As part of the 25 Days of Sine Fine Films extravaganza leading up the 25th Anniversary I have decided to write a series of posts celebrating the 25 actors who have been the most dedicated by participating in the most productions.
Actor of the Day: Drew Thomas
Drew joined the company in the fall of 2004 when he filmed a very small role in the opening credits of the fake TV show (Sorcerer) within a real TV Show (Eidolon). He has participated in 6 productions as cast and/or crew.
As the younger brother of one of my favorite and longest lasting actors, Morgan Thomas, I was able to meet him when I went to film with Morgan's three younger siblings for a flashback to young Zelda in Episode 6 of Eidolon. Drew was there and I needed more shots of a villain for Sorcerer so he willingly dressed in black, put on a trench coat and acted creepy for 20 minutes. He worked really well as a menacing, cold sorcerer. He even came up with the name of the character - Gemini Drake. That's actually a name Drew using for other things but I thought it was really cool and asked him if I could use it for the character. He said yes. Thanks Drew!
Unfortuantely he had no lines and couldn't show off much of his talent. That would have to wait until later. He came with Morgan to the 10th Anniversary celebration so I did get to see him again before I got to film with him again. Drew is a really nice guy and fun to hang out with. He came with his sister again (they lived in the same town so it made sense to car pool) to the shooting extravaganza in late June of 2012. It turned out to be the hottest shooting days EVER so that was...fun? Helping out as crew he had a run in with a wasps' nest (sorry drew) and was my Assistant Director for The Gift Bearer: Time After Time, the 10th Anniversary reunion movie. During this shoot he got his first lines (yay!) as a visitor to a Ren Faire who mistakes the Silverstone sisters for Faire actors, then got his butt kicked by Atlanta.
Since he hadn't had a chance to film with multiple lines and a real character yet I wrote him a part in a short film called Forever for my Fortunate Ones series that we filmed the same weekend. Drew played Ray Gunn, an alcoholic who finds himself tied up with a stoner in a basement after a night of binge drinking. He goes through the ordeal with a hangover. Drew did a great job as the hungover Ray bantering with Kate as the stoner Samantha. They were both hilarious and I was so happy to finally get to work with Drew as a lead actor.
We shot four films that weekend and Drew was my Assistant Director on three of them - The Gift Bearer: Time After Time, and two more Fortunate Ones films, Faerie Tale and Magic-8. There was a lot of sitting around and hanging out with people as well as standing next to me with the script, but it at least Magic-8 and Forever were (mostly) filmed inside an air-conditioned house (thanks Kate!) so that was a little better.
In 2014 I filmed The Villains' Workshop. Basically it's a bunch of novice villains attending a workshop to learn how to be better at being bad. I decided to try filming a movie without a script - having the actors stay in character the whole time and have all the lines be ad libbed. This is something I hadn't done since I filmed Frumpy Gets It which was a disaster. I should have learned my lesson, but I didn't.
The Villains' Workshop was a mess, mostly because I showed up really late to filming, didn't have the costumes I needed, and basically had no clue what I was doing so this wasn't the actors fault it turned out bad, it was mine. The highlight was the wonderful performances the actors did despite my constant mess ups. We were supposed to meet again later to finish filming it but we never did. Like the all the other actors, Drew never complained about that mess of a films shoot.
Drew played Ryan Aurelius, a suave sociopath who has a royal and rich background. Although he has an obscene amount of wealth, he is morally bankrupt and honestly believes there is nothing money can’t buy. It's hard to play a character completely opposite to your own personality, but Drew did a magnificent job being bad.
Two years later I was able to film with him again when we shot excerpts from Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters for our 20th Anniversary production. The great thing about Spoon River Anthology, and the reason I chose it, is that everything is a series of poems that work as monologues for each character. Every one who came and wanted to film lines was able to have their own monologue so they could show their talents as well as have fun.
Drew had chosen to play Wendell P. Bloyd, an atheist who is persecuted for blasphemy. Unfortunately we ran out of time to film his poem on that shoot and he was only able to perform in the ensemble poem - The Hill. But there was a lot of time to hang out with people so hopefully that was fun enough. I mean that's half the reason people film with me anyway.
Finally he was able to film the Wendell P. Bloyd poem in the winter of 2018 on a half sunny/half cloudy chilly day in February. Luckily his character had a coat so that was good. Honestly it wasn't too cold - well certainly not as cold as it could have been for February in Central Illinois.
Normally when people film with me the lines are flexible and as long as they get close enough to the basic meaning of the line that's good enough for me. The one problem with Spoon River poems is that because it's a poem, even the less famous ones are recognizable and need to be performed exactly as they are written.
Drew, like all the actors, had trouble getting every word exactly right and struggled with the poem - again all the actors had this problem (except for Annamarie because she's an actual professional and usually gets paid to do this stuff). Despite the difficulties Drew did a wonderful job with the monologue and really got across the frustration and emotion of Wendell's character.
Sadly I have not been able to film with him since that shoot. Hopefully he will be able to be in whatever movie I shoot next year for the 25th Anniversary production (it would have been this year but...you know...Coronavirus). I look forward to working with him again, and also look forward to just hanging out with him (he's my only anime buddy). Drew is always willing to do whatever is needed on set or play any part and I am very lucky he's become a part of the company. Thanks for everything Drew! And thank you Morgan for brining him into the group.
If you want to learn more about Drew check out his interview.
No comments:
Post a Comment