Entertainment St. John’s own Anthony Dutton returns to work to tell a personal...

St. John’s own Anthony Dutton returns to work to tell a personal story of survival

Anthony Dutton, shown here as a young actor. Dudden is originally from St. John’s. (Presented by Anthony Dutton)

After retiring from the stage two decades ago, legendary filmmaker Anthony M. Dutton is ready to get back on camera, this time to tell his own deeply personal story of aggression and survival.

In December 2002, on her father’s birthday, Dutton was drugged and sexually assaulted. She was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and her acting career was derailed.

“I have not been on stage since the incident. Before the incident, I was doing four to six plays every year, a year and a half,” he said.

«I was an actor. That’s what I wanted to do. I was trained by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama as a child.”

He made a name for himself as a documentary filmmaker, including Dudden Restaurants are not democracies! This earned him a scholarship to the Toronto Film School’s film program in 2006. He recently made a documentary about his family’s photography business. Dutton Photo – In the business of making memories.

“Maybe it’s easier to write and hide behind the camera,” he says, looking back on his career path.

Now, 20 years after being sexually assaulted, Dutton is developing a script. Baptism of fire And he hopes to return to acting with a plot based on his life.

The main character, James, is attacked in a small town in the United States. His cousin is his pillar of support but dies. James finally leaves his hometown.

A man behind a small desk, in front of a computer, speaks into a microphone.
Anthony Dutton features a photo of Dutton: in the business of making souvenirs at the Niagara Artists Center. (Presented by Anthony Dutton)

Under an assumed name, James moves to another state and works as a pool shark to earn money, but he makes enemies with some regular players.

As James tries to avoid confrontation, James discovers that he has an unknown guardian angel who turns out to be the owner of the bar, although he has never seen the man.

to tutton, Baptism of fire A story about feeling safe again.

“Basically, he’s safe again. And, unknown to him, the owner is related to his cousin,” he said. “So the owner uses it as a double opportunity to protect James and clean up that element in his own community because the owner is so powerful, but they never meet.”

Explore the power of the script and see who is using it to help their community. Duden added that the police never considered the story, that it was deliberate. In his own case, every time he tried to contact the authorities after being assaulted, he “fell on deaf ears.”

“I respect a certain type of individual who uses power and lacks a better expression. And I have learned that power can be a dirty word, but use the power of it for the greater good,” he said. saying.

Returning to acting

For Dutton, the time was right to talk about how the attack changed his life, and he attributes that change to the support he now has.

“The people in my life who have been great friends, who have become solid friends, without a doubt,” he said. “I ‘wont be here; everything is interconnected. So you have to say: ‘Everything happens for a reason.’

He wants to get back in front of the audience and start acting again, and portray Baptism of fireThe protagonist is Jamie.

However, in June 2022, work on the script was delayed when some of his belongings were stolen while in Ontario, including a laptop containing a draft of his script.

So I saw it as an omen to write again. So that’s what I’ve been doing,” she said. “I’m rewriting stuff so I can write a better script now based on what’s happened since the stuff got stolen.”

Vintage photo of a man in a cowboy hat and shirt and dark sunglasses looking over the camera with a beautiful view of sea cliffs in the background.Vintage photo of a man in a cowboy hat and shirt and dark sunglasses looking over the camera with a beautiful view of sea cliffs in the background.
Dutton is developing a script called Baptism by Fire and hopes to return to acting with a plot based on his life. (Submitted by Anthony Dutton.)

Since the robbery, he has been writing the script on his phone.

Baptism of fire And it’s not just about the terrible thing that happened: for Dutton, it’s also an opportunity to look for the good that can come from a bad situation.

“Ultimately, I want the offender to get help. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else. And I have to live with this for the rest of my life, but through art, I can redeem myself,” she said. “I can recover everything that is affected.”

But he insists that there are good people out there and uses his script to show them respect.

“That is what I celebrate. There are good people out there, it’s just about helping and protecting them and making sure no harm happens to innocent or good people,” she said.

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