And For The Rest of My Story......

All right, I'm going to try to attempt to tell you guys about my encounters with the crazies last week. Interestingly, they all happened on the set of Without A Trace. The first one, her name was Ming and she is from Hong Kong. Ming is about 5'1" and 100 pounds. She was such a busy body and cracking me up all day. This girl could not sit still!!! One minute I look up and she is on her knees on the floor, putting lip gloss on. The next time I look up she is eating a plate of food. Seconds later she is knitting a scarf!! I literally turned to get something out of my bag, and when I turned back around she was hemming a pair of pants she brought, complete with scissors, thread, everything. There was one moment when I was flipping through my folder, and I had some pictures in there. I noticed that Ming saw that I had some pictures, and looked as though she wanted to ask if she could see, but she didn't. I got called to go the set, so I put my folder under my chair and left. An hour or so later, me, another girl and Ming are all talking about the business, acting, etc., etc. The other girl brought up headshots, to which Ming blurted out to me that she had peeked at my pictures when I was gone! She said they were nice, and that was nice, but in my head, I'm thinking, "this little heffer went through my stuff!" I didn't really care, it was just funny to hear her say it in her thick accent and big cheesy smile. I'm not sure how funny this story is on paper. Maybe its one of those things where you just had to be there. Trust me, Ming is F-U-N-N-Y!

Moving on to the drunk..no...intoxicated girl on the set. This was so crazy. This girl was talking to some dude and she was saying some really erratic stuff, so I'm thinking, this girl is crazy! After she left, the guy goes, "Man, I think that girl is drunk!". I laughed, but then another girl standing next to us said the same thing. It was all starting to make sense. Earlier in the night, I was wondering why she looked like Courntey Love. I'm not kidding. Her hair was a MESS, and she had been putting lipstick on all night and it was all over her mouth. At one point during the night, she walked by me and I got the strongest whiff of alcohol....I actually think I got a light buzz from it, it was so strong. When did this girl go booze it up? She must've brought it with her and drank it all on the lunch break. CRAZY! I knew she had gone off the deep end when she walks up to one of the guys on the set and goes (in front of everybody), "Marcus, why haven't you been returning my voicemails? I've left you plenty and I know you got them!!". It was so funny. The dude didn't know what to do, so he flat out ignored her ass! I was ready to get out the popcorn.

Any lastly, we come to the drag queen. Yes......drag queen. He tried to play like he wasn't one, but here's how I figured it out. He was telling us about how he was in the movie I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry in which two firefighters pretend to be gay and get married, in order to get insurance benefits. So, for this movie they had a lot of scenes dealing with gay issues, including drag queen. So, this guy was telling us about how he was in this movie as a drag queen and that they (the wardrobe department) dressed him up like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz with a red wig and skirt so short you could basically see his "bits". He also bragged to us that they chose guys with the "best legs" for this scene. Whatever. What he DIDN'T realize, was that I remember when they were casting this movie, they specifically said they needed guys to dress in drag for a scene, but that you needed to have your OWN drag clothes!! HAHAHA So, he basically told us, indirectly, that he is a drag queen. Why I didn't call him out on this in front of everyone, I don't know. That's exactly something I would do. I must've been thinking how CRAZY he sounded. A little later on, someone asked how old I was and he chimed in and said he thought I was 19. I told them I was born in 1982 to which he replied, "Oh, I was smokin weed and having sex by then". Umm....did I really need to know that? But, the one quote that gave it all away was when he was looking at an Us Weekly Magazine and he says, "Mmm.....Mary Kate, blonde is not you color honey!".

And those are my encounters with the crazies this week. I think I've had better stories. Like I said, maybe you just had to be there. In other news, I got chosen to be in a student's short film where I (ironcially) play a young doctor. How crazy is that for my first film role. It's a very short film, a scene rather, that's like a minute long. But, there are 2 doctors discussing a comatose patient, and thus it is called Comatose. When it's done being put together, I'll get a DVD copy, so that should be interesting. At least I have something to add to my resume now!

Different News For Once!!

I hate it when I get so busy that there is a week's time between posts, because they end up getting really long. I'm sure no one wants to sit and read a blog for 20 minutes. Anyways, I have some good, no great news for once. I FINALLY have an AGENT!!!!!! Whew. It took me exactly 5 months and 21 days since I started the search. This is a huge step for a new person in Hollywood. The agency I joined signed me to a commercial contract, so I'm starting in commercials. This is great because commercials are very lucrative and only licensed talent agents have access to these types of jobs. You really can not progress here without an agent. I already thanked God a million times because as you all know I'm under a little more of a time crunch and more pressure than most other actors out here. I have to let Ohio State know in June whether or not I'm comging back or not. Well, I don't want to have to make that decision. I want to be doing so much here that there wouldn't even be a question in my mind as to whether I'd go back or not. Ya know, up until now, the fact that I had this decision to make really stressed me out and depressed me, because I obviously don't want to make the wrong decision. However, I think this is a blessing in disguise. It keeps me working over time to make things happen. It keeps me on my toes. I see so many actors out here who get lazy and they're just floundering. This leads into my next point, and my next bit of good news (there are 3).

