Go placidly amid the noise and haste...

Because it's been on my mind lately, and because it's always worth sharing...

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

Hilary Swank, and counting my blessings...

I just watched The Black Dahlia, and was impressed with Hilary Swank. I remembered being impressed with her in Million Dollar Baby too. So I looked her up and found this quote from her:

"You need to study and work on your craft. If you're not prepared when that dream audition comes, you are not going to get that opportunity. To me, the definition of success is when opportunity meets preparation. So I really recommend that actors always work on their craft and their skills. Obviously you can't make a living doing that, but you can get a lot of joy from it and learn and be inspired by the people you're working with and by your teachers and by the material. As long as you're still being inspired by it, you're going to find joy. Then hopefully the role will come along. I just want every actor to know to keep chipping away at it." - On giving advice to beginning actors.

(Now I just need to find ways to learn and be taught and work on my craft without having any money for classes... How I would LOVE to be attending regular classes and workshopping with other actors and playing around with skills.)

Anyway, it was a little moment of joy for me to watch her performance tonight in Dahlia, because I was just thinking today about my list of actors that I admire the most. The three I always think of are men (Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Alan Rickman), and I was bemoaning the lack of any female acting inspiration in my life. So there you go, now I have one. Hilary Swank.

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I realised that yesterday was Winter Solstice. Perhaps that's why I was in such a cranky mood... or perhaps that's why I got so much bad news, which put me in a cranky mood... either way, the universe is probably out to get me, don't you think?

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I said yesterday that I would count my blessings sometime... so here are some I managed to scrape up from the deepest recesses of my tired cranky brain...
* My beautiful daughters are awesome and amazing and healthy and, the most brilliant part of all, they love me (me! really! people love me!).
* My darling Noel who also loves me, and provides a roof over my head and all that good husbandly stuff.
* I'm wealthier than probably at least 95% of the world's population. I have a life and opportunities that millions of people could never dream of having.
* I have some wonderful online friends who make my days a little bit more shiny.
* The gorgeous darling J who I met recently and is one of the best friends I've ever had.

Five'll do, right? Life's okay, after all. ;-)

Cranky post

I'm always so positive on this blog, what's with that?

Today, I'm not. Consider yourself warned.

In the mail today I got:
1. a letter from the manager at Luna Park, saying that "because of the high calibre of applicants, I am unable to offer you a position". Jeez, thanks. I know that's just a standard thing to say on rejection letters, but I don't like it. I don't like being reminded so deliberately that everyone else there was way better than me.
2. A letter from my bank (credit union actually, banks are EVIL!) saying my account is overdrawn and I need to rectify the situation ASAP. And that perhaps I ought to consider applying for a VISA Overdraft. Yeah, cos I'm sure they'd offer me stacks of credit while I have NO JOB and my name on a MORTGAGE. That looks wonderful on paper to credit people. "Oh, your only income is Family Allowance from the government, and you're half responsible for a $300 000 home loan? Excellent!"

I'm so cranky! Don't know who I am cranky at, but that's not the point. I've been trying really really hard, as hard as I can while staying committed to my kids, for over a year now and I'm getting NOWHERE. I still haven't had ANY paying acting work and the only agents who will take any notice of me are the ones with 6 million desperate hopefuls on their book who all paid exorbitant amounts of money for the privilege. I HAD money saved up to get professional headshots and then had to spend part of it when the car battery died for the THIRD TIME in as many years. I still haven't heard back from the lady about the darn teaching job at the rehabilitation centres. I missed out on the cafe job because of that stupid worthless sale job.

Okay, listen, I know my life is pretty darn good really. But I shall count my blessings or something NEXT post, today I'm just cranky and miserable and frustrated.

I just want to act. Please?????

I am disinclined to formulate an encapsulating title

As of right now, I am still processing and replaying At World's End. It's really stuck with me after the 2nd viewing, and I am desperate to see it again (who wants to shout me a hot date at the movies???). I'm giving up on writing any kind of detailed and analytical review, though, because of the way it's still floating around inside my head. When I get the DVD I will sit and take notes and write a REALLY good one!

Some friends were around last night. We played Charades (fun fun!) and then watched Once Upon a Time In Mexico - chosen, I must add, by one of the blokes, NOT by one of the three Johnny Depp fangirls in the room! I'd never really realised how funny that film is. Agent Sands is really quite hilarious!

