Done...! (sort of)


Today was the last day of principal shooting for The Achievers. We have another solid weekend in July, but that's contingent on the producers getting it together.

I don't remember too much from the shoot. That's how fried I am. I'm a physical and emotional wreck right now, but, damn, I can't wait for this movie to get cut.

***

Kissimme.
The last two days of the shoot were my "make-out" days, where I'm just kissing kissing kissing. It's weird. I'm better now about it, but I'm still burned by a lifelong stint of being painfully shy around women. One of my earliest acting teachers used to constantly tell me that I'd never be a leading man. It's not even that I made an issue of it. He just liked telling me that. God, that guy was a dickhead. I've always liked comedy and considered myself more of a character actor.

This year, I've done a play where I smooched with my co-star for four performances a week and two films where I have a decent amount of lip-mashing screen-time. What the hell? It's usually such an intimate, private thing for me. You know...the lip-mashing.

***

Yesterday we filmed a house-party scene where I finally kiss my love interest for the first time. The place was full of extras and my co-star, Jennifer, and I had to kiss for several takes for up to a minute and a half at a time. Who the fuck kisses for a minute and a half without breaking?!? Of course the director was just getting different angles for editing, but seriously...goddam. That sort of thing really desensitizes you.

Oh and also, we were dancing and grinding at the same time. Pretty Weirdo McWeirdoson, as Sami would say. They had real alcohol on set for the extras. I had drunken three beers by the middle of the shoot, before the director cut me off.

This morning we had another kissing scene, this time in the middle of Wilshire, underneath one of the "Miracle Mile" signs, fifty feet from the nearest crosswalk. Cars zooming by and honking and everything. Totally illegal. They shot the scene from a building a few blocks away and I think they were far enough that they couldn't see me sobbing uncontrollably with fear.

***

Seriously, what the fuck am I supposed to do now? I still have another week off work. Two more weekends of Everybody Dies. There's always Halo. Maybe I'll write more. I might get a fish. I dunno. Something...


Posted: Thu - June 23, 2005 at 06:12 PM             |

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