I went into one of the background casting agenices last week to ask if they could help me get another SAG voucher. I told them I had 2 (even though it was still technically 1), and that I only needed one more. I told them that I had been doing background for 5 months, i had 2 vouchers and I didn't know why I was having trouble getting my 3rd. The dude in there looked at me like I was crazy! He said that on average, people doing background get one voucher every 1.5 years!!! He said I was waaay ahead of the curve by having 2 already. But see, that's just my frame of mind. When I do something, I HAVE to be first, and I HAVE to be the best. My mother can validate that. The fact that it had been almost 6 months and I didn't have my 3 vouchers was really getting to me. This brings me to my next point!

I GOT THE OTHER SAG VOUCHER 5 days later, and I had to hustle to get it! This is so crazy. So last week they had put out a casting notice about needing people to play protestors for a scene in Rush Hour 3. I submitted for it, and they didn't call me. Two days later they postedd it again saying they still needed people. I'm thinking to myself, "why would they post a 2nd time if they hadn't called everyone from the first notice?" They were shooting, on the weekend, and Friday rolls around and I still hear nothing. January has been such a slow month for work, so my ass CRASHED the set. Haha. People do it all the time apparently. Once the people who were booked finish checking in, then the "set crashers" or SPECS can try to get on. I wasn't the only one; there were like 20 other people who crashed. I had heard that they were possible going to recall people for the next day, but only a few. So, when we finished that day, I made sure I was on the first bus back to where we check out. As I got there, the girls was counting people off. She counted the first 40 people to come back the next day. So, I go back the next day and there are considerably less people. And feature films are requred to use 50 SAG vouchers before they can start using non-union vouchers. If there aren't 50 union people there, then they have to give some SAG vouchers to non-union people. So, I heard the girls say they were going to need to give a few of the vouchers out at the end of the day. Man, I was her best friend ALL day. I flirted like heck with her, and it paid off! They needed to give out 12 SAG vouchers, and she gave one to me. But my friend that was with me both days didn't get one. Sad, but hey, it's a cut-throat business and I got my voucher and that's all I cared about. Now, I'm still waiting for my 3rd one (that's owed to me). Not bad, huh?

Well, this is getting too long, so I'm going to wait until Monday to talk about the rest. Ahhh....don't you hate cliffhangers? Well get over it! This is Hollywood. This past Monday I was on a new pilot called Drive. It's a high school show and I played a high school kid on the baseball team. Yes, that means I got paid to play baseball all day! Nobody recognizable was on this how. Yesterday I was on Without A Trace. I played an FBI agent and we worked from 10 am to 12:15 am!!! That was grueling. I don't know anyone on that show either. Oh I almost forgot, on Rush Hour 3 we only worked with Jackie Chan jumping out of windows. He's cool, and they hired a bunch of Chinese extras for this scene. The Chinese women were all trying to take pictures of Jackie Chan and yelling for him and saying they loved him. It was funny.

Crap!! I just remembered that I met 3 crazies (I think that's a record) on the set of Without A Trace. Oh well, I'm sick of typing. I'll have to tell you about them in my next post. It's really funny.

Quotes of the day:

"Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity." (We knew that, but it fits this blog)

"The essential question is not, "How busy are you?' but 'What are you busy at?' 'Are you doing what fulfills you?'"

--both by Oprah Winfrey

Same Old Stuff

At least I have a funny story to tell, so I'll start with that. My week started on Wednesday on the movie The Bucket List starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. All I have to say is that Jack Nicholson is the coolest mofo on the planet. Seriously. Morgan Freeman wasn't there that day. Jack was talking with all of us and joking around. He is really funny, amazingly talented and just really cool. He is exactly the way I want to be when I make it to the big time. I want to be cool, approachable and I want people to think I'm a genuinely nice guy. I don't want to be mean and cold in real life and then go on talk shows and be all smiley and phoney like a lot of the actors I've mentioned in previous posts. The day was a short day, but I met a crazy and I'll tell you about that now.