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I had an audition last week at Luna Park in Sydney, for street theatre and kids' entertainment work. Has to have been the most fun job interview I've had! There was a group of 9 auditionees; we played theatresports games, did some improvs, learned a dance (I haven't danced properly since I was about 12! But I managed fairly well, I thought) and each had to perform a one-minute piece. I did an excerpt from Winnie-the-Pooh, with a cute Liverpool little-boy accent for Pooh. They laughed at the right places, so I guess it was alright. I felt good about the whole thing, anyway. I should hear from them sometime this week.

I'm still waiting to hear back about the rehabilitation centres job. Originally it sounded to me that they were offering me the job, but now it seems they're considering me, and the manager of the person calling/emailing me keeps wanting to know more information about me. So that's still up in the air.

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Noel and I are challenging each other in a "biggest loser" challenge. Which basically means we're nagging each other about eating less and being more healthy. I have had to do far more nagging than Noel has, so far. He even ate McDonalds this week. McDonalds! And then he lost more than I did! How rude is that.
Anyway, I lost more than him the first week so I'm winning overall! I've lost 2.8kg in two weeks, and am under 80kg for the first time in almost 5 years! Barely - I'm 79.9 as of this morning, but still, that's less than 80! That is a very nice feeling. My goal is 70kg, which is how much I weighed before I fell pregnant with T. When I got married I was 67kg, but I don't think I can or need to be that skinny again.
I'm 5'10", by the way, for those of you thinking that only gigantic beasts could weigh 70-something kilos!
Anyway, the point of this far-too-informative ramble is - yay! I'm getting thin again! Perhaps in a week or two I will post some before and after photos to encourage myself.

Not quite a proper post about Pirates yet.

I saw At World's End again this morning, by myself, and just now is the first chance I've had to sit down at the computer. But alas, it is late and I am sick and so I shall again be brief, but come back again soon with a much more better post.

I LOVED it. I'm SO glad I saw it again by myself. I have quite a thing about other people's opinion of things which makes it nigh impossible for me to absorb something alongside someone else. I am too concerned with what *they* are thinking of it so just take it in for myself. Ergo, it is always better for me to see films on my own.

I LOVED the wedding scene and was awestruck and impressed by *part of* the Calypso transformation, both of which surprised me. I think Merlin's ideas about both those things in his comment helped. :-)

I'm still not entirely convinced by the locker scene, I guess I just have a hunch that it could have gone further in exploring just *why* Jack so hates the idea of spending eternity with only himself for company. Oh and I think I've reversed my opinion on the body-double issue. The body in question (the Jack that gets stabbed) didn't look terribly un-Johnny-like at all this time. I think I was wrong about that.

Keira impressed me more than annoyed me. I still noticed plenty of issues with the tension in her face, but there were quite a few moments when I really believed her and liked the choices she'd made. The scene with her father, for example. I cried.

Oh let me just point out that I cried about fifty times. Beginning from that young boy's first steps onto the [what's the word for the platform they use to hang people? - EDIT - GALLOWS!] at the beginning.

Some WONDERFUL acting from Johnny. One moment I noticed in particular was when he and Barbossa are on the beach next to the dead Kraken. Jack is contemplating whether to join the fight or avoid it, and he thinks on what the world's coming to. There is some delicious uncertainty and fear and sadness in Johnny's eyes in those moments, especially as he says "The world's the same; there's just less in it." (cue another teary moment for Sumara!)
And again when he has Jones' heart, about to stab it, when Will is stabbed, and Jack hesitates with the heart. Just a small moment but reveals so much about Captain Jack's character.

I totally love Jack and Elizabeth's relationship. We see them as really great friends who trust one another despite so many apparent reasons not to, who depend on one another and , literally, cling to one another when they need to.

Ok that'll have to do for today. I can't remember any of the other things I so urgently wanted to mention... I'll remember them at about 2.30am, no doubt.

*Ooh, remembered one thing - I'm loving the score. Gorgeous music! Somebosy buy me that soundtrack!!!

Merlin, thanks for your awesome comment. I promise I will address more of what you mentioned, in the next few days.

Connor - I'm hanging out to hear more of what you thought, too. :-)

Holidays, Pirates, Jobs...

We had a fabulous holiday. Yay for holidays!

We did manage to go all the way up to the Sunshine Coast to meet my most darling-est online friend... you may know her as either jkr2 or mrsramjet3kids... we spent a couple of days with her and her hubby and 3 kids, and we all got along so beautifully and it was just awesome. My girls LOVED the kids and they all played like old buddies. Yay for friends!

