The (Mis)adventures of a Banker Turned Actor

Arol the Expatriate?

2006-11-19T11:30:00.000-05:00

It is tough to succeed in the entertainment business. You have to have a modicum of talent, be able to network well, sell yourself well and have a knack for being in the right place at the right time. In addition, you have to be persistent and keep getting yourself out there, in whatever capacity that may be.

A perfect example of this happened to me recently. A fellow actor, Bill Fairbairn and I had always wanted to work together since appearing in a couple of Shakespeare plays several years ago. He brought to my attention a wonderful two person play called “Mass Appeal” about an alcoholic older priest and the young, maverick seminary student he tries to mentor. The play was written by Bill C. Davis and first appeared in 1991 with a very prominent Off-Broadway theatre company (Manhattan Theatre Club) and subsequently moved to Broadway staring a then relatively unknown Eric Roberts (Julia Roberts brother). Bill Fairbairn and I both thought this would be an excellent production for both of us – easy to mount (just one set piece), easy to cast – me and him, done! - and a prize winning playwright.

I contacted the playwright’s agent at ICM, Buddy Thomas, and had a few email exchanges about obtaining the rights to perform the play which he seemed to think wouldn’t be a problem. While I was in the process of gathering the necessary information – venue, dates, ticket prices, etc. I heard back from Buddy saying that the situation had changed, that some big NY theatre company had optioned one of Bill C. Davis’ other plays and now they were holding back rights to his other titles hoping that there might now be renewed interest in them by more prominent theatre people than Bill Fairbairn and me (if you can imagine that). we were very disappointed since we had really planned to make this production as high profile as possible in an attempt to get the attention of agents and casting directors and try to further our careers.

Buddy was very apologetic for having led us to believe the rights were a done deal and at the end of his email he said that the playwright Bill C. Davis liked our resumes and our energy and enthusiasm and thought we would be perfect for a new play of his called EXPATRIATE that was hot off the printer. He wanted to meet with us to potentially do a reading of the play and then take it from there. Bill F. and I were totally jazzed up thinking about the possibilities of working with a prize winning published playwright.

Our first meeting with Bill C. was at the Algonquin Hotel in midtown and, by all accounts, it went very well. He is a very down to earth guy. Very humble. It's hard to believe he is such a successful playwright. During lunch we talked about the play mostly and about the characters. It is a very well written play about a dysfunctional family from Massachusetts. The plot centers around a son who has decided to leave the country and move to his ancestral home in Ireland because he is disillusioned with the way the country is going. I normally wouldn’t be interested in a politically based play, but that is only on the surface. Underneath is a rich web of family relationships that is very interesting. We have met twice since then to read through the play and try to find the third character, Muddy, the grandmother. It is unclear where this will go – Bill C. is careful not to promise too much – but we will at least do a reading probably for a small group of people so he can see how it reads in front of an audience. I am trying to keep my excitement in check, but I know that while it could end up going nowhere, it could also lead to a full production of the play Off-Broadway or otherwise which would definitely help to further my career. It’s all about getting out there, making it happen for yourself and meeting the right people. We’ll see. I’ll keep you posted.

Whitsun Sets Without A Performance

2006-11-19T11:00:00.000-05:00

This is the story of the often bizarre Oddessy of a play struggling to make it to the stage. It had been over two years since I appeared in a stage production (September 2004's “Meet the Real Ernest Shackleton” for those of you keeping track). Since then I have been concentrating mostly on writing and making my own films and trying to be very selective about my next theatre project. For the past year and a half though I have been peripherally involved in an English translation of a new French play called “Whitsun” (which is the European word for the religious holiday Pentecost).

The play is very Euorpean – short on plot, but high on character and symbolism. It centers on the relationship between an elderly woman and her neighbor, a young actress who is stood up by her finance during a long holiday weekend in Paris.

