Episode 6: Act Naturally

Well, I hope you come and see me in the movies.
Then I’ll know that you will plainly see
the biggest fool that ever hit the big time.
And all I gotta do is act naturally.

— Johnny Russell & Voni Morrison, 1963

Prologue:

The year is 1977. Owen Davis and his lovely wife Donna are going out on a Saturday night date to see a double feature at the local drive-in theatre in a small suburb of Maryland. Oddly enough, they decided to bring along their seventh child of nine, little 6 year old Olga. Olga patiently and anxiously sits in the back seat of his dad's 1974 Fleetwood Eldorado Convertible listening to the sounds of The Spinners and thinking that the movie he is about to see tonight is the one that he had been seeing in TV commercial previews called Watership Down, an animated movie based on the book. Instead, it was something quite opposite and different. It was that movie he'd heard his older siblings whispering about at home. The one they called the 'scary devil movie' that was said to be a truth story that happened in a nearby town called Mount Rainier. The movie they were whispering about is called The Exorcist. The film originally came out in 1973, but made another theatrical release along side its newly released sequel, The Exorcist II: The Heretic as a double feature in 1977.

Chills came over little Olga as he watched the eerie opening sequence that takes place in Sinjar. But he endured. Little Olga survive viewing what is considered to be the scariest movie of all time at age 6. And although he'd lose about 6 months of sleeping alone in his own bedroom after viewing it--for him, the thrill of it was well worth it. But little did Olga know, The Exorcist would make quite an impact on the rest of his life.

Fast forward to 1986. Little Olga is no longer little. He's 16 years old now and likes to be called Owen. He stays up after midnight watching horror movie after horror movie until his eyes turned red. He loves the cult ones the best. He keeps this secret late night little hobby of his going for about 3 years until he eventually "grew" out it. Throughout his entire 20's he forgot all about his first true love.

Lights. Camera. Action!

Okay. I guess I can safely say that this is the blog that most of you have been waiting to read. The 6th one. The one that I've been yapping off about since Week 1's post. The one where I finally tell (and show) you my first experience starring in a movie. But before I start, just let me say that I am aware of the fact that most of you perhaps, possibly, probably thought I was telling a big fairy tale all this time. Not including my mom of course, she would never think this of me (clearing throat) Uh...right, Mom? Well, I don't blame you one bit. Like I said, I would have not believed me. But hopefully, by the end of this blog you will believe me.

Anyway, this is where the story picks up right after I signed the contract that I told you about in Week 2...

It was an early Thursday morning when I got a call asking if I were available to start shooting that day. I was a bit taken off guard because they'd told me that I'd be shooting that coming Friday. And although I was more nervous than a Black man on trial in a southern court room, I told Galia, the third assistant director, "of course!" With loads of enthusiasm and excitement in my voice. She said, "Cool, Owen. We'll send a driver to your place in an hour." I hung up the phone and whispered to myself, "Did she just say send a Driver to my place? For me?"

Aaaaahhhhhh!!!

I dropped the phone and slid threw the hallway right into the living room, jumped on the sofa and did my happy dance in my drawers, like Tom Cruise in Risky Business! (Shhh...don't tell Sarah!) Then I hastily showered fast and threw on some clothes and in about an hour looked out the window and sure enough, there was a black Mercedes Benz with tinted windows waiting for me in front of our condo.

Talk about my celebrity status! Well, this time it seemed real. I mean, it was real this time! I mean, now the folks in Sophia really have a reason to think I'm a celebrity. I reached for my shades. Only this time I wasn't smirking. I was dead serious. I got outside and hopped in the car hoping that my (clears throat) driver had not noticed the excitement I was trying to conceal. He didn't. I could tell. He must have thought I was a veteran actor or something. Sweet.

When I arrived on the set, Galia greeted me and told me, "please wait in your trailer until we call you for make-up. It will be the one marked B-Camera." I whispered slowly to myself again, "did she just say wait in your trailer? My very own trailer? For me only?"

Aaaaahhhhhh!!!

