America Young - Groupidity - Outtakes

Here are some outtakes from the first season of Groupidity.

America Young - Groupidity - Season Finale

This is it! The Season Finale! It makes me sad that the season is over. But the stuff we have brewing for next season is so great! Julie falls in love. Vanessa's nerd guy joins the group. David continues his crush. Kelli meets her match, and more but I can't tell you since it'll give away the end of this episode! Greg Aronowitz joins the Groupidity family!

Thank you so much for watching! For those of you who'd like to check out the cast, click here.



GROUPIDITY Ep 11 _ Buddha Would Do It from Groupidity on Vimeo.

America Young - Groupidity Part 10

So this is my favorite episode. Eric Campbell the writer makes another appearance, but Vanessa and David really get a chance to shine! In it I give a shout to my friend's movie, Labou, that comes out in DVD in May. See if you can find it!


GROUPIDITY Ep 10 - W.O.W.!! from Groupidity on Vimeo.

America Young - Groupidity Part 9

Groupidity Ep 9 - Fearless Success

David has a secret identity. Unfortunately for him, it's not as cool as the Watchmen.

Guest starring Vanessa Vander Pluym and Eric Kan, the writer of episodes 1-4. We were lucky enough to shoot on the sound stages of National Banana.


GROUPIDITY Ep 9 - Fearless Success from Groupidity on Vimeo.

America Young - Groupidity Episode 8

Our little Brian falls in love...is it awwwww or ewwwwww? You tell me!

Sierra Fisk Guest Stars and Robbie's (Brian) mom makes a funny cameo.



GROUPIDITY Ep 8 - Something Healthy is Finally Happening? from Groupidity on Vimeo.

America Young - Groupidity Part 7

The Meaning of Restraint

So now back to the group. Especially Vanessa and Kelli. The dynamic duo. With their powers combined they can do... well...you'll see. Guest starring Brandon Loeser who puts on an amazing Christmas Show every year called Santasia ( http://www.santasia.com ) and J Micheal Briggs as Esteban. A cross over character from another webseries called The Romantic Foibles of Esteban. The last guy in the bar is Devon one of the shows producers. Also this is the only episode that I make a cameo in...



Groupidity Episode 7 - The Meaning of Restraint from Groupidity on Vimeo.

Groupidity Episode 6 - Part 2

Episodes 1-5 have been the secret life of Julie. In part 2 of Episode 6 we continue with the real, and unfortunate life of Julie. Although she finally does get some vindication, or is it? Matt Offerman and Elizabeth Harris play some of Julie's odd co-workers.


GROUPIDITY - Episode 6 part 2 from Groupidity on Vimeo.

Episode 6 Of Groupidity

One of the favorite characters is always Julie. But it wouldn't be appropriate for Julie to share in group. So Episode 6 focuses on Julie's life outside of Group. This episode features John Dixon as the WTF guy and Jorge Pallo who has been portraying the sexy guidance counselor on The Secret Life of the American Teenager. And you get just a taste of the hilarious Elizabeth Ann Harris.


Groupidity Ep 6 Part 1 from Groupidity on Vimeo.

A Day In The Life Of America Young - Getting Set On Fire

Below is Episode 5 of America Young's Groupidity web series, but above, is something that freaks me out. I know she talked about getting set on fire last week, but until I saw the photo, it was not something I could really get in my mind. It was for a television commercial for a cable company I think. It was right after she got set on fire that she finished shooting and then went and had her audition for New Moon. She still has not heard anything back from them, but that is still a great story. "What did you do today?" "Not much. Got set on fire and had an audition for New Moon. Same old. Same old."


Groupidity Ep 5 HD from Groupidity on Vimeo.

How Was Your Weekend?

So, about once a year, generally the weekend prior to the Super Bowl my parents have sex. Yeah, I know, but I'm old enough where the thought only keeps me awake for a week or so, instead of the recurrent nightmares that used to occur when my mom would make her announcement. Oh, yeah, she announces it. It started because my dad has a Super Bowl party every year and he and his friends basically trash the house and get drunk out of their minds. So, in return for his outlandish behavior (although my mom has been known to join in the outlandish behavior) he usually takes my mom out to someplace where they actually don't have paper napkins and where he actually has to wear something other than boxer shorts or sweats.

