'Buying the world a beer': West Boylston's Jim Ford says 'Cheers!' in 70 nations in new film

"Salud!" "Saute!" "Sliante!" "Gan bae!" "Na zdrowie!"

If you've got a drink in your hand, you don't need a translation. Just say "Cheers!"

Jim Ford, an actor, stuntman, filmmaker, producer and author who grew up in West Boylston has so far collected videos from 90 people in 70 different countries across six continents all giving an authentic "Cheers!" in their native tongue and with a local drink in hand.

He's putting together a short documentary titled "Cheers Around the World" that will have its first screening Sept. 14 at the Silicon Beach Film Festival held in the famous TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.

More: Check out the trailer to "Cheers Around the World."

The version being screened is what you could call a first draft (or draught), so to speak, since Ford is still working on the film.

"I've been to 20 different countries. I'm not a huge drinker, but whatever the local drink is I'll always try it," Ford said of how he got the idea for the film.

"But what I found more entertaining is what they say, how locals would say 'Cheers' when raising a glass or drink. A lot of Spanish speaking countries say 'Salud' or 'Saute.' In Ireland they say 'Slainte' and parts of Asia will say 'Gan-bae!' In Poland it's 'Na zdrowie.' There are a bunch of really exotic ones in the film too that are hard to say. I thought it would be interesting to see how every country said it and learn a little about their customs," Ford said.

Ford, who recently moved to North Carolina, has made several short feature films, including "Small World," which is also making the film festival rounds.

However, "Cheers Around the World" is Ford's "first foray into a documentary style."

Ford decided that the people saying "cheers" in the film have to be in their native country and drinking a local beverage. Also, "I tried to get as many people as I could not to be in their apartment," he said.

"I have people toasting in marinas, beaches, on cliffs and golf courses. I have made some unique friends and learned a lot."

Besides the videos that participants shot of themselves raising a glass, the documentary includes narrative voice-overs, animations and illustrations.

'Cheersing in Latin'

Among the video salutations Ford has collected are two men from Morocco in the Sahara Desert toasting next to a camel, a Frenchman by the Eiffel Tower, a safari guide in Botswana and a local villager in the jungles of Sri Lanka. A man in the Philippines said "Cheers!" from a golf course and sent Ford 30 takes. "He must have sent from every hole," Ford said.

"I have a man in Vatican City (the smallest country in the world) cheersing in Latin."

For the United States, Fords puts himself and a friend in the picture, overlooking the Manhattan skyline from New Jersey, drinks in hand.

Ford also has videos from people in countries where drinking alcohol is banned. A goat farmer in Bangladesh says, "Hello, alcohol is forbidden in my country, so please look at my goats."

"I wanted this video to be real and unique," Ford said. "There are some compilations online but they are kind of generic. It's either a guy saying all of them himself or it's filmed in a New York studio and although the people are originally from different countries, they are all living in the United States."

Also, "most of the videos don't include a drink. They are just air toasting or holding a glass of water. Here, people all have a local drink," Ford said.

With that it took a while to get people into the flow of participating in "Cheers Around the World."

"When I first had the idea, I sent out some emails and calls to family and friends. Everyone thought it was a great premise and said they knew people in other countries they could ask," Ford said. "But the videos just weren't coming in. I sent out mass emails and bugged work friends and co-workers. I even posted ads online and after months and months of searching, I had only five videos."

So Ford had a word with the bartender. Or rather, "I thought maybe I should offer to buy the drink. Then, magically, the videos came in quick," he said.

People took him up on his offer, as Ford would float someone $10 here, $30 there, via his PayPal  account.

The two men from Morocco in the desert said they needed $30 to get into town to buy their beers.

There's a website where people around the world will wish you a "Happy Birthday!" for $10, and Ford contacted some of them and arranged for "Cheers!" instead.

"It took over four years to get the videos I have right now," Ford said.

"I'm buying the world a beer."

Actually, there are about 190 countries in the world, and Ford has videos from 90 of them, so now he could say "I've bought half the world a drink," he noted.