Geez, I swear I don't know where people get their information or why they tell it to STRANGERS! Anyway, I'm sitting there, and there is a lady behind me talking about colon cleansing. Given that I am a medical student, my ears perk up to see what kind of false information she is going to tell these other people. She's telling these people that she stopped eating meat because meat has parasites in it blah blah blah. She then says that its a good idea to have a colon cleanse once a year. She recommends an herbal colon cleanse because certain herbs can kill parasites that live within us, according to her. Up to this point, I'm thinking "whatever". Personally, I think all you need is some fiber, vegetables and a lot of water to clean yourself out. What she said next is what made me turn around and gasp. These are her exact words:

"I know that the herbs work to kill parasites and the illnesses that they cause.
I had a friend who had cancer, and the doctors gave her some pills, but they didn't
do anything. You know those doctors, they give you stuff to keep you sick so you
have to keep coming back and giving them money! So, my friend took some of the
herbal colon cleanse pills. Now, not to be gross, but this is true. After she took the
pills, a spider crawled out of her vagina, and then
her cancer disappeared completely"

WTF????? Spider? Vagina? What does that have to do with cancer? Is this woman nuts? You know I was cracking up so hard, for many reasons. 1). She was probably referring to herself and not her "friend". 2). In order for a spider to crawl out of your vagina, that means it had to crawl in there!! YUCK!! The digestive system and the reproductive system are completely separate and not connected in any way, so her whole lead in to this story was basically BS. Vaginas just don't create spiders. 3). Can you imagine the look on ANYONE'S face if a *BLEEPING* spider crawled out of their vagina??? This is ludicrous!!! You should have seen the look on the other people's faces. It was straight up comedy. I couldn't contain myself. Someone said, "A spider, like a real spider?" Then the lady changed it up again and said it was a "spider-like creature". How does she know all these details? I'm sorry, but if a damn spider really crawled out of someone's vagina, I can't imagine them telling anybody. I mean, how do you tell someone that a freakin spider crawled out of your vagina?!?!?!?!?!?! "Hey Betty, my period was a little weird yesterday. It was extra heavy and there was something moving around in there. Is that normal? Ahhhhh........for the love of God!!! I know I sound all shocked right now, because I really was, but honestly, I thank God for these people. How BORING would my life and blogs be if it were not for my crazies?!

Wow.....I don't even have anything to say after that story. I'm glad it happened or else this blog would be really short because I only worked 2 days this week. There are some changes that will be happening soon I hope, and hopefully next week I'll have some interesting things to say. You know I don't like to say anything until things are set in stone. That way I don't look stupid if things change, ya know what I mean?

Positive quote for the day:

"People who succeed keep open minds and are afraid of nothing"

~Napoleon Hill

Well, I got the open mind part down......I just gotta work on the "afraid of nothing" part!

Two More Things

Wow, I completely forgot two things to put in my post from yesterday. This is crazy. So, while I was on the set of This Christmas, I look over, and who do I see amongst the masses doing background work??? None other than Goldie from Flavor of Love: Season One! I had actually met her roommate a few weeks earlier. Her roommate had told me that she (Goldie, who's real name is Courtney) wanted to go to medical school. So, I end up seeing Goldie and talking to her and giving her all kinds of advice about medical school. She was asking me everything. It was really cool to give advice to someone in an area that I had worked hard to master. It was just so weird. So, I HAD to ask Goldie about her experience on Flavor of Love and more specifically New York, who cracks me up! She said New York can actually be cool, but she definitely turned up the drama for the show. She said she watched the premiere of I Love New York on VH1, and she didn't really have any comments about it. So, at the end of the day, we exchanged myspaces addresses and now I'm friends with Goldie. There were people wanting to take pictures with her on the set too. It was funny.

The other thing I have to say is that my apartment is haunted. We have a ghost. I don't know how many of you believe in ghosts, but I do. A ghost is the soul of a person that is trapped in between the dimension of Heaven and Earth. Now, when I first moved here, my friend Keisha was over here and she was on my computer, and she looked up and said she saw something white move through the doorway. I didn't think anything of it. Over the months, I've seen a white silhouette out of the corner of my eye on a few occasions, but I just kind of brushed it off as my mind playing tricks on me. Well, Afrah was over last night, and as we were talking, she looked up and this scared look on her face. I asked what was wrong. She said she saw something white move by the door, and she asked if my front door was locked because it looked like a person. Ugh.....I don't need a ghost rigtht now! I never told Afrah (or anyone for that matter) about this white thing I've been seeing, which means that 3 people have all seen the same thing on separate occasions. It doesn't bother me at all and I get the feeling it is a man for some reason. My apartment was built in the 40's, so I'm sure that over the years, at least a couple of people have died here. As long as this ghost doesn't show his face to me over my bed at night, I shoud be cool, lol. I know I sound crazy right now, but I know some of you have ghost stories too!

