Day 20 Shooting- The Damien Factor

My good buddy Mike is coming in from Colorado today and here I thought I would have to lie to Arclight calling in sick…, but  i AM sick- my throat is torn up and eyes feel puffy.  Fighting this shit with tea and soup and vitamins, but it’s not gone yet.  As if Mike could pick the worst weekend I also have NOTHING lined up in terms of shooting.  Yvette got sick, so no shooting with her.  Alex and Mike didn’t get back to me.  Jarrett and Rob were supposed to have their big scene, but Jarrett had a famil¥ emergency and had to fly out of town…I hope his dad is ok.  After he told me all those things about his dad I figured that had to be it.,

Anyway, too bad.  I talked to Andy on the phone- he’s got  a billion projects in the works so he’s gonig crazy.  He told me I should get all the B-Roll stuff this weekend- little shots that people put off- shoot the sets and this and that.  Not a bad idea.  Maybe I’ll let Mike take the actual shots or something.

My brother Barry drove down to Denver to see my friend Spencer and his movie showing at the Denver Film Festival.  He knew the show was sold out all weekend but he trried to find Spencer (searching the crowd for an afro) amidst the crazy activity and managed to get on a waiting list.  He also got a "Skills Like This" button and wore it proudly.

He finally found Spencer talking with another guest and Barry waited patiently on the sidelines.  Then he got Spencer’s attention and said, "Hey man, I’m Marty’s brother, I drove 50 miles to see your movie" and offered his hand.  I guess Spencer freaked and said, "You look just like him!" and gave Barry a hug, "Thanks for coming out man."  Barry explained the situation with the tickets and while doing so the Producer of "Skills Like This" Donna Dewey overheard and gave Barry a ticket.  Very wweet of her.

So Barry got in the movie, it was meant to be and he called me up later and left an excited message on my voicemail.

"Just want to let you know, this movie is the real deal, it’s got some HUGE laughs- it reminded me a lot of Bottle Rocket and Spencer gives a terrific performance."

He stayed for the Q and A and Barry got to ask Spencer a question- I’m so jealous he got to see the movie, but so happy he got to meet Spencer.

Barry asked for his autograph later and Spencer was like, "No one has ever asked me for that." and my brother was like, "Get used to it man, I’m gonna sell this on ebay some day!"  Of course the pen wasn’t working and no one had a pen, so Spencer started carving his name into Barry’s ticket stub,

"It’s worth a shitload more now," Spencer said.

I can’t wait to hear from Spencer about meeting my brother- we’re all going to the batting cages on Saturday.  I saw him on Halloween and we were improvising a song about my costume for most of the night.

(singing) "he’s got a fish for a dii-ick."

I had a fish for a dick for my costume, it was sticking out of my zipper…, but the flounder was also a vietnam vet, so it had a bloody eye patch, it was wearing dog tags and a grenade strapped to its gills in case it got suicidal.  Also chomping on a cigar.  My initial costume sucked, so I put all my effort on he fish part.  Cheap laughs all night.

anyway…on to the Damien Factor….

Damien always calls me about rehearsals and getting together with May and Yvette…I appreciate his dedication, but I only get one day from him a week and we have to be free for HIM and chop-chop lets do this thing- its almost like he’s scheduling US and not vice versa.  Anyway, just grateful he’s doing it and now he’s so fucking business-like about it after all that moaning and groaning.

Yvette warned me that in the last rehearsal Damien was clearly coming onto her.  She called him on it and said that flirtation had nothing to do with the scene, but Damien was determined to get some kissing in and once again Yvette told him to cut the shit.

"I can’t help it, you’re so fucking hot."

It takes a lot to shock Yvette and she just wanted to know what I was up against.  This really pissed me off- now I’m going to have all this stupid tension on set and we haven’t even shot a fucking scene with them together yet!  I’m supposed to get these two in a SHOWER at some point and have them making out and all I’m going to think is- the fucker is enjoying it and he’s not even in character, he’s thinking about fucking Yvette.  This story is not about sex at all- it’s about suffering and coping with loss and guilt.  Since the beginning with our private readings Damien has always steered the scene towards sex.

