我们在《杰西的秘密任务》(见)中看到杰西成功完成了他登陆上海后的第一项任务，短短几个小时就轻松地赚了一千二百大洋。可是尽管报酬不错，但毕竟那种活上不了什么台面，所以他还得继续努力找一份较为体面的工作。于是他积极开展NETWORKING：泡酒吧、去聚会、参加 TOASTMASTER (上海竟然已有好几个小组)、、、

据说除了教授英语，国内最需要老外的职业就是各种演员。现在不少电影、电视剧、广告动不动就要放些个有老外的镜头。大鼻子如会说几句中文的都有极可能在那里的影屏上施展一番才华。于是当杰西得知有人在找外国演员时他马上跃跃欲试、、、

Sunday, November 23, 2003
Networking and Acting

So I’ve been going to bars alot. And parties. And Toastmasters. I’ve been trying to become Mr. Social. Some of you, like Jeremy and Brad will say “Jesse…you have always been Mr. Social.” Some of you,…well…most of you will say “Jesse…becomes social…really?” This is how I do my job search here. I go to events and bars. I talk to people. I hand out business cards and collect there cards.

So far I have gone to interview for a Product Manager position with Intel (I didn’t get the job…they are giving it to an internal hire…but I never got an interview with them before). I am interviewing with a consulting company for a business development position (basically I would be paid a little money plus commission to do what I’m doing now…go to networking meetings and pass out cards). I interviewed for a Business Systems Analysis position for a credit card software company. I got the Intel interview through a T-bird Alumni. The other interviews were from referrals from people I met in bars. In the later two interviews, they called in Chinese workers to test my Chinese; they all said I spoke with charm and intelligence.

So I met this guy named Jack in a bar who told me he was looking for foreigners to be actors, models, etc in commercials and movies. I told him I didn’t like the idea because foreigners are always portrayed as the “bad guy”, or without normal human relationship sense. Or they are stupid red-headed Canadian clowns. But I would not mind being cast as a zombie or other monster. Big, hairy chested monster.

I got a call the next day to appear at an audition. Jack didn’t tell me anything about the role, except that it is a horror movie and the director is American. I thought, “Great! I can be the zombie and eat the brains of the sexy (but too short and stupid) Chinese girl!” I took a taxi to the audition location. It was raining heavily and pitch black. The address took me down a dark alleyway in a sort-of slum area (meaning, big molding Stalinist concrete apartments). I walked down the alley way and couldn’t find the address. I said (in Chinese) “This must be a fudging joke. I will fudging kill Jack the next time I fudging see him”. Just then a girl called out from a doorway telling me to come. The girl, AnAn, was Jack’s coworker.

The audition studio was a two story apartment with bright red painted walls covered with movie props. (the fact that it was a two story apartment meant that some thick walls were knocked out of this 1950s set-piece apartment block) Beautiful people all around. Not model-beautiful. They were TV-beautiful. The type of archetype good looks you never ever see walking down the street to the $.45 dumpling restaurant.

AnAn asked me about my past acting experience. I said none. She was pissed. “Why did you come here then?!”
“One. Do not use that tone with me. Two. I’m here because Jack told me to come here. What is YOUR problem?”
“The problem is Jack sent you to audition for the lead role and you have no experience!”
Lead role?! “No problem. Any moron can act.”
AnAn took me into another room filled with actors waiting to audition. She was very nervous. She put the audition script in front of me - it was all in Chinese…which I cannot read.

The assistant casting director sat down next to me. She was nice. She started to explain the movie. “Its a horror movie. But it has some things to do with religeon. Do you understand?”
“Yes. Horror and religion in one movie. Like peanut butter and chocolate. ”
“Right. Now…you are a police investigator. The head investigator. You are a tough guy. And there are these people that are dying. After they die, they get a mark carved into their foreheads.”
“Sort of like a Roman Polanski film?”
“I don’t know.”
“OK. Go on.”
“So in this scene, you are in the office with your two subordinates. And you are questioning them about these murders.”.
“I think I’ve seen this movie before. So… cool. I’m gonna be the tough cop.”

The audition script was in Chinese, which I do not read so well. The assistant casting director sat to one side of me, AnAn on the other. I first reviewed the script for words I didn’t know.
“What’s this?”
“It means this (pointing to forehead)”
“Brain?”
“No, this…”
“Oh. [english] Forehead [/english]. And this?”
“Carve a sign”.
“OK. And this?”
“SuanMing”
“I can actually read these characters. What does SuanMing mean?”
“You have this in Western countries too. Usually an older woman or Tibetan person who looks at your hand, or sometimes looks at eggs or tea, and then tell you something about yourself. They can tell you what happens in the future too.”
“[english] Fortuneteller. OK [/english]”

I spend about 1/2 hour memorizing the lines. Then I was taken downstairs to meet the casting director. The movie director (I think) was standing on the side. He told me to put my leather jacket back on…he liked the look. I stood in front of a camera, said my name, and told the camera a little about myself. The casting director looked like a younger Chow Yun Fat (Killer, Replacement Killers, King and I) Very cool. They were very warm and supportive. Then I said my lines.

Lacky cop1: Chief, look at this.
Chief Detective Anthony (me): These two have some kind of mark carved into their foreheads. I think we are missing something.
Lacky cop2: Maybe we need to consult a fortuneteller.
Anthony: Fortuneteller! Are you kidding? Then what are we here for?
[pause. Anthony examines the body] Look. Here is a dead man. I don’t need no god damn Mr. Fortuneteller to tell me that. [contemplate a second] Do you think there is a relationship with the time of death?
Lackey cop 2: I dunno Chief.
Anthony: Maybe if we add up the marks on their heads, it will spell out the killer’s name. Could it be that simple?

Cut!

They thanked me profusely and said my Chinese was great. I think they were looking for someone who actually acted before. I kept getting the feeling that they were expecting me to do certain things that only actors know about. For instance, after the audition, I was supposed to hold my last facial expression for a couple of seconds. No one told me that before.

It was a really incredible experience though. I have not memorized lines like this in a long time, and I don’t believe I ever memorized a Chinese script (except when I had to recite a stupid poem with my class when I was attending BeiDa). I think I’ll go for more auditions here. Not for the lead role though - I will need to take some acting classes before I get a main part.