Well, last week my mom told me the big night was Friday night, so I had to find other things to do that night. Why I needed to be out of the house and what they could possibly be doing that requires my presence outside of the basement or the house is not a thought I care to relish. So, I did what any person would do in that situation, I decided to call some friends to see if they wanted to go out. The next thing I knew there were ten of us meeting at Geisha House on Friday night. As you can see from the photo above, three of the blog's contributors (ZX-Dominique Swain, WD/America Young, and Adrianna Costa) decided that an evening spent with me dodging passes and letting me eat off their plates was not a truly awful thing to contemplate. I also think they probably had nothing else to do and knew I would pick up the check. Plus, it is always fun to watch a fat man drink.

The night started out well enough. Everyone made sure I sat in between America and Adrianna because they seem to be the only ones who truly don't mind sharing their food with me and also can understand me when I am drunk which makes things slightly easier.

About six or seven tables away there was a woman sitting there that one guest was convinced was "somebody." At various points throughout the evening everyone took a walk past to see if they recognized her. No one did despite the protestations of the original person who claimed it was "somebody." We ventured it was someone from The City or something like that. At one point ZX excused herself and we decided to ask our waiter, who was waiting on that table if he knew who the woman at the table was, and he said no. He said that there was no one downstairs who was a "somebody" that night. At that point someone pointed to ZX's empty seat and said that Lolita was sitting there. He said, "That's Dominique Swain? I was in Lolita with her. I played a waiter who served her in the movie." Apparently the irony of life imitating art did not reach his head, but they did have a nice talk when she came back.

After dinner, some of us decided to continue drinking. The wise ones took off knowing this was going to end in disaster. They have been out with me before when I quote from Four Weddings And A Funeral and say, "might as well see if we can push through to dawn."

So, three of us decided to go over to the Pig and Whistle to drink and to rustle up some more friends. Five drinks later and they showed up. We then had two more drinks and staggered over to Boulevard 3. At that point, the night began to blur, but I do know there were many more drinks and a bartender who looked ready to cut me off. So, I did what any guy in my situation would do. I moved to another bar.

Well the now five of us were in no condition to drive. Wasn't going to happen. The guy at the door said it would take about 30 minutes for a cab and then there was the problem of how many cabs. No problem I said. So, I did what any guy does who lives at home with his parents. I called my dad who was also too drunk to drive, but my sainted mom came out in the mini-van and took us all to each of our respective homes while sharing with us in great detail about her night with my dad. So much for that pleasant drunk feeling. And no, I haven't slept well since.

WD - Groupidity Part Four - New Moon Audition For The Role Of Emily

I talk a lot of crap about Twilight and New Moon and will be doing so later today actually about the whole Dakota Fanning thing. However, I don't think I could be more excited that America got an audition for the role of Emily and I hope she gets it. I hope that all of you who have read her posts over the past year also wish her good luck because it is a role that can change your entire life. For all you Twilight fans who will come to this post and read about the audition, I do want to say that America is part Native American and would be excellent as Emily.


Hi!

So more adventures in Hollywood. So my agent calls me on Tues and says you have an audition tomorrow but it's stunts so make sure you can do all of them. I read the audition. Fall backward in chair (no problem do it all the time, by accident), break through glass (no problem just did it for the Chris Cornell video) AND be set on fire. Whoa. Hold up. Nope. Most certainly have NOT done that.

Told my agent. She said no worries. If you are open to do it, go. After speaking to my favorite stunt guy, John Dixon, I felt confident. Sort of.

The powers that be on the commercial are anxious that I haven't done a burn before. Can't blame 'em. So today, they brought me in for a fire test. Passing this test means 1. I have nerves of steel. 2. That I have the job for sure 3. I don't get 3rd degree burns on most of my body.

You ever have those days where you stop in the middle of what you are doing and think to yourself, "wow. This is my job. This is my life. This is not what I expected." I was never a daredevil as a kid. Quite the opposite. And here I find myself covered in flame retardant gel with a very cool stunt guy, Terry James, asking me "Are you ready to be lit on fire?" And I said, cool as a cucumber, "Sure."