The writer, Alain Malraux, an eccentric Frenchman, and the director, Aleksey Burago, a laconic Russian, organized several readings to try to rasie funds during that time. I was asked to read the role of Mahieu (pronouced My-You), a young doctor who befriends the elderly woman when he is called to her apartment after she has a diabetic seisure and pursues in vain the pretty, young actress. I would sit in for a reading, glad-hand some potential investors and then I would not hear anything for months. As it turned out, there were other readings, but they used other actors for the role of Mahieu. It appeared that the writer, director and the woman playing the lead role, very accomplished actress named Victoria Boothby, all had their favorites for the three other roles and kept squabbling over them.

Finally, in March of 2006 I was called by Victoria saying that they were going to go ahead and mount a production of Whitsun and they wanted to offer me the part of Mahieu. Well, I was flattered, but also a bit wary as I knew they had proved somewhat inept at fund raising and I was curious to see who had signed on to produce the play.

When we met at the Players Club a week later I was dissapoinged to find out that no money had been raised, but that the triumvirate (Writer, Director, Lead Actress) had decided to put up some money themselves for the production. The producers? Once again the triumvirate. That alone should have been enough to tell me to run for the hills. Talented actor, writer and director they may be, but you need an experienced producer to mount a production - even one that is Off-Off Broadway.

But I stayed through the reading which included a very young actress in the role of Anuk (the young actress) and an equally young man in the role of the finance. The girl brought her stage father along - apparently a former successful actor in Germany who kept interrupting the rehearsal to inquire how much his daughter would be paid. The poor "producers" could only shrug their shoulders and say they would like to pay the actors, but probably would not be able to. The other actor was apparently not an actor at all, but rather someone that the writer (remember the eccentric Frenchman?) approached on the sidewalk thinking he looked right for the part. It was clear from the reading that, not only could he not act, but neither could he take direction. This was a very inauspicious beginning to this project. But it got worse. The producers had secured a theatre for September, six months away. Aleksey, the director, informed us that he wanted to start rehearsals immediately. Typically an actor rehearses two or three months at most for a production, but I was informed that it was very "Russian" to rehearse for this long. Okay, I thought, I'll learn something new, I'm okay with that. As it turned out we didn't exactly rehearsal for six months, but rather squandered most of it retranslating the play from the original French.

The rest of the story I will recount in quick, run-on sentence form because that is eactly how the next six months felt to me. We had to re-tranlsate the play from the original French, I encouraged a replacement of the other male actor and brought in a freind of mine, Craig Brown, Victoria Boothby decided to go up to Maine for the summer leaving only the three other actors to rehearse (for a play, mind you, where Victoria's character is onstage the entire time), the young female actor backs out of the play citing mental issues (turns out she was suicidal and on all kinds of medication), Victoria struggles to memorize her lines and blocking...........

Try as she might, Victoria just was incapable of memorizing the lines and blocking and we ere forced to cancel the show at the eleventh hour. It was highly disappointing, but it was a relief to finally be able to end the extreme frustration caused by a play that was poorly produced and, ultimately poorly cast.

I did learn one valuable lesson though and that was how to handle a situation like this in the future. I was so frustrated that I wanted to quit. I had never quit anything in my life and I was even more upset with the 'producers' for putting me in the position to have to quit because would not pull the plug themselves. But I sought out the counsil of my acting teacher Austin Pendleton who told me to stick it out no matter what. I was worried about them inviting industry people to the rehearsals where they would see how bad it/I was. Austin said it was unlikely that anyone of influence would come and if they did they would be able to tell what the issues were and I would not suffer any great loss. It took all of the will power I could muster, but I am glad in the end that I stuck it out. It's a shame the play never went up though and, despite learning a lesson, its hard to not think about the several months of my life that I threw away on this project.

Mother Nature 1, Filmmakers 0

2006-05-14T17:02:00.000-04:00

Next time you watch a movie where any of the action takes place outdoors, I want you to think about all of the myriad natural elements that are beyond human control. Like, for example, birds. This was just one of the many "X" factors I battled as producer and actor in my short film "SWEPT" which we shot in early April up in Norwalk, CT. It became abundantly clear early in the day that Murphy and Mother Nature we're tag teaming and had us locked in a Full Nelson.

