March 25, 1998
I stood inside the offices of Grubstreet Productions, the people behind both Wings and Frasier, and looked around at my competition. The next youngest actor reading for the Customer was 55. The other two were slightly older. So like a little Matt Damon, battling Nicholson, Duvall, Fonda, and Hoffman, so I had to take on the old guard here today if I wanted to work for my old friends again.
The big guns eventually strolled in and David Lee was among them. He stopped and talked to me for a second, saying that he has continued to hear very good things about my appearance on Frasier, adding that it was one of the juiciest little parts he's ever seen. I told him to go to hell, I didn't need him anymore, momentarily forgetting that I was about to read for him. Boy, there's always going to be one or two moments at an audition you wish you could do over, huh? Of course, I just thanked him and said how much fun I had doing it.
They had me and my grandfathers all read for the Customer first. When I went in, all three producers were there -- Lee, Angell, and Casey -- and all remembered me and said they were happy to see me, and one even threw in an "Ohh-kay" somewhere in the banter, so they were poised and ready for my hambone maneuver. We did the scene and they laughed a bit at my responses, and then finally, at the end, it came out, "Ohh-kay." And oh, they laughed, and I just stood there shaking my head, with mock shame at my shamelessness. "That's so bad," I muttered trying to make it clear I knew how goofy it all was. And one of them offered up, "Well, that's your trademark line now," to which another responded, "That'll be known now as doing 'a Ducey'." And I wonder now looking back was he refering to saying the word, "Ohh-kay" or shamelessly plugging old successes in a weak effort to secure continued employment?
After we had all read for the Customer, I was called back in to read the Driver's lines. They went well. My facial expressions alone got more laughs than the entire Carly scene for the Fox Executives lo these two weeks ago now. When I finished, I gave a look to David Lee as if to say, "What more can I do with this?" He returned an understanding gaze. No one else read for the Driver so it was a fait accompli for the next hour or so until I heard from my agent that I would be playing the Driver all next week in the new Lee/Angell/Casey pilot, Encore! Bravo.
Encore! | Ducey on TV | Resume