We did the whole beachy thing (Noosa Beach, mingling with the Beautiful People), and the Waterslidey thing (Wet 'n' Wild, on a rainy day!), and then some plain old relaxing (at some friends' holiday house in Diamond Beach). Yay for relaxing!

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Yes, I have seen Pirates 3... I saw it on the 25th, the day before we went away. I shall write more about it after I've seen it again, but my initial reaction (I shall avoid plot spoilers for now in case you haven't seen it);

I loved all of Captain Jack. I think Johnny did some really excellent acting work in this one and took Captain Jack to new places we haven't seen him before. I was surprised and a bit disappointed by the "locker" scene - I was expecting that to be alittle different and a bit deeper perhaps, but I suspect I will understand and like it more upon a 2nd viewing. Plus, the film was out of focus up until that point (until I sent Noel to tell a staffmember and it was corrected), so perhaps watching that scene properly focussed will help.

I loved Will Turner too, which I haven't much in the first two. I think Orlando did awesome work in this one. And, (fangirl moment!) he looked incredibly hot at the end in that bandana. :-)

Elizabeth kinda annoyed me. I think her acting had some great moments, but mostly, Keira's inability to use her face or body very much is frustrating and annoying to watch. She needs to losen up a bit and get more comfortable in her own skin. Her mouth, in particular, seems really tense and frozen all the time, and I really don't think that's all due to character.

Geoffery Rush was amazing. He had quite a few pretty stupid moments, but he has this amazing ability to go from deadly serious to ridiculously funny without any loss of character or believability. Bit like Johnny really. No wonder those two top my list of favourite actors. :-)

Keith Richards was fabulous. It was a bit of a geeky silly scene, but hey, it's Keef. That last little moment between Jack and Teague was beautiful. (oh and incidentally, dricing up the coast last week we crossed a bridge over Teague's Creek. That gave me a great giggle.)

The transformation of Calypso was ridiculous. Blow-up doll, anyone? Surely they could have come up with a better way of transforming such a beautiful, powerful goddess.

I was frustrated with the maelstrom scene. It felt like it was about to be the big climax but then wasn't really. The "will you marry me?" etc was completely ridiculous. It would have been funny if it had lasted maybe 2 or 3 lines... but not the whole ceremony. There were quite a few little silly bits that I thought it could do without.

And then we hear that there were some lines cut that would have made the whole Davy Jones/Calypso/Dutchman/Curse thing clearer - they had to be cut for time (and now we're left with a confusing and questionable "curse" resolution) but the really silly groanworthy moments didn't? *sigh*

Anyway, so I left the cinema feeling a big disappointed and deflated, mainly due to the anti-climactic nature of the last few scenes, but maybe that's my fault for having such high expectations. I will see it again and I bet I understadn things better and therefore like it more.

(golly, that was a big ramble for "initial thoughts", wasn't it?)

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I've been offered a job teaching drama classes to developmentally disabled adults at two rehabilitation centres. I've worked at one of them before, a couple of years ago, and I didn't think I'd done all that well for them, but they must have liked me because they want me back. It'll only be two hours a week, but I can charge $65/hour so that's just fine. :-) It'll be challenging work and I'm SO glad to have been offered something that'll be meaningful. The groups range from fairly high-functioning to very low-functioning people, so it'll be harder than last time, when most students were high-functioning. So if anyone knows any info about rehabilitation/education/anything for developmentally disabled people, I'm keen to learn all I can!

I didn't get a part in that play from a couple of weeks ago. Eh. Life goes on.

I'm applying this week for work at Luna Park - character "hosting" and street theatre. That'd be a fun job if nothing else.

Oh and that retail job I was doing? Boy oh boy. I only ended up getting 5 days work (out of the 14 I was offered), the manager just stopped contacting me and when I finally got a hold of someone it turned out the sale had gone caput. It took them 3 weeks to pay me despite endless promises of being paid "in a few days". I called the company's office in Melbourne and found out that it was that manager's first sale, and it kinda sounded like she was already in trouble - before they started getting all the phone calls from all of us annoyed casuals. Sheesh. THAT was an ordeal. Never again. But, it did pay this term's preschool fees. So that's something. :-)

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Ok, it's very late. I shall try to catch up a bit with my "online life" in the next few days, but I am avoiding spending too much time here, in favoiur of getting my "real life" a bit more organised.

Toodles!

I love drugs.

