17 March 2011 // 05:38 pm // 3 Comments
I’ve got a good friend who is a successful writer for television sitcoms. At an event one evening, a woman approached him and asked, “How can I help my young daughter to become a successful Hollywood writer?” In his characteristic wit doused in friendly sarcasm, my friend replied: “Withhold your love from her for the next ten years.” One of the main reasons many creative people come to Hollywood – and this is at the same time rarely mentioned and rarely denied – is that they are looking for significance, a sense of actually mattering in and to this world.
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09 November 2010 // 05:38 pm // 10 Comments
I have a good friend who has what I, as a fan of the cinematic arts, consider to be a near fatal flaw. This friend of mine hates to talk about movie details or plotlines to any degree before he has seen the movie himself. He just doesn’t want to know. Some flimflam about spoiling the experience for him by finding out how any of the story goes. I know you’re thinking the same thing I am – he’s crazy, right?
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25 August 2010 // 06:31 pm // Comments Closed
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about fear and courage. What is this stuff called Courage that we all aspire to, that so inspires us, but in the end, even for the best of us, can be so tantalizingly elusive?
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05 August 2010 // 04:17 am // 10 Comments
Solely for the sake of giving you kind readers a sense of background and context, I should confess here that, before I became a professional actor and writer, I was a professional lawyer. I’ve found that there isn’t a tremendous difference between being a trial lawyer and being an actor: both stand up in front of a group of people and tell a story, attempting to compel the people emotionally and intellectually...
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18 July 2010 // 01:00 pm // 0 Comments
I recently watched a wonderful film that a few friends had a hand in bringing to the silver screen. The film was well-executed, and the story was well-told, and movies with both of those elements have become way too uncommon. The premise and the plot of this particular film were so good, in fact, it all made me a bit envious. I walked out of the theater smacking myself on the forehead and wondering, Wow, why didn’t I think of that idea?
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24 May 2010 // 10:46 am // 1 Comments
In case you’re keeping tabs on my acting career, early next week I’m heading out with part of my creative team to Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania, to shoot a short film. I’m looking forward to being (or, if the cause should merit, not to being) in this hamlet, where we’ll be shooting on one of the largest springs in the entire state...
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19 May 2010 // 12:11 am // 0 Comments
My dear Crazy Friend,
Thanks for your recent note of encouragement! It was good to hear from you, and your encouraging words couldn’t have come at a better time.
I noticed in your letter that perhaps you could use a little encouragement yourself...
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11 March 2010 // 06:20 am // 1 Comments
Hollywood is known more for its myth than for its reality, at least in the eyes of the general public. For those who know Hollywood, it draws to mind that truism that “all that glitters is not gold.” The substance doesn’t always measure up to the presentation. Once the cameras and spotlights and red carpets have been removed, it isn’t always the nicest place in the world. In fact, Hollywood can be downright ugly at times.
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04 March 2010 // 04:18 am // 0 Comments
I had an amusing conversation the other day with a writer I’ve known for several years. This particular guy has a penchant for the comedic and the absurd, which always makes for interesting (although not always coherent) conversation between the two of us. I enjoy our discussions, especially since they tend to escape those useful, but often frustrating, constraints we know as “logic,” and allow for a bit of imagination and suspended disbelief. Our chats often turn into an exercise in “believing six impossible things before breakfast,” as Lewis Carroll once suggested.
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25 February 2010 // 04:12 am // 0 Comments
The other day, I sent off a film proposal and script treatment to a potential financier. I had worked hard on the proposal and treatment, spending several weeks putting them together, especially because this financier had shown a great degree of interest in the project in the several conversations we’d had about it. I attached the documents to the email and hit the send button. Suddenly, the process was out of my hands, and I found myself sitting in my office…waiting.
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