"What is this scene about, he wants to fuck her doesn’t he?"

"No Damien."

I had to keep telling him over and over and I don’t know if its A.D.D. or his alcohol problem or what, but it’s like he doesn’t give a fuck about the story even though he pulls this lets get down to business act.

We picked up some Mexican food at Sharky’s and drove over to Damien’s.  He let us in the building and I unloaded my stuff.  After we ate Yvette went upstairs to avoid the cats- allergies..  Watching tv next to Damien is an experience because if you listen closely you hear him talking almost inaudibly to himself.  He had a smoke on the deck and then we went upstairs.  They ran their lines while I set up equipment.

We took some posters off his wall along with his mirror, so that the wall was bare behind the bed.  They ran the scene and like Yvette said, Damien steered it to inappropriate flirtation.

"Damien, the scene isn’t about sex." I told him.  He grinned at me, a little taken aback.  Maybe he knew what was coming.

"She’s your guardian angel, your protector.  You’re looking at something beautiful, you’re not trying to fuck it."

It was a harsh way to put it, but trust me, it didn’t phase him because he still steered towards the sexual tension.  The worst part about that night was when I asked him,

"Damien, what just happened in the previous scene?"

"They just came home from the bar right-"

and I couldn’t believe it.  He may know his lines and he might run them over and over again, but he didn’t know where the fuck he was in the script!  He just came home from a living nightmare, seeing his dead sister in the cemetery and Iris is comforting him.  Here he thinks he’s getting ready for a BJ or something.

It was embarassing and I hate making this entry about how Damien pissed me off, but why lie about that night.  I guess it got even worse when Damien said something like,

"Well, I’m just waiting for you to fucking direct me,"

and I misintrepeted it.

"What are you giving me shit?"

Uncomfortable pause.

My voice was shaky because I was clearly mad and Damien was genuinely surprised.

"No, I’m not giving you shit."

"Well the way you just said that it sounds like you’re pissed."

"Not at all dude."

So I looked like the asshole and it drove me up the wall.

I take it back- the WORST thing about that night was when Damien ran the 2nd half of his lines with Yvette- relentlessly- he kept going over them and over them again, but not in a typical actor way- sort of monotone and just repeating them for the sake of memorizing them.  Instead he repeated the words until he took on this aggressive tone, even slipping in some curse words that were not even in the script " Thank you for being here you fucking bitch," he said and  it was sort of in a joking way, but it was still nasty and it just built up more and more until I finally stopped him,

"Alright Damien, that’s enough."

Enough of that.  The HIGHLIGHT of the night was filming an actual scene.  We ditched the scene with dilalogue because I didn’t want to pressure them on the first night, so instead we filmed something fun- the laughing scene.  It’s just a laughing fit shared between the two of them- we don’t know why they’re laughing, but it goes on for a minute. 

"I got the two best laughers in the world in this room, so I just want to hear it."  It’s true too- they have the best laughs in the world as far as I’m concerned.  Yvette’s laugh is so full and joyous while Damien’s is machine gun rapid-fire and violent.  It’s dangerous to bring him to funny movies, but it’s also a hilarious experience.

So they warmed up to it and I got some great footage.  There was a couple moments when Damien tried getting close to her and it was weird, but then he stopped trying.  I just kept the camera rolling for five minutes.  We did two takes.  Yevtte was getting sick form the cats so we had to call it quits.  I had had anout by then anyway, but at least it ended on an interesting note.

Damien is a great actor, so as long as I keep him in check he WILL deliver, I just have to relax and get used to him.  I recognized this after talking to Andy who just finds Damien constantly amusing and I know Damien IS a good guy he just has a lot of demons like the fucking character he’s playing and I just have to kick him with the spurs to get his attention.

Yvette got really sick and was out of commission for the week, so we didn’t shoot their scene.  Everybody got sick, including me, but iI was going to call out from work anyway because my good friend Mike flew in from Colorado.

-Marty-