I filled my weekend with activities unfamiliar.<\/p>\n
FRIDAY<\/p>\n
I drove to Madison to audition for a film. Having been told to prepare to read for Billy \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a 19-year old badboy seducer \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I did not expect to be cast, but had a good feeling about becoming a member of the stunt crew, should my schedule permit.<\/p>\n
When I arrived, I made small talk with the pretty young college students who were also hoping this might be a big break. They were perhaps more starry-eyed than me, so I tried to ease their shaking hands with a few stories from people I knoew “in the business.” Strangely, as we waited longer, my nonchalance transformed into a sort of panic. While I always want to do well in these situations, in this case I assumed that my read was mostly a pleasantry, as I am hardly the type. So why fret?<\/p>\n
But I was fretting. I memorized and paced. I tried lines in ways unnatural. I pried into the psyche of a stock character who would be killed within moments of the audience meeting him (spoiler alert!). I imagined scenarios where my theater training would allow some talent scout to see past my less-than-photogenic exterior and note the intensity of my performance. Johnny Depp’s career was built on this!<\/p>\n
Finally, the door opened. Applause for the previous audition; no pressure. “Good luck,” I said honestly, but quietly, to my new acquaintance and competition. Shake hands, smile, make a quick joke. It’s all going well. The director, who has seen my headshot, the headshot where I am dressed exactly as I am now, looks me over and immediately changes his mind. He hands me a different cutting, where I play a right-hand man to a crime boss, out on a wetwork assignment to kill a disobedient hired killer.<\/p>\n
The stunt coordinator and I run the scene, after a brief moment to read. They seem impressed when I drop names (or the equivalent thereof in stunt terms): “I am well-versed in combat and weapons, but I am inexperienced with jerk harness, air ram, burns, etc. I have done high falls, though.” My first read is weak, uncharacteristic of me. My second read gets the polite applause and a broad, seemingly genuine smile from the director and producers.<\/p>\n
Stunts? I am in. Speaking role? As I was handing in the script, my eyes darted across a stage direction I had missed. “… over the bodyguard’s distinct southern drawl…” Oof. I could have done that. I did not see it. Should I ask to read once more? No. Not my way. Let’s hope they believe the special skills section of my r\u00c3\u00a9sum\u00c3\u00a9 where it says “Good with dialects.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I filled my weekend with activities unfamiliar. FRIDAY I drove to Madison to audition for a film. Having been told to prepare to read for Billy \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a 19-year old badboy seducer \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I did not expect to be cast, but had a good feeling about becoming a member of the stunt crew, should my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p73iP8-hF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":145,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=145","url_meta":{"origin":1095,"position":0},"title":"Sodom and Gamhorra was just a lark.","date":"6\/15\/2004","format":false,"excerpt":"A wonderful little ditty brought to you by the number Czelticgirl and the letter Steelbuddha. CG: Wow. I got e-mail from Moses telling me he called and asking why I didn't call back. SB: See? The jews are right. CG: Then he tried to sell me porn. Bad Moses. SB:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Found Art"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":436,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=436","url_meta":{"origin":1095,"position":1},"title":"It’s live… and dead!","date":"11\/23\/2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Yoinked from the virtual hands of Headless Hollow, this choose-your-own-adventure is the culmination of a project I've been following since it first appeared on A List Apart. Bravo. I tried (with limited success) to do something similar with my Earthdawn site. I will be updating that site very soon with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Link Larceny"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":384,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=384","url_meta":{"origin":1095,"position":2},"title":"Do you feel violated?","date":"9\/2\/2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Sorry for those of you who had to set your cookie to get in lately. I'm playing CYA with the number of high school students who might get here accidentally while trying to find the info for the fencing program. You'd think they'd teach subdomains and directories in high school,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ennui"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":317,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=317","url_meta":{"origin":1095,"position":3},"title":"Too right. Too wrong.","date":"5\/13\/2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night, MHG and I were up late (she worked until 3a.m., God bless her) working on her online store. As we searched Da Web for images, we came across a Magic: the Gathering card with a little picture of Isaac from the Love Boat on it. This prompted me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ennui"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=133","url_meta":{"origin":1095,"position":4},"title":"How to vacation without even trying.","date":"5\/13\/2004","format":false,"excerpt":"People to whom I owe apologies and who will likely never be as close to me as they once were (in no particular order): Don't read 'em*; I'm just purging. * - Well, if you want. They're not funny and might not be interesting.** ** - scratch that: they are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Self-service"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3006,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=3006","url_meta":{"origin":1095,"position":5},"title":"Gethsemane","date":"11\/9\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I only want to say if there is a way Take this cup away from me For I don't want to taste its poison Feel it burn me, I have changed I'm not as sure as when we started Then I was inspired, now I'm sad and tired Listen, surely\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ennui"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1095"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1098,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095\/revisions\/1098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}