Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Sabbathtage

THEATER 72
-spring 2004
New York! I was loving the city, somewhat to my surprise. My debut as a New York actor came through a Craigslist casting call. A recent NY Film Academy grad, Brian Havelka, was making a short film spoof of the Mel Gibson movie THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. People had been up in arms, calling the film anti-semitic. This seemed like people taking themselves too seriously, so Brian’s concept was of Jesus (me) being chased around the streets of New York by three hasidic jews. His image borrowed directly from the Beastie Boys video “Sabotage” – choppy and overblown. He set the film to that actual song, thus continuing my affiliation with guerrilla theater. The co-producer was Mahsa, another NYFA student, who was unflaggingly supportive and sweet and delightful. It was to be a two-day shoot. I already had the long hair, and i’d quickly have a passable goatee. I was also in the grip of the most virulent flu i’d ever known, one that kept me down for a month. The fever had broken, but i was weak. We filmed in digital, in late March, and it was still cold, particularly the first day (between shots, i closed my eyes in the back seat of one of the cars). A few days before, they told me i’d be double-cast as one of the three jews. I was a little thrown, but game. Much of the shooting was in Brooklyn. The first day, my character was Abraham, the “brains” of the three (although in the finished product, another character was referred to as “The Chief”). None of our dialogue would be heard, so we were free to ad-lib. The other two actors (our “muscle”) were fantastic. The first, Joe, brought all the authenticity of the most clichéd italian goon, but when you added the curls and hat, it was just so funny. The other was Theo, who was wide of girth and more pensive. We were collectively quite Keystone-copish. I was given a beard and big black wig under a hat. I played it wide-eyed and frenetic. We spent much of the day in our hasidmobile, doing search-and-chase scenes. Joe drove (like a proper maniac). We gave Theo nicknames after he fell asleep in the back once or twice (Joe picked Schnorrer, i liked Narcilepstein). There was a bit of friction between them; Theo felt Joe was a scene-stealer. He asked me to back him up on that, which i couldn’t quite do. It was minor though, and so many hilarious shots were collected. Brian treated us to chinese back at his place - for a low-budget affair, they did all the little things right. I was glad i didn’t have to be both characters that day, it made conserving energy easier. As it turned out, i never had to change characters the second day either. One of the funniest Jesus shots was Joe chasing me down a five-floor fire escape. We did some hysterical subway shots, with me diving into a car just as the doors close (with all the straphangers watching in unsimulated confusion). All this necessitated the film crew going one stop away, waiting for a train coming back to my station, then having the camera roll as they rolled in. As i waited alone at my station for half an hour dressed as the messiah, i realized the importance of not screwing up the first (and hopefully only) take. This was all illegal - since 9/11, filming wasn’t allowed on subways. We were eventually chased away, but got what we needed. We did a street scene of Jesus playing craps with some authentic old crapshooters. They were such fun. Brian wanted to me be argumentative, then jubilant about winning, which seemed out of character. I made my point, then gave him what he wanted. Our creative team wasn’t always on the same page - i thought what we were doing was respectful of both christians and jews, but others thought we were doing blatant mockery. We never had a chance to discuss all that together, though. There were other workers and friends (usually three or four) on set, and they were great. The overall energy was a delight, and i had just enough strength to have a ball. The last shot was at the Academy, a re-creation of the Last Supper, with Theo and Joe playing Apostles. It culminated with me flipping the table. For my first endeavor as a NY actor, i was paid $100 – Brian and i may have parted on a strained note, as he accidentally paid me twice, but i didn’t correct him. He figured it out himself, before i left. I wasn’t being sneaky…i thought maybe he’d gone under budget and wanted to give us something extra. I was barely thinking at all, i was so tired. Brian’s finished product was thoroughly hysterical. If i hadn’t known better, i wouldn’t have thought both characters on the screen were me. Wonderful.

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