A visit from my parents

My parental units visited this week and I got to play tourguide here around LA.

And I had no idea where to take them, but they had a few ideas of where they wanted to go. We hit up Chinatown and the garment district so we could get some beads. I’ve got a bunch of clothes that I wanna embellish and my mom wants to make some bracelets. We came home and my mom asked if I had some beads that’d be good for bracelets. I calmly reminded her that I’ve been collecting beads since I was in 4th grade.

We went into my craft room and I started pulling out tray after tray after tray of more beads than she’d ever seen outside of a bead store. I had fun and designed a couple bracelets for her. I’m real quick at beadwork. I’ve been doing it since I was in grade school. I used to take apart all the old jewelry she and my grandma had given to me. Some of those old beads are still in my collection ready to be reused for the fifteenth time in some new creation.

When my mom left the craft room, she was overwhelmed, but quite pleased. I can’t wait to hear how adventures in bracelet making go.

The other day, my mom had suggested touring a Hollywood studio, but my dad vetoed for reasons I can’t remember. Anyhow, they got a taste of Hollywood anyway because when we went to Santa Monica, Alias happened to be shooting at the end of the pier. We watched a few takes and then continued on after my mom snapped pictures.

As we approached the set, I thought it’d be nifty to be there as a tourist rather than an extra, but that changed when I got up close. I felt like such a dork. I might as well have been in a Hawaiian shirt, khaki shorts, white socks pulled to the knee and a camera around my neck. Oh well. It was still fun and the first time I was on a set while not on the clock.

Now, I’m back to the old grind and life is very, very good.

My first movie premiere

So, while during a signing at Dark Delicacies in Burbank, I was offered tickets to go to the premiere of Doom. The other half of Ashleigh Raine can’t make it and neither can my hubby Jason, so I’m relegated to go with his best friend Eddie.

That much I’m excited about.

The torrential rain attacking LA right now…

Not so excited about it.

Then again, when I’m involved, anything is possible. I’m still gonna go and do my best to have a great time.

But I know that for the most part because of the rain this adventure’s going to be one of those stories that starts with, “Yeah, well the first premiere I ever went to–it was raining cats and dogs so I wore vinyl pants, tall vinyl boots and…”

Who knows? Could be better. Could be worse. I’ll bet there’ll definitely be a story in it, though.

My First Walk On The Red Carpet!

Last weekend, Jen and I did a booksigning at a gothic book shop called Dark Delicacies. I highly recommend going there if you’re ever in or near Burbank, CA. The shop is wonderful (And my opinion isn’t biased because of the thank you gifts they handed out to the authors. The shop really is fantastic and I’ll be doing a lot of Christmas shopping there.)

Anyhow, one of the gifts was tickets to the premiere of ‘Doom’ with The Rock.

Oh hell yeah, I was wanting to go. I’d never been to a premiere before. Jason balked citing too much work to do, but his best friend Eddie agreed to go with me…even though it rained all day.

Once at Universal City Walk, we had some time to kill. Eddie hadn’t realized what I’d meant by ‘premiere’ and ‘red carpet’ until we walked by the front of the theater and saw all the hullabaloo set up. He turned to me, “Is that where we’re going?” I thought, “duh”, but said, “Yup!” and then we grabbed dinner at a crepe shop.

We still didn’t now exactly how this whole premiere thing worked. I mean, there were fences and stuff around the red carpet and because of all the plastic to keep out the rain, it was hard to figure out where we were supposed to go. But we did have tickets, so we walked up to one of the security guards.

I came dressed for rain. I didn’t want to mess around with an umbrella so I wore my knee-high silver vinyl boots, violet snakeskin vinyl pants, green sweater and metallic blue vinyl jacket…oh, and a metallic brown vinyl hat. I really didn’t care what I looked like. The rain had seriously been coming down all day and the last thing I wanted to do was go see a movie while being wet and freezing. Due to my vinyl outfit–and the rain tapering to a drizzle–I weathered quite nicely.

The security guard looked the two of us up and down and was ready to tell us to get lost. (I don’t blame him one bit!) When the guard asked if we needed to go to will call for tickets, he had that ‘get lost’ edge in his voice still. But then Eddie whipped out our tickets and the guard’s song changed to, “Yes, sir. Right this way,” essentially. It was actually pretty funny. We had orange tickets while just about everyone else had blue tickets. I never did figure out what the difference in colors meant.

