L.A. at Last

Ever since I started acting, I've been saying, "Next year, I'm moving to Los Angeles." Next year would come, and then I'd say it again. And again. Finally, next year is now! On October 23, 2007, I'm leaving the City by the Bay for the City of Angels.

The years I've spent in the tight-knit Bay Area film-making community have been immensely rewarding. I'll never forget:

• feeling chills of pride the first time I saw a film of mine on a big screen (Foucault Who in a sold-out Herbst Theater)
• spending my 30th birthday in the Outer Mission filming the lead in the enigmatic feature Not Today
• dressing up as Hatter in Wonderland -- a.k.a. San Francisco's Presidio
  
• spending a whirlwind night and day in a Santa Rosa mechanic's garage filming a lead in the award-winning 48-Hour Film Project Like Lightning
• filming Chance in Reno and understanding how liberating it is to be on location for five straight days and focused purely on acting
• working with and befriending the talented and delightfully offbeat gang at the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking -- Eileen Agas, Rachel Nichols, Dan Juenemann, and Arlene Skjerly

I've met so many genuinely good-hearted cast and crew in the Bay Area ... people giving their all under difficult conditions to make movies ... and I owe them my thanks.

Part of me has feared making the big leap to L.A. -- of facing crushing competition, of waiting in long audition lines, of being yet another actor hyphenate. But the last 14 months have been a true emotional roller coaster for me, with the amicable end of my 11-year marriage to Anita, the joyous beginning of my new love with Bobbie, and the shifting sands of my decade-plus day job at the AIDS Foundation. One sign after another was pointing south to L.A., and I am ready.

So, here I go. Bobbie and I found a great apartment right in the middle of Hollywood -- it's just two blocks from the Walk of Fame, the Hollywood & Vine Metro Station ... a few blocks from the nation's best movie theater, The ArcLight ... and for the Oscars this year we'll be able to walk to the Kodak Theatre to watch the action on the red carpet.

While I build my network of contacts and go out on auditions, I'll continue working as a permanent or contract web developer. I'm so lucky that my day job is one that I find fulfulling as well!

We're making a five-year commitment to this dream of mine, and I am going to give it my all.

A Pirate's Life for Me

Forget this world of bleating ring tones and mortgage spam. I want to sail the wide seas and kiss every young lass in every port … as Captain Jack Sparrow. The midnight premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest gave me the perfect reason to raid my own chest of Halloween costumes and emerge as everyone’s favorite scalawag.

My costuming escapades are an extension of my acting – I stay in character when attired. I’ve played Jack for San Francisco’s Halloween 2003, and for Venice’s Carnivale 2004, and he’s my favorite of all my Halloween characters in the last 10 years. As Jack, I feel liberated.

I went to the premiere at San Francisco’s Metreon, where I met up with my friends Rachel Nichols (director of The Commercial Traveler and The Ballad of Shamble Hiss) and Eileen Agas (director of my upcoming short, Death of a Trapeze Artist). When I lurched throughout the lobby as the perpetually rum-sotted vagabond, a few people asked if I was actually drunk, which I took as a great compliment. I called out “’Ello, love” to every lovely lass -- kissing the cheeks of many of them -- posed for photos, stood alongside people playing shooting video games and pointed my gun at the screen, stumbled onto the Dance Dance Experience machine … I savored every moment.

In addition to being my favorite costume, Jack is also my most detailed. It takes me about an hour to put on my “effects” (as Jack would say). Here’s the secret recipe:

• Hat from 826 Valencia's pirate supply store
• Compass, around which I glued fabric so it could dangle from my belt
• A plastic sword (from a toy store in Venice)
• A plastic gun (I bought a realistic replica at the Dickens Faire, but sadly, California laws prohibit me from taking it out in public)
• Boots with strap-on boot covers
• Brown pirate pants and vest from Spirit Halloween Store
• Fluffy white shirt covered in blotches of "dirt" (special makeup from Kryolan in San Francisco)
• A fake piece of sculptured bone, which Anita made for me from clay, painted white and baked
• An assortment of beads from SOMA's Beyond Beads, which I strung together to match Jack's as closely as possible
• A dreadlock wig from Foxy Lady Boutique that I thinned out dramatically, untying a few of the dreads to make it nattier, and added some coconut oil to give it a sheen and a Caribbean aroma
• Red bandanna
• Two beard ponytails that I made from parts of the wig, and glued on with Kryolan's amazing prosthetic adhesive (forget spirit gum ... that stuff will leave you stressed out and constantly checking whether all your pieces are still together).
• Two to three weeks worth of beard stubble
• Silver tooth enamel from Kryolan
  
• "Dirt" on hands and under fingernails
• Black liquid eyeliner
• Deep tanning foam, applied 2-3 hours in advance, plus makeup on my chest
• A long piece of fabric from Jo-Ann Fabric tied around my waist and dangling to my knees, which I distressed to make it look like it's traveled through many a storm
• A diagonal strap with buckle
• Two silver rings, and two red strings tied around fingers
• Fabric tied around each hand

Did I go so far as to find special underwear? Love, there are some mysteries that must remain so. You will ALWAYS remember this as the day you almost caught all of Captain Jack Sparrow's secrets!