It was weird. It was even more weird to see the footage. As soon as I get it, I'll post it for you all to see. So as long as I try to forget that my entire back is on fire, I do have nerves of steel. I did get the job for sure. We shoot on Saturday. To be continued!

Oh!!! And I got to audition for New Moon today! For the role of Emily. The casting director, you fans of the book will be glad to know, has read the books and loves them. And you can tell. His direction was spot on for the character. I loved the books. I would so love to be in the movie!!!

Groupidity Episode 4 - "Sleeping your way to the bottom"

This is the last episode with the writer, last episode with one of the main actors and last episode without a DP. The actor got some great gigs and we had to replace that person. Which is exciting! Who do you think it is? I think you'll think the way to worked that into the story is funny. But you'll have to wait to ep 5 to see that...




Groupidity Ep-4 from Groupidity on Vimeo.

WD - Groupidity Episode Three

So when we were trying to create a best friend for David, we thought it would be funny if he was the complete antithesis of David. An emotional musical hippie who clearly didn't care about money. When we hired the actor to play the part and found out that he could play the guitar, we asked him if he'd play for the part. Not only was he so excited to play for the part, but he WROTE two hilarious songs for it. So listen to the lyrics. They are hand crafted for the show.

Here is the link to the Chris Cornell music video I stunt coordinated and I am the 1940's woman in the video installation!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBjBFEByEDE



Groupidity Ep-3 from Groupidity on Vimeo.

WD Says Hi

WD aka America Young sent over the second episode of her show Groupidity and also a few words for all of you.


So happy and proud to be back! I so enjoyed blogging on this site and everyone's responses. Since I last left you, I have stunt coordinated Janelle Monae's music video, coordinated and doubled Katy Perry in her "Hot N Cold" video, and stunt coordinated and was in Chris Cornell's music video for "Scream". I have also been spending a lot of time being a one woman band for this show! I hope you enjoy it.

Episode 2 - Vindictively Single


Groupidity Ep-2 from Groupidity on Vimeo.

WD

Time for a bit of a break, but still a reveal. Last year my wonderful friend America Young made me that poster for my one year anniversary of doing the blog. Of course I then begged her to blog for awhile which she did as WD. I never used the photo because it would have given everything away. But, I am using it now and also because I need to brag on her for a bit. If you went out and got Tinkerbell. Yes, the one Brittany Murphy all but screwed up, you will notice that America plays Wendy Darling, hence, the WD. In addition to all of the things that she always blogged about, America also produces, directs and a million other things. She wants to be the female George Clooney but without the Sarah Larson episode. One of the things America has done is a series of webisodes and below you will find one from her series called Groupidity.

This first episode is called "I have counseling experience."


Groupidity Ep-1 from Groupidity on Vimeo.

The World Of WD

I was tired and starving !

And I'm bragging about it! Definitely NOT complaining about it.

So I booked the spokeswoman job that I wrote about earlier. YAY! And I booked another day doing MoCap for another video game. YAY! The crazy part of it is both of them end up needing me on the same day. However, the universe rocked my world because it all worked out! So this is my day.

5AM Wake up to deal with customer service of the product that I am now
the spokesperson for trying to get the product (that they gave me to
play with) all worked out.
6AM Head down to Marina Del Rey to get to the Activision studio
7AM call time at the studio. Get suited up.
1PM wrap on the video game (they only needed me for half a day)
2PM arrive on the set for the spokesperson job.
3PM Hair and make-up
4PM wardrobe
5PM start shooting 9 straight pages of solid text. I mean not in
script form. In text, like a book. And I'm already at a 12 hour day.

* please note at no time the schedule above was there time for
eating... oh wait, I DID have a granola bar.

6:13PM I'm on the stage under the lights. I have a teleprompter but
the words are swimming and my eyes are crossing . There are 20 people
sitting and watching. Thankfully the camera over heats. We take a
break.
6:30 I'm eating pizza
7PM I'M BACK! I'm on a roll. One take. Eyes uncrossed. Words are
staying where they should be!
9PM They ask me if I can keep going and MAN I could! God bless pizza!
10PM Wrap. I got to keep the shirt. I went straight home.

