Sioux Falls native lands lead role in film coming to town next week

To his family, he’s Joey. To his classmates at O’Gorman High School, he’s Joey Bezz or just Bezz – adding an extra Z to distinguish himself from his father, who also is nicknamed Bez. Some of his professional acting credits list him as J. Vasko-Bezenek. As a DJ, he chose Bezz Bunny.

The name he has chosen for his Screen Actors Guild card, and the name he will use professionally from now on, however, is Joseph Bezenek.

“I was trying to figure out the best way to brand my name, and when I used J. Vasko-Bezenek, that was my mother’s side, and I’m proud of them,” he said. “But I officially decided when I had to choose how to credit myself on ‘The Lumber Baron’ to go back to who I am.” When the Vasko family came to the United States, it was Americanized to Wasko, and that is his mother’s birth name. He used Vasko as a nod to family members still overseas.

“The Lumber Baron” is an independent film starring Bezenek, released in 2019 and available on Amazon Prime. His most recent film, “End of the Rope,” will be shown Monday, Aug. 7, at the State Theatre in downtown Sioux Falls. The movie is based on a real-life incident of vigilante justice in North Dakota in 1931 and is recorded as the state’s last lynching.

In that movie, Bezenek takes on another name, that of Jarvis, the ringleader of the men who take the suspected killer of a farm family from the county jail and hang him. The man executed without a trial was Charles Bannon. The movie is based on the history book “End of the Rope,” written by the late Dennis Edward Johnson, a native North Dakotan who was a lawyer and storyteller.

“They broke into jail, took him out and hung him over a bridge,” Bezenek said. “This was hush-hush for a long time. Nobody ever got in trouble with this case. In 1931, people just kept their stories quiet. They didn’t want to get in trouble. … Now, a museum up there has original masks, and they even have the rope I think that hung him.”

Shot on location in North Dakota in August 2021, Bezenek found himself working with people whose parents and grandparents had taken part in the lynching. Sometimes, their fervor for the story could be disquieting, he said. Filming the scene where Jarvis acts as ringleader in taking Bannon from the jail also caused uneasiness.

The jail now is a historic site, but it was opened to the cast and crew, then a replica was built. At 3 a.m., Bezenek and the other actors relived the violence of that night.

“Let me tell you, it felt weird,” he said. “I felt like in some ways we were messing with what happened. It had a very unique air. I had to pray and respect what was going on in the air around me.”

Bezenek is the son of Kimberly Huff of Sioux Falls and Matthew Bezenek of Madison. He first stepped on stage as a freshman at O’Gorman. Scott Nelson was directing the Christmas show that year, but that played no role in Bezenek’s decision to pursue theater.

“The prettiest girl in my class was auditioning, so I wanted to do it,” Bezenek said. “Thank God, I really wanted to be in the show with her. … I didn’t realize it was something I wanted to pursue until my junior year, though.”

A sports injury kept Bezenek off the playing field his sophomore year, but as he progressed through O’Gorman, he envisioned his post-high school future as one that involved studying health administration and playing football at the University of South Dakota. His dream job? President of a health care system.

But a comment from a fellow student during a party his junior year at O’Gorman changed that. Caitlin Woodard urged him to consider acting as his profession. Bezenek, who also took part in show choir and oral interp, realized it was acting, not administration, that made him happy.

He attended Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, where he won the J. Ben Wand Prize for Excellence in Acting, took part in Grand Lake Repertory Theater in the summers and, since graduating, has established his own production company. His IMDb resume includes 16 credits as an actor and more as a producer, director, editor, writer and cinematographer.

Bezenek lives in Arizona, where he runs 4est Films, his production company. Investors, who prefer to be anonymous, helped finance 4est Films. He once dreamed of producing a cocktail lounge. Instead of that, when rents proved to be crazy high, Bezenek produced the film “Strung,” which premiered at the State Theatre in 2021. It won 15 awards worldwide.

The investors agree with Bezenek’s desire to make the world a better place. He recalls an event he worked at one night in Hollywood where $3 million was spent to produce hors d’oeuvres, fashion and music. It’s one reason he moved to Arizona.

“I was so disgusted with how so much money was being spent to serve others’ egos,” Bezenek said. “I got this idea that if you have money, you’re just keeping it from somebody else. They (the investors) are a very, very special couple. They resemble nothing more than philanthropy at their finest in South Dakota.”

When Bezenek acts, he still calls on advice he often received from O’Gorman director Teresa Fester. She would tell him to quit looking at the stage floor and project himself out to the audience. Fester remembers it as telling him bluntly, “The floor doesn’t give a crap.”

Fester describes Bezenek as extremely talented with a natural ability, someone who could perform effortlessly on stage.

“What made him unique is he’s a go-getter,” she said. “I knew when he went on to Millikin, you just could tell he would take risks to make it. He was easy to work with, he was fun to work with, he would just bring to life any roles that he had.”

One of those roles was that of Professor Harold Hill in “The Music Man,” O’Gorman’s first production in its then-new performing arts center.

“He was just on point,” Fester said. “We had a beautiful, brand-new theater, and his talent just matched it. He was so fun in that role and consistent.”

Scott Nelson directed Bezenek in “Night in the Wax Museum” while Bezenek also was involved in football. Bezenek would do whatever it took to get to both activities, Nelson said, and although he missed out on rehearsals, he was determined not to weaken the play.

“No matter what year he worked with, freshman to senior, he was always looking out for the people around him,” Nelson said. “Whatever it would take to get them involved and keep them involved.”

Bezenek would run with any character he was given, taking the role to the next level, Nelson said. “Joey never let me down.”

For his part, 29-year-old Bezenek now realizes how special his childhood and adolescence in Sioux Falls were. He had sports and family and movies like “Harry Potter,” “Space Jam” and “The Matrix” to stir his imagination, even when he didn’t realize where it would lead.

He feels a special bond, even now, with the O’Gorman community. He wants to show them that “their belief in me was not for naught. It’s tough to articulate this, but I want them to be able to say, ‘I know this guy, not ‘I knew this guy,’” Bezenek said.

“Scott Nelson said (on Facebook) ‘Don’t forget the little people,’ and I could never, ever, ever forget. Even further, I wish there was more that I could do to show them the constant remembrance. They are the fuel to my fire.”

If you go

“End of the Rope,“ starring Joseph Bezenek, will be shown at 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 7, at the State Theatre in downtown Sioux Falls. Tickets cost $13 each and can be purchased online.