Monday, October 31, 2005
"Ms. KAR" (Part 1)
After graduating from film school I enrolled in a director's workshop out of UCLA. I wanted to learn more about working with actors. The teacher let me in as the lone female director, but he suggested I try my hand at acting along the way.
This was how I met a dear friend who became more than that, Ms. KAR. Another director in the workshop approached both of us to appear in the armwrestling scene from the movie, "Personal Best." It was one of my favorite films from the time, and I knew the scene very well.
It is a love scene between two female athletes, and it comes at them from out of the blue as virtually a complete surprise.
K did not know the movie, or the scene, but the subject matter didn't seem to bother her. She was here to learn acting too, the content did not phase her one bit.
K was around 25 when I first met her. She had been recruited as a model right out of college in Fresno, California, and ended up in Tinseltown trying to segue into acting.
She had a great look, shoulder length dark hair, brown eyes, a softer looking Demi Moore. It was fun being out with her and seeing the reaction of the men. This chick could stop traffic on a dime just about anywhere. Contrary to what people may think about us Angelinos, we are not totally blase yet about all the beautiful types circulating amongst us.
There's always room for one more. That was K's attitude anyway, she had a somewhat ballsy personality at times. Any girl giving blow jobs to Michael Ovitz probably has a ballsy attitude from the get-go.
We started out as friends and peers during the rehearsals. Early on, our director rehearsed us with a couple of joints. The scene actually occurs late at night when both the athletes are unwinding. They light up a joint and proceed to get shitfaced. Then the scene turns gradually more erotic.
From the minute K and I lit up, we clicked really well as friends. We were seated on the sofa, something was said, something innocuous, but we both turned and looked at each other. One of those little moments of awareness when both parties know they are a good match. "You're right next to me in the Zodiac," she exclaimed, she being a Taurus and me a Gemini. We started hanging out together a lot, and smoking more pot. It was an incredible icebreaker between us. Before long, we left our director (married male) back down the road somewhere. He probably hoped he could jump K's bones too, why not, everyone else did. But instead he witnessed the two of us moving closer together as the rehearsals went on.
The night arrived when we were to put on the scene in the workshop. K and I decided we were going to stay "in character" and we smoked a joint first. The scene went off really well. We were both zonked out of our minds. It's amazing we remembered our lines. But we were so connected that the scene resonated well with the audience.
They thought we were going to have sex right there, as one woman told us later. There was some nervous rustling among the audience. Our teacher had little to say afterwards to correct anything; it was a perfectly played scene. He rarely did such a thing, but for us, we each got a big hug. He advised me to forget about directing and focus on acting. We were selected later to play the scene in front of the cameras, for a video class at UCLA. That went off well too.
And Ms KAR and I were well on our way to becoming...well, it gets complicated.
TO BE CONTINUED
This was how I met a dear friend who became more than that, Ms. KAR. Another director in the workshop approached both of us to appear in the armwrestling scene from the movie, "Personal Best." It was one of my favorite films from the time, and I knew the scene very well.
It is a love scene between two female athletes, and it comes at them from out of the blue as virtually a complete surprise.
K did not know the movie, or the scene, but the subject matter didn't seem to bother her. She was here to learn acting too, the content did not phase her one bit.
K was around 25 when I first met her. She had been recruited as a model right out of college in Fresno, California, and ended up in Tinseltown trying to segue into acting.
She had a great look, shoulder length dark hair, brown eyes, a softer looking Demi Moore. It was fun being out with her and seeing the reaction of the men. This chick could stop traffic on a dime just about anywhere. Contrary to what people may think about us Angelinos, we are not totally blase yet about all the beautiful types circulating amongst us.
There's always room for one more. That was K's attitude anyway, she had a somewhat ballsy personality at times. Any girl giving blow jobs to Michael Ovitz probably has a ballsy attitude from the get-go.
We started out as friends and peers during the rehearsals. Early on, our director rehearsed us with a couple of joints. The scene actually occurs late at night when both the athletes are unwinding. They light up a joint and proceed to get shitfaced. Then the scene turns gradually more erotic.
From the minute K and I lit up, we clicked really well as friends. We were seated on the sofa, something was said, something innocuous, but we both turned and looked at each other. One of those little moments of awareness when both parties know they are a good match. "You're right next to me in the Zodiac," she exclaimed, she being a Taurus and me a Gemini. We started hanging out together a lot, and smoking more pot. It was an incredible icebreaker between us. Before long, we left our director (married male) back down the road somewhere. He probably hoped he could jump K's bones too, why not, everyone else did. But instead he witnessed the two of us moving closer together as the rehearsals went on.
The night arrived when we were to put on the scene in the workshop. K and I decided we were going to stay "in character" and we smoked a joint first. The scene went off really well. We were both zonked out of our minds. It's amazing we remembered our lines. But we were so connected that the scene resonated well with the audience.
They thought we were going to have sex right there, as one woman told us later. There was some nervous rustling among the audience. Our teacher had little to say afterwards to correct anything; it was a perfectly played scene. He rarely did such a thing, but for us, we each got a big hug. He advised me to forget about directing and focus on acting. We were selected later to play the scene in front of the cameras, for a video class at UCLA. That went off well too.
And Ms KAR and I were well on our way to becoming...well, it gets complicated.
TO BE CONTINUED
