It seems easier to break into the Philly "Film" scene now, than it did when I came through, a few years back.
At the time I came through, I could barely get a foot in the door, despite an early success I'd had in other cities. I'd been to visit all the casting agents, and still, I couldn't get the phone to ring. As a matter of fact, one meeting I had with agents was interrupted by the image out the window of my car being towed away.
So, I'd been reduced to crashing these awful auditions for films that would never get made. One audition for a film, I'd went to on my birthday, it was for some experimental film by this smug little guy who'd say "read your lines like you're 7 years old" or "do my script as if there is a wall of diamonds behind me" just real pretentious, nonsense stuff.
So needless to say, when the phone rang one day by a major casting director, I was going to say "YES" to whatever they asked. I probably should have thought twice, because it was to be an extra in a carpet warehouse commercial. Not only that, the director said "which shoot day would you like?" I said "give me all of them".
Now this was a crap job, it was in North Jersey, for several days, and I'd have to pay my own way up there. Also, I was doing it for free. But who knows? Maybe it'd help get my foot in some doors. I made the insanely long drive. I get to this warehouse. You know how funky carpet warehouses smell? This was what I'd deal with for the week. One guy kept talking to me about his experience with the film "ROSEWOOD" after an hour of his stories I said "what part do you play in the movie?" and he said "I wasn't in it, I just watched it a lot"
The next day the main informercial actor (who actually had a diva attitude, you believe that? An infomercial actor acting like he's Marlon Brando) plus, randomly, he wouldn't stop quoting MATT LILLARD's character in SCREAM "I'm feeling a little woozy here!".
That following day, while I was keeping busy being a blur in the background as a "carpet shopper" I watched another extra get fired, because he was paired up with a female extra to be a "couple in the background" and he put her hand on his butt. So the informercial director fired him. All the while, I met an insane man. He even said he's crazy. He then said he wanted to go into a bad area of North Jersey and get into a fight. Funny, I thought we were in a bad area of Jersey, apparently there was a worse area of Jersey. He then said to me that this crappy carpet infomercial was going to make him a star. He was right, that man's name was Colin Farrell.
Just kidding. This guy then saw the infomercial people handing out shirts to extras so they could play "salespeople blurs in the background" the crazy guy then chased the person until he got a tee shirt. He screamed "I MUST WEAR ONE OF THOSE!".
After that day particular of filming, I actually missed the ROSEWOOD guy's stories.
Funny enough, I'd met up again with that casting director a few months after that and he said "I couldn't believe you took every filming day, for no money". It did take a while, but the same director DID end up getting me a few meetings that ended up being some nice breaks in the business. I guess you have to crawl before you walk. Now, tomorrow night, I get to come to Philly again, and now, manage to have a screening of my own film, for a great crowd. So if you're all free, come on out and see a movie, afterall, one of the guys in that movie was a blur in the background in a carpet infomercial.
LEAF:THE MOVIE
March, 6 2008 - 8:00P
The Historic Anthony Wayne Theater
109 West Lancaster Avenue,
Wayne , Pennsylvania 19087
Cost: FREE
