Cameron wakes on the morning of his five-year sobriety cake day after relapsing the night before. With his celebration rapidly approaching, he emotionally deteriorates while contemplating the consequences of being honest.

People tempt to glorify big milestones, and with good reason; they are usually very hard to get too. But in turn, that glorification makes failure that much harder to accept. That’s the exact emotion Phillip Thomas (The Fish & The Sea) brings forward in his marking film ‘Cake Day’. The film is about moments and rushing emotions of guilt, fear and regret, but also much more than that. More because we are pushed to live through this moment with the main character, and his emotions become ours.

I wanted to share a relatable moment of a man recapturing his self-worth and dignity

On the surface, Cake Day is a film about the challenges of recovery and the internal turmoil and subsequent shame of relapse, but for me the film is really about dignity, integrity, and honesty in one’s recovery and the recognition that success and failure are often intertwined. My entire life is a series of valuable lessons learned from moments that could easily be perceived as failures… And I wanted to share that sentiment through recovery.

I wanted to highlight addiction and recovery through an empathetic lens for viewers who have no personal experience with it, and for viewers that do, I wanted to share a relatable moment of a man recapturing his self-worth and dignity within a moment that can be perceived as a failure.

I really wanted to challenge myself with giving the audience that first person experience, a moment where they could feel the psychological stress and pressure of recovery. The inner torment and shame translated to screen is practically a horror film.

With so much raw emotion channeled through the main character, Phillip knew what he was getting out of lead actor Cameron Crosby. In fact, the story was written with Cameron in mind:

I brought the loose concept to my friend Cameron Crosby, who is an extremely talented actor. He loved the concept and wanted to do it, but was soon taking off to New York for a six month stint… which actually served as great motivation for me to get it going; it lit a very hot fire under my ass. I had to hustle to write it, but once things were in motion it really came together quite quickly.