Because You Never Know Who Else Will Be Involved

I am back. After a hiatus of nearly two months.

Life has been crazy, that's part of it. We're still plenty overwhelmed with the day-to-day here. Managing life on this coast, managing our interests on the other one, figuring out which directions we're going in the future, trying to withstand the current financial tempests—it's a lot of stuff. A lot. But then again, everyone is dealing with most, if not all, of these same issues, so who am I to grouse?

The other reason for the long layoff is that it's just been D. E. A. D. dead here. Pilot season ended early, very few pilots this year, huge competition for them because production has been so decimated by the wake of the writers strike, the threat of the SAG strike, etc. Not to mention the influx of foreign actors. Since my 11th Hour audition on February 3, I have had five, count them, five auditions. I won't bore you with what they were for. I will say that I was not really right for four of them (Parade at the Taper? Yeah, I don't think I'm-a-gonna book that). Everyone is truly throwing the spaghetti on the wall to try to hustle up some work, and my agent is no exception.

In this climate, a casting director asked me if I wanted to take part in a reading at the Writer's Guild. It was a pilot presentation, less to pitch the pilot and more to celebrate its rather succesful author: Larry Gelbart.

Well, heck. Who wouldn't want to meet and work with one of the most brilliant writers of our time? Even though I only had six or seven lines. Even after one of my parts was cut. Even though I was playing a German mogul filmmaker in his late 50s. It was still going to be a chance to see something the world hadn't seen: a new pilot by Larry Gelbart.

Not new, as it turned out, because he actually wrote it on spec some time ago, and had no faith it would ever get produced. Perhaps he was pessimistic about its commercial viability because the pilot is about German filmmaking and the early days of the Third Reich: a time when Berlin was in direct competition with Hollywood as the cinema capital of the world, and when Goebbels was producing propaganda via UFA Film Studios (whose exiles eventually included Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, and Peter Lorre) , while using his position there to have dalliances with young actresses.

It's easy to see why he didn't think anyone would touch it. But on the other hand, who can imagine the original pitch meeting for Hogan's Heroes? ("Well, it's set in this POW camp, ya see...And there's all these wacky foreign prisoners right?...and....") He also only envisioned it as a four- or five-part series, as after a period of time, all of his major characters would have either left Germany, or been imprisoned or killed. Yeesh. So, yeah, he's not had faith in the past that it would ever be picked up.

But I have to say, as befits a man of his genius, the pilot is pure gold. It's laugh-out-loud funny, it's topical, it's morally intricate, it's compelling, it makes you think without preaching or hitting you over the head. Would that there was more writing like this around! And Larry himself is one of the most gifted and charming men I've ever met. Just in his small bits of direction and notes he was giving us in rehearsal, the man was out-and-out funny......funny without even trying. Humorous lines fall out of his mouth like oranges off an over-ripe tree. It was truly astonishing. And it's not like Mel Brooks where he constantly seems like he's a comedian and he's going for a laugh. He's just intimately familiar with words, and has a knack for commenting on the present situation with le mot juste in a way that touches the heart and the funnybone at the same time. It's rare that I've ever met someone who has such a direct connection to the human condition.

Words are failing me here, so I'll stop with the hyperbole. Suffice to say it was a wonderful two days: a first read-through Saturday, a second rehearsal this afternoon, and a performance tonight in front of a sold-out crowd at the WGA building.

And the bonus was this: as a warm-up, Mr. Gelbart had decided to open the evening with a separate 10-minute play he'd written (a hilarious piece based on the Dick Cheney face-shooting incident). It's a two-hander, and in this case, the two hands were already cast with well-known actors; but he actually needed a third hand, someone play the "stage manager": to read the intro stage directions, and then step in at the end of the piece to "calm down" one of the characters. And he decided to use me in the role. And that is how tonight I found myself inexplicably playing a scene with Bradley Whitford, whose work I've admired since I saw him in Three Days of Rain 12 years ago. And then I got to share the stage with him again in the main reading, along with Carl Reiner, Cary Elwes, David Paymer, and a host of other talented folks.

So you see, you really never do know who'll show up at these things. :)

The whole experience pretty much rocked. It was like doing a play again! And while there are still no auditions on the horizon, at least my creative cup has been filled for a bit.

Let This Not Be My Fifteen Minutes....

