February 10, 2000
Cathy Reinking and I go waaaay back. I met her over four years ago through fellow Harvard grad Tom Chick and she plays in the monthly Oh Shit! game in L.A. Professionally, I have benefitted from her relationship with casting director Jeff Greenberg. Together, their office has been responsible for my appearances on Almost Perfect, Wings, Frasier, and Encore! Encore! So I guess it's only fitting that as Cathy rises in the ranks to Casting Associate, that I appear in one of her first shows. In this case, Movie Stars.
The audition wasn't much, just a two-page scene, all told about 40 seconds worth of acting, but the scene is completely run by my character, almost as if he were doing a monolgue. So the choice of how to play the character was the most important element. Success or failure would really stem from there. GRAHAM is a slick junior agent at a major Hollywood agency. So in preparing the scene, I generated my slickest, sleaziest Hollywood cheese persona and made him a big goofball. Imagine my surprise when, about 4 seconds before starting the scene, the producer of the Movie Stars casually informed me that GRAHAM is a really nice guy in this scene. It's only later that we find out he's slimy. Yikes.
Luckily, his note required less acting on my part. So I just toned down the level of cheese I had rehearsed and gave it a whirl. He and Cathy both laughed quite a bit, which was good, and as I got up to leave, the producer said, "Well, I guess this scene can be saved after all." Scene saving, that's what I'm here for.
Cathy also called me later today, after I had booked the job, and
told me, "I just wanted to say, 'Thank you,' that's all. You
just pleased the hardest producer to please in America. See you
Monday." Cool.