Oh, at this point, I guess I should tell you that 'B-Camera' is the name of the character I play. And I guess I should give you a quick synopsis of the movie's plot without giving anything away. It's basically a movie set in the near future about a TV crew who films a reality show about the last days on earth after a plague of zombies has infested the planet. I could actually see this happening, too...uh, I mean if zombies actually existed. I mean, come on--these crazy reality TV show producers are driving me nuts! They'll make one about anything nowadays. Anyway, I am the B camera operator who follows a platoon around while they are trying to re-kill zombies. Speaking of 're-kill' I should tell you that the title has gone through 3 name changes. When I signed the contract it was called 'Dead Ahead.' I heard that this was the title for a good while, too. When I arrived on the set it was still called 'Dead Ahead'. It wasn't until my third day of shooting that they renamed it 'The Last Day.' which is funny, because the very next day, it had a new name, Re-Kill, that managed to stay around until the film wrapped recently. I actually like 'The Last Day' best. But the name Re-Kill has those Hollywood dollar signs on it. What?!?

Oh yeah, one very important and disappointing surprise that I was made aware of on my first day was the fact that Mike Hurst, the films original director had mysteriously vanished from the films roster. That kind of made me a bit uneasy at first, because he and I had made some good rapport on my audition day. He'd been replaced by what industry folks told me is one of the best action film directors in Bulgaria, Valeri Milev. I felt reassured.

Anyway, back to my trailer. It was pretty cool to see that I really had one, and, with my name on it! B-Camera in big letters in the window it read. When I got inside there was some yummy treats and that day's script waiting for me on the table. Out of the treats, the one I remember most is a very delicious apple. It reminded me of home. It tasted like the good ol' ones back at Takoma Park Sunday Market.

When I arrived on the actual set, I got nervous when I saw all of the camera equipment, crew and actors. Real nervous. I started shaking all over. I never felt that way in all whole my life. Well okay, maybe that time when I was 6 and my older sister Tina was out to wash my mouth with soap for cursing out her girlfriends. I was pretty damn scared that day! But you know what I mean. Anyway, I was first greeted by the costume crew. Then one of my co-stars and central female character Daniella Alonso (One Tree Hill, The Hills Have Eyes II) sat down next to me on the "cast chairs." She was so warm and friendly that it took me by surprise. She really made me feel comfortable and relaxed, I felt like myself again! She's from New York, so we chatted about the Big Apple while the others were doing their scenes then it was time to break for lunch. Speaking of lunch, it was quite delicious on the first day, but it was hit or miss on others. But hey, it was free, so who's complaining?

At lunch most of the starring cast members came over to join Daniella and I. That day it was, Layke Anderson (Match Point, X-Men II) , Jesse Garcia (Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles), Dimitar Doichinov (Troy, The Black Dahlia) and my boy Yo Santhaveesuk, who, just like me, was experiencing his very first movie as well. We all chatted the normal and boring 'where are you from' conversation while eating our delicious lunch. As I came back to the table after grabbing thirds, more of my co-stars had joined us. These two I'd recognized from their movies, it was Scott Adkins (The Born Ultimatum, Undisputed, X-Men Origins) and veteran actor, Bruce Payne (Passenger 57).

It wasn't until, a couple hours later after I took a short nap in my trailer and headed to the snack bar when I finally got meet our films male lead character and veteran actor, Roger Cross (24, X-Men II, Mad Money). He was also in the cult sci-fi TV show M.A.N.T.I.S. I pretty much worshiped this when it was on TV. One of the best sci-fi shows ever! He was a truly cool dude and quite surprised that I knew of that M.A.N.T.I.S. show. So we sat and chatted about it for a minute or so. Nice.

The first day went pretty good for me. But it wasn't until my second day of shooting where I started to learn the ropes. And I learned some of those ropes the hard way. You see, Nik, the assistant to the First A.D., hunted me down and found me chatting with a few female zombies near the concession stand where I became addicted to those European Peanut Butter Twix bars. He politely interrupted our conversation and said, in his typical serious-sounding voice, "10 minute warning to set, Owen." But the key word here was warning. In my school days that always meant trouble to me. So I looked at the girls and said, "whoa, my boy Nik means business. Gotta run, ladies!" So I burned rubber. But being that it was my first movie, I didn't know that 10 minute warning in movie making terms just simply means that actors have 10 minutes to be on the set, not the actual scene they are filming. Yikes! So yeah, you guessed it, I ran right over to the scene they were filming and pretty much got my boy Nik yelled at for not explaining that terminology of 10 minute warning to me. I felt really bad. But he was really cool about it and said with a sigh, "no worries, O. I get yelled at all the time on the set. I think it's actually part of my job sometimes." He was truly a cool dude indeed. I miss him already.

