What would Jim Carrey do?
It was August 2014 and I decided to venture into the acting world. No experience, No idea what to do!
Couple of good friends had done some background work on films with Adam Sandler in Pixel and Bad Moms with ..
I started looking on Kijiji and Craigslist under TV/Radio for some acting opportunities. Didn’t take long to fine student films and a few feature films (more on that later)
Auditions!
They are like interviews / first dates of sorts. You go in sometimes with a script and other times with nothing!
The first audition I went to was at Centennial College (my alumni) at the Pape location where they have the Radio and TV classes.
They had full studio all set up with camera and everything else you can image for film. It was little overwhelming to see it all!
I go in and meet the young students holding auditions for their movie “Struck” I was audition for the father figure role which was very climatic first scene.
They gave me a few pointers and I did my best. Before I knew it was over and was escorted out.
Next audition I went for was for a small film called “Blind” that I found in Kijiji
I went it literally blind (couldn’t resist) and read from a script. Nikisha Millen who was the director gave me a few minutes to review and then she turned on the camera and recorded. I felt better comparted to the last audition. She said “Thank you and will be in touch”
The next audition was at downtown location on Richmond Street East. I walked in to this office and there was pictures of famous actors and actresses all over the walls. I really overwhelmed this time!
Few minutes later I was escorted into a room and give an air duster by the camera guy and he says “make this look sexy!”
I stood there dumbfounded and no clue what to do. It seemed like hours and then an idea click!
I said to myself “What would Jim Carrey do?” (recently I had read an autobiography call Jokers Wild on Jim Carrey’s life”
The camera guy sits downs turn the camera on and says “go ahead!” and then starts fidgeting with his phone”
I took a deep breath and started make stuff up “ I would use this to spray my hair, do my arm pits!”
The camera guy looked up at me and started smilling and looking inside the camera intently with a smile on his face.
I said “ you can use this to spray your friends in the ear and clear their mind when they don’ laugh at your jokes!”
He then started to laugh and nod his head in agreement
He said “that was great! I have not had a good one all day. Very inventive idea. I can see you are big fan of Jim’s!”
With that I was escorted out.
A week later I went to another audition at actor studio near Liberty village.
There three guys evaluation the auditions this time. I was really nervous
One of them say’s to me “dance with a woman!” I said “with what woman?”
He says “invisible woman!”
So I said to myself “what would Jim Carrey Do?”
Picture myself like the character in The Mask (1994) and danced merengue all around the room with an invisible woman!”
All three guys were smiling. The funniest part was there was guy on the second floor of the house reading a book who saw me doing this and he started to laugh and applause to me!
And with that it was over, the normal thank you and have a nice day!
Now you may ask what happened after the auditions?
The answer: I got them all! I was on fire, I literrlay have the choice of which roles I should do.
There was so much overlap with the productions that I couldn’t do them all. So of the producer were actually mad at me for turning them down!
It has been amazing three year adventure! Will be sharing some more stories soon..
The Joker is Wild
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