So what a great reason to be tired and starving right? Not complaining. Bragging. Would love to have more of those days! I know I've been irregular with writing. I haven't forgotten just want to make sure that I have good stories to tell! The web series that I'm producing shot it's episode today. Or part of the first episode today. It's going to be hilarious! I'll keep you posted.

The World Of WD

Something new and interesting that I will never do again...

So I'll try anything once. Well, not hard drugs, don't want to get addicted. Oh, and not anything too sexually depraved. And definitely nothing too dangerous that's not carefully monitored. Now that I think about it...I'm not so daring. So how the hell did I end up standing in the middle of a street staring down a car and waiting for it to hit me?

On July 1, a hands-free cell phone law goes into effect here in California. We are the state that needed it the most and from what I understand somehow we are implementing it last. Actually, the law passed 2 years ago BUT for some reason doesn't come into effect until July.

In any case, a friend got me involved in a PSA being shot for this new law. It's quite funny, actually. Bob Saget (Full House, America's Funniest Home Video and now 1 vs. 100) is driving and talking on his cell phone without a hands free and he hits a woman crossing the street, then hits a girl on roller skates, avoids hitting two hot girls jogging, then runs over a little old lady, then hits Ralph Nader and...you get the idea. When it's all done, he has hit 12 people. It's actually hilarious unless you are the one being hit by Bob.

The thing I have always said, from the minute I got into stunt work was that I WOULD NEVER DO A CAR HIT. Never. Yes, it's a stunt. Yes, the car is driven by a professional and Cole McKay is as pro as you can get. Yes, there is a stunt coordinator (Steve Hart) who's top notch, and knows what he's doing. Yes, you get to wear some padding. BUT, and this is a very big BUT, you are still getting hit by a car. An actual car.

There is no way to fake it. There is no camera trick. You can learn how to dissipate the impact. You can learn how to land in the least painful way. But, there is no escaping the fact that you are still hitting concrete when you land, after getting hit by a car.

I saw a friend do one once and I almost ruined the shot by gasping so loud when I watched him get hit. It took everything in me to NOT run over to him afterwards.

So cut to me standing in the middle of the street waiting to get hit by Bob Saget. Replaying the conversations I had with my friend and desperately trying to recall why I actually said yes to this.

We did it three times. Three times. The first time I got stuck on the hood which they had tried to make more comfortable by placing a little bit of padding on it. The problem was that as I landed on the hood, it was so soft, and concrete is so hard, that my subconscious took a little convincing to get me to push off.

The last two I managed to flip myself off, land on my feet and then drop to the ground. So those weren't so bad. And where the camera was placed, the hit sold.

I also wanted everyone to know that I just found out that I'll be stunt coordinating a feature film! That's in May. I also got the job as the spokesperson for the commercial I told you about a few months ago where they made me audition other women who were trying to get my job.

In the meantime, I'm teaching one the producers from Never Back Down how to do high falls. So, I'm keeping busy, and definitely staying away from oncoming cars!

The World Of WD

Out of body experience.

So I'm pretty quick on my feet when I'm in a show and someone forgets their lines. I'm can be pretty witty when I'm at a party and I'm "on" but I spend much time out of the "on" mode. In fact, I pride myself being one of the least "on in my daily life" actors that I know. So that means when in real life confrontations, I pretty much suck. I always think of the response 2 days later. That's why I'm so excited about what happened this week.

This is nothing to do with the industry except that it happened on Hollywood blvd. I had a meeting in Hollywood about a short someone wanted me to produce. So after driving around for 20 minutes, I found a spot. I started to parallel park but as I did I realized that that car in front of me, a white extended cab pick-up with a trailer hitch was way overlapping into my spot. (And there is no car in front of him at all) So I'm nosing back and forth trying to fit my car in the spot it's a tight fit. Finally I'm in and I roll up a little bit more, ever so slowly, because I can't see his hitch and so I'm pretty much parking Braille method. I am going so slowly that I know I've reached his car because mine won't go any further but there is no rough bump. I roll back a half inch and put the car in park.

The drivers door flies open and this guy comes storming over to me.

