However, Gregg said the biggest challenge was the timing of each scene.

"If you need the scene to be a minute and 20 seconds, you had to perform the scene in a minute and 20 seconds," Gregg said. "Even if we did four takes of this one, the continuity had to be perfect."

The angle also prohibited substituting Gregg with a stunt double. So when Gregg performed for sustenance, he had to do his own stunts.

"There were things that I had to do that I couldn't do," Gregg said. "I'm not a great handstand, especially if I have to walk [on my hands]. I hurt my shoulder at one point."

When Gregg falls attempting to perform, it's because he really fell.

The simplified production also allowed Share? to complete the film in 12 days. Gregg said he would only leave the set for lunch, but there was no down time otherwise.

"It was just one setup," Gregg said. "There's no lighting changes, no turnaround, so you don't have to break for crew to move anything around. I'm on camera every second of the film, so there's really no breaks."

Gregg's introduction to the film was almost even more revealing. He wakes up in boxer briefs because Gregg refused to do nudity, as was originally scripted.

"I was like, 'Nah, give me some boxers. I'm not laying on the floor butt naked for the first 10 minutes of a movie,'" Gregg said.