Lecturing at the University of Southern Alabama

Earlier this week I had the esteemed opportunity to give a lecture at the University of Southern Alabama...and I did it in my PJ's! The lecture was for the class Acting IV, and I was invited as a function of an article that I had written for an uncoming issue of the SAFD's Magazine, The Fight Master. In the article, I discuss my experiences as an American action film actor being based in Asia, as well as a lot of the stylistic and philosophical differences that exist between how we do (and what we call) "action" in the West, vs. how it is perceived and trained for in the East. The Magazine's editor thought it was interesting enough that he wanted me to speak be a guest speaker at one of his high level acting classes.

Unfortunately due to the time difference, their 10:10am class was actually at 1:10am for me, but as I didn't have any shootings the next day, it was no trouble at all to stay up a bit later. The lecture itself went pretty well. As they were all graduating actors who were soon to be thrust into trying to survive in the entertainment industry on their own, instead of focusing solely on the differences between the East and West, I decided to also focus on my personal experiences...both the things Ive learned that have gotten me somewhere... and the mistakes that Ive made that have held me back. Given the fact that Ive spent the past 10 years working my way through the industry (on both sides of the world) without any starting connections or mentors to show me the way, I feel as though I had a wealth of info to share on the topic, and I was happy to have the chance to do so. About the only regret that I had was that the class was just to short for me to talk about everything that I wanted to, and still leave time for questions.

Even so however, it seemed as though they really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it, and it was really a great feeling to be able to do something to help life make easier for the next group of up and coming actors. Much like any other industry with a potentially huge payoff for success, the entertainment industry (and the people you meet in it) can be absolutely ruthless. As such, a little bit of advice can go a long way not just in terms of helping you to find your way- but also in terms of keeping your sanity in the process. Once I return back to the states (tentatively later this year) I do hope that there will be more opportunities to do more stuff like this, as well as seminars such as the one I did for Michigan State. Even if I am an actor/stuntguy/martial artist by trade, at heart Ive always been an academic, so Im sure I would love every minute of it.

Results of the short film.

So after completing filming on the short film with Miki Mizuno, she invited me to come along to the film festival which she had created it for. The original rough cut of the short film was about 15 min long, but do to the rules of the festival (each entry could only be five minutes) she had to substantially cut it down to create the final version. Although this is more or less normal for film production, it`s still sad to see scenes that you know were good and/or funny go, just because there`s no room for them. Such is how it goes, I guess.

Anyway, it was still fun to see, and did fairly well at the festival. (Making it into the top 5 out of 16 entries).

It was also funny because when they interviewed her on stage, they asked in Japanese: Who was the black dude? To which she ended up giving a 5 minute discourse as to how she knew me, my action background, and oddly enough, what I look like with my shirt off.

Needless to say it was pretty comical to be sitting in the audience listening to the whole thing.

Nostalgia like a mo-fo

I went in to audition for a role in an upcoming film called 'Beck'. It's a popular TV anime that is being made into a live action film, and is typical of my film career I was auditioning for the part of a disreputable bad guy. (Not that I'm complaining though- I love being disreputable). In any event, when my agent called me and told me the name of the station that it would be at, I knew immediately which production company was making the film- Toho studios. The same company that produced Godzilla- my very first film.

Sure enough, it was the same studio, and the room, I was auditioning in was similar. It was interesting to see how the studio had changed in the past 5 years... and interesting to think about how my position has changed since then as well. When I went there the first time, it was my first job. I wasn't so nervous... but only because I didn't know what I was doing, so I just did what came natural. This time, I felt, I knew exactly what I was doing... and I still just did what came natural... and hopefully, the result will be the same. (i.e I got the part). It reminds me of something that Bruce Lee said... (paraphrasing). 'Before you study a martial art, a punch is simply a punch, and then after years and years of training to do it correctly, and precisely, a punch simply becomes a punch again.'