June 1, 2005

• Calm Before the Storm

  
  

  So last Friday I had just come off from shooting “Hatchet” and speaking at OSU.  I figured I’d have a nice few weeks to relax before my teaching gig at SUNY Buffalo.  And just as I packed the family into the car to pick out our Granite Slabs for the new home’s kitchen –  the first ring of 50 phone calls began on my cell phone.

  
  

  The first was from one of my agents to inform me that I was offered a role as a naval officer for NBC/Hallmark’s “Poseidon Adventure“ (with ironically, C.Thomas Howell in it – regular readers will get this reference).  And I was told it worked on May 31st and June 1st.  The casting people saw my demo reel and made an offer from just watching it.  “Cool”, I thought.  “Laying down the groundwork of a good demo reel paid off”. 

  
  

  Then I received another call from another agent at the agency.  And he informed me of another offer to play the lead role in a Sci-Fi film with Bai Ling called, “The Gene Generation“.  This was a project I’d auditioned for like 2 months ago and was now being called in to replace the actor they hired — for whatever reasons they had.  “Cool”, I thought.  “Laying down the groundwork of a good audition paid off”.  However, this would shoot starting June 3rd and shoot for 5 weeks — which would cut into my teaching engagement at SUNY Buffalo.  A class that just had 16 grad students pay their tuition for the class.  Yikes.

  
  

  And since it was the last day before the Memorial Day weekend, everything had to be done ASAP. 

  
  

  So the entire day was filled with back and forth calls calls to and from: 1) Both production’s Wardrobe Departments to get my costume measurements. 2) Both production office’s for call times/rehearsal info.  3) SUNY Buffalo to see if I could get out of the teaching commitment.  4) My commercial agent for an Visa Card auditon on May 31st (Shyeah, right.  Like I’m going to be able to make that one!) .  Then going in for a wardrobe fitting and then getting a plaster mold of my head done — Mind You… all the while with my Mom, Wife and Daughter in tow to pick out Granite Slabs. 

  
  

  I only accepted “The Gene Generation” after getting the okay from SUNY Buffalo.  They were very understanding and cool about it.  And it was them who basically reminded me by saying, “You’re an actor, you have to take this.  This is what you do.  What?  Are you going to turn this down to teach at SUNY Buffalo?” 

  
  

  And the thing was… I was totally ready to.  Because heck, it would’ve been a heckuva a lot more of a slower pace than what this business will sometimes throw at you.

  
  

  So what does this all translate to?  I’ve got a crap load of lines to learn.  Stat. 

  • 12:09 am
  • 22 Comments