Seriously. The only reason I have survived the last five days of work is my beautiful combination of ibuprofen and paracetamol. Neither of them work alone, but together, they are magic. My back has been agony from all the hours of standing up on a concrete floor.

The pay is terrible, the managers are awful and incompetent, the location is a big pain in the whatever, but at least the other casuals are lovely so I do have some nice people to talk to.

Oh and something funny - there was one guy who spent a whole day flirting like a dog on heat with me - he was whistling and following me around asking to help me, making suggestive jokes... He was seriously standing around watching me instead of working. Flattering, but I really didn't know what to do with myself, having not dealt with such attention for many years. (But like Noel said when I told him about it - "well, you've still got it babe.") Anyway, he has not returned since that day so I think the managers may have noticed that all his effort was in the wrong direction.

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Um, what else... my copy of Masked Man arrived but I can't get it to work in our DVD player or PS2. Bugger.

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Callbacks for that play have been postponed for a week, so I won't hear until sometime this week I assume. I'm not very hopeful, though, because the reason for the postponement was to audition some more people - which, to me, says that she wasn't happy with anyone she saw in the first round. Ah well.

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Happy Mothers' Day all you mummas out there! I've had a very ordinary day but Noel did buy me a voucher for a massage, so that will be much wonderfulness when this crappy job is finished. And lots of socks, which I desperately needed. And chocolate - kiwi fruit chocolate! It's yum!

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Noel got a big payrise (yippee!) and his holidays were confirmed for next week, so we're going to Queensland! Yay! SO much excitement!

But first, to get through 6 more days of this job.... please, someone, remind me never to work in retail again... I hate retail...

It doesn't rain...

So, I've been looking for any kind of paying work for, what, a year? With very little luck. (I've earned a grand total of $100 bucks so far since last July).

This week Noel and the girls and I were supposed to be going away for a holiday up the coast. At the last minute Noel's boss had to postpone his leave because the wife of one of the other drivers gave birth, and the dad obviously wants time off with new bub. Fair enough.

So, 1. I got an email from Myer after a ridiculously long online "selection process" saying that I am appropriately skilled etc etc blah blah to be put into their "talent pool" and they will now match me with a suitable vacancy.

2. A lady from a local cafe called and I have an interview this afternoon for a casual job.

3. I had an interview on Saturday for two weeks' full time work at some kind of massive jeanswear sale in Sydney. That was easy-peasy, got that job and I start tomorrow!

4. Yesterday I auditioned for a local-ish profit-share production. I think it went well. I will find out tomorrow if I get a callback.

5. Noel got an extra day of work on the weekend which paid a nice extra bit of cash.

So wow! It's all been happening this weekend. And I've been running around organising babysitting and timetables and logistics! How do mums who work fulltime do it? I haven't even started yet and I'm stressed.

I'm sure it'll be fine. I do work best under pressure, after all. My house is always cleanest and life more organised when I'm really busy.

Oh and I got my copy of Masked Man in the mail. I haven't been brave enough to watch it yet but the cover art and the printed disc look great. And my name is on the front cover sleeve - I had to giggle at how excited I was about that!

So, I'll be working full time until the 20th, then on the 21st I have the shoot for that short film I was approached about, and after that we're going away for a week or so. Cross your fingers for me that I get a callback for the play!

Masked Man Trailer

The darling people at Powered Productions have completed a trailer for Masked Man. You can see it here.

It looks pretty good, I reckon. I even managed to not cringe too dramatically at the sight of myself on screen.

Brad (the director) assures me that the film will be completed soon. Yay! I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out... but I doubt I'm ever going to enjoy watching myself on screen. I'll stick to the acting, thanks, and let the audience take care of the watching. :-)

[untitled]

Well, filming has begun on the feature I was hoping to get extra work on... so, well... better luck next time hey?

Anyway, random little updates.... I'm auditioning on Sunday for a local profit-share production of After Dinner by Andrew Bovell. And I'm quite excited about it; I'm rather itching to do some "proper acting".
I'm also submitting an audition (as soon as I figure out how to make a voice recording on my computer) for a voice role in an animated short film. That just sounds like fun.
I submitted my headshot and CV to another casting place in Sydney. Hopefully a casting person will open the email and think "Wow! Check out this chick! Where has she been all my life?", and jump on the phone to cast me in some fabulous gig.

*snort*

Well, I can dream...

