Leaving Las Vegas

I have friends who are participating in the 48 Hour Film Project this weekend. They encouraged me to audition for it.

I took an acting class at the Studio Theatre last summer, which was fun, but that was the only acting I'd done since high school, which was approximately 3 million years ago. But I like acting - it's fun.

For those of you, like me, who hadn't heard about this film project, essentially you form a team, get your camera person, casting director, writers, actors, etc all lined up. And then Friday night each team is given the genre and topic of their film.

So Friday night the writers start writing the script, email it to the actors as soon as they write it, and the filming begins Saturday. Sunday they edit and put it all together. And Tuesday they screen the films. It sounds like a really dynamic, creative, interesting time.

Yesterday was kind of craptacular, and I was going to bail on going, because I was just so exhausted and I didn't know what they expected of me. My friends said just to turn up and at least meet with the casting director. They said at the very least it would be a great distraction, the group was fun, and I might be able to get involved in some way.

So I went up to R's house and plopped myself on his big, comfy green couch next to a guy I didn't know. The film team was meeting at the dining room table. One of the guys in charge of the project walked over to us and said, "Are you here to audition?"

The guy got up and said he was, and handed him his head shot and resume.

Yikes! There were real actors auditioning for this! They had monologues prepared!

I said, "I'm just here because J and R invited me. I don't know what I'm doing."

The guy laughed and said they didn't know what they were doing either. But why didn't I audition as long as I was there?

Another actor turned up while we were chatting, and the guy handed us both scripts. He said they were going to film the first actor, and if we didn't mind, we could read through the script while waiting on the porch.

So we sat in the chairs on the porch and he handed us each several pages.

It was a scene from Leaving Las Vegas. I've never seen the movie, mainly because I avoid really depressing films. And nothing about the description, "romantic drama about a relationship between a suicidal alcoholic and a prostitute from Las Vegas" ever made me think, oh, that sounds like a great time!

One of my lines was, "So, why are you trying to kill yourself?"

Seriously. I'm not kidding. You can't make this kind of shit up.

I have no idea whether I'll get cast or not, but apparently I came across as very real.

Life is random.