ABC
Even before Ryan Carnes (ex-Lucas, General Hospital) auditioned for the male lead in the movie The Air He Breathes, he was immediately drawn to Tristan Cole and the angsty, emotional journey the character goes on in the movie. “I remember when I looked at the, at the audition scenes, I really, I really liked them,” he says. “I like characters who feel deeply. And because I have suffered some significant loss in my life, I really could relate. It seemed like a beautiful story I wanted to be a part of telling.”
Good Grief
Based on the 2015 novel by author Brittainy Cherry (which recently saw a surge in popularity thanks to BookTok), The Air He Breathes debuted on Aug. 22 on Passionflix, the streaming service co-founded by moviemaker Tosca Musk that adapts romance novels into films and series. Like the book, the film follows Elizabeth (played by Kelcie Stranahan) and Tristan, both of whom are mourning the devastating losses of their respective spouses. As they navigate their grief and past traumas, they discover the power of love and second chances.
“I think I listened to the audio book three or four times by the time we started shooting,” Carnes confesses. “Sometimes, as artists or actors, we’re given gifts in order to be able to revisit some of our own unprocessed emotions and [this project] ended up being that for me. I think even if viewers haven’t read the book, they are going to be able to connect to what these characters are going through because loss is universal of the human condition.”
Passionflix
An Ink-Sperience: Once a week, Carnes would have to have Tristan’s tattoos — all based on literary characters — removed and reapplied. “I really liked the lion,” he said of Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia. “I would consider getting that myself.”
Creating a character based on a tragic hero in a book with over 17,000 reviews on Amazon was a daunting task, Carnes admits. “It was the first time I had played a beloved character that lots of people already knew about. And I was very nervous going into it,” he says of playing a man drowning in grief. “On one hand, as an actor, there’s the luxury of source material here [from the book] for me. So that’s a plus. And at the same time, I also felt a lot of pressure to pay homage to what Brittainy had originally conceived, to give the [book’s] fans what they would be expecting in the character.”
Tristan and Liz most certainly get off on the wrong foot: She nearly runs over his dog with his car. Soon after, they discover that not only are they neighbors, but they have more in common than either of them imagined. While their relationship begins by using each other to remember their late spouses, it also helps each one of them heal and move on. “There were some really tough scenes that required a lot of trust with the other actors, and I had that trust with Kelcie from the very beginning,” Carnes says of his co-star. “I feel so extraordinarily fortunate to get to work with someone as talented and as easy to work with as she is.”
Passionflix
Misery Loves Company: “They’re essentially using one another,” Carnes says of Liz and Tristan’s relationship, “but knowing they had a counterpart, someone in it with them, helps them heal.”
In watching The Air He Breathes, Carnes hopes that viewers will feel the same catharsis that Tristan does. “And maybe be able to feel and process emotions that have been stuck for them,” he adds. “Both of these characters are going through a process of redemption. Life gives us multiple opportunities to reinvent ourselves, to redeem ourselves, and the characters are certainly going through a reinventing process.
“I’m really proud of everybody who participated in this movie, from the beginning all the way to the end,” he concludes. “I’m thrilled to share it with the world now.”
Check out Carnes in action in the trailer for The Air He Breathes below, and to stream the movie on Passionflix, click here.