The Number 23

It's been simply ages since I last saw a thriller at the cinema... can't even remember the last time I did. So, yesterday, Noel and I had one of those "hey, let's ditch the kids and go to the movies" moments, and I was rather excited at the prospect of sitting in the dark, all comfy and enjoying the suspense of a great story.

Everything bar the "comfy" lived up to my expectations (Hoyts have fancy new seats that look big and comfy but are just big. When are cinema designers going to learn that people like to lean back slightly when sitting for 2 hours, not be held up straight as a broom?).

The Number 23 has a great story, great acting, and just the right amount of "thrill" for me. Jim Carrey is an excellent actor when he's not just pulling faces; I wish he'd do serious roles more often. All the supporting actors play well too and the story is told very naturally, despite the thematic weirdness.

The film did all the right things - drew me in, fascinated me, scared me, and tricked me. I really liked it. Visually it's intriguing, thanks to quite natural, unobtrusive lighting combined with so much of the set design incorporating the scrawls of a number-obsessed madman.

Thankfully, the ending is great. I thought for one disappointing moment that it was going to have a typical Hollywood "ignore the bad stuff and get on with our perfect life" ending, but it doesn't. It's still wuite Hollywoodish, but at least honest and realistic.

Plus, Noel and I very quickly became adept at rapid-fire mathematics and were picking out all the "23"s in car number plates, birthdates etc. On the way home it was hard to stop pointing out 23s and calculating all the numbers we passed.

I just tried adding all the corresponding numbers to the letters in my name. I tried a few different ways of adding and dividing, but couldn't come up with 23 at all. Oh well. I guess I won't go crazy.

A book meme and an itty bitty ego boost...

I've been tagged by Nic...

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next three sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't dig for your favourite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.
6. Tag five other people to do the same.

Okey dokey... the book is Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman.

"Now, she is powerful and he could have been discarded. But she gave in. Because (1) she wanted him to do the picture and (2) he was young and hot and he didn't care if he did the picture or not. "

(from the chapter on movie stars and how much shit they bring with them to film projects.)

Now I shall blatantly break the rules of the meme by not tagging anyone - because of the four people I know who read my blog; one is Nic, one is extremely busy at the moment, one has already done this meme elsewhere, and the other one doesn't have her own blog anyway.

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And, the little ego boost (when I say little I mean it!), I received an email today from a producer of a short film who found my profile on Showcast and wants me for a role in her short film. It's a fairly small part in a very small film but hey, it feels nice to be offered a role without even trying. Now, where are the paid roles...

Believe it or not...

I'm actually a bit sick of watching movies. Been watching far too many lately and my brain is a bit fried.

Macbeth
We finally hired this one. I did like it, mainly for the visual splendour and atmosphere (the same reasons I love Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet), but some parts felt a bit forced and complicated. The leading performances were really wonderful but there were a few smaller players that looked a bit out of place amongst the leading talent.
The witches - I know this was a bold artistic choice and all that (they were made into teen witches who pretty much seduce Macbeth with their bodies as well as words), but I just didn't think it worked. The nudity felt gratuitous to me. I think it would have worked better if it had've been an implied or almost-seduction rather than some full-on naked orgy-esque revelations. (Oh ok, and I was just jealous of the three actress's perfect beautiful boobs!)
Anyway, definitely worth seeing. It is a little bit hard to follow if you don't know the story all that well, but my Noel (who doesn't like to read anything, let alone Shakespeare) still understood and really liked it, so it works well enough.

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Little Miss Sunshine.
This film deserved all the attention it got, and more. (well, ok, I'm not sure Abigail Breslin really earned the Oscar nom, but still...) A beautiful little portrait of a really fascinating family dealing with a bunch of pretty odd (and yet pretty standard) issues. I particularly loved Paul Dano's performance as the teen who has taken a vow of silence until he achieves his goal of joining the Air Force. He played the role so naturally and beautifully, and the moment where he finally snaps, in his own way, just left me agape with shock and awe.
The portrayal of all of the characters' weak points or difficulties was so gently and kindly done that I really felt like they were real people, not just movie-people, and it was really eays and comfortable to join each of them on their own journey.
As for Breslin's character, Olive, I thought she was wonderful. She was an awkward, slightly chubby young beauty-pageant wannabe. She's had the idea of being a "winner" drilled into her head by her motivational-speaker dad, and is just dealing with all the usual kid stuff. I was so pleased with the way she was written and the fact that, in the end, she didn't suddenly become the super-mature kid that teaches all the adults a lesson. So many films do that and it's nice, but eh, sometimes kids just stay kids. Olive never had that big "beauty pageants are so stupid and I am above that" moment, which would have been an easy trap for the writer/s to fall in to. She stayed the hopeful, young girl with slight delusions about her own talent, while the adults around her were the ones learning the lessons. It was just very nice to see a more realistic treatment of a kid being a kid.