Anyhow, that guard pointed us toward another 5 or so guards who succintly stated, “Go to your left,” when we got to the infamous red carpet. To the right were all the photographers and at some point the important people. To the left, there was a crowd of tourists and gawkers held back behind the fences. Eddie suggested he hold up his jacket while shouting, “No pictures!” and running me in. I reminded him that it was already too late. They’d seen us and knew we were nobody…unless someone mistook me for Jennifer Beals–which does happen sometimes–but I doubt Jennifer Beals would go to a movie premiere while wearing as much vinyl as I was. She’s got class. I, however…

Anyway, after our stroll along the soggy red carpet (which, BTW I loved just for the sake of getting to walk on THE red carpet no matter how water-logged it was) we got into the theater lobby where we met about fourteen more guards and were given the cavity search. They pointed us up a set of stairs.

Then another guard yelled at us, telling us to stop and wanting to see our tickets again. (Judging by the looks we kept getting, I think the guards thought we were vagrants or something. We didn’t really fit in with the people who were already in the theater. As more arrived, everything normalized, but still, at that point, we were too odd-looking to be there.)

We got sent to two theaters before getting to sit down. If I’d chosen to dilly-dally, I could’ve waited to see The Rock and the rest of the cast, but there’s a weird feeling on the other side of the red carpet.

Yeah, I’d already seen The Rock when I was on Be Cool, but there’s also a sort of different feeling that I hadn’t expected once I’d walked the red carpet and entered the theater lobby. Like the fans and gawkers were all outside and everyone inside shouldn’t gush or drool or whatever over the cast.

I’d assumed once I’d gotten into the building that I’d hang around and watch the stars arrive, but the whole feeling changed once I got my free popcorn. It was like I was supposed to be blase about being in the midst of stars.

Well, as blase as I could be while wearing that much bizarre vinyl.

The energy in the building was nifty because it was the premiere and we were all seeing the movie before the general public. I never did figure out what the orange vs. blue tickets were about.

The movie wasn’t bad, wasn’t good. I’ll admit that it’s been years since last I’d watched someone play ‘Doom’ the video game upon which the movie is based, so perhaps I was a little removed from the movie, but in general the entire experience was absolutely fantastic. I really had a great time. Unfortunately, I didn’t have tickets to the afterparty, but oh well. Maybe next time.

Background Acting

Yesterday, I was on ER.

I don’t work a whole lot anymore–gotta leave time for writing!–but I do what I can. Truthfully, if I felt safe enough bringing my laptop, I could get stuff done while I’m on set, but batteries only last so long plus I’ve heard horror stories about people having stuff stolen. I don’t want to be a horror story!

I might write one, but I don’t want to be the heroine!!!!!

I do bring at least one notebook. Sometimes I noodle with writing and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I print out scenes or chapters and edit, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I have twelve hours of doing nothing and sometimes I have about five minutes. Every shoot is different.

Hollywood is a strange place and so is background acting. Yes, background acting is more like a place than a job. Extras are at the very bottom of the food chain–sometimes not even allowed near the food! [I’ve been on several sets like that] But I say place because it’s a certain frame of mind…a certain place you gotta be in if you’re going to do lots of background work and still retain your sanity.

You have to accept that: [in no particular order]

~You’re not important
~You’re not intelligent
~No matter what, you’re wrong
~You will be blamed for everything–literally everything–that goes wrong whether or not it has to do with background acting
~Some sets appreciate background, some hate background and there’s no way to know until something goes wrong
~The days are long
~The pay is low [non-union actors make minimum wage]
~You probably won’t be seen in the finished product
~It’s a lot of work for a different kind of reward than money or fame.

However, it is nice to not have any responsibilities and to be assumed stupid sometimes. Then, there are no expectations of brilliance and you can goof off without getting in trouble.

Personally, I do it for stories and characters. I never know who I’m going to meet or what I’m going to do. It’s all an adventure and I go into it hoping it’s fun rather than work… It’s usually fun. Usually.