Many did not need the inducement. "Some of them worked me a little, but for the most part    it was very pleasant. A lot of people said 'I'd love to be a part of this. You're bringing the world together.'"

Ford estimated that the project so far has cost him just under $2,000 to buy drinks. There's also the cost of editing. The videos that people have sent via their cellphones have to be converted on film for the documentary.  

The documentary is interlaced with some interesting fun facts about saying "Cheers!" that Ford has come across.

For example, the tradition of touching or clinking glasses before drinking comes from the Vikings. "In the Middle Ages, Norsemen would poison the enemies' drinks after battle. So later on, if they had a drink with friends, they would clink the glasses hard enough, to spill some liquid into each others' glass. This was to prove there was no poison in the drink. That is also why a lot of 'Cheers' in other countries will translate to 'Your health.' It can also mean 'There's no poison in your glass,'" Ford said.

Meanwhile, making a "toast" comes from "back in the day the wine didn't taste that good." It was discovered that putting burnt bread in the wine removed the acidity and enhanced the wine's flavor, Ford said. The bread didn't taste so bad, either.

There are plenty of famous toasts. Ford gave some, including, "'It doesn't matter if the glass is half empty or half full, there's always room for more.'"

Recognized for work in 'The Irishman'

Ford has been a stuntman and actor in a number of films. In 2020, Ford and his fellow cast members received a Screen Actors Guild Nomination for Outstanding Action performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture for their work on Martin Scorcese's film "The Irishman."

Ford is a 2000 graduate of St. John’s High School in Shrewsbury, and earned a BFA in acting in the prestigious drama program of the Hartt School at the University of Hartford. One of his teachers there, a “fight master” trained in the art of staging fights and stunts, recognized Ford’s dexterity and potential stunt ability and recommended him to the summer program of the International Stunt School in Seattle. In 2006 he was hired as a stunt/body double for star Edward Norton in the crime thriller movie “Pride and Glory.”

Ford and his wife and children recently bought a house in North Carolina but he retains ties to New York and family and friends in the West Boylston/Worcester area.

Among the short films he's made, "We Have Your Wife" has been bought and distributed by Amazon Prime. It is available online to rent and buy as part of a compilation. The film, which was shot in West Boylston and Worcester, is a comedy about a man's wife (played by Laura Markis) who is kidnapped and locked in a basement. When the kidnappers call the husband  with their ransom demands, they are surprised by his response.

In "Small World" two American tourists (played by Ford and Hannah Sloat) in a faraway foreign land realize they are not just both from New England, but, as the conversation in a bar intensifies, Central Massachusetts, near Worcester. Shrewsbury, to be precise, and even from the same street in Shrewsbury. Alas, the conversation doesn't end well.

Appeared in 'Wu Tang: An American Saga'

Ford's work has kept  him on the move so much that he has visited every state of the United States. He's written a book, "My Take On All Fifty States: An Unexpected Quest to See ‘Em All," which was published in 2020.

"It really did well. A lot of people were loving it," Ford said. "Sales were great. It's still going. I did some interviews for that."

As an actor, Ford was recently seen, appropriately enough, as a bartender in the Hulu series "Wu Tang: An American Saga."

The version of  "Cheers Around the World" that will be screened at the Silicon Beach Film Festival is about 10 minutes in length.

Given the work that's gone into it, "It's a lot of time for 10 minutes, but it's a jam-packed 10 minutes," Ford said.

In its final form, he expects "Cheers Around the World" to be 15 to 18 minutes.

"It feels good to have a version finished, but I am going to keep going with this. I have been talking to some scientists in Antarctica right now and if I can get them to make a toast on the ice I would have all seven continents, which would definitely be a first," Ford said.

He'd like "Cheers Around the World" to have "a big festival run … more countries, more traveling to places I'd love to see (maybe more drinks), but there is a chance of selling it at some point too."

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: West Boylston's Jim Ford says "Cheers!" in 70 countries in new film