NOTE -- I put a picture of a cartoon ghost because when I googled "ghost" some really scary pictures came up with skeleton faces and crap and I don't need those images in my head. My roommate is gone for 2 weeks. If something happens to me, no one will ever know, haha.

Lots Of People This Week

This post could get long, so I'm gonna get straight to the point. Wednesday and Thursday I worked on the set of a new movie called This Christmas. It is produced and narrated by Queen Latifah. It stars people such as Morris Chestnut, Loretta Devine, Regina King, Gabrielle Union, and Chris Brown. It will be released Christmas 2007. It was a fun two days. We shot a church scene and I am straight up in the front row! So, we'll see how much camera time I got when it comes out. In the scene, the choir sings, and then Chris Brown's character sings (he doesn't play himself). It's amazing how it takes 2 days to film just 6 minutes of material. About some of the cast.......first of all, Regina King is tiny, just as most actresses are. She is really pretty and nice too. She hugs me toward the end of the scene we were filming, so that was cool. Chris Brown has ADD, seriously. He's 17 or 18 and the kid could not sit still. He even broke the microphone playing around with it inbetween takes. He's a cool kid, but you could just get a sense of his immaturity, which is normal. I don't mean immature in a bad way, like immature for his age. I mean, just like you'd expect a 17 year old to act I guess. On the second day, Mekhi Pfeifer dropped by the set to watch. He's not in the movie (I don't think), so he must've been there just visiting someone.

On the way home from the set on the second day, I had to drive through Studio City, and there was a group of war protesters on the corner with all kinds of big signs saying things like, "Jail Cheney", "Bush is stupid", etc., etc. I'm thinking to myself, "what is going on?" Well, I got home and saw on the news that I guess Bush is sending 21,000 more troops over to Iraq. I couldn't believe it. There were a lot of protesters there and all the cars were honking their horns in support as they drove by. That's the first time I've ever seen anything like that. I wonder if people in other cities did the same thing? I'm sure they did.

Yesterday I was on the show Jericho. It was a miseable time. Jericho is a new show this season about a small fictional town in Kansas in which the people there have survived some sort of catastrophe, but they don't know what it was. One day, they just saw a huge mushroom cloud in the distance and chaos ensues. War erupts, etc., etc. The scene we shot was when the war was finally over and all the townspeople are gathered outside of City Hall watching fireworks as the National Guard comes through to check everything out. Ok, so you might be asking why this shoot was miserable. Well, first of all, it took place during winter and at night, which means we had a night shoot. I was on the set until 1 am. Not only that, we didn't have to act. That night, L.A. set a record (I think, ot it was close) for the lowest nighttime low. It dipped down into the 30's. Just 4 days earlier it was 82 degrees. Now, me being from Ohio, I should be used to that (especially since in Ohio it can be 70 one day and snowing the next), however, I think I've become acustomed to the climate here, because that night it felt like it was 0 degrees. I couldn't even feel my feet by the end of the night. It was terrible. It was cool though to see them using the big snow machines to spray the set down with foam snow. Honestly, if there were any kind of moisture in the air that night, it would have snowed for real. Oh, and the other things was that there were tons of kids working that night too. I'm already a person that doesn't have a lot of patience (which I'm working on), but when I'm cold and miserable, I have NO patience.

That brings me to today. I had a classic embarassing moment at an audition today. I had to go to Venice Beach for this audition for this student film. I walk in, and the 2 girls (director and producer) are really cool, we chatted, I read the scene 3 times and we chatted some more. It went really well. So, I'm getting up to leave, I'm saying goodbye, and I go to open the door to leave and walk right into the bathroom!!! I opened the wrong door. Doh! One of the girls was like, "ummm.....that's the bathroom". I said, "that camera isn't still rolling is it?". Thank God it wasn't and then I promptly left. I felt so stupid, but of course I was cracking up as I left. Maybe that incident will make it so I stick in their heads and they pick me. We'll see.

Quotes for the day:

"If you don't get out of the box you've been raised in, you won't understand how much bigger the world is."
--Angelina Jolie

"I think crossroads come at many times during your life. Up to this point, I've had several. You get to a certain point in your life and you're like, Am I supposed to be doing this? And it's usually in the face of some failure - something that didn't work out the way you wanted it to. And you're faced with a decision: Do I keep trying to do this or do I give up?"

--Jennifer Lopez

Of course we all know to never give up!!

