Tuesday, September 11, 2007

I'm sure most of us remember where we were when the news broke of the WTC bombings 6 years ago today. I sure do. When I saw it on the news I couldn't believe my eyes.

A New York actor friend of mine, Dorian Missick, stayed with me while in Los Angeles a few weeks earlier taking meetings and booked an episode of "NYPD Blue" to shoot here in LA. He was supposed to return to shoot on September 11th '01. I feverishly started dialing his contact numbers trying to confirm that he was okay.

I finally caught up with him; he was at the airport in Newark in preparation to fly here before all flights were grounded. Fortunately, he was able to eventually get to Los Angeles shoot the episode.

Callback: “AT&T” @ Ross Lacy Casting. Bright and early this morning I made my way out to Santa Monica for a callback that I thought happened last week. Turns out I was being brought straight to producers for an entirely different series of spots. Cool. The spots were really funny, small and subtle. I also got to actually see Ross and thank him for the countless opportunities he has given me over the years. The audition went well and maybe I’ll hear something later today.

Audition/Producers: “Bones” @ Rick Millikan Casting. This is great news for a couple of reasons. One, is that I auditioned for Rick’s other show, “Shark” about 5 weeks ago and it went really, really well. I think I was a little young for the part, but I think Rick liked what he saw in my work. One other reason is that this is a Guest lead of this episode, 3 scenes and 8 pages of sides.

Believe it or not I think I’m a little young for this one too, but “really right” for it. I’ll let the producers/director make that decision. So after working on it for hours I felt ready to deliver the goods.

THEN….

A couple of hours before my appointment I get a call from my agent saying that casting had called and wanted me to read for another role as well. I was immediately familiar with the role she was talking about because I’d read all of the other available sides. Get this – this character is even older than the original one I was to read for, by 5-7 years. What?! Oh well. I felt I was “really right” for this one too just maybe too young according to the specs. Again, I’ll let the producers/director make the decisions.

So I get to FOX studios and there are quite a few actors waiting to read and they haven’t started. So I found a place to warm up the scene and focus. Since it was really taking a while to start I decided to call my agent for two reasons. First, to thank her for “saving me from myself” concerning “Journeyman” (kind of long story) and to ask if they had booked the role I went to producers for. I was going to wait to call her later, but the end of the day was rapidly approaching.

Since I hadn’t heard anything I figured they had booked another actor on “Journeyman” and I was right. Caleigh didn’t want to give me the news until after my audition so it wouldn’t mess my head up, but I was okay. Actually, I felt great. No, I didn’t get the whole dealio with the booking, but I got the vast majority of a really good deal. On to the next!

After some time the session started and Rick greeted me. He asked what character I had and told him the original character and that they added another just a few hours ago. He said, “okay, we’ll just read that one for time”. I said, “okay cool”. This was the smaller role and the one that was way older than what I play – at least I think so.

I get in the room, give a quick wave to the producers/director, take my place and get ready to work. Right then, director Chad Lowe, says and waves “Hi” to me in a way that made feel like I’d met him before – I hadn’t. I guess he’s just really nice to actors which I think is great.
The scene went “smoove like butta!” I took my time and felt the levels. When I got up to leave, Chad, again, was super nice and waved good-bye. He seriously made me think about if I’d worked with him in the past. Nope, but hopefully I’ll work with him in the future.

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