Rob Stefaniuk, director and star of "Phil The Alien."

One afternoon at The Pilot Tavern in the heart of downtown Toronto, Canadian filmmaker and actor Rob Stefaniuk slides into his chair and orders a soft drink.

"Trying to cut back," Stefaniuk explains with a sheepish grin. "Trying to recover -- too much partying."

It has been a crazy cycle of parties and promotions and travel since his drunk alien comedy -- his directorial debut -- made its bow at the 2004 Toronto film festival.

"There's lot of booze and there's only finger food so you really have to be careful, because you'll end up on live TV really wasted," he tells the Sun about the filmfest circuit.

"Toronto was my first big film festival experience. I went to every party. I was everywhere, thinking that that was what I was supposed to do. By the end of it, you're just totally burnt out."

Stefaniuk has been trying to pace himself more wisely since then. As a movie, Phil The Alien is now in its mature phase: Theatrical distribution in Canada while Stefaniuk simultaneously prepares for the U.S. release. It has been a grind, a good grind.

"You know that's part of the gig, promoting the film," Stefaniuk says. "But I don't think you can know how much a part of the gig it is until you do it." The worst part, once he started pacing himself to avoid total collapse, is that his once-thriving writing career (for cartoons, for comedy troupes, for stand-ups), and his sideline producing and directing music videos, shrivelled up to nothing.

"I didn't realize the promo would be a whole other year," he says of the Phil project, which he first launched in 2003 by writing the script in four days. "Even though they're paying for your hotels and paying for pretty much anything, the fact that you can't bring any money in (is a problem)." So the question is: Is it worth it?

Stefaniuk laughs and takes a hit of his soda. "Yes! It is all worth it," if for no other reason because he has made that rarity -- a Canadian comedy film with laughs.

"I look at it as a 'the tides are turning' kind of question for me. Canada has always been known for its comedians and not so much for its comedies. I feel that there is a new wave of comedy directors coming up and maybe we'll change that.

"Maybe we'll promote and celebrate our own a little more if we just do what we're kind of best at. My first film's a comedy and my next film's going to be a comedy."

Stefaniuk just finished the screenplay for Suck, a vampire flick which also involves a rock band, a milieu that Stefaniuk feels comfortable in because he has dabbled himself.

He found directing himself as Phil in Phil The Alien to be "very, very, very difficult." He says he originally tried to cast a bigger name comic and then had no perspective on his own performance. He will try it again, though, by directing himself in Suck.

"Only because it's about a rock band and I have a background in that. But, if Johnny Depp comes and says he wants to be in it, then I'll step aside faster than anyone. So, yeah, if we can get a big star that would be great."

Meanwhile, he is trying to survive the Phil experience one filmfest, one party and one soda pop at a time.

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