The Two Sisters Say Goodbye

Back from the distant land of Modesto, where the indie feature The Two Sisters wrapped yesterday. Vince Lasalvia and I had an odyssey getting from S.F. to the filming on Friday: about 40 miles out of Modesto, the outer skin of my Neon's old tire flew off into the ether. We pulled over, did a NASCAR-worthy quick change with my ancient spare, and took off. Of course, after about 10 miles the spare went out as well, since I hadn't aired it up in many years. (Although I played a mechanic in Like Lightning, automotive skills must not have rubbed off on me.) We pulled over again, decided that the first tire would have to do, and switched them back out.

At this point, I was officially late, and I hate being late for filming (especially since I claim in my bio that I get to set early). When an actor is tardy, I consider it a sign of disrespect toward the crew -- who are always toiling before actors arrive -- and toward the other actors. So, when the first tire finally breathed its last a mere two miles from set, I was ready to scream. Even worse -- the Modesto Bee was scheduled to be on set for my scene ... and I was an hour late. We limped at 5 mph into a gas station and called the P.A. to come pick us up.

I blew onto set with profuse apologies, but luckily the filming didn't get set back much. The Bee photographer got what she needed (check out the photos), and my girlfriend Jessica (played by Kathleen Reed) and I finished our quick scene in front of the "sorority house," a.k.a. a suburban Modesto home. As fratboy Todd, I get to play a jerk, which is always fun.

During the break, Vince and I got the front tires replaced at the local Sears, and I reviewed my lines for the sorority party scenes that night. Most of the cast, as well as a gaggle of extras, filled the house for those scenes, when I spy Lannie (played by Eve Lorraine) for the first time and identify her as my prey for the night. Eve is a real delight to work with; she brought the perfect mix of sensuality and edgy unpredictability to the role of the sociopathic Lannie. And for me, it was fun playing a guy who wears a GQ-type party shirt rather than a yuppie-clone-button-up-shirt-with-khakis uniform.

The next day, Vince and I drove back out to Modesto for the final day of filming. Although the previous day wrapped right on time -- midnight -- the schedule on the last day got delayed because of tensions that arose on set before we arrived. Anyway, I did a quick scene with Eve that takes place the morning after we hook up at the party: Todd discovers that he's met his match in the love-em-and-leave-em field, and is just waking up while she's about to walk out. I was in boxers for this scene, with carefully arranged bedcovers to suggest nothing at all (I have done a real nude scene for another indie film ... artistically appropriate, as they say ... details later, if you ask nicely).

The final shot was one of the most complicated: Jessica and I get run over by a jealous Lannie. On a tight budget, with no stunt people, that's not an easy (or safe) proposition. Eventually the crew worked out a way to cheat it so that we actors were never actually running in front of a moving car ... instead, Eve turns on the headlights, we're in a shocked closeup, and a crew member moves a block of wood to give us an eyeline simulating a car rushing toward us. They'll cut straight from that shot to a closeup of Eve behind the wheel, as the crew was lifting the bumper to simulate our bodies getting crushed under the wheels. (When you eventually see the film, please forget I told you this.)

48 Hours ... Sleep is for the Weak

I slept like a rock the last two nights to recover from the wonderful madness that is the 48 Hour Film Project. Although "madness" isn't the right word to describe how smoothly the filming went with director Darwin Meiners and Trick Knee Productions. I had the pleasure of working with Darwin in the indie feature Fairfield, Idaho, and he asked me to take part in his 48 Hour team.

The 48 Hour Film Project brings together teams of filmmakers who have 48 hours to write, shoot, and edit a film. At 7pm on Friday, they gave us the elements our film had to include:

• prop: a pillow
• line of dialogue: "When are you going to clean up this mess?"
• a character: Mark or Margo Plantagenet, Foreign Ambassador
• genre: romance

After getting the list, Darwin and producer Jeremy Moore whipped up a two and a half page script for a five-minute short called "Like Lightning" [Watch the completed film.] They had already pulled together a fantastic crew (including Jon Lohne, who shot and edited Fairfield) and cast (the highly talented Lin Shukla and Steve McMoy). I played a mechanic, which was a nice excuse to get my hands really greasy.

Watching all the elements come together was exhilarating ... they made use of all kinds of personal connections, from the sets (a mechanic's garage run by a friend of Jon's) to an amazing prop that was printed out on another friend's large-format printer. We filmed throughout the night on Friday (one of my favorite memories is walking in character through the quiet, near-deserted streets of downtown Santa Rosa), slept a couple of hours in a tent out back, and picked up again on Saturday morning. Darwin kept things really tight -- we actually finished shooting at dinnertime on Saturday, as promised.