Brian Littrell

So, Jason and I went out to dinner with a friend of ours who’s visiting LA for a few days. Our friend suggested a restaurant on the Sunset Strip because he was staying near there and at dinner time, it’s easier for us to drive south to West Hollywood than for him to drive north up to where we are.

We get to the place and it was closed for renovation, but we were at Sunset Plaza and there’s whole bunch of restaurants to choose from. About four doors down was Cravings Cafe and…well I was craving food, so we got ourselves a table on the sidewalk. No big deal, we’re having fun catching up and talking about stuff that mostly went over my head, so I did a lot of smiling and nodding, pretending I had a clue while camoflaging my people-watching.

Then, as I look up from my snooty pizza, I think I see someone I might recognize. But who is this guy? He’s with a blonde princess who must be his wife, her sister (aside from matching, potentially-fake noses, they looked related) and his 2-or-so-year-old son (complete with Hotwheel car). My brain dismisses everyone but the guy and I’m trying not to stare, but the man’s good looking, so it’s really hard not to. He and his clan sit at the next table and it finally dawns on me.

I was eating dinner one table away from Brian Littrell of the Backstreet Boys.

Made sense…being there on the Sunset Strip and all. Most of the people in the place were dripping with designer clothes. But what was really strange is that the dinner wasn’t expensive. I mean, my pizza was $11.95 and I’m in the company of people who drove up in brand new Lamborghinis (we saw a total of three–two parked at the curb while we were eating). The addition of a celebrity sighting to the already surreal evening just made it into an adventure. ‘Course by this point, I was really wishing I’d changed out of my scruffy jeans and t-shirt into something at least a little more hip, but oh well.

Jason was, of course, oblivious…even when a gaggle of teeny-boppers interrupted Brian for photos and autographs. I dunno. I don’t think Jason would even recognize Julia Roberts if she were walking down the street, so whatever. Later, when Jason and I drove past in our Viper, I felt a little less out of place. And when I told him about Brian and how many designer labels I’d recognized, Jason shrugged, also wondering why the food was so damn good and not hardly expensive. If you’re ever in the area, I highly recommend Cravings Cafe. The food’s great and so is the people-watching!

Seeing Johnny Depp

The following is an excerpt from an email sent shortly afterward:

Because I’m in SAG [Screen Actors Guild], and I live near LA, if I so choose, I can go to see free screenings where they also have a little interview with one of the actors. This was my first one, just to check it out and I didn’t even stay to watch the movie because I was alllllllll the way back in the theatre–which made the screen appear about the same size as a TV screen anyway.

Okay… All 1100 of us got in free and then they gave us free popcorn and a soda. Well, because I helped a fellow with a broken arm carry an extra drink for his friend, most of the decent seats got taken and I ended up in the third row from the back, third seat in. No big deal. I just wanted to be there.

When the interview was ready to start, a few photographers crowded the aisle on my side. Holy shit! The man was going to come down the aisle about 8 feet away from me! I turned to see the entourage. The actor started looking at people. I had a smile on my face, of course. When his chocolate brown eyes met mine, he smiled. Not only did I make eye contact with Johnny Depp, I unintentionally encouraged him to smile. WooHoo!!!!! I couldn’t believe it. Was no one else smiling around me or something?

That split second was totally worth the entire fiasco I’d gone through just to get there. He stayed for about an hour and answered all sorts of questions. I didn’t stay to watch Pirates because I was so far back, it wouldn’t’ve been a real theater-movie experience. I was absolutely beside myself the rest of the night. I mean, all I’d set out to do was be in the same room with him and actually hear him speak, but boy oh boy, did I get more than that without even trying! And I will never forget looking into his eyes and finding they were looking right back at me! WooHoo!

The Shampoo Commercial Audition

The following is an excerpt from an email I’d sent shortly after this wild and crazy adventure:

I got a message on my voicemail–an agent telling me that a casting director had requested me for a commercial and that she’d tracked me down by calling SAG to get my number. I call her back and set up an appointment for the following morning to come in and have a talk with her. Mind you, I’m in the absolute middle of getting everything ready for RT–costumes, promo, writing, everything–and I was worried that I wasn’t going to have time to get it all done before it was time to leave.

