Last week on Tuesday night both Elliat and Katie came over. Elliat shared news of a casting she had gone to and that Katie was due to go to the following day. Consider my interest piqued. Katie said she’d send me the info over email as there was still one more day of casting remaining. Cue to Wednesday afternoon. I really didn’t have anything on my docket other than to go to the casting and Katie came over direct from it. She reiterated that I should go saying she really thought I had a chance at it. I concurred – I mean they were looking for a native English speaker to play a newscaster. Is there anything I have ever been more destined for? I played a newscaster in our weekly Winter is the New Summer Bargain Basement Broadcasts and people often tell me I sound like a newscaster. Even when we’re lying around on the floors of Paris apartments…

So armed with her words of very sincere encouragement I sent the casting director an email and finally jumped on the ubahn to arrive around 4:30 (the casting was going until 5). There I sat amongst other hopefuls, read a dummy script, drank some water and then was finally ushered into the audition room to read it through a few times, once for practice and twice on camera. Holding a remote as my microphone, I stood with a confident assurance. This was the role I was born to play. I think that attitude lent me a helping hand

The very next day I got a callback!! He instructed me to keep my weekend schedule as clear as possible for a fitting on Saturday and then the shoot on Sunday. Berlin Festival and Tranny Olympics were the only things on my schedule so I said it wouldn’t be a problem and kept my fingers crossed. the next day after that, in the morning hours of Friday I got three missed calls (girlfriend needs to sleep and I’d already gotten up twice around 8am to let in an electrician and Katie’s friend Ivan who flew in from Stockholm for the Tranny Olympics I was DJing at). And of course once I’d joined the waking world, I came to find out the number was restricted, so I couldn’t call it back. Cue some minor franticness – I had a feeling I’d gotten the role, but was scared that my lack of response would cause them to award it to someone else). Luckily, all was secure. I got the part! The fitting was Saturday afternoon at 4:45 by Rosenthaler Platz, conveniently on the U8.

An image from my audition super-imposed onto a Mexico City backdrop as held by the director:



At the fitting I tried on a bounty of business-woman chic outfits in order to assume the appearance of the Mexican reporter I was playing. Yes, not American, but Mexican. I found out a lot more details of the commercial including the fact that it would be shown internally at a VW conference in the US in two weeks time to announce some major goals of the company.

Then came Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! So the Tranny Olympics? My DJ set was slotted to be 2-4am. What time was I actually stationed at the decks? 3:30am-5:30am. I got a whopping two hours of sleep before I had to be on the s-bahn and at the studio by the call time.

I walked past a VW dealership on my walk from the s-bahn to the studio and took it as a sign:

Studio entrance:

Morning catering:

I had two super awesome make-up artists working on my hands, face and hair. We had a grand old time talking about the lack of Berlin summer and gossiping in general.

At 1pm, we took a lunch break:

Then it was back up for wardrobe styling by Nana:

Lights, camera, action! I only had to do three takes and then I was done! The makeup people commented that I was the fastest (of five) of the day! Because my prop was a microphone and not in fact a Windows Phone, I obviously had to surrender my phone/camera during the shoot and therefore only have have behind the scenes/behind the camera pics:

I loved everyone’s competence and positive attitudes. Sometimes when work is getting done, people can be short in order to focus on details and not interactions. Not the case here. The theme was “relax.” It was a really great environment to be in and great people to be surrounded by.

The day was a revelation! An affirmation! I have been so enthralled with film and Sunday was proof of my path. This is totally what I wanna do!! For reals! For keeps! My only experience thus far has been super DIY in terms of my or my friends’ projects and even though it was a small crew on set, it was just so amazing and eye-opening. God, the position I was most impressed with was production assistant. Like really???? There would be someone OTHER THAN ME to handle those things so that I could focus on directing and directing alone!?!?!?! And someone to set up the shot and someone to work out the lighting independent of the cameraman??? I obviously have known these roles existed, but to see them in action completely changed my depth of field. I saw how necessary they are. How much less stressful it makes things. How possible it makes things. But I don’t want a production assistant who is working for free. Otherwise I’ll get super micro-manage-y and scared. I want the budget to be able to afford to trust someone. I want money!! Don’t we all ahahahaha But Chris and I have always talked of our dream of paying people to model for us and therefore decreasing the amount of flakes. And I’m always the one working out the styling and wardrobe and color palettes of the clothing. Wow – to have someone do that for me and then present the final looks to me for approval so that it’s still my say and vision?? A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

But let me just say, being the actor? Hella tight. I so wanna do that more. I have always approached my own projects as creating my own opportunities and after casting others in my music videos, I’d be able to make the leap to feature film and eventually cast myself. Sunday made me realize it’s totally possible to act and not have to be the one who created the opportunity. And it still be fun! And still be fulfilling! And it still be inspiring!

So now I am recalculating my return to Berlin. I leave in mid-November to return to the States for Christmas season and holiday bazaars. Now I totally wanna do a month in LA! Like badly…