Has anyone watched SOUTHLAND? Pretty nifty little cop show and everyone is on that thing. But one thing I wanted to point all of your attention to…
Ok, before I get into it, let's hit the backstory.
I'd had the luck to work on a pretty cool show a few years ago called "The $treet" everyone was on that show too. It was a Wall Street show starring Jennifer Connelly, Bridget Sampras Wilson, Jennie Garth, Christian Campbell…and Tom Everett Scott. I played a trainee who'd always get yelled at or made to do something goofy (part of Chris Campbell's posse). One episode, it was a holday episode we were working on, and it was big because everyone had flown from LA to NYC to see what we were up to. This was a show produced by Darren Star on the same studio space and same style folks from Sex and the City. So there was a lot expected of us. I did my scene, and I don't remember much except they really slicked back my hair like a broker. That was a LOT of hair care for my character. So anyway, I wrap my scene, and the director comes over to me, looks at me and says "WOW, amazing" and brought me over to the producers. I thought "excellent here we go, I'm going to be brought into a special room for anyone is show biz who's bad @ss, Tom Hanks will like me lots"
Turns out, I was not ushered into that special room. (though I'm sure that room exists) I was brought over to the producers because of my hands.
I never saw that one coming. I'm a nailbiter, so my hands are pretty much a horrific and hideous sight. Unless, they happen to look exactly like the star of their show's hands. Tom Everett Scott. He came over and the producers were there and everyone was doing hand comparisons. Tom said "look, we even have callouses on the same fingers".
Here I was on set of a FOX tv show and everyone is gawking at my goofy nailbitten hands. So Tom was excited because at the end of every scene, he could leave and not do cutaways, because I was paid more money to not only be an occasional cast member, but also to be Tom Everett Scott's hand-double. So everytime you'd see Tom's character go to the elevator, that's Tom. When you'd see his finger reach out to tap the elevator button? That was me. There were times, I'd be in a scene with Tom, where you'd see him talk to me, pick up a pen, and there'd be a cutaway of him writing (my hand) and then a cutaway of him handing the paper to my character's hand (both hands were me). It was a strange gig, especially because I'd been trying to do a great job as a character on the show, but everyone knew me more as 'that guy who's got the same hands as Tom Everett Scott'. Too bad really, because I thought it was a fun show and was cancelled after only about 6 episodes.
However, Tom has continued to do well, and he's now on SOUTHLAND, so everytime you see any clips of that show, take a look at the hands, and be amazed.
take care and be good,
TIM