Shocked to see I haven't written for a month. I was busy but still I should be writing more often. I am now back from two weeks of doing talks for the book in NY, NJ and Philly. I usually talk with an acting class of 20ish at a time. 50 students is big class. Circle in the Square was probably 50-60 students, Rider U was about 100, but Temple took the cake at 200 in their big theatre. I will write about that later because I want to tell you about working on a film recently.
I auditioned for the great John Papsidera, and I say great because he makes you feel great when you read for him (he also went in on a fun restaurant in Hollywood that is a good eatery), and got the job. 2 scenes, one days' work, in Atlanta, on a feature film. So I had to fly there, work for a day, and fly home. Tidy.
We are lucky to be working, but actors always find a reason to complain the second after they get over the flattery of getting the job, don't we? "All the way to Atlanta?! For one day!?" Oh yeah, I've heard things like that from actor friends. Not me of course, but other actors….(ha!)
The scene was with Josh Lucas and Kathryn Heigl. They were great, the director was great, the first AD allowed me to invite my two young cousins who were taken out of school as a surprise to visit me on the set. Josh and Kathryn were great with the kids. About 4 hours into the day I was looking at the call sheet as saw that she was listed as an exec producer. I went to her and kidded her about being my boss saying, "I should have spent all my time here making you my best friend, laughing at all your jokes and telling you how pretty you are!" She waved me off saying it was nothing more than a vanity title. But you know…a few years ago I would have been doing that, for real, thinking it would make a difference in my career.
Now, I'm much more interested in enjoying the day I could have with my little cousins who are 9 and 7 and on their first film set. They were given full access to the set and watched us film all day. When I was leaving I asked Kathryn for a picture with the boys and she happily obliged. Then she hugged me goodbye and said in my ear, "Thanks so much for traveling all the way from LA to come in for one day and be awesome in the scenes with us."
That's not common folks. Usually the stars of the film are very good about letting you know how good you should feel about being part of their film, and spending time with them. We fellow actors contribute and we make the whole thing better, but it's often reduced nothing more than the opportunity to be close to something that could make us bigger and better. So as I joked with her earlier about being my boss, that feeling is very true and common. Buddy up to the big star and your career could change!
It's a piece of bad information we've been fed for years.
If you do your work and you're good, and you're respectful, you don't have to buddy up to the stars to gain their favor. Big stars won't really ever decide to make you their best friend and share their stardom with you based on doing a movie with them. of course if people like you and you're a good actor and you make their life better and their projects better, you could make a strategic friend of anyone, but that has to happen on it's own. Every celeb ever knows what everyone around them wants from them. You don't have to plant the seed that you'd like to do every KH film from here on. She knows. You're an actor.
I was happy for the entire experience, the best part was spending the rest of the day with my cousins and having them show off their picture with KH to their friends and all the plans for it at school the next day.
I don't know the hype on Katherine, but I know she has great habits where fellow actors are concerned.