"Did you feel that?"
"Feel what?"
"You just hit my car and shaked it"
"I honestly didn't feel anything."
"Well you hit my car. I have a trailer hitch on my car. Maybe you
didn't notice."
"Actually I did."
"Well it's a good thing I do or you would have ruined my bumper."
"You are in my spot."
"What?"
"Your car is inconsiderately overlapping in my spot."
"So?"
"And your trailer hitch is below my vision so I hit and probably dinged
my bumper."
"And"
"Which I would not have not done if you were not in my spot. So did
you come over to apologize?"
"What?"
"Did you come over to apologize? Because if you did, I accept your
apology."
"Fuck you."

At this point I look forward. I see on the back of his truck. I turn back to him and say.

"You are not allowed to act this way and have that on the back on your
car."

I point out the Jesus fish on the back of his truck.

"You are not allowed to act this way and then drive around with that on
your car. I'm not Christian but I know Jesus said some pretty cool
things about love, acceptance and compassion. None of which you are
showing."

"Just know you hit my car." And he turned and walked away.

I sat and couldn't believe what I said. I got out of my car. Not even a ding on my car and it was my bumper that "hit" his trailer hitch. So I made sure he saw me taking down his license plate (just in case I came back and my car was totaled) and I walked away.

Man that felt good.

The World Of WD - With Photos And Video

Such a sunshiny feeling having a pocket full of money

Sorry so late! Was waiting on the set photographer to get me some cool pictures for you.

Okay so new week, new music video, new artist. We’ll call this artist SM for Smiley Music. She seems to always have upbeat happy-making music and this new song is no exception.

Same director as the PS shoot. He’s a wonderful, gentle, brilliantly creative man. For real. I’m really excited to get this gig. Making money is always a good thing, unless it’s through prostitution. That would not be my ideal. The thing with music videos is they don’t let you know they are shooting until 5 days before. Then they tend to move the date up at the last second. So they call me and asked me to
do it.

Right off the bat they say “jump from window in office building something something 15-30 feet (big difference esp in a fall) something something parachute jumper.” Hmmmm stunts isn’t so much a “something something” type a gig. You pretty need much need to know “exactly exactly” How high is the actual fall? What is the jumper wearing? Who does it need to be? A double of the artist or an character in the video? Parachute huh? Like a real one or one that we can cheat? Sky scraper downtown LA huh? Interesting. The good news this team was all pro. They arranged a location scout. I couldn’t go so I sent stunt man extraordinaire John Dixon.

So before John calls me, this is what I know. 1. It’s supposed to be the artist jumping so I’ll be doubling her. (I’m actually a great match for her for this) 2. It’s a 15 foot jump. 3. We are shooting on Thurs. 3a. Which means I have Weds to practice (it’s been a couple of months since I’ve done a jump) So far so good. John calls from the location. NOW 1. I’m still doubling SM 2. It’s a 25 foot fall
3. We are shooting weds. 3a. No practice for a jump that I’ve never done that high. Awesome.

Here’s what’s keeping me from running. 1. I already got myself into it. I’m not a big fan of flaking. 2. John knows what I can do and he thought I could do it. 3. The guy bringing the air bag I was falling into, Scot, won an Academy Award for his air bag design....wow I just noticed...I’m being very list-y today. 1.2.3.

We are shooting on the stop of skyscraper in downtown LA on the PERFECT day. You can barely see the Hollywood sign but it’s there.

I get to set at 6 AM. Everyone is so cool and friendly. We set up the airbag. John and Scot give me a little coaching and I go up to give it a try. I try a “suicide” first, called that because that’s what it looks like. You step off facing out and fall straight down and at the last minute flip your feet out and land on your back. Those I feel pretty comfortable with. But I wanted it to look more like I was doing a parachute jump since that’s the premise of the video. So I tried something new for me. I stood on the ledge and leapt out with my arms out and my chest parallel with the ground. Kinda like Superman, if he sank like a rock when he jumped off a building. That was it. That was what they wanted, and man, was it fun!

