Fans of the Netflix sci-fi horror film Circle will likely recognise Michael Nardelli. He played the lead role of Eric, in addition to producing the movie.
Since then, Michael worked with some of the same team on Dark/Web, a web series.
Check out our interview with Michael below.
As both an actor and producer, what sparked your initial interest in the film industry?
Michael Nardelli: I just grew up always loving film like, literally, from my first memory, pretty much is like watching the Wizard of Oz with my family and watching movies like that. And literally, it’s the only thing I ever wanted to do.
It’s the only thing I ever really thought about doing. I just have been very passionate about movies and storytelling since I was, like, a baby.
In “Circle” (2015), you produced and played a lead role as Eric. Which job came first?
Michael Nardelli: It was through a manager that we met Mario and Aaron at the time, and I was looking for new things to produce. But, they always knew I was an actor.
You know, when I would take meetings like that, so Mario and Aaron knew that. I think progress was slow with them originally, because I was working on different, like, TV shows and things at the time.
I think I booked [an acting part] right before we were gonna film, so we had to stop. So they knew about all that. We didn’t know, like, what role I would play, but it was always the idea that I would be acting in it as well as producing.
But yeah, I originally met them as a producer looking for stuff to develop and work on, and seen their show The Vault. That was really exciting to watch and think about how we would work with them. That’s kind of how I got involved, longer than 10 years ago.
As Circle primarily takes place in one setting and happens in “real time”, was it shot chronologically or out of order?
Michael Nardelli: Yeah, the really nice thing about filming in, like a black box, black space like that, is that we were shoot in order, consecutively, linearly or whatever.
[It] is like a rare luxury for performers. It’s almost like, when you’re you’re putting up a show in the theater, [going] from A to B to C to D, and experience everything your character is experiencing in order.
It makes life and psychology, yeah, and your prep a lot easier when you can film like that. So it was really nice.
And it did feel like for a lot of us, like we were on stage which was really cool. A luxury in the film space, which is normal, to shoot the ending on the first day.
You didn’t sort of feel that like somberness every day, because there’d be like 10 less people on that you had befriended the day before. Right now they’re, you know, dead.
It was a 10 day shooting schedule, so there just wasn’t a lot a lot of time. So it helped to be like, oh yeah, we’re going in order. I know where we’re going. I know where we are today.
The film plays with the idea of the “false protagonist” – focusing on someone for a while, then removing them. Was there a particular character you wish could’ve been featured more?
Michael Nardelli: Honestly, there’s Fay [DeWitt), who is the the seemingly nice, older lady who winds up flipping the guys off and [goes] F you. I would like to see more of her story for sure.
That’s a good question, though. Well, you know the pilot, [who had] that great voice. He would have been cool to learn more about. Obviously, the silent guy we we don’t know anything about him.
They did a great job, Mario and Aaron, setting that up.
We were lucky to cast Julie Benz as the wife character. I think there were some assumptions that, oh, she must be the one that makes it, [the] most familiar face. So yeah, it was cool that they were able to play around with archetypes. And judgment. The person you like didn’t necessarily wind up being the person you thought was cool and nice.
Eric kind of operates in the shadows for a large part of it. I think even, like, in terms of the colour correction of the film, Eric was just kind of meant to kind of be muted in the background, yeah. Even like, from what he’s wearing.
The cast features recognisable names like Julie Benz and Carter Jenkins. As a producer, were you excited to land some of the names involved in Circle?
Michael Nardelli: It was cool to have Carter there, because he and I had acting class growing up. I mean, I knew him when he was super young. We were in the same class together, so it was cool to bring him in.
Danny, my friend Danny, who I did another film with, called Another Happy Day, that Sam Levinson directed. He plays Shaun, who volunteers. It was cool to bring him on and work with him again, because I knew him when he was 13 or 14, when we did Another Happy Day. So, it was cool to have him in there.
I was super excited that we were able to get Julie because I’m huge a Buffy and Dexter fan. And Jawbreaker and all that stuff growing up.
So it was really cool, to have someone from Buffy in our movie.