I accidentally discovered to day that I am officially part of the HEROES Wiki, complete with this lovely photo:



Does it get any better?

LA Premiere

HEROES, f.k.a. [Redacted]

Remember this day?

Yes, it was HEROES. Duh.

And it's on tomorrow (Monday) night at 9pm on NBC. My last TV appearance for a bit, so enjoy it!

The Rule of Half

I saw Gigantic Thursday night, a week early.

There's a group here called New Filmmakers, and they screen upcoming unusual releases every week; my Google news alert told me they'd be showing Gigantic a full 8 days before it opens, so with about two hours' notice, Jody and I dropped everything and went.

Matt Aselton, the director, was at the screening. I went up and re-introduced myself and startled him a little, I think, because I look very different from the movie and it was completely out of context for him. But once he realized who I was, we had a few laughs about the shoot and caught up. It's been a whirlwind process for Matt. Some people have raved about the movie, and some have said, and I quote, "I don’t remember ever wanting to just haul out and punch a movie before ‘Gigantic,’" (Nick Pinkerton in the Village Voice, who comes across as a monster asshole in his review.) But it's always better to be hated than ignored, right?

And my take on the film? Hmmmmm.

I mean, I genuinely liked the film. I had a few problems with it, but I think it's different and thought-provoking and Aselton and cowriter Adam Nagata are refreshing new voices on the scene. Matt's got a history of thinking differently — he has shot a number of unusual commercials, but this is his first feature film — and I think the movie avoids falling into a lot of obvious traps (while stepping directly into one or two clichés towards the end). It's also got a very surreal aspect to it, which I loved. A lot of risk-taking. Overall, certainly a worthy and enjoyable night out at the cinema.

But my scene? Meh.

I'm starting to realize that there's a kind of Rule of Half to TV and film work. That rule reads something like this: Anything you shoot that isn't vital and crucial to the advancement of the plot will be cut in half. And it's likely to be the half that you wanted saved.

In this case, I wanted all of it saved, because it's a tiny little scene, but if they were going to cut, I'd rather they have kept some of the bits they left on the floor, because they were the funnier bits. To me, anyway. Matt has said in many interviews that he didn't want the movie to be too funny because it would then lose its emotional core. And I agree with him, and I also see how leaving in all of my scene might have damaged the tone of the larger scene around it.

That said, it was a little disappointing. It's all done in a medium-to-long shot, from one angle, which came across to me as a little static.

Well, not all of it. Clarke Peters (who was a joy to work with) got his coverage, but we (the actress playing my wife and I) did not get ours. And I get that—I mean, the scene is supposed to showcase him, and it did—but still, I was hoping for a bit more. I'd forgotten that they didn't cut my hair and it was super-long at the time. I think I look kind of nondescript and blend-into-the-backgroundy (story of my life). And the sum total of my screen time couldn't have been more than 30 seconds. Friends of mine who see this film and don't know I'm in it will likely not recognize me.

Still, as Jody pointed out to me over gelato afterwards: I've shot my first film, and that's a nice thing to be able to say.

I'll just have to try to get that Rule down to One-Quarter or below.

Another Op'nin', Another Show....

Gigantic officially opens in NYC today. It has a two-week run at the Village East Cinema.

I have, like, two lines and 45 seconds in this film. But it's my first movie, so I'm proud. Hope y'all get a chance to see it.

Upcoming cities here, including LA on April 17.

70 Pilots, Apparently No Good American Actors

From a friend's Facebook feed, I saw this Reuters article:

Pilot castings dominated by non-U.S. actors

Also factoring in are the rigors of pilot season, where 70-plus pilots were chasing actors at the same time, often depleting the existing talent pool. The dearth is strongest for leads -- fresh faces in their late 20s to early 30s who can carry a show.

The chances of discovering untapped but experienced talent in that age range are far greater abroad then they are in the U.S.

I'd heard about this phenomenon from enough people that I knew it wasn't a mirage, but to read about it in Reuters is something else altogether.

This is a case of casting directors not doing their jobs. While I am not a "fresh face in my late 20s to early 30s who can carry a show", you can bet I know lots of people out here who are: people with numerous guest star credits, serious training, winning personalities. People who fought tooth and nail to be seen for ANYTHING this pilot season.

The system needs an overhaul, that's for sure.