So, I go in to meet her and I brought in a headshot just in case. I mean, I have no idea who gave her my name, why they gave her my name. I’m completely clueless, just going with the adventure. Okay, so she has me talk to another agent. They make a bunch of copies of my headshot, slap their sticker on one of them and tell me I gotta go over to this other place to talk to some other guy. I’m thinking I’m going to another office kind of situation. I’m nervous as hell because I’d never been to an agency before let alone going to two in one day. I’m just a lowly background actor who hasn’t worked for a month. What the hell do I know, right? I still have no idea how any of this came about. I’m just letting it take me on the journey.

I go to see this other guy and I land at an audition hall. There’s all these 6-foot-tall, skinnier-than-I-am women with long straight hair–yes, everything I am not. And I still have no idea who I’m seeing or even why I’m seeing the guy… and at that moment, where the hell was the guy anyway?! As I’m looking for the right room, a woman comes out to talk to another guy. She tells him his monologue was good and now he just needed to go back in and give them a real strong read.

And if I wasn’t completely freaking out before, I’m definitely gettin’ weathered around the edges at this point. I mean, yeah, I have two monologues memorized, but those were from years ago and I haven’t rehearsed them for at least three years. I’m a background actor for goodness sake! I don’t speak on camera!

I sign in and sit down–still completely unsure where I am, why I’m there and what’s really going on.

A guy whom I swear I’ve never seen before comes out of one of the rooms, beckons me over to him, shoves a Polaroid camera inches from my face, and snaps a shot before I even know what has hit me. Although, by this time, I was really getting off on the adventure and surreality of my situation. It’d been years since my last crazy adventure like this. And things were waaaaay far beyond any ounce of my control at that point.

Okay, so he leads me into the room and I nearly fall over when I see that there’s a camera in there.

I did my very first screen test that day and then walked out of there thinking that all in all, I’d had a damn good time of it. I mean, it was a hair commercial and I was actually having a good hair day at least!

And now to tie the whole thing together… to this day, I still have no idea who any of these people are or how they got my name. Generally, when something this odd happens, it’s an avalanche and I’d at least get a call about it. But nothing this time. I was just in the crazy, unsure reality not having even the faintest idea what to do about it.

AUSA and Scott Foley

This is a Tale where both Jen and Lisa were involved. We’ve both written our side of the story–since there really are two sides to this Tale!

Jen’s version:

I’ve been in love with Scott Foley for years. There’s something about his smile, the twinkle in his eyes…he makes me happy. It’s not like a deep lust thing, it’s more of a “I know I’d feel safe and content and happy around him” thing. In December 2002, I was having a really stressful week although I can’t even remember now what was going on. Lisa called me with the news that she’d gotten us tickets to see the filming of AUSA, Scott’s new sitcom. I was so excited, bouncing all over the house. I arranged a babysitter and was all good to go.

The morning of the filming came and I started throwing up, violently. My temperature soared to 103. The stomach flu had hit me with a vengeance. I was, of course, depressed and mad. I called Lisa, told her I couldn’t make it but that she better go and take notes. Then later I dropped her an email, and the last line of the email I jokingly said, “Have Scott call me.”

When my husband came home from work that night I went to bed. I’d been so sick all day I could barely stand up. Now, mind you, when I’m that sick and running a fever, I tend to hallucinate. At around 10:40 that night, my hubby came into the room and woke me up, handing me the phone. “Honey, I think Scott Foley is on the phone for you.” I was wayyyy out of it, had been deeply asleep in weird, hallucination like dreams. But I still got the meaning behind his words, and struggled to remember if I’d told him about what I’d written to Lisa. He handed me the phone and I very tentatively said, “Hello?”

There was a man on the phone, and he told me who he was, but at the time I didn’t understand a word of it. I finally got that he was going to transfer me to Scott Foley.

I recognized Scott’s voice as soon as he picked up the phone. I can’t remember exactly what we talked about although I’m sure Lisa can fill in some of the blanks. I remember he asked why I wasn’t there at the taping and I told him I had the stomach flu. He invited me to come to a taping in January, and said he looked forward to meeting me. I know we talked for about a minute, with my heart beating like crazy in my chest, but I never once said anything that would make me sound like a fool. I don’t know how I managed that.

Of course as soon as I hung up the phone, I had to throw up. LOL! And it wasn’t from nerves, it was my damn flu. Then I went out and told my hubby that I’d talked to Scott Foley and he was incredibly nice, and then I fell back to sleep. It was definitely an interesting experience, I just wish I could remember it better!

