Day 26. Johnny Depp and Police Academy.

So today was a big meeting and a list ticker. The meeting was near Hollywood, so as you can guess, the stars of America called...and then Hollywood.

The meeting was at three. So I did the normal routine in the morning and then prepped. Looked at their client list, background etc. The types of things I’d never be asked but makes things seem more real and professional. Tris drove me to the door and I was ten minutes early, which is the ideal time for a meeting and fifteen minutes for an audition. The lady on the front desk was very nice and welcomed me, she offered some tea. I declined. ‘I don’t suppose tea here is like what you get back home’? We debated and shared tips for a good ten minutes on tea. Typhoo and PG is where we got up to when I was called in. Maria was her name, and she was very nice. Unlike last time there was no fake casting. We had a chat about all sorts. Not just industry related things but anything, which I think is a good sign. Or she is just looking for friends? She had watched my Demo (showreel) which I was really impressed with and she admitted to not understanding every word but was impressed none the less. I pointed out that it was a good thing, as I do mime. If she couldn’t understand me and yet enjoyed it. We laughed and the ice was broken. We discussed visas, and she agreed that they are expensive and understood my efforts in making an educated decision before moving out here. But it still remained that I couldn’t work. We left it with ‘stay in contact’. Which only time will tell if it was a good thing.

We left and drove to Hollywood. Unlike Leicester Square or Piccadilly Circus, driving through isn’t like navigating around Hampton Courts maze. We drove past the Chinese theatre and huge cinemas with all the stars on the road. Then looked to our left and there was queue of people against fences waiting for something. As we pretended to wave like royalty and joke how this happens far too often we realised there was a big movie premier of Dark Shadows with Johnny Depp. So the roads were closed and there was mayhem. Didn’t Johnny know I was visiting?! Damn you Johnny. There were people dressed up as all sorts of characters. And the placed is filled with excitement. 

We looked at the Chinese Theatre and I had my photo taken in front of the stars. Charlie Sheen, Morgan Freeman and Chuck Norris. It’s all quite a spectacle, the tall and characteristics buildings over shadow any of those back home. But once you’ve done the above, you have literally done Hollywood. 

We ate dinner in awe of the distant Hollywood sign hoping we’d be climbing it sometime this week.

We had another screening to watch only this time it was at the LA Film School, which we found though a podcast a guy does. He lets inspiring actors, directors, writers know of things like this and invites them. Tris asked me if I wanted to go last week. ‘What’s the name of the film?’ Genuinely interested ‘God Bless Amer...’’NO, NO, NO!’. I interrupted’. And made no apology for it.  We agreed to watch the trailer. The title was ironic and actually seemed pretty funny. We signed up, and I recognised a few people from the previous screening of ‘Pirates’. So it’s a small community in actual fact. The film was good and criticised what the director perceived to be the mass population of Americans. Basically a guy was dying, and anyone who annoyed him he’d shoot. With a bit more complexity and through line than that. The best bit was as the credits rolled, some of the audience started ‘Whooping’ these where the exact types of people the protagonist happily shot down. The director and writer were now going to give a talk about how he came up with the idea, and the fundamentals of directing. I had many questions. The director was introduced ‘Here is Bobcat Goldthwait...’ Now this maybe just be a name to some, but this was Zed from Police Academy! The one who shouts and acts erratically. I was in awe, he is also a stand up comedian, so his whole talk was very funny and interesting. Despite his 80’s success his films are made on a micro budget and a lot of the time the finances are put up by himself.

Lesson Leanrt: Don't judge a book by its cover. Give it a chance, at least then you can slate it.