First, there were the birds. And not the quiet little twittering kind that would have been welcome ambient sound to any outdoor film, but rather some ethereal, winged beast, a sort of hidden Condor from the Amazon that would "kaw" at an ear splitting volume. We never saw him though. It appears he preferred to be heard, not seen. After strategically ruining several takes with his perfectly timed hit and run outbursts, our nemesis then settled into a steady regular interval like a drill instructor keeping cadence. Chris, the director, dispatched a PA (Production Assistant) to try to scare it out of the trees to little effect. This did, however, provide a very funny image for the rest of the cast and crew.

Next we had to do battle against the wind. In what was otherwise a calm, beautiful day, gusts of hurricane force winds would blow up instantaneously just as we were in the middle of an important take. We'd be sitting around in between takes and not so much as a breeze would blow. But as soon as we started acting.....blow it did as if it thought the director was talking to it when he shouted "action!” The result was hair in eyes, hair all over the place and squinting to avoid flying dirt particles - great for a comedy perhaps, but not so much when you are filming a dramatic scene about eating disorders.

When the wind was not wreaking havoc with our shoot, we had to contend with gnats - miniscule fighter pilots from the Devil's own air force. They would swarm around the camera lens and the actors making it very difficult to concentrate or shoot a clean take. We fought back, spraying the actors from head to toe with Deep Woods Off (not a pleasant experience), however, we could not spray the camera lens for fear of damaging it (although since we had a $2mm general liability insurance policy I should have told them to go for it and deal with the consequences later). Instead the crew showed ingenuity by spraying strips of black gaffer tape with the gnat poison and hung them off the edge of the lens like pest strips. This seemed to work well at least for a while.

The last battle we attempted to wage was with the dying light. "Rage! rage against the dying of a light". And rage we did - Dylan Thomas would have been proud. The film takes place in six sequential minutes during the day and so as dusk descended upon our tired, little crew the Director of Photography and the Gaffer (lighting guy) attempted to use "night for day" which essentially meant bombarding the patio where we were shooting with so much light that it looked like daytime. This is often (and more easily) done in reverse and indoors - shooting "day for night" - by basically tacking up black garbage bags in front of windows to simulate night. For us it didn't work so well. These shots at 8pm needed to closely match the others we shot at 10am and, well, let's just say it wasn't happening. There were some humorous images though of the crew members holding wrought iron chairs up in front of the lights to cast "tree branch" shadows on the building wall. Did this work? Not so much.

Once we got home and viewed the footage it became apparent that even the most gullible audience member would not be fooled by our attempt to create day out of night. Therefore, we reluctantly decided to do what every producer fears........the dreaded "Re-shoot". For us this involved assembling the same cast and crew, re-renting all the equipment and obtaining use of the location again - which was a large hotel not used to film crews roaming the grounds. In an act of extreme kindness all of the crew donated their time for free as did the location which saved us considerable expense. The equipment, however, had to be rented and at considerable cost - something we had not budgeted for.

One major consideration for us was the change of season. When we filmed in early April there were still no leaves on the trees near the patio where we filmed. Now we would be shooting in full summer and the trees would, no doubt, be full of juicy, green leaves. This was not only a problem for continuity, but also a lighting concern as now the sunlight would be partially blocked by trees. But the choice was between bare trees in pitch black or lighted trees in full bloom. We chose the light.

When we headed up to Norwalk again for the re-shoot Mother Nature once more flexed her sinewy muscles as rain and Thunderstorms crowded the forecasts. While we could not film during the rain there was also no turning back since we had already rented the equipment and, more importantly, the crew would not have been able to reassemble again as people would be off to various parts of the country to film other projects. So we were at the mercy of the weather gods. As I checked the hourly forecast once more before leaving NYC at about 6am it still held rain and thunderstorms for the entire day and, indeed, it was raining steadily at that time.

Amazingly, when we reached the shoot location, the rain has halted and we quickly scrambled to arrange the set and position the camera and lights - figuring we were on borrowed time. Incredibly, the rain was held at bay for the entire morning until we finished packing up our equipment at about 1pm, and only then, as if on cue, the heavens opened up and a torrential rain soaked the land and continued to do so during our entire ride back to the City. I am not a big believer in fate or destiny, but I have to say it was hard not to think that someone up there wasn't holding off the rain just for us knowing the importance of this film and the hope it might bring to those who watch it.