Everybody in the cast was just cool. I knew when we had the table read that everybody was just ready to play.
It was one of the most fun shoots of my life because of the people that we were working with. We were able to work with a lot of them again on this series that we did called Dark Web. Mario, Aaron, my brother and I worked on together. We have, like, our our company of actors now, thanks to Circle.
The characters are faced with a horrifying life or death situation. Do you believe Eric’s behaviour – and other characters with similar views – indicates their personality in everyday life, or was it just survival instinct?
Michael Nardelli: I think a lot of them are your neighbors, your friends, your colleagues. I think they just got put into this horrible situation.
We have seen that in in real life, you know, in the last 10 years since the movie came out. You know, seemingly normal people that get put into a pressure cooker, high stakes situation. The darker sides come out.
I definitely always thought of Eric as somebody in that way. I know some people think he’s like, a*****e, psychopath, whatever.
always felt that he was just somebody who was not going to lose the game. Same circumstances everybody else in that room, survive. When survival instincts kick in, it seems like sometimes your sympathy and your empathy, reduce.
So, yeah, I don’t think a lot of them were villains. And I actually don’t think it was that like black and white for a lot of them. I think it started that way, maybe. Some people know, it’s very clear, but I think a lot of them are like, in that shades of grey, area.
And the big theme to me was just, and it’s a bit cynical, but it’s just kind of like, everybody’s an a*****e.
Early in the movie, Eric claims to have woken up in a “red room”. He says among the few conscious, with only one other person present. It certainly seemed to win the trust of people in the room, but how honest do you think he was being?
Michael Nardelli: I guess I kind of want to leave it mysterious. I definitely think he’s using information, whether it’s true or not, in, like, a very strategic way, by accident.
You might we are working on a follow up, and there might be more clarity to this question, perhaps in a little while.
On that note, what can you say, if anything, about the follow-up?
Michael Nardelli: It’s still in the process of coming together and and it’s still evolving a little bit.
But yeah, we can talk about it, and it’s been announced in Variety.
We’re creeping up on the 10 year anniversary. I mean, there was never like a plan for a sequel, necessarily, but I always felt like it did end in an interesting way, where if people liked it, it seemed like there could be more.
There’s a lot more questions left unanswered. I think, just like the the ongoing positive interaction that fans or viewers of the movie have had, and people expressed to me, I get a lot of DMs, like, what happens next. What did that mean, where would that go?
I think just the world has changed a lot since the movie came out. The topics that we brought up in the first movie have evolved. A lot of them have come to the forefront and are a lot more aggressive nowadays. I think in particular, like, there was a boost in interest in the movie during COVID, right?
Then everything that went down during that time, during lockdown and COVID and the pandemic and everything, like science fiction and horror, to me, are really important to talk about. Like, what’s going on in the world, in a non invasive way. It just seemed like a whole, you know, a global crisis where the entire human population went through lockdown and pandemic.
There’s a parallel there to the alien invasion and conflicts that came up with Circle, I think. That was sort of the thing of, oh, there’s really something to talk about, for this next generation of survivors.
What do you think of Circle’s impact, almost a decade on?
Michael Nardelli: I’m just so honoured, like, because I am a huge fan of this particular type of genre.
This particular type of… I don’t want to say obscure story, but, like, definitely a specific audience. I am that audience, and know that it connected with, you know, people like yourself and others. In the way that, like, I find those weird sci fi horror things and like, oh my god, you guys got to watch this.
Yeah, it’s such an honour that it’s resonated with people, and continues to resonate. Because when we finished it, so many people in the industry were like, ‘What is this? And like, why don’t you make something next time that, like, makes money, and you’re never gonna be able to sell this.’
It looked bleak for a minute, then Netflix, which was amazing. So I just think the fact that it has a legacy is so cool.
I love when people message me about it and say they found it and they hated Eric, or they loved him.
Follow writer Conor O’Brien on Twitter/X
A lifelong TV and Film buff, Conor founded Courageous Nerd in 2019. He has conducted hundreds of interviews for the site, as well as written comprehensive feature articles on a variety of topics. You can find him on X: @conorrcn.
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