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The Namesake.
I escaped all by myself last night and saw a movie I knew Noel wouldn't be very interested in. I'd heard lots of good reports of The Namesake, and they were right. It's wonderful. Very long, but very watchable all the way through, and a story that's quite heart-wrenching and beautiful. All of the actors play beautifully. The story moves from one section to the next very cleanly and draws the audience into the very intersting lives of these characters.
It's about a young Indian girl, wrenched from her home and family when she is married to an Indian man who now lives in the US. They have children and grow as a family and the story unfolds as the children grow up etc, dealing with the cultural differences and all the issues that immigrants deal with. It really is a very compelling picture.

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I really wish I had some interesting news to tell.

I'll be getting my hew headshots done in a couple of weeks (if I ever remember to call and make an appointment!).
Still crossing my fingers to hear back about the film extra work in May.
If I can figure a way to manage rehearsal times etc, I'm planning to audition for a local profit-share acting group's play. I'm really hankering for a good bit of acting, and getting back on stage would be a wonderful feeling.
There are also, hopefully, a few more short film auditions coming up.

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My Pop gave me a Lotto ticket for my birthday. Let's hope I win!

John Travolta as a woman

Check out the website for the new Hairspray movie!

John Travolta as a woman (Edna Turnblad), married to Christopher Walken (Wilbur) - and they look fabulous together! The story is about their daughter, Tracy Turnblad, who dreams of being a dancer despite her "plus-size" figure.

I'm really not sure if it's my kind of comedy, but I'll be going to see it anyway (not out till at least July though) because it looks like fun - and who'd have thought John Travolta would make such a great woman?

Donnie Brasco

First of all. I couldn't look at Johnny Depp with that moustache without thinking of Freddie Mercury. Nice mo', Johnny. No wonder people were spreading rumours that Johnny would play Freddie in a Queen movie.

Anyway, Donnie Brasco. I really like it. Al Pacino and Depp work so beautifully together, and the characters were actually quite fascinating. I am always especially intrigued by films that are based on a real person's life, and this one was no exception. What a life. I am amazed at the fact that the actors and director got to meet with Joe Pistone himself, and meet with quite a few real mafia men, despite the fact that Pistone still has an open contract on his head. That blows me away. Imagine meeting with a guy, and then later meeting with the very people who want to kill him, and would do anything to find out where he is now. I assume they wouldn't have told the actors the family's new name or where they lived etc, so they wouldn't be in danger, but still. What an experience.

The acting from all players is natural and very watchable. The mafia guys are portrayed in such a way as to make the audience feel they are just ordinary men, in a particular line of work, oding the best they can - but all with supreme egos and a level of everyday worry that most ordinary folk don't deal with. I was surprised by how much sympathy I found myself feeling for Pacino's character, Leftie, and especially all the other, somewhat lower-down mafia men. By the end of the film I was really conflicted; wanting Pistone to get back to his normal life, but also wanting Brasco to succeed and impress his new colleagues.

That is why real stories fascinate me so much - these people are/were real people, and their lives were so complicated and conflicted and just *real*. Sometimes we get so caught up in our own little life and it's easy to forget that other people out there have such different experiences. I guess that's why I love acting; I love exploring another person's existence, experiencing snippets of new and very different experiences.

Anyway, blah blah. Not going to get philosophical about it.

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Just a quick note - if anyone's reading here, please drop in a quick comment once or twice to let me know. I like to know what people think, and I also just like to know whether anyone's even reading. Thanks to the people that do comment - I appreciate it. :-)

Depp-a-thon

First of all, I was given another bunch of roses yesterday. I have two vases of fragrant roses within smelling distance of my computer chair. Ah, this is the life.

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Secondly, turning 26 is kinda boring and sucky in terms of people doing anything special. BUT! In terms of gifts - I received 10 DVDs!
~ Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi trilogy (El Mariachi, Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico)
~ From Hell
~ Dead Man
~ Benny and Joon
~ Japanese Story
~ Blow
~ Donnie Brasco
~ Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Yes, you read correctly - that's 7 Johnny Depp films. Methinks my darling husband and mum have noticed my Johnny fangirl tendencies. (Speaking of which - Sondheim himself has said that Johnny's work in the currently-filming Sweeney Todd is "the performance of a lifetime" ! I am so squeeingly fangirlingly excited!)

