Part 2 of 2
This article was
written in May of 2007 in Budapest,
Hungary
.
READ
PART 1 OF THIS DIARY HERE
Listen to me Famke, you have to read Arrow in the Head!
When I was
called back on set to do my scene, the meditation got me chilled out. I was
ready to tackle the bull by the balls! Funnily enough, through the camera
rehearsals that went down, I swiftly realized that my
character should be a tad nervous, I mean he’s shy and somewhat attracted to
Marnie while being verbally harassed by Shanks. I was now TOO CHILL! So I sneaked off set for a micro
second and downed a Coca Cola to get the nerves going much like a hooker downs
men for chump change and that worked in my favor. COKE IS IT BABY!
Eric Red at work! Kicking ass and taking names.
Another element
that I had to deal with to was the incredible and I mean INCREDIBLE heat
on set that day. Poor makeup girls (who dubbed me the rain man); they would put
makeup on me and the sweat pouring off my happy-go-slappy melon head would wipe
it off CLEAN before they were done. They earned their paycheck with my sorry ass
that’s for damn sure lol! Thanks god a cutie makeup gal got me a huge fan to sit
in front of; kept me “dry” before heading back in the oven.
Me and a fan!
The last
obstacle I had to overcome was tackling the semi monologue-ish and exposition
heavy dialogue. I felt 75% there as my tongue tripped on random words here and
there. Now that I think of it, I’ve never done an exposition fueled scene
before acting wise. My cherry is now popped! Thank you 100 Feet! And then we
breaked. Back in my trailer; the
Jersey
heavy accented voice of Michael Pare rang in my ears again: “meditate John…meditate”. And that’s what I did…again. Half an hour later I
went back to set and I had finally found my full-on groove as to the part and
the dialogue.
DOP Ken Kelsch and I chilling.
I’m sure
the countless takes of me running up and down a long flight of stairs while
carrying a bulky and heavy base unit did help in terms of loosening me up. NOTE
TO SELF: next time before any challenging acting scene; do push ups – work up
a sweat – it actually does help in keeping you loose and natural when acting. I actually already knew that, and usually apply it, but for some
reason, I forgot that trick once on this set. Must have
been that whole acting with Famke Janssen and being directed by Eric Red thang!
Yeah… that thang…lol!
Me and one of the special effects duders!
So at the end of it all, I felt good; not great but
good. It’s hard to judge yourself when you can’t really see yourself; you go
with your gut. Its only when I saw the dailies the next day that I fully knew
what I had and I was remotely happy with myself (you can always do better). In
conclusion; I would say that my biggest highlight as to my scene was to be
directed by Eric Red. It’s no secret that the man inspired me to write in the
first place, that I’m a big fan of his work and that for the last 6 years or
so he has become a dear friend. But to finally see the man in action, back behind
the camera where he belongs and giving me directions at that was a f*cking
treat!
Helping the crew clean up…
The man
never ceased to amaze me with his enthusiasm
and hands on approach as to everything having to do with the film. No matter how
100 Feet turns out (and if I go by all the dailies I saw, think it will be
great) Eric Red will be the cause; it’s his movie through and through. No
Studio monkeys running this show; this is big budget, mature, non remake, horror
filmmaking at its best. I was also
very impressed by the cinematography by Ken Kelsch (he’s going for a The Exorcist
vibe on this one) and the
visceral performance by Michael Pare.
…meditate John…meditate…
In
closing; I would like to thank Eric for offering me the role and the producers
for liking my acting demo reel enough to approve me. I’d also like to thank
Eric’s personal assistant Vilma for basically also acting as my personal
assistant and Michael Pare for putting “meditation” in my head. Pare did let
me know later on that what I did in my trailer was “relaxing” not
“meditating”. But he
then showed me the basics of meditation and you what I’m gonna look into it
deeper and try to see if I can get it in my daily routine. In between jacking
off and JD shots of course. Should fit in there quite snuggly!
Life make sense…
As
I write this I am still in
for another 8 days. I got to say; the scenery here is breathtaking in terms of
architecture. When I’m done, I’ll go explore a bit. Another random thought – I
really liked the crew members here. They work hard, are friendly (minus the
token a-holes) and have mucho talent. So, tomorrow I wake up for yet another day in 100 Feet land and
you know what? IT’S ALL GOOD! Being on set is second to sex. I f*cking love it!
Arrow out!
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