Practice Makes Perfect

Emily was the first person to sign on.

Over the past two months I’ve been developing a short film called MY NEXT GUEST, which is about an introvert learning to socialize with people by emulating his favorite talk show hosts. For the two main characters in my film, Jimmy and Chloe, I had a very specific type of actor in mind. One of them just graduated from my alma mater.

Both of these characters are on the younger side, and I wanted to convey that they could really be in high school. For the part of Chloe, I reached out to girl I acted with back in high school. She’s quite reputable and is even professionally trained as a singer. I knew she could translate the overbearingness of theatre acting to the subtle direction I required for the silver screen. Her co-lead would be my brother.

Austin has been on and off with acting over the years. He did a little in middle school, and came back to co-star with Emily for ANNASTASIA. While I wasn’t able to watch their performance, as I was out working in LA, I knew that I could count on these two to have the right chemistry. They’re comfortable together.

Today we held the first rehearsal for MY NEXT GUEST. We’ll be transforming my living room into a talk show set tomorrow, with a goal to shoot their scenes on Friday. This was my first rehearsal in over a year, and I felt a surge of confidence in the direction I wanted to take these characters. There was a considerable difference between their cold readings and their final delivery.

Break a leg, Friday!