Welcome to our first #StudentTakeover on the blog. I have a ton of great topics I will get to in the upcoming months, but when I recently received the following email from a long term client of mine (and outstanding guy), I knew immediately that I wanted to share it with you. Here goes:
Subject Line: A Story
I miss you and the studio a ton, but things are going really well in New York! I’m digging my job with The Future Project. I’m a “Dream Director” and work with high school students. I have also had a great run of work! I’ve booked 4 shows (QUANTICO, BLUE BLOODS, HAPPY!, and a recur on GOTHAM) in the last six months and wanted to share a story about my last episode on GOTHAM…
I’ve played a news reporter and have appeared in each episode for one to two scenes or a few lines or short speech. For this last episode, it was the same..and then the afternoon before I was scheduled to shoot, production sent me an email with “some additional dialogue” – it was the attached pdf.
A full page monologue! No prompter, no cards, no cuts. I, of course, got to working on it as soon as I could.. and honestly, from prep for your class, I KNEW HOW TO WORK ON IT. I knew what it took for me to get a full page of dialogue completely prepared, so it wasn’t a shock or overwhelming in any way – it was just the work we do.
I got to basecamp feeling solid and continued running it while I waited in my trailer. When I got to set, I sat in a chair with the rest of the cast and pulled out my sides to review them. The series reg next to me saw my pages. “What is THAT?” she says. I reply “My scene.” She immediately responds` “what the? — I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
The director then comes over, introduces himself and asks if I had any questions. I tell him I’m good and he says they’re losing light so we’ll need to roll on the scene quickly and get it in the can. Great.
I get outside and see that there are about 40 extras behind me, other cast members, police cars, etc. and all their action is motivated by parts of my speech. I’d never been in a scene with so many moving parts.
After we’re set, the director calls action and I go – it’s word perfect and then – CUT for camera. I almost pass out, my heart is beating so hard. So we have to take it from the top – and we’re really losing light. We go again.
And I nail every word. It was kind of surreal. The director comes over and gives me an adjustment. I take it and roll through again, word perfect. We have time to run it 3 more times and I don’t drop a thing. It was amazing.
I definitely thought of you and the studio and the work ethic you’ve instilled in us..so a very big thank you!
My response:
You’re welcome, Scotty, and thank you as well! I’m thrilled for you and extremely proud of you! As I say below guys, get ready and stay ready because at some point every actor realizes…shit just got real. (2.0)
(Blurred out to honor the show’s privacy.)
