Charles McKeithan

I say what I think

I have never had a more productive rehearsal. And yet, we almost forgot to actually rehearse.

Odd? Not really. The show, Ambassadors Day, has been in the filming stage of production for about a month now, and yet, beyond the original audition, I had yet to read and interact with the only other actor on screen. Not that that is uncommon. In fact, in many cases, even the most intimate scenes you see on TV and the Big Screen are often shot without the actors ever being on set at the same time. One of my favorite examples is that in Highlander, Sean Connery was only on the set for 2 days and many of the shots you see of his character are not even him!

But I digress.

What was I talking about? Oh ....yeah

So I pick up our heart and soul director from his burrow in San Jose and we cruise up to San Bruno Chatting about character histories and the benefits of vitamin supplements and how I got back into acting at the hands of an old curmudgeon of a director who took me to Ireland and so much further. Then we arrive at Other Actor's Home.

Well appointed dwelling that furthers my belief that this guy is really me in an alternate universe. The books on the Wall of Books are familiar to the touch and even placed subtly near other books that in just those places Say Something without intentionally doing so.

A show of hands now please....

How many of you are familiar with Bloom County?

Okay, that’s more than I expected. But how many of you had intimate relations with Bloom County?

That's more like it.
Yet at the mere note of mention, The Wife and I have a stack of Berkley Breathed between us and are laughing with half syllables of a frame yet to escape our lips.

Sorry, I think I'm digressing again.....
Yup

Mid-way through dinner, conversation rounds it's way through more topics than a digressing ADD Blog writer until it sidles through the clinking china to the somewhat obscure topic of a film we happen to all be working on. Himself starts to theorize on his character history and then asks me a question. The lightest flicker of glint in his eye sends a leather gauntlet at 70 mph in my direction. Caught squarely on the jaw, I have no choice but to fade away and leave my body to the whims of a simpler man whose distain for this sort of childish attitude can only be held back by his understanding that when you are raised in an overcrowded city without the enlightenment of true faith, you must be expected to behave so basely.

We let our characters from the film chat with the director for a bit and the energy was building, THIS IS WHY I LOVE THE JOB. Until at last, defeated, Charles could not help but leap back into body and make a crass sarcastic remark that got the easy laugh but broke the moment. No harm no foul. We finished with a dessert that left me trying hard not to stare too hard at the Wife as she erased traces of cream and Strawberry from her lips.

So, great rehearsal..... Oh, the script, yeah...I guess we could do that...

We read through the lines a few times, found moments and nuances that weren’t going anywhere tonight but were little landmines planted on the other actors field. They're waiting now. Full of energy, for the right trip of a switch.....

Eye-toy. God I wish I had a playstation.....shortly after a wonderful meal and a few glasses of red and another of white, we retire to the living room, where I am assaulted by evil Chinese mini-combat specialists. I find that my Songahm Style Taekwondo is no match for the Wife's unbeatable Laverne &Shirley Slap fight style in the kicking of eye-toy china-man Butt.
The Director suggests I try a windmill approach.....

Disastrous.

As we are picking bits of glass out of the carpet and hailing the remarkable trick of using half a potato to unscrew broken bulbs from swinging chandeliers I think to myself.
Coffee might be good right about now.

The Drive home is a delight to the senses as I tell the Director The Story. It is not my favorite gem that I save for parties and really long drives, but it is the one most fascinating to the listener and will one day likely appear in some form or other here on the blog, or in my future best selling book.

I drop him off and head home.

It’s good to say what I think. Despite the price I pay at times. But now, I've digressed so much that I never did get around to explaining the title on this entry.

Life is funny that way.

Posted by cmckeithan at April 21, 2004 12:45 AM