I'm Going To Be in a Movie!

I've just been cast in a short independent film by a local filmmaker. I realize I had said that in light of upcoming parenthood, Ballyhoo was going to be my theatrical "swan song" for a while. But this was such a unique opportunity with a fairly short time commitment that I just had to go for it. Also, the operative word here was theatrical — I never said anything about film acting!

Now I know I hadn't mentioned any of this earlier. But like many people in the performing arts, I typically don't like to mention my auditions to too many people ahead of time, as not getting a part is depressing enough without having to share the bad news with lots of people. But I'm now free to share the news here.

I'll talk more about the specifics of the project in future posts, but I should at least explain that it truly is a short (probably 10-15 minutes) independent production, shot on digital video, intended for submission to film festivals. The title of the film is Cinema Nightmares and it's a comedy about a couple (Mary and Norman) living together who are big movie buffs with vastly differing tastes. She likes romantic movies like Titanic and he like thrillers like Misery and Psycho. In the course of the film, the two main characters have nightmares in which they "star" in each other's favorite films. My character is named Richard, the ex-boyfriend of Mary. I appear in each of the couple's dreams, once as Cal (Rose's fiance) from Titanic and once as Rick, the Humphrey Bogart character in Casablanca. So yes, this part requires me to do a Humphrey Bogart impression, which was the main focus of my audition.

The director is putting up a website for the film and I'll provide a link to it on this blog in the very near future. And of course, stay tuned here for rehearsal and production notes.