A United Dance

My apologies on taking this long to blog, but I’ve had a hectic week and a half that has prevented me from posting. There were some surprises along the way; pleasant surprises.

First, I went to the callback in Shreveport for Oliver Stone’s W. film. This time the audition was in an office building on the far west end of Shreveport; you could literally see the edge of town from the window. I didn’t catch what the space was used for on a regular basis, but it appeared that it wasn’t used very often. Furniture was in a disarrayed set; there were a couple of cracks in the wall, etc. But you don’t want to hear about that, right? So on to the good stuff.

Right away when I arrived, I found out that Oliver Stone himself was going to be present at the audition. I began to think what I would say to him when I entered the room; but soon realized the best thing to do say was my lines from the script and let him say the rest. I have to admit, it was a bit humorous watching some of the auditionees walk out of the room with nervous looks on their faces, as if their acting career was doomed. Man, I thought, Oliver Stone must be hardcore!

So it was finally my turn up to bat, and as I walked into the audition room, I casually scanned the room and saw the famous director sitting in the far corner of the room with a rather large television set right in front of his face. The room was small and cramped which contained three young ladies, one of them being the casting director, Stone, and myself. The long and short of it was I went in there, said my lines, and everyone in there said, “Thank you!” So that was it. A three hour drive just for that. I’m excited. I can’t wait to hear whether I got a part or not. Stay tuned.

One of the more interesting turn of events in the past couple of weeks was my impromptu involvement with a feature documentary shot in Charleston, Mississippi called “Prom Night in Mississippi”, directed by Paul Saltzman. Some of you readers may recall that I worked with a Paul Saltzman earlier last year on a film called “Return to Mississippi”, which I acted in. It was the same Paul Saltzman. Nice guy. You should meet him.

All this begs the question; what is there to shoot in Charleston, MS that is of any interest? I had never been there prior to this experience. No U.S. Highways or Interstates run through Tallahatchie County, the county that Charleston is in. But I’ll tell you what happened in Charleston, MS this past weekend. The high school in their town had their first ever integrated prom. Their FIRST integrated prom. It’s amazing that in 2008, that feat can still be accomplished. Everyone I’ve talked to from Mississippi about it since this past weekend was mind-boggled. I think I should say that they’ve had integrated schools for a long time, but every year Charleston High would have a “white” prom and a “black” prom.

So this past weekend was an emotional rollercoaster. Not only for the kids involved with the prom, but for the crew of the film as well. My observations were that the kids at the school were savvy with this idea, but it was their parents who objected to it. Not everyone parent; we met some very cordial and lovely people in Charleston; but in general, I could feel the uneasiness with some of the kids as they talked about their parents feelings towards the event. The crew was affected because we had several last minute cancellations of shoot locations for a sundry of reasons. None of them stated race was an issue, but it certainly did make one’s eyebrows raise.

I don’t really talk about racial issues all that often. Race is a volatile topic in this country, and being from Mississippi, with its history of racial prejudice, I feel that I have to be extra careful whenever this subject matter comes up. My feelings toward race is that we’re all human and we can all achieve whatever we put our minds to. That is why I was honored to work with Paul Saltzman and crew on this project. And it was thrill for me to able to witness young white and African American kids; young Mississippians in a united dance.

On a final note, this event made me think back to my prom days and what a fun time it was. Just remember this; if you order duck at a restaurant, remember to bring ear plugs. Just take my word for it.