When we got to shooting it they put a parachute pack on, 10 pounds, a pencil skirt on me and wanted me to wear heels. Which I couldn’t with the air bag. That was a totally different experience. I was more top heavy than I expected and landed face first in the bag and managed to kick myself in the head from behind. Interesting. Didn’t know I could bend that way. Knocked the wind out of myself. Not pleasant. But I did it 2 more times after that. And got the hang of it. Neck is a little sore as I write this but that was one HECK of an air bag!

Here’s a clip but it stops before I land.

Then on to SM in a harness. They had to give me hair extensions since my hair was shorter than hers. So when I walked up to her dressed like with my hair styled like her her face lit up and she said “You’re me!“ In her wonderful accent. She was such a cool person. Totally up for anything. The harness was not a comfortable one. But we had to use it because it had to fit under her outfit. She was a trooper. No snark her about her. Here she is in the harness.
Then I was wrapped for the day and went straight to acting class until 11PM.

Thursday.

Later call time. Thank God. Today we are supposed to harness a few dancers to land with the parachute and I’m to double SM in the harness to get a little extra footage of that. But first we had an unexpected job. So there is this really cool moment when SM lands on the roof with other dancers. All still in their packs with the parachutes out. Have I mentioned that we are on a heli-landing pad on top of a sky
scraper in downtown LA?
And it’s windy. And they are wearing packs with open parachutes...see where I’m going with this? So John and I were tethered to the dancers “just in case”. There one point after the dancers dropped their packs and the wind picked up. John and I were dragged a couple of feet across the roof. Thankfully we were far from the edge and the crew jumped on the chutes to squash them.

Next on to the harness work. So much fun. The dancers picked it up right away. And I got to do some fun things.
Here is some of the graffiti art that is featured in the video.
All in all great day. SM was cool. She is clearly someone who is living her dream, not someone else’s. Her face lights up when she sings and I found myself smiling when I was watching her.

The World Of WD

Why are there so many self involved people in Hollywood? It takes a certain level of it to do well. You have to believe that you are attractive enough for people to want to look at. You have to believe that you are talented and compelling enough for people to want to watch you.

You have to believe that your vision for a movie is different enough that people will pay to watch it. You have to believe that the story you are telling is the best way to tell it. In the Entertainment Industry you are the commodity, you are what you are selling. The rub is that there is no real concrete way to sell your abilities other than "I know I can."

As a doctor, you went to med school, residency, years practicing, years with no one suing you for malpractice. That counts for something. As a director, writer or actor, where you went to school, and years of experience means absolutely nothing unless it happens to be attached to a successful film or television show. So yes, a little self involved goes a long way. But then comes the delicate balance. You don't go overboard. Don't change who you are. Just don't let yourself be taken advantage of.

So Wednesday I shot a commercial. So excited. First paid gig in almost a month. (been working just working for free) The morning of, I wake up sick as a dog. 102 temperature, sheets sweated through, coughing up a lung. Yuck. It's 3 hours before call time. I have a dilemma.

Do I call them and tell them? They would call their second choice and I'd be out of a paycheck, which I desperately need.

So I pull myself out of bed. Shower and doped myself up with Airborne, Midol (oh yeah that too!), Sudafed and cough drops.

When I get there I'm feeling pretty good. Can't feel my extremities but feeling good. Now in the spot, I’m supposed to do 2 very difficult things at the same time. I happen to be good at one of the things and not so hot at the other. This they know, so I was expecting someone there to help me with part #2. Nope. No one. No rehearsal for the #2 part. Just here are the moves. Go. Keep in mind I'm usually pretty coordinated...that is, when I can feel my limbs I am. So for 6 hours I
did these 2 very physical things at the same time non-stop. Except of course when I was barreled over with coughing. The whole time they would be shouting (nicely) "faster....more movement....have fun....be intense....be sexy.....have attitude...smile...growl at the camera (yes. really.)"

Inside I'm thinking "Don't throw up....stop the room I'd like to get off...don't pass out....don't die."

Then I was wrapped. Just like that. Just when I didn't think I could possibly give anymore effort, and said to myself that I don't know what to do if they say do it again, I was wrapped. They actually seemed happy with what I gave them. I don’t even remember what I did. So I’m a little uneasy to see it. I went home and slept for 2 days. When I told my dad about the whole situation, he said “next time you’re sick get a Sudafed commercial.“ Ah dad, now that does make sense. If only it worked that way.