And the others are - well, Robert Rodriguez, who is the coolest director. If only I could get El Mariachi to play without the commentary! (as much as I LOVE Rodriguez's commentaries, I would like to watch the actual film properly first! Bothersome DVD!)
And Japanese Story is a beautiful Australian film with Toni Collette and a Japanese gentleman whose name escapes me... hold on, Gotaro Tsunashima... beautiful Australian-outback story.

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Oh and aforementioned darling husband also gave me "Adventures in the Screen Trade", a book by William Goldman about Hollywood/moviemaking/film industry. I'm told it's a great read, although I'm not sure how out of date it may be now.
And "Dirt Music" by Tim Winton; I have no idea what it's about but everyone raves about it, so it must be at least a bit good.

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So, in the last few days I've watched....

Dead Man - a beautiful film about life and death and goodness knows what else. This was only the 2nd time I've watched it and I haven't yet decided what I think it's about, but I have decided that it's a compelling piece of art. Johnny's performance is what he does best - all eyes and hands and gestures and just *being there*.

From Hell - I just can't get out of my head that this film has Bilbo Baggins in it. During the character's first few scenes I was thinking "Ah, who is that?", then it clicked that it was Ian Holm, who played Bilbo, which made the rest of his scenes rather amusing in my funny little head. Anyway, it's a good film. Not amazingly brilliant, but quite a few nice moments. Directing felt a bit shoddy, but I don't know very much about directing so I can't really comment. This was based on a graphic novel which I thought was really interesting - a lot of the characters are certainly quite comic-book-ish.

Benny & Joon - Oh my lord! Wonderful film! Johnny is totally brilliant in this, I can just tell it's going to become one of my watch-a-million-times films. His Buster Keaton/Charlie Chaplin-esque moments are beautifully, heartbreakingly hilarious. Depp and Mary Stuart Masterton work together in such a gorgeous, natural way that the falling-in-love of their two characters is effortless and amazing to watch. LOVE it - can you tell? (And why has nobody ever made me watch it before???)

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Ok, enough raving for tonight. :-)

Photos and flowers...

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. I sure did. My girls and I are suffering from the various behavioural after-affects of too much chocolate!

Powered Productions have some photos up from the filming of Masked Man. You can see them here. There's a cool one of me looking directly upwards into the camera. And lots of the wonderful Powered Productions team - Kylie, Brad, Rebecca, Darren and Ange. (Thanks for having me, guys, it was great fun!)

In other news... erm... well, there isn't any.

I've been writing a lot lately, some short stories and children's book ideas. I'd like to write a script and I have a character in mind but I think I need to write it in story form first or I'll lose track too easily.
I've joined an online book club too so have been discussing and analysing books - at the moment it's What's Eating Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges. A really great book; I was surprised at how different it is from the movie considering Hedges also wrote the screenplay.

I've been given two bunches of flowers recently; a colourful mixed bunch from my dad and his wife, and some gorgeous, fragrant, old-fashioned, dusky pink and white roses from my parents-in-law. It's so lovely to have fresh flowers in the house!

Anyway I'd best go finish off the last of the Easter chocolate, and what better film to eat it with than Chocolat?

Okay, 10 things...

... I hate about you!

Ha ha! Of course not!

10 things "you" don't know about me (though probably one or two of you know a couple of them) ... tagged by Connor...

1. I have a livejournal on which I talk about completely different stuff, under a completely different name which you will never find! Mwa ha ha ha!

2. My first acting role was as the "Sailor's Wife" in a play in Year 3. I dressed in a fat suit and a really ugly red tent dress and sang the "Skipping Rope Hornpipe" while skipping and eating a Mars Bar.

3. I have a nephew and his middle name is Rain.

4. Since having kids, I have developed heaps of new freckles on my hands from all the time pushing a pram in the sun.

5. I grew up a good Catholic girl and my confirmation name was Monica.

6. I am an awesome cook. Last night I made sausages with gravy and my husband was in raptures. Honestly! (I do cook really good, more interesting, stuff too.)

7. You know how at the Oscars n stuff you see fairly new actresses saying "I never imagined I'd be at the Oscars/Golden Globes/whatever"? Well, I reckon they're having themselves on, because I imagine it all the time. I don't know any aspiring actor who doesn't. I have my speech, autograph and dressmaker all figured out.