The next few days of shooting was pretty sweet, but a lot of work. More than I could have imagined. Many, many hours spent on the set. And those night shoots I'd been telling you about were hellish. I thought the term 'night shooting' meant, go in about 7 pm, get off around 11 pm. No sweat, right? Yeah, right. Somedays, I got in at 5 p.m. and got off at 7 am the next morning. But on a positive note, these long hours on the set meant that me and my fellow co-stars got to know each other pretty well. which was a good thing indeed. I really enjoying hanging out with them. As a matter of fact, and ironically, Roger described it as "like being in the army. You bond with each other fairly quickly." Part of our bonding experiencing came with our love for playing cards while waiting long hours in between takes. They got a kick out of me because of my lack of card playing skills. As matter of fact, here's a video clip of a moment that made the waves around the set of me learning how to shuffle. And before you ask me--no, I am not joking here. I'm very serious, actually. I never learned how to shuffle in my life. I was always too embarrassed to ask anyone. Also, Mom and sensitive folks who have never heard profanity before, you have been warned there's lots of it in this video:

At the time I was really annoyed that they thought it was so funny that I didn't know how to shuffle. But after showing the clip to Sarah the next day, we both laughed at it for about a half hour straight! Very funny stuff indeed. Enjoy it. Because they sure did.

Speaking of enjoyment, me and my co-stars, or friends as I like to call them now, had some fun off set, too. We all hung out a few times around Sophia. Dancing, bars, dinner. Ironically, Yo and I got to hang the most, being that we were the virgins of movie making we just so happen to have the same days off. So I showed him around Sophia. We hit up Happy (Bunks' favorite spot if you remember from last week) and saw a couple of good movies, too.

But hey listen, I could tell you many more stories of my good times making Re-Kill. But like always, what's best is viewing my lovely photos, so here's some Re-Kill: behind the scenes photos (that do CONTAIN SPOILERS) for your viewing pleasure:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=380267954805%3A1625178675

However, let me wrap this story up by telling you about my last and most memorable day of shooting. Which, again, CONTAIN SPOILERS. So stop reading beyond this point if you want to enjoy the movie like it is supposed to be intended. It's at the end of the film, when I'm lying on the ground and literally 200 zombies are about to attack me. At that very moment, I remembered hearing Scott and Yo talking about the subject of whether or not one ever gets used to making a movie. And I remember Scott telling Yo, "No, you never do. No matter how many films I've made, there's always a point somewhere during the filming process, when I say to myself, 'wow, I'm making a f**king movie!" Well, that 200 hundred zombie attack scene must have been my moment, because while lying on the cold ground covered in blood looking up as 200 zombies, I whispered, "Owen, you are actually making a f**king movie!"

Epilogue:

The year is 2002. Owen is now a 32 year old cool, and might I add very handsome (clearing throat), dude now living in Mount Rainier. The same town that The Exorcist was said to have happened in. He's very late for an 8 a.m. dental appointment, so he puts his foot down hard on the peddle of his 1988 Acura Legend to get him there on time. He needs some fast driving music. He forgot his Chuck Berry, so he pops in a good imitation instead. One he'd just purchased on the advice of his main man Rick Pepple. The cd is Electric Warrior, a 1971 classic by the very first glam rock outfit known as T. Rex, fronted by the late Marc Bolan who passed away in 1977, the same year he'd been captivated by The Exorcist. At the end of Jeepster, the third and most spirited song on Electric Warrior, there's one memorable line, that I am sure Marc lovingly ripped from the great Howlin' Wolf, that goes, "Girl, I'm just a vampire for your love, and I'm going to suck you," Owen becomes instantly wide-eyed for a moment. This sexy but horror-filled lyric reminded him of his love for this incredible film genre that he'd left behind. Right then and there, all of his memories of late nights watching these great cult horror classics in his teens came right back to him and smacked him in the face.

After his dental appointment, he was fired up, so he stopped by the one and only place that he knew would carry these cult classics on DVD, the late great Tower Records. He purchased the first film that came to mind. Nope, not The Exorcist. Not even one of his many favorite vampire flicks. He purchased a true horror cult classic that also struck a deep cord inside of him when he was very young. One that is widely considered the greatest zombie film of all time. 1978's Dawn Of The Dead by the grandfather of the zombie himself, Mr. George A. Romero.

He watched it that night. He smiled. He reminisced. He found his true love again. While all of this was going on, little did he know, just 7 years later, he'd be immortalized in one.

Be seeing you.

O