February 22, 2007

• BROTHERS & SISTERS

  I just had a very surreal moment.  Let me start from the beginning.

  A week after Avery booked her Natasha Bedingfield gig (see previous entry), I booked a movie called “RULE OF THREE” and a small appearance on the ABC show, “BROTHERS & SISTERS” playing the character ‘Dan Silk – Celebrity Blogger’ very much in the vein of Perez Hilton.   I shot the episode last Wednesday, Feb 14th.

  Then today when looking up the show on IMDB, I noticed the next airing of the show on Sun, March 4 was titled, “The Other Walker” — the episode I had just shot last week!  I thought to myself, “Naw, that can’t be right – that’s waaay too quick”. 

  So I hopped on ABC’s “B&S” site and discovered the show’s behind-the-scenes blog.  I was surprised to find an entry about my scene from the real Dan Silk, an assistant on the show (pictured right).  It was really trippy to read/hear a different perspective about the scene. 

  I chuckled after reading the last line of this entry, “Anyway… I should go. I need to go take out a hit on the actor that’s playing me.”  (which I don’t blame him, I’d want me to play me as well!)  – and just at that moment, my agent called and said, “The folks at ‘Brothers & Sisters’ would like you to reprise your role as ‘Dan Silk’ for Episode 18″. 

  Is that spooky or what?!? 

  In the one scene I’m in, I have a telephone conversation with Matthew Rhys’ character. 

  Usually if two actors are in the same room having a conversation, it’s expected the off-camera actor will be there during the other thespian’s close-ups to help his/her performance in helping to feed dialogue and maintaining an eyeline. 

  But for phone conversations, a Script Supervisor or Assistant Director will usually be the one to read/say the other side of the conversation off-screen.  So basically I was fully prepared to be acting by ‘myself’ in the scene — so to speak.  

  That’s why it was a really nice surprise to see Matthew there himself, feeding me his dialogue off-camera.  The guy had the earliest call time and was already wrapped but he stayed an additional 4 hours to do the scene with me.  Very cool of him.  Now that’s what being a generous actor means.  I just wish they would’ve called me in to return the same courtesy when he shot his side of the phone conversation a few days prior. 

  Fun Tidbit: During a pickup (shooting just a particular portion in a scene), I forgot to put the phone up to my ear because I had other props to handle — something ‘felt wrong’ but I was like “Nope, I’ve got the beer in my hand, pad and pen are over there - I’m all good”.  So when ’Action’ was called, it looked as if I was talking via a bluetooth or channeling the conversation telepathically. 

  Anyway, at least I can hold my head higher now that my 2 yr-old daughter isn’t out-booking me for work.  So, keep an eye out for me in the upcoming weeks on “Brothers & Sisters” – Sunday, March 4 and April 8 at 10pm on ABC.

   

  • 3:56 pm
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