Mother nature may have won most of the individual battles, but I believe we won the war with a pretty amazing film. Can't wait for you all to see it.

Schwimming Upstream

2006-03-30T18:44:00.000-05:00

In earlier Hollywood Insider entries (the ones on my website, not this blog) I kept records of famous people that I have encountered in my own quest for stardom. The list is short - I rarely see celebs let alone get a chance to talk to them. To recap, there was Joan Jett (of Blackhearts fame) whom I sat next to during a wedding scene of the indie feature film "The Sweet Life", Liza Minelli who I squared off with in a jazz dance class and Mary Stuart Masterson who I spoke to briefly at a film festival.

Well, last night, I had another close encounter. I was attending a performance of Adam Rapp's new play "Red Light Winter" at the Barrow Street Theatre in the West Village and during intermission I saw David Schwimmer (of "Friends" fame). Well, I am not even a big David Schwimmer fan necessarily - although I did enjoy him in Neil LaBute's "Some Girls" in London last year - but I am just so star struck whenever I see a celebrity....and this occasion was no exception.

David was standing next to another man who I thought resembled Anthony Rapp brother of Adam (and star of Rent, the Broadway musical and the movie). I was with a work colleague and she kept telling me to "stop staring!". I couldn't help it. It was like seeing an amazingly attractive girl and feeling compelled to look. That same compulsion morphed into the strong desire, nay, need to say something to him. I had seen a few others wander up to him and say a few words which I assume were things along the lines of "hey, loved you on friends" so I decided to go with "hey, saw you in "Some Girls" in London and really enjoyed the show". I thought I might score points with my worldliness....or whatever.

Next thing I knew I was standing next to David and those words were spewing forth from my mouth. My heart was pounding, my knees were like jell-o.....it truly was like approaching a girl that is way out of your league. David was very nice and gracious and thanked me as I repeated how great I thought he was in it. There was then a slightly awkward (for both of us I believe) pause before he asked me how I was liking the show we were currently attending. See I had not planned to be so intrusive into their conversation so I did not want to say anything to extend things beyond my initial salvo, however, he opened the flood gates with a question and thus, with that opening, my words came pouring through those gates in torrents.

I started spouting some crap about how I was a writer too and that Red Light Winter is exactly the kind of play I want to write, sharp wit, but very dramatic and poignant. Jeez, I felt like a total poseur - particularly since I was wearing a suit and tie and glasses - I couldn't have looked more corporate and less artistic if I had tried. Then I turned without taking a breath and said to the man standing with David that he looked familiar too. David informed me that he was an actor as well. I asked him his name and he confirmed my suspicion that he was, in fact, Tom McCarthy.

Now, many of you probably don't know him by name, but may have seen his movies or plays. He has been in "Meet the Parents", "Syriana", "Good Night and Good Luck" as well as several TV series. He also wrote the film "The Station Agent" with Peter Dinklage. I had seen him on Broadway with Peter Gallagher in "Noises Off" a British farce, but more close to home, he actually grew up in my hometown and our parents are friends. I quickly reminded him of this fact, but he didn't seem as impressed as I was about this.

Now all this time I had completely neglected to introduce my colleague, not out of sheer rudeness, but because (1) I had temporarily forgotten her name and (2) I was too busy nervously chatting away with my celeb men. Tom finally interrupted me and like a true gentleman stuck his hand out and introduced himself to my colleague. Then David did likewise. I lamely pretended to facilitate the introduction repeating names after they had been said and gesturing to each speaker. After that, the lights flickered indicating that we should return to our seats. They were both polite in their closings. I shook hands with Tom and he said "Tell your parents I said 'hi'". I shook hands with David and he said "Good luck with your play". I was impressed with both comments as it showed they had at least listened to the conversation. I cursed myself that I could not be that calm, but secretly challenged them to do better if I were the famous one and they the star struck imbecile. Ha!