I especially enjoyed watching Lin get into character: a prostitute who's been beaten by a foreign ambassador, and to whom I provide shelter. Lin has such respect for acting and her process, and is a wonderfully giving person. We improvised a lot to dig deeper into our characters.

We actors had it comparatively easy -- when we wrapped, Darwin and his team still had another 24 hours of work to do: editing, laying down music tracks, and actually dropping off the kit'n'caboodle at the 48 Hour Film Project's office in San Francisco by 7pm Sunday.

For me the weekend felt like the essence of the best in indie filmmaking -- smart, innovative, heartfelt, and FAST! Check out the final film (along with a dozen other entries) at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco on Tuesday, June 27 (you can buy tickets online). The program plays at 7pm and again at 9:30pm.

Playing Against Type

When I began acting, I assumed that I would usually get typecast as "the nice guy." Why? Well, when friends in high school signed my yearbooks, the theme was usually "stay sweet." In regular life, I shy away from confrontations and am a "pleaser." So, I thought that would translate directly to the screen.

Instead, I've been pleasantly surprised to get cast as ... a killer, an abusive boyfriend, a violent environmental activist, a scheming husband plotting his wife's bodily takeover by his dead witch mother. I still get enjoyable nice guy roles -- such as the gay neighbor in the upcoming feature Eve -- but there are enough wild roles in the mix to keep me coming back for more.

In the feature The Two Sisters, currently in production, I play Todd, a rich, arrogant, football-playing fraternity senior in college. If you know me at all, those adjectives will sound odd ...

• Rich: I grew up eating lots of Taco Bell and Kraft macaroni and cheese
  
• Arrogant: When arranging an outing with someone the first line out of my mouth is usually, "Wherever you want to go"
  
• Football-playing: I was usually the last person picked for teams in middle-school P.E. and got pummeled in dodgeball, although these days I'm certainly able to ride my bike from San Francisco to L.A.
  
• Fraternity: Never went to a frat party my entire four years at Stanford
• Senior: Yes, I was once a senior in college, but it wasn't last year. Or the year before ...
  

This is what's making it so fun to be Todd. My first two days of filming for this thriller were June 15 & 16 in Modesto. Director Terri-Dawn Arnold cast me based on my performance in the short film A Walk in the Park, which my co-star Vince Lasalvia had sent to her as his audition (he was cast as one of the leads). On my first day, we shot a scene on the football field where I'm telling my buddy how I "can't figure out this chick" that I recently had sex with -- Lannie, one of the sociopathic Two Sisters of the title, played by the incandescent Eve Lorraine -- and that I'm about to dump the girlfriend I cheated on. The next day of filming my buddy and I go on a double date with the sisters, and I'm repeatedly telling Lannie that "I know you like me." (Who wouldn't?) That scene concludes with Lannie kissing me aggressively (ah, the hard life of an actor).

Playing this guy, I've been focusing on lowering my "power center" -- a concept that came up often in Ed Hooks' class. I walk confidently, and a smirk lurks just underneath my skin, even if it doesn't always surface. But most importantly, I let loose the arrogant fratboy that's deep within me. We all have deep feelings roiling inside us -- rage, passion, vindictiveness -- but actors are given license to bring these emotions out. Acting is one of the most liberating professions I could imagine.

A Trilogy of Premieres

This week I reaped the benefits of many hours of rehearsals, filming, and ADR -- it was red-carpet time! (Although I didn't actually see any red carpets. I did walk on some gray carpet in one of the theaters. But I suspect it was already part of the floor and not spread out for me specifically.) Hatter, Animas and Snake all debuted in the last seven days. (Please note that I am not in a film called "Hatter, Animas and Snake," as marketable as that sounds. I'm just being typecast as a guy who stars in one-word titles.) These three shorts were an absolute delight to work on.

Hatter premiered to a full house at San Francisco State's Senior Thesis Undergraduate Film Festival. About a dozen of my friends showed up, and luckily it was well worth seeing. (Fewer things are more humiliating than a big turnout to a crummy film.) This was such a fun character to play and I was thrilled to see the audience's reaction. The 35mm looked gorgeous, and director Jason Michael Noel matched our ADR juuuust right.

Animas bowed in all its disturbing glory at the Stanford Student Film Festival, directed by Stephanie Adams-Santos. Even though I had seen most of the film already during our dubbing session, experiencing it on the big screen with all the sound effects and music was really frightening. (In a good way.) Sarah Catherine Bradford played my wife Nikki, and even though this is her first film, she is an absolute natural on camera. She has to carry the film and she does so brilliantly, with real depth.

Finally, the absurd comedy Snake premiered at Stanford as well, and directors Tim Gregory and Chris Sonne pulled off a wonderful short. They also produced slick posters and DVD packaging, and I'm a real sucker for a hot font.

The week was special for me because I've learned not to take premieres for granted -- so many calamities can befall a production before it ever reaches the screen. Props to these directors for staying focused.