Precious Chong Blog
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I wrote an entry a couple of weeks ago. But honestly I am starting to get tired of the same old same old. Blah blah blah audition blah blah blah toronto blah blah blah starting over. One thing I’m learning doing this, is this feeling of going round and round with the same stuff over and over again. It’s disconcerting.
I’m in Los Angeles this week. I helped teach at my friend’s acting camp. It was so much fun. Her name is Constance Tillotson and she manages kids as well as teaches acting. So she does these camps in the summer where she writes a script and they rehearse and shoot it and screen it in the week. I taught improv games the first day and then after lunch we had a read through. I had helped her write the script and it was really fun to hear them say the lines. One little girl was only 6 so she didn’t “read” it. We fed her the lines later on. The story was about a vampire actor who is tired of being typecast. He goes to a support group for vampire actors and then works on a movie and discovers his true self. The kids ranged in age from 6 to 17 but they all worked together really well. Some had flown all the way from Texas. They were really committed. They learned their lines, rehearsed, took direction, listened, supported each other. I was so impressed. One of the things that Constance does is she treats them like professional actors. And they all respond. The little six year old girl, Reese, had a mini breakdown the first day when I was doing improv games. I played the game with her, told her that actors try all their lives to be as vulnerable as she was being just then, and let her sit down. She said her tummy was hurting and that she might have to go home. Then Constance talked to her. She said she could just watch and if she decided she wanted to join in she could. Later on that morning I had them do an improv game called “talk show”. Where they play characters being interviewed like on Dr. Phil. The little girl volunteered to be the first group up. I had a moment where I thought that maybe I should let someone older demonstrate but then I decided to go with it. And she just went up there and made up this character called Lola who loved the Bratz dolls. It was hilarious.
On the day of filming I worked with the actors going over the scenes before they had to shoot. There was this little girl who had a whole vampire costume and white make-up and she kept asking if she could fix the fake blood on her mouth. She also asked when she was going to shoot her scene because she wanted to drink her sports drink but didn’t want to mess up her lipstick. I said I’d get her a straw. So then I get them to run the scene. She had quite a long monologue about her lonely life as a vampire/actress in Hollywood. So we come to her speech. She stands up, she’s 8 or 9 years old, and starts to speak, but then stops and I can see that she’s totally blanked. I can see her start to panic. “Keep going, make it up” I say quietly. And then she starts to say her speech and she’s so freaked that she doesn’t know her lines tears are flowing down her face. As she says her lines about “what a lonely life I’ve led out here in the city of Angels for 80 years”. It couldn’t have been more perfect. She gets through the whole monologue and everyone applauds. Because it was beautiful, because she was so brave to keep going when she felt like she was messing up, because what she was feeling matched the words she was saying perfectly. Of course it wasn’t being filmed. It reminded me of the scene in Living In Oblivion when Catherine Keener’s monologue is just amazing but then something falls on the set in the back of her ruining the shot.
But my favorite memory of the week is the “guest” professional actors that Constance had speak. It was my dad, Tommy Chong, the original Pope of Dope and Luenell who was the hooker in the Borat movie. For those of you who haven’t seen Borat, Luenell is big, black, loud, hilarious and in her own words “I love garish”. So first I drive to the theater with my dad in his customized Prius. He just got the hydraulics changed on the car and when he starts it up it sounds like a jet engine is taking off. Then, because the car isn’t heavy like a Cadillac the air suspension (a la lowrider cars) doesn’t quite work. The car is bouncing down the road. It’s totally nuts. We get there and he’s talking to the kids. The first thing he says is “Did anyone see the last Sopranos episode?”. Then Luenell shows up and talks about living in her car and eating meals at 7Eleven because the hotdogs are a dollar and you get free refills for your coffee. My dad tells them the best job for an actor is waiting tables (because you observe people). They talk about integrity and how it’s hard to get it back. “I’ve known some porno stars who are great actors but could never go legit”, my dad says Luenell nods in agreement “Traci Lords” she says. “Ginger Lynn” my dad replies.
My dad talks about being in jail. I wish, I wish we had videotaped it. The kids listen intently. “You’ll get a million “no’s” in this business. It’s like you collect them. And the ones who stick it out will get their “yes”. Don’t give up”. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years and it’s only been in the past 2 years that I learned what I needed to do. You see, I’m a talker, I love to talk. I’m loud, I have a big mouth and I’ll say anything to anyone. And someone once told me I needed to learn to listen. And they were right. And so finally I just decided to shut up and realize no I don’t know everything. And I started to listen and watch and just observe. And then the next thing you know I’m in the biggest movie of the year.”
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