I could not believe how nervous I was during this entire exchange. I often fantasize about meeting a famous actor and being so cool and calm and we would totally hit it off and ask me to be in their next movie. Now I'll be happy if they don't take out a restraining order on me. When the lights came up at the end of the show David and Tom made a quick exit. My colleague joked that they were hustling to get out before that nervous stock broker came looking for them.

So that was my latest celebrity encounter. How was the play? Oh, excellent. Two thumbs up. Actually, it's exactly the kind of play I want to write. ;)

You're Fired! Arol Auditions for The Apprentice

2006-03-26T18:55:00.000-05:00

I watched the first two seasons of Donald Trump and Mark Burnett's reality show "The Apprentice" and that was enough. While there was certainly some entertainment value there I never considered it something that I would like to participate in. I am not particularly enamored of real estate and not a huge fan of the Donald and therefore the prize holds little excitement for me.

Over the past few years I have had several friends tell me that I should audition, figuring, I suppose, it would be a good way to get "discovered" as an actor. I have taken an interest in reality show "celebrities" and have noted that while the exceptional or outrageous contestants seem to get their fifteen minutes of fame, that's exactly what it is - fifteen minutes. I consider myself a serious actor and, not that I am above using a reality show to further my career, because I am not, I don't think industry professionals take these people seriously. Sure, they'll get them commercials, movies and other reality show gigs, but it does not appear to lead to an extended acting career.

HOWEVER........On March 9th my email inbox contained an offer to be put on the VIP audition list for the next season of The Apprentice. Any UPENN alumni simply needed to email his or her interest and show up on March 24th. Perhaps some of you reading this also showed up? I figured, what the heck, I can at least go to the audition and, at worst, it would serve as a blog entry in my Hollywood Insider. There might be a few readers out there who are interested in hearing a behind the scenes account of The Apprentice audition process. So here goes.

In preparation for my audition I decided that I needed to craft my "story" to make my application as interesting and unique as possible. I figured that, especially with so many UPENN/Wharton alumni applying , another boring MBA in finance was not going to stand out - even less so, one in a sales job. Therefore, I decided that I would apply as a "filmmaker/producer" who had an interest in running one of Trump's entertainment businesses (either his burgeoning TV/media empire or one his travel resorts like Mar-a-lago). Through the application's several questions (including "Describe a major event or issue that has affected your life" and "Tell us something embarrassing about yourself") I was able to highlight my years in Japan and language skills, my divorce and my filmmaking background. When audition day rolled around I had my story honed and I was one interesting Apprentice candidate. (for those interested in seeing all the application questions, click here http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_5/apply/A6-Revised_NBC_Application.pdf )

By the time I arrived at Trump Plaza on 5th Ave there was a line out the door and halfway down the street. It looked more like the line for American Idol for there were bohemian styled girls with guitars standing in line. Of course I strode confidently past the rabble in my suit and tie and politely inquired with a staffer where the VIP auditions were. He indicated to me to head downstairs.

As I descended the escalator to the lower level, there to my left was none other than the man himself - THE DONALD! It was a mad house of press and applicants all snapping photos of Trump shaking hands with various no-names (actually I heard a few of them were the winners from previous seasons, but I wouldn't have known). I fixed a confident stare in his direction in case he looked up and caught my gaze so he would think "hey, there's a confident man that I want running one of my businesses!" Well, he didn't look up, but I did have to squeeze by him to get to the end of the VIP line. "I brushed past The Donald! I brushed past The Donald!".

As I surveyed the scene I realized right away that my plan to wow a room of casting directors with my carefully honed story was not going to happen. Groups of eight applicants were seated at one of four tables with one casting director at each. I couldn't hear exactly what they were being asked, but I knew it was going to be less about each applicants' story and more about the chemistry and dynamics of the eight interacting with each other. As I stood in line with four other Wharton grads - one whom I had met at a Wharton Media networking dinner - I knew what it would take to be selected. No matter what they asked, the applicant(s) who showed an ability to lead or at least be controversial would advance to the callback round. This was not good news for me. Under normal circumstances I would typically be one who hangs back and lets others engage initially and then join the conversation once I am comfortable. I knew that in this case I would have to come out firing right out of the starting blocks (and not mix my metaphors).

