Ok…so, I have no idea what I should be writing about here. I guess I can start with how stressed I am about the whole production. I've never done anything like this before and I'm starting to wonder if it's even something I WANT to do. I really don't enjoy seeing myself on film, so embarking on a film endeavor seems a bit ill-advised. It's partially insecurity, sure, but a lot of it has to do with my critical nature. When it comes to theatre, I want to do things right, but there's many different versions of right for a stage play. The show changes depending on the audience, how the actors feel, what time it is...whatever. You can do better or worse, but if it works as a whole, it's golden. For film, you get one shot (so to speak) and that's it. Yeah, you rehearse a bit and you do multiple takes, but what goes in the can is what people see...it's the evidence of what you did, forever. At the audition, the director and I talked about the transitory nature of theatrical productions...how, once a show's over, it lives only in the memories of the cast and the audience and that film was plausibly superior because it never goes away. The flip side, though, is that describing a show to someone who didn't see it or fondly remembering a past show tends to make it seem more precious, while a bad movie never stops being a bad movie. So yeah, I'm worried I won't be any good. The director is a patient guy (mostly) and my co-star is a bonafide veteran, so hopefully I'll be able to draw on them for the strength to get through this.
Ok, enough about me. /whining
My friend Manny (the director) adapted a screenplay from our friend JG's play. Manny has been involved in theatre and the arts for a while and he recently started a film production company. This will be the first dramatic feature under his new label. The story is about a guy and a girl who like each other and want to make it work but it can't work and then it works…or something. Mostly, it's about modern love and growing up and figuring out who you are. It chiefly centers around two characters, played by me and Penny. Penny is a Minnesota theatre girl who moved to California a few years back to make her fortune and did just that. Well, maybe not the fortune just yet, but she's been pretty successful. She's done a few films (long and short) and was a main character on a cable show. She's also going to be in an upcoming movie with a bunch of stars that you've definitely heard of...trust me. This is an intimidating person to work with for several reasons. Firstly, she's a real movie star. I'm sure she'd demure at the title, but she's talented, driven and gorgeous. I always said "if anyone was going to hop a bus to LA and 'make it' out there, it would be her'". Contrast this with the guy who has to psych himself up to step out his front door, and you've got a good picture of our cast. Second, she's a fairly forceful personality. It makes her good at what she does, but it's hard to match her level of intensity and if we're mismatched on screen, this isn't going to work. Third, I've been mentally conditioned to be afraid of her since our first meeting. We met doing a play for Manny a few years back. In the show, she plays a rape victim and I play a guy who her husband invites over for dinner and whom she becomes convinced is the man who helped rape and torture her. Halfway through the first act, she knocks me out, ties me to a chair, and spends the next 2 1/2 acts beating the living shit out of me. It's a weird situation in an industry of weird situations: "Hi, nice to meet you. Now I'm going to pistol whip you and grab your balls." I have a lot of stories from that show, but the quickest one I can tell is that during the run, I tried out for another show in St. Paul. It was winter, so I wore a sweater over a short-sleeved shirt. While waiting with the other auditioners, it got pretty hot so I took the sweater off...and was greeted by a chorus of gasps and "oh my Gods". I was covered head to toe in purple and yellow bruises and scrapes. It never occurred to me that getting tied to a chair and beat up every night for 8 weeks (and the subsequent marks it leaves on a person) was anything particularly strange, which either says a lot about the victim mentality or about the mind of an actor. Not sure which. The net effect, however, is that I had to learn not to crap my pants unconsciously every time I saw Penny after that. She's really nice, though!
This is dragging out so just one more cast profile. The "Other Guy" is a character in the script who is Gal's ex and is supposed to be Guy's (my character's) opposite. Guy is nice, unassuming, funny (at least he thinks he is), broke, musical and a bit of a geek. Other Guy is rich, handsome, well-dressed, rides a motorcycle and knows what wine goes with dinner. I think I speak for most men here when I say that many of us live in fear of an "Anti-Me", someone who has all the qualities we lack that is going to steal our girls out from under us. An older actor friend of mine once told me that as you get older, you don't worry so much about your girlfriend or wife being sexually drilled by some other man so much as her meeting someone more cultured than you, someone who can identify with her better than you when you can't even understand her half the time. Other Guy represents all these fears and he is embodied to a "T" by Groos, the actor cast in the role. Groos is hot (a former underwear model), suave...he may not be rich (he's an educator), but he looks good. He's the kind of guy I have nightmares about. He's also nicer than a nun kitten, which distinguishes him from his character somewhat. He can't ride a bike for shit, though. Ha ha.
I called Manny out on a bit of cinematic cryptoamnesia with this character. In the film "The Money Pit" (and if you haven't seen it, shame on you), Tom Hanks is a likeable schlub who is renovating an old mansion while trying to keep his new marriage afloat. Not helping things is his wife's ex, a suave, ballet dancer played by Boris Gudunov (RIP) who keeps hanging around the proceedings. He's everything Hanks' character isn't but like Other Guy, he ends up being a positive influence in the couple's relationship. Manny seemed surprised at the correlation, but admitted the similarities (he loves the film, too). He chalks it up to an unconscious homage. Tell it to the copyright judge, buddy.
No comments:
Post a Comment