Then in January I went to see Scott in person. I spent eight hours watching them tape AUSA…and was excited when Jennifer Garner showed up on set for six of those hours to spend time with her hubby. They were so incredibly cute and loving together, which was why when I heard three months later that they were separating I went into shock. When I met Scott, he remembered me from the phone call, and we spent a few minutes chatting. He is truly one of the two nicest guys I’ve ever met in Hollywood (the other being James Marsters “Spike” from Buffy and Angel).

I went again to the taping a week later, spoke with him again and he signed my first season Felicity DVD for me. He actually signed it twice, the first time he signed it on the outside of the box and because of the glossy exterior it immediately beaded up. He wrote, “Jennifer~You are a woman of your word! Best wishes! Scott Foley” Then because it had beaded up and he was afraid it would come off, heopened it to the inside and signed, “Jennifer, thanks for watching~for everything! Scott Foley”

Unfortunately, life got busy after that and I was unable to attend anymore tapings of AUSA before the show was cancelled. I’m so glad I got to meet him twice and talk to him on the phone. I appreciate him even more now and will always support his career.

Jen (Scott Foley fan!!!!)
(the far from normal but not as weird half of Ashleigh Raine)

Lisa’s Version:

Just for the fun of it, I managed to dig the email out of my archives:

WAH!

I was just watching last night’s rerun of Friends and it showed a commercial for A.U.S.A. Scott is so fucking hot in a suit. I’m going to cry now…but if I cry I’ll probably puke again. This really sucks. Kiss Scott for me. If you become fast friends with him, have him call me and wish me well (j/k)

J

Well, J, you basically said it all, but here’s how it all happened from my point of view…

I’d never been to a sitcom taping before, so I had no idea what to expect. Anyway, when the warm-up commedian guy started calling people’s friends and families and essentially joking with them, I thought it might be a fun thing to call Jen since she’d really wanted to be there. I spent nearly the entire night trying to get the warm-up guy’s attention, but he never looked my way until late. I told him the quick little story that Jen was sick, but she’d wanted to be there. I had no idea it was going to get any bigger than the warm-up guy talking to Jen.

Anyhow, when the guy dialed Jen’s number, it occured to me that Alex would answer the phone and just as I was about to warn the guy, Alex picked up, so I had to think fast…and holler super loud because I wasn’t real close to the warm-up guy.

I said, “That’s Alex. Tell him Scott Foley’s here. Tell him it’s Lisa and that I’m at AUSA and Scott Foley’s here.” The warm-up guy said, “Huh?” in between talking to Alex, and I replied, “TELL HIM SCOTT FOLEY’S HERE!!!!!!”

At my loud little holler, Mr. Foley himself looked up and said, “What?” And my face immediately turned fourteen shades of crimson. Then, he walked toward the audience and said, “You want me to talk to someone on the phone? Okay.”

So, at that point, the warm-up guy had explained what was going on to Alex and I’m sitting there in utter disbelief that the little quip from Jen’s email is coming true.

Then, Scott asked, “What’s her name?” I hollered, “Jen!” and he replied, “Whoa. Good name.” His smile bright…clearly his marriage to Jen Garner was still happy. Then, Jen got on the phone and Scott started talking to her.

All the while, my fingers were crossed, hoping she wouldn’t be so sick that she’d say something completely idiotic. I was really worried. She sounded sick, but decently coherent. I was actually impressed.

After the call, I thanked him and he was incredibly sweet about the whole thing, inviting us back to see another taping and all. I was practically quaking in my boots because I had no idea it would all escalate quite like that. The man is an absolute sweetheart.

Later on, I checked my voicemail. Jen’s message started out, “I don’t know how you did it, but I was only kidding in my email…”

Now, we’ve come to the realization that when I’m involved, absolutely anything is possible. Craziness happens to me on a daily basis and adding Jen into that mix makes for an even wilder time without my even trying. Of course, now the ‘have him call me’ line is our running joke whenever one of us is going to be near a celebrity. Hey, it happened once, there’s no reason it couldn’t happen again! 🙂

Lisa
[the weird Raine half of Ashleigh Raine]

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