When it came our time to ascend the platform to meet our Apprentice maker I strategically took a seat directly opposite the casting director, who I was told was one of the winners of a previous episode - and apparently won the enviable job of running one of The Donald's Apprentice audition tables - no Bill Ranic here ladies and gentlemen. After handing in our applications we were given a topic and told to debate it. Our topic was "dating in the work place: for or against". Well, despite my best laid plans of taking a leading position, I hung back while one or two other leader types thrust their positions out there and several others flocked to support. While I waited for an opening (and for something profound to come to be about dating in the workplace) the debate swirled around me. There was Brian, a dorky IT type who was calmly enumerating the reasons why dating at the workplace should be officially banned by a company, Cody, a sharp young banker who argued that there should be no such oppressiveness in the workplace and N.T., a freshly minted Wharton MBA and current HR employee at Goldman Sachs - and the only female applicant in our group - taking a wishy washy middle of the road stance. After I had made a few lame attempts at interjecting - my comments all got steamrolled over - some nit wit sitting two seats to my left, suggested that we each take our turn stating our position. What a crap idea that was, I thought. That's no way to debate? That would take up our entire time and, hey, if someone couldn't hijack the swirl of conversation and state their position, they shouldn't be on The Apprentice. But of course, everyone nodded and applauded the idea so we went around the table and put forth our position. When it was my turn with the conch I said something lame like "you can't stop love, kids. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen. It is best to have a more positive method for addressing this than an all out ban". Great Arol....next?

Almost as soon as we had begun, our time was up. The casting director / Trump minion asked us to quickly go around and choose who, other than ourselves, we would pick to be our project leader. Cody nominated the wingnut who had suggested the equal time rule, apparently in recognition of his ability to come up with a really stupid idea. Then the wingnut turned around and nominated Cody. Brian nominated N.T., I guess for comfortably straddling the issue and I nominated Brian for doing what I had wanted to do - take the first and apparently controversial stand. While the casting director did not outright say this, I am fairly certain that the first screen for the next round were those who were chosen to be project managers. I assume they would want the final 16 contestants to be a group of all proposed project leaders. We were told that if we were chosen we would be called later that day. My phone never rang. Oh well, at least I got to meet The Donald.....sort of, and it will be fun to see if any of the people from my group are actually on the show when it airs in the summer. Go Brian!

The One That Got Away

2006-02-25T17:38:00.000-05:00

I have found that perhaps the number one downfall of aspiring actors is that they imbue each audition with such a sense of make or break desperation such that when they they don't "make", the result is something just short of utter devastation. They take the rejection personally and spend days or weeks obsessing over why they did not get this or that role.

I decided early on that it was much more effective, from a self preservation standpoint, to prepare well for each audition, do my best, and then forget about it and move on to the next audition. If I got the part, great. If not, I wouldn't give it another thought. Of course, for many of these actors, a missed part means not being able to pay rent that month, a problem that, with my day job, I fortunately did not have to confront, but I still think the point holds.

I simply would not allow myself to think my acting had anything to do with me not getting the part. I just wasn't the type they were looking for. I had seen it enough when I interned with a major casting director that I knew it was true often enough. Why beat yourself up over it?

However, I learned recently that the larger the role, the bigger the stakes and the harder it is to practice what I have been preaching. In October of 2005 my agent got me an audition for a major motion picture, called "Flight 93" directed by Paul Greengrass ("The Bourne Supremacy" and "Bloody Sunday"). It was to be an unscripted real time account of the last minutes aboard the ill fated UA Flight 93 that crashed in Shanksville, PA on September 11th, 2001. The audition was improv (which I love) and was with several other actors. I was very pleased with my performance, but, as noted above, I left the audition put it out of my mind. It would be nearly a month before I got a call from my agent about a call back, this time in front of the director and producer (both recognizable names in the industry).