The World Of WD

Mooshki said...
WD, I'm afraid you'll never make it big in Hollywood because you aren't enough of a narcissist. Being interested in other people is definitely not the "in" thing. ;)

The reason this caught my attention was because you read my mind. I never told you guys my New Year’s resolution. “For the year of 2008, I hereby resolve to be dumber and more self involved.”

Let me explain.

Keep in mind it’s not DUMB it’s dumbER. It’s not SELF INVOLVED it’s MORE self involved.

DUMBER - Based on your comments, and your almost scary detective skills, I have a feeling that we all have this in common. When on a job, any job, there is always someone who doesn’t know how to do their job, while we on the other hand usually do. How often has this happened to you?

Moron “ Umm... How would I _____?”
You “Oh that’s easy. You just ________”
Moron “Gee. Thanks. I’m so glad you know, could you help me with that?”
You (grudgingly) “oh...yeah...sure...”

BLAH! No thank you. Don’t get me wrong, if it’s someone who’s helped you before then please, by all means help them back. If it is someone you like and respect, then you should also help them. But usually it’s neither of those situations. Usually it’s the same person over and over. If it were someone you like and respect, chances are they would have either A) Not taken a job without knowing what they were doing or B) Figured it out themselves.

So in the cases with the moron. This is how I have been living my life since January 1, and it works great.

Moron “ Umm... How would I _____?”
Girls: Open your eyes really wide. Pitch your voice up and twirl your hair around a finger.
Guys: Dull your eyes over, look real confused, like thinking makes your brain start to smoke.

and say:

You “ Gosh, that seems real hard. Lucky you’re so smart and can figure it out!”

It’s the most amazing thing! I’ve been doing it for a month.

“Hey do you know how to budget a film?”
“Hey do you know how to file SAG paperwork?”
“Hey do know how drive a box truck?”

Now some of those I know. Some I don’t know, but could figure out. But I’m not gonna! They say “the more you know, the more you know you don’t know.” So I figure, the less you know the more you think you know. Or if you already know a lot, the more you pretend not to know, the more time you know you have.

MORE SELF INVOLVED- This is where what Mooshki said comes in. I grew up in a household of caregivers. My mom’s a nurse my dad is a doctor. My great aunt lived with us until she died of cancer. I think nothing of asking people the color of the phlegm that they cough up. So yeah, I’m the extreme opposite of self-involved (I do have my moments though). I see actresses on set totally oblivious to the rest of the crew. They don’t even know the name of the guy bringing them water. I don’t want to be that. I also see these girls audition and they are so oblivious to the other girls in the room, so oblivious to the bad mood of the casting director, so oblivious to the fact that they have very little talent that they book the job. It is incredibly frustrating.

Where as, while waiting to audition, I see a girl come in who’s perfect for the part. I sense the casting directors bad mood and want to get out of there faster so their day isn’t as long. And while I know I’m a good actress, I also know that I can always be better. Once I get on set, I ROCK but auditioning. Blah. So if I were more self involved...that whole process would be better.

Here’s the thing where both of those things backfire. Because I know more than a typical actor (stunts, producing, directing) and because I am not self involved, once someone works with me, they always work with me again. And vice versa. If I meet someone who is cool, smart and hard working I always work with them again. When I am in a position to hire people, there are a number of people, women and men, who I will always use. When I coordinate I hire people to do stunts that I know I can count on. And when the tables are turned and they are hiring, I know I’ll get a call. It’s a family. We see each other at premiere after premiere and have lots of credits in common.

There is one particular woman I hire a lot. She is the complete physical opposite of me which makes us not competitive. And makes us great team stunt wise because between the two of us, we can double any girl. She’s smart. A writer. Amazing stunt girl. Great actress. I’d tell you who she is but we have so many credits in common you’d figure it all out right away.

But my point is, if I follow my New Years resolution, would I have these relationships?

Maybe the idea is to reflect the person you are dealing with. Dumb meet dumbER Smart meet smart.Thoughtful meet thoughtful. Self absorbed meet MORE self absorbed.

Do think it’s possible to have a happy medium?