Have I Ever Told You About: Wait Until Dark/My Brush with Fame
I've always loved acting. Ultimately, I didn't pursue it as a career for four main reasons:
1. I could never manage to summon up real tears (I sounded like I was crying, but I was always dry-eyed).
2. I didn't want to stay in NYC forever or *shudder* move to L.A.
3. I didn't want to be paranoid about my body and looks all the time.
4. I wanted a relatively normal family life.
And while I like to think I was pretty good at it (save #1), my personality just wasn't made for the lifestyle of an actress. I do envy the Hollywood girls for their shoes, though.
Anyway. One of my my favorite roles was that of Suzy from the thriller, "Wait Until Dark."
It was made into a movie in the late 60s starring my favorite lady, Audrey Hepburn (see above). Rent it!
MAN, I loved that play. It was tense and scary and I got to scream AND - the best part - my character was blind. It was a real challenge to play a blind person. You don't want to trivialize blindness, especially when you really have no idea what it is like to be blind yourself. What I liked best about the play, is Suzy's blindness is first made to seem like a vulnerability, but eventually she uses it to her advantage to out-smart the bad guys.
As luck would have it, I was able to play Suzy both in a high school production and then again in college. I have to say, I liked my high school director better. The college director was a moron who insisted I do rehearsals blindfolded. He said I moved around with too much "ease." My argument was that the whole set was Suzy's house, so of COURSE she's going to be able to move around her own damn house with a reasonable amount of ease. But no. He made me wear the damn blindfold and I almost fell off the damn stage (which was really high and I could have been seriously hurt). It was at that point the student producer suggested I take it off. Le sigh. GROWN-UPS. Think they know everything.
The Esposo and I had just started dating when I did "Wait Until Dark" in college, so he knew from the get-go how much I loved the play. So when it was revived on Broadway a few years later, he wisely picked up a pair of really good tickets for my birthday. It was SO. AWESOME. Besides the movie, I had never really seen the play before. I had only ever seen it from the stage. Marisa Tomei was Suzy (squee!) and Quentin Tarantino was Roat, the big baddie. I was nervous that I would be super critical of Tarantinio, but he was surprisingly good.
After the show, I hung out by the stage door. I had never done this before (RENT, excluded) and felt kind of dorky, but I was just so pumped. Quentin came out first. Dude is TALL, let me tell you. And really nice. He spent a few moments talking to each of us.
ME: I just wanted to tell you - you were a super-creepy Roat. Well done!
QUENTIN: Really? Thanks! Man, I was kind of nervous tonight. I'm kind of nervous every night!
ME: [holds out program to sign] No way, you were great. And I've been in this show too, so it was extra fun for me. [continues inane fan-girl babbling] Plus it's my birthday!
QUENTIN: Wow, awesome! Happy birthday! What's your name, I'm gonna write "Happy Birthday" on here.
And he did. See? Total nice guy. Who knew?
Marisa Tomei came out a few minutes later and she looked beat. I knew exactly why, too. That role is physically exhausting, yo. There's a lot of screaming and fleeing and being man-handled by baddies. I hurt myself both times I was in the show: in high school I got cut when a glass vase fell over and broke during a stage scuffle, then in college I cut myself on the antique fridge we used as a prop and had to get a tetanus shot. Brutal.
Anyway. I ran up to Marisa, like an over-excited lap dog, and asked if she would sign my program too.
ME: Would you mind signing this, Ms. Tomei? You were just amazing tonight!
MARISA: Of course. Thank you. [smiles tiredly]
ME: [unable to stop babbling] Oh thank you! I was just so excited to see the show, I was in it myself twice!
MARISA: [stops writing, looks at me in awe] You chose to do this play - TWICE? Are you crazy?
So that's the story of the time Quentin Tarantino wished me a happy birthday and Marisa Tomei told me I was crazy.
1. I could never manage to summon up real tears (I sounded like I was crying, but I was always dry-eyed).
2. I didn't want to stay in NYC forever or *shudder* move to L.A.
3. I didn't want to be paranoid about my body and looks all the time.
4. I wanted a relatively normal family life.
And while I like to think I was pretty good at it (save #1), my personality just wasn't made for the lifestyle of an actress. I do envy the Hollywood girls for their shoes, though.
Anyway. One of my my favorite roles was that of Suzy from the thriller, "Wait Until Dark."
It was made into a movie in the late 60s starring my favorite lady, Audrey Hepburn (see above). Rent it!
MAN, I loved that play. It was tense and scary and I got to scream AND - the best part - my character was blind. It was a real challenge to play a blind person. You don't want to trivialize blindness, especially when you really have no idea what it is like to be blind yourself. What I liked best about the play, is Suzy's blindness is first made to seem like a vulnerability, but eventually she uses it to her advantage to out-smart the bad guys.
As luck would have it, I was able to play Suzy both in a high school production and then again in college. I have to say, I liked my high school director better. The college director was a moron who insisted I do rehearsals blindfolded. He said I moved around with too much "ease." My argument was that the whole set was Suzy's house, so of COURSE she's going to be able to move around her own damn house with a reasonable amount of ease. But no. He made me wear the damn blindfold and I almost fell off the damn stage (which was really high and I could have been seriously hurt). It was at that point the student producer suggested I take it off. Le sigh. GROWN-UPS. Think they know everything.
The Esposo and I had just started dating when I did "Wait Until Dark" in college, so he knew from the get-go how much I loved the play. So when it was revived on Broadway a few years later, he wisely picked up a pair of really good tickets for my birthday. It was SO. AWESOME. Besides the movie, I had never really seen the play before. I had only ever seen it from the stage. Marisa Tomei was Suzy (squee!) and Quentin Tarantino was Roat, the big baddie. I was nervous that I would be super critical of Tarantinio, but he was surprisingly good.
After the show, I hung out by the stage door. I had never done this before (RENT, excluded) and felt kind of dorky, but I was just so pumped. Quentin came out first. Dude is TALL, let me tell you. And really nice. He spent a few moments talking to each of us.
ME: I just wanted to tell you - you were a super-creepy Roat. Well done!
QUENTIN: Really? Thanks! Man, I was kind of nervous tonight. I'm kind of nervous every night!
ME: [holds out program to sign] No way, you were great. And I've been in this show too, so it was extra fun for me. [continues inane fan-girl babbling] Plus it's my birthday!
QUENTIN: Wow, awesome! Happy birthday! What's your name, I'm gonna write "Happy Birthday" on here.
And he did. See? Total nice guy. Who knew?
Marisa Tomei came out a few minutes later and she looked beat. I knew exactly why, too. That role is physically exhausting, yo. There's a lot of screaming and fleeing and being man-handled by baddies. I hurt myself both times I was in the show: in high school I got cut when a glass vase fell over and broke during a stage scuffle, then in college I cut myself on the antique fridge we used as a prop and had to get a tetanus shot. Brutal.
Anyway. I ran up to Marisa, like an over-excited lap dog, and asked if she would sign my program too.
ME: Would you mind signing this, Ms. Tomei? You were just amazing tonight!
MARISA: Of course. Thank you. [smiles tiredly]
ME: [unable to stop babbling] Oh thank you! I was just so excited to see the show, I was in it myself twice!
MARISA: [stops writing, looks at me in awe] You chose to do this play - TWICE? Are you crazy?
So that's the story of the time Quentin Tarantino wished me a happy birthday and Marisa Tomei told me I was crazy.