BY BARBARA COOK
barbara@theballstonjournal.com
Sally Pinto and Michael Doraby have been bitten by the acting bug. The Ballston Spa residents recently had the opportunity to act in a horror film called R.I.D., about the psychological relationship people have with insects.
Pinto wanted to act when she was a young woman in England, even studying theater arts in college and participating in community theater. But after arriving in America about 20 years ago, “life got in the way.”
Doraby’s only previous brush with acting was as a kindergartner. “I was a soldier and got kept after school for marching down the stairs practicing,” he explained. “That was my last acting experience.”
Michael Doraby, left, in purple, enjoyed his role as an extra in R.I.D. Photo Provided
Now retired, Doraby first experienced the thrill of being in front of a camera when he was interviewed about his part in the Onrust Project. He later auditioned for The Place Beyond the Pines, landing a part as an extra in one scene. There Doraby met Jon Russell Cring, director of R.I.D., on the set.
Pinto’s chance to act was also through The Place Beyond the Pines. Her son Zachary had a part in the movie. Since he is a minor Pinto had to be within a certain distance of him. The only way that could be accomplished in one scene was if she joined him.
“They said I would have to go in the scene with him and pretend to be his mother, which I am, of course,” she laughed.
Pinto didn’t have to say anything in the scene, and later she was an extra in another scene. “And it just kind of snowballed, really.”
Sally Pinto plays a disapproving British maid in the film R.I.D. Photo by Victor Anibal Rodriguez.
Pinto already knew Cring through her son’s work. “It crossed my mind that in this story (R.I.D.) there’s a classic British maid who has an ominous quality about her, a disapproving glare,” Cring said, “and I thought wow, even though Sally is so nice, she would be an absolute perfect fit for the British maid.”
R.I.D. is about a comatose man whose private nurse is attacked by fleas in his Gothic mansion. The repellents she uses as she attempts to kill the vermin seem to gradually bring the man out of his coma, and she begins to fall for him.
The story is described as “an erotic and disturbing tale, which will leave the audience breathless.” The film carries an R-rating. It was filmed in Tivoli, Albany and Schenectady.
Pinto said her son was “a bit put out” because he won’t be able to watch her film until he’s at least 17, but is also proud of her.
Jon Russell Cring on the set of R.I.D. Photo by Victor Anibal Rodriguez
Doraby has since auditioned for a web series called Far from the Heart. He didn’t get the part he auditioned for but the producers liked him so much that they wrote him into three episodes. Filming will be in the spring and summer.
Pinto is hoping something else will come along for her but puts her son’s acting career first. “I’m really the taxi driver and the stage mom, you know. He comes first and if something comes up for me in the future, then cool.”
Doraby is in his mid-60s and Pinto is “40-something,” but age didn’t stop them from pursuing their acting dreams. Pinto said it can be tough to convince someone they’re not too old to try something new. “I think that you’ve got to present them with the opportunity to make them realize it’s something they can do,” she said. “I came to the conclusion that life is very, very short and if you don’t do it, it’s never going to get done.”
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