Back To Work

FINALLY..........we're back into the swing of things and I started back to work this past Friday. No more boring days at home anymore. Now, I can just go to work and be bored. At least I feel like I'm doing something. I know what's going to happen though. Right now in my life, when I have so much free time on my hands, I have nothing to do because I'm broke. But as soon as I actually start making some dough, I'm going to be too busy to do any leisure activites. I know it! That's how my luck runs. I won't complain though. I LOVE being busy. I get so many more things done when I'm busy and I feel like my life is not being wasted. I know people who don't like working and have no problem living with their parents, sitting on the couch all day not doing anything. How they do it, I have no clue. I would be poking needles in my eyes from not feeling like I am accomplishing anything. Anyways, I'm already booked up for work all the way through Thursday, and that makes me happy.

Yesterday, I was on this new show called The New Adventures of Old Christine. It stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus from Seinfeld. I don't know any of the other cast members, and I also don't know anything about this show. In fact, I had never heard of it. We were shooting outside and it was one of the coldest, windiest days in L.A. thus far, which made it pretty miserable. Ok, not miserable, but you get my drift. I don't have anything exciting to say about that day. My crazies must not be back from the holiday break yet, lol.

That's it. This post was short and sweet. My positive quote comes from the one and only Miss Mariah Carey, and here is a picture just because. She gets her long overdue star on the walk of fame this year. I'm already checking Hollywood's Chamber of Commerce Website because I would not miss this for the world. She is a goddess!!!!!

"I believe I'm going to make it. Don't say 'if' I make it, say 'when' I make it!"

The Dawn of The New Year.......

Marks my six month anniversary moving to the City of Angels! Wow. All I can say is that time FLIES. I mean, it seems like just last week I was driving across the country to get here. I remember it in detail. Saying my goodbyes, writing my first blog, leaving the only home I've ever known! It's been the most exciting, happiest, scariest, saddest, incredible experience all at the same time. Now, I've been on a rollercoaster ride of emotions since I arrived here. Those emotions include, happiness, sadness, fright, depression, frustration, among many others. People close to me tell me I need to calm down and stop freaking out so soon. After all, it's only been 6 months. But, if you were $80,000 in debt and had to make another life altering decision (whether to move back to Ohio or not in June), wouldn't you feel a little on edge as well?? This is not easy! Obviously my biggest fear is failure out here, but at the same time, I know I am destined for greatness. I can honestly say, that to this day, I have never failed at anything! Everything I have attempted, I have been able to achieve thus far (med school being the most challenging by far). Why should this be any different? Why the hell is it so hard then??

So, here is my strategy for 2007. I plan to look at the latter half of 2006 as a learning experience. I have worked on every major studio lot in Hollywood. I know how a real working set operates, I know the terminology, and most of all, I know how badly so many other people want this just as I do. So, now in 2007, it's time to take things to the next level. Strive for the next step. No matter what obstacles get in the way. I've never quit anything (I don't think). Not only that, I left my life in Ohio because I had certain life golas I wanted to achieve, one of those being travel. At the age of 24, the only other country I have been to is Jamaica, because that is where my dad is from (Niagara Falls doesn't count!). I've never crossed an ocean, I've never been to another continent. We took a family vacation once to Phoenix when I was in 11th grade, but other than that, I had never even been west of the Mississippi. If my dad's family didn't live in New York City, I probably never would have been there either. When I wanted to apply to out of state colleges, I was told that that wasn't really necessary. When I wanted to apply to out of state medical schools, I was politely encouraged not to (although, in all fairness, money played a part in this too). While I know my parents only wanted the best for me, and for me to be safe, this is not a healthy thing. Do I really deserve to have a life doomed and confined to Columbus, Ohio which accounts for 0.00000000000000000001% of the Earth! I ultimately felt like a prisoner and had to get out! I don't know how many parents read this blog, but if you have children and they kind of hint to wanting a break from school after college, PLEASE don't discourage it. They need it, and deserve it. The most frustrating thing for me in medical school was hearing my colleagues' stories about Africa, Europe, Japan, India, etc. Ok, I got off topic. My original point was that I moved out here to provide myself with opportunities to travel, and until that happens, I'm not satisfied!

So, this is to a GREAT 2007! Starting today, I'm going to end all of my blogs with positive quotes from books I have read, because sometimes things get so depressing that you literally have to overload yourself with positive thoughts just to stay afloat. Here are two that seem to fit in with this specific post.

"I had learned, from years of experience with men, that when a man really desires a thing so deeply that he is willing to stake his entire future on a single turn of the wheel in order to get it, he is sure to win."

"The person who takes no chances generally has to take whatever is left when others have finished choosing"

--both from Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich