Now that it’s no longer a secret from my daughter, here’s the news: I was in a movie. Yes, it was nearly no-budget and to be released straight to DVD after showing at one or more film festivals, but I finally did it. Unlike Christina, I never did Drama Club or school plays, but always wondered what it would be like to do theater of some kind.
My friend Bryan Patrick Stoyle from the North Ridge Staw Wars fan club was in charge of casting for a project of the Key Pixel gathering of filmmakers. He kept begging people to try out — they needed a lot of actors and extras. After seeing his post a half-dozen times, I figured what the heck. For the audition’s paperwork under “experience”, I just wrote one word: “Life.” I never did Musical Theater in high school, mostly because of the huge time commitment, but sat in for a reading once and was promised a speaking part if I wanted it. I didn’t — I knew it was a lot of work from my friends who WERE in school musicals.
Anyway, I got an actual speaking part with two scenes and an actual character name, Harold Hoover, Governor of the Toronto Republic. The first scene shot for the film was with me added in as a holographic image (I read the lines off camera and then reread them for adding later). The filming I was involved in was at the Larkin building and a model / talent agency in Williamsville. For the latter, I even brought my own props (a globe and a flag for my “office”, and I even rewrote a few of the lines and they let me get away with it).
The mosty amazing thing was the people. Once you show up, it’s like they all knew you your whole life — you were just accepted as you were, as a member of the tribe. I made new friends that I know I will run into again over the years.
I was worried Christina would think it was lame. All she knew was that we were going to a theater, and that it was important to me — a project I in which knew people involved. When she realized I was going to the cast party, she assumed I was an extra. A jab in the ribs from her when holographic me showed on the screen indicated surprise. Afterward, I bought her a poster she wanted and she asked me — and only me — to sign it. Then she grabbed my complimentary premiere cut DVD and grabbed a few friends to watch it with at the house while Merry and I were out. I remember telling her afterward that the movie was filmed about a month before she told me I needed to get out and do interesting things more often, LOL.
Now I can’t wait for it to be enetered into the IMDB— the actors will also have their own listing, something to tell the grandkids someday, even if I don’t ever do another movie. But I think I will.