8. It's my birthday soon! The 11th April. I'll be 26. Oh my goodness, that sounds older than I should be...

9. I've never had a dream that I was flying or falling, or naked in public. Lots of weirder dreams though.

10. I really struggle to not care what other people think of me. I try really hard to just be my own comfortable self, but then I also try really hard to impress other people with my looks/intelligence/opinions. I even try to impress people with how much I can not care if they're impressed. A dilemma, to be sure.

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There you go! 10 points for each one you already knew. The winner gets... the joy of being the winner!

Nearly Easter!

Not that I have anything much to say about Easter; I just couldn't think of a post title.

Today, though, I did attend my first "Easter Hat Parade" (first as the mum, anyway) - at my daughter's preschool. What a bizarre little cultural tradition that is. Very cute, though. Even if my daughter is the one always talkign and telling everyone what to do. *sigh* I'm such a socially-backward person (in real life, it's true!), and yet I get the extroverted chatterbox daughter! Perhaps she's here to teach me how to socialise.

Anyway, enough about noisy daughters and Easter hats.

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Masked Man is all finished. Well, unless they need to reshoot something. Or they decide I was crap. Or something.

No really, I'm sure it's all done and now will be edited and soundtracked and all that good stuff and I'll get a copy.... sometime. We did the stabbing/dying scene and it was great fun. I felt good about my "death" in terms of the acting. It felt good to me anyway. My hands and tummy were stained red for quite a while from the fake blood (gravox with water, red food colouring and a little bit of blue!), which was pretty icky but looked good.

Plus, they mustn't think I'm crap because they asked me to be in their next film, which will be filming in June or July. It looks good actually, a more challenging and grown up role than this one was, so I shall look forward to that.

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I haven't heard anything about the film extra work, so I'm kinda thinking I missed out on that one. Damnit. (Still got my fingers crossed though! Film doesn't shoot until May.)

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Oh, and we watched Godzilla yesterday. The 98 Roland Emmerich one (is there an earlier one or am I imgining that?). Oh, my goodness. So bad. Bad writing, bad acting, dodgy sequencing. Awful in so many ways. And yet, some parts made me laugh, so there you go. Not all bad.

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Connor tagged me to do a "10 things you don't know about me" meme. I'm still thinking. I keep thinking of completely inappropriate things. I'll try to do that list tonight or tomorrow.

Yay for experience and learning and fun!

The first night of filming for Masked Man on Saturday was a great night. I had a good time and also learnt a bunch of stuff about acting for film that I've not really had to deal with before.

I discovered some of my weaknesses in terms of film craft. Continuity, for one. In one scene I had a mobile phone on the table which I then picked up and took with me. Only after a few takes did I remember that I should've been making sure the phone was in the exact same position each take. Oops! They did take quite a few angles though so even if the phone jumps around the table a bit between the different takes, they'll be able to hide it in editing.

Of course in a production with an actual budget there would be a continuity person, or at least an assistant or two who would take care of those details, but even then the actor needs to be aware of it.

Similarly, I had to be especially careful to make sure that I matched the same actions to the same line of dialogue. In the first part when leaving the table I had to ask the director to look back over the footage to remember on which word I had stood up. In another part I had to speak while walking from one room to another, and by then I was getting used to the memorisation of position/dialogue so when I got the timing wrong it felt really wrong.

The director didn't give me much feedback on my actual acting so it was hard to know how I was doing. Some moments I felt really good about and others I really wasn't sure. But every time I asked if something was okay everyone seemed happy enough so I guess I was doing okay. One moment I wasn't sure of was a sequence where I opened a door to find a gunman on the other side, who then follows me back inside and shoots me. However after the first take, the director (who was playing the gunman) told the cameraman to come round behind him to get the shot of my face reacting to the gun; he said "I need you to get Sumara's reaction, it's really good." That was very nice to hear. (I hope he was right!)

There was one part where I had to lie on the floor (having just been shot) while the gunman ran past me to chase the other girl. It was a bit of a challenge to lie there with my eyes open and staring blankly while heavy boots stomped right past my head!

Overall I really enjoyed myself. The production team (Powered Productions) are all lovely fun people who just love filming and I got along well with everyone. The screenwriter/actor Kylie made yummy dinner and we mucked around and the cameraman snuck around catching us being silly on camera. It was fun.

There's one more night of filming (this Saturday), and I get to be stabbed to death this time, so that should be fun too!