I was very excited. Even a callback was currency I could use with other casting directors and agents. Hundreds of actors audition, but, while only one gets the part, a call back does show you impressed casting enough with your talent. My call back went equally as well as the first I thought and was also improv. But again I let it go and moved on. I didn't have to move far. By the time I got home I had a call from my agent for a second call back. This time I was asked to prepare for a particular character, Louis Nacke, one of the passengers who allegedly stormed the cockpit. Again, the director and producer would be there. Although I didn't think the character they asked me to prepare for was as much "me" as I had been portraying in my first two auditions, I felt I did a good job and showed them some range and versatility. I also thought I detected a knowing glance from the director as we shook hands after my audition. I had never felt more confident about an audition before - and this one for a major motion picture! Even my agent was excited this time - and they never get excited until you actually book something.

Well, I waited......and I waited....and I waited. But no call from my agent. I tried to put it behind me and move on, but it was hard. I had TWO call backs and had done well. I was a bit concerned that the real life Louis Nacke was 43 and overweight and looked nothing like me, but the director had mentioned that he wasn't casting for look alikes. I convinced myself that maybe they were just taking their time like they did between the first and second auditions, but when their production date drew near (which they had said would be early November) I knew that I had not gotten the part. Interestingly I was able to mourn briefly and then move on.

Then, four months later, as I sat in a darkened movie theatre awaiting the start of the film "Syriana" my heart sank as I saw what appeared to be a preview for a film about a plane crash. The trailer was cut in such a way that it was unclear at the beginning what was happening. But then I saw the title and my fears were confirmed......"Flight 93......Coming May 2006". When the feature presentation began I could hardly concentrate (and with "Syriana" you really needed to concentrate to know what was going on) as my mind raced with fantasies of how I would be feeling had I actually booked the role. How, months later, these same people sitting in the audience with me, would be watching ME on the big screen. Friends and relatives would call me up and say "Hey Arol, we saw you at our local multiplex!".

But alas, it was not to be. Not this time. Not this film. I have moved on now, but I'm sure when the film actually hits theatres in May and I start to see commercials for the film on TV, The One That Got Away will be back to haunt me with a vengeance.

Here is the link if you want to see the trailer. http://www.flight93themovie.com

Arol's First Blog Posting

2005-12-04T09:14:00.000-05:00

Greetings All,

For those of you who have been long time readers of my Hollywood Insider email updates, welcome to the future of these updates. For those of you who stumbled upon this for the first time, mahalo. While often an early adopter of technology (as evidenced by the fact that I sit on my couch typing this into my laptop using a wireless network - in a studio apartment no less - how lazy is that?) I have, until now, resisted joining Blogger Nation. Why? Well, primarily because the term "blog" turns me off for some reason. You too? See, I knew I wasn't the only one.

Anyway, those of you who know me know that I have a myriad of interests including travel, sports and finance, but this blog is going to be dedicated solely to my passion for the arts. As an investment banker turned actor, writer and producer in New York City I am often amazed at the zaniness that accompanies the entertainment business. This blog will serve as my medium for communicating some of these stories to any and all interested parties.

For those of you who want some background on the author (uh...that's me) I will refer you too my website www.aroljahns.com/bio.html for a brief bio. You can also see the first 15 issues of the Hollywood Insider http://aroljahns.com/hollywoodinsider.html for a, hopefully, humorous look at a businessman fumbling his way through the early stages of an acting career.

So, I suppose at this point I'm supposed to tell you to come back and visit as much as you like to get updates. Okay, consider yourself told. But I must warn you that I probably wont be as prolific a blog writer as many of the young bloggers and bloggerettes out there. I tended to send my email updates out every month or so and while I hope to be blogging on a more regular basis, I only plan to post when I have something interesting to say. In other words, you will never read "today I woke up and tried this cool new cereal called Kashi Best Friends with 43 grams of fiber......and nearly blew my colon out". Although that is true and you should try it.

Well, enjoy and hopefully you'll see me on the red carpet at the Oscars someday soon.....or at least at a public access cable channel near you.