LITMIR.BIZ

       INTRODUCTION

       WHO AM I?

       Growing Up

      My love for the film industry started when I was very young — too young to imagine anything other than fame and fortune in the world of movies. The truth, I’d learn later on, is that film is a business, and it’s not an easy business! But for most of my early life, from my bedroom in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, all I could visualize were the bright lights and happy faces of Hollywood.

      I started as an actor. My first role was playing Captain Hook in my fourth grade production of Peter Pan (Peter was played by a female). The years from fifth through eighth grade were hard for me because there was no theater program at our middle school and, hence, I had no outlet. So I resorted to being the class clown, which landed me in the principal’s office almost daily.

      High school became a busy time for my acting career. I was the star of all the plays and musicals at Hunterdon Central, a fantastic school in Flemington, New Jersey. I had my sights set on the big time!

      When it came time to pick a college, I tried to lay the groundwork for my future career. I had heard Montclair University (in Montclair, New Jersey) had a great acting program, and, if I attended, I would be living just minutes from New York City. Perfect. I got accepted as an undergraduate in the theater program right away.

      But the program wasn’t what I had hoped for. I wasn’t interested in classes that were aimed at the least talented people in the room. I needed to excel. So I switched my major to communications and chose film studies as a minor. I didn’t know if I was making the right choice. I actually thought I might have ruined my future. Thankfully, a chance meeting in New York City’s Little Italy put me back on track.

       Gravesend

      It was the summer of 1994 and I was sitting with my family outside Il Fornaio on Mulberry Street in Little Italy, despite my protests (I had wanted to eat inside because of the heat, and I had also wanted to eat at a different restaurant). A young waiter named Sal came up to our table and asked, “What can I get you?” My uncle, a jokester visiting from California, replied, “What can we get you?” Sal laughed and responded, “How about some money to make my feature film?”

      My ears perked up. “You’re making a feature film?” I asked. “Well, I’m an actor.” And that was it. My big “discovery.”

      After several auditions, Sal cast me as one of the four lead roles in Gravesend, Sal’s semi-autobiographical street film about Brooklyn. What followed were three years of shooting, reshooting, torture, and general hell on earth. There’s still folklore associated with the film. I can’t attest to all of it, but I will say that we did shoot the movie for $5000, we did tap into street lamps (illegally) to light scenes, and we did do moronic things such as pull up to a gang of thugs on a street corner and ask, “Do you want to shoot a fight scene?” Real fights broke out almost nightly.

      But the other actors and I myself were not giving up. I had it especially tough because I was the youngest, and I had no job because I was in college. Getting paid for this movie was out of the question; I’ve still never even seen a penny from it. I would shoot all night long and then drive back to Montclair from Brooklyn and go to class. Then I’d repeat the process the next night.

      My persistence paid off (if not financially). By 1997, Gravesend became a hit, kind of. Oliver Stone lent his name as a producer and presented the film. The film had mixed reviews, but some of the most important publications such as Variety, the Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times all raved about it. There are still people out there who consider Gravesend the quintessential Brooklyn street film, and the only film to be made in the Cassavettes style in years.

      I remember being in Los Angeles in 1998 when Gravesend was released to theaters. I foolishly thought I would be returning to New York City to find a mailbox full of scripts. I was wrong.

      Gravesend made me a “hot item” for about thirty days. And then, as fast as it came, it was gone. In that short period I got some of the best auditions in the world, but the roles kept going to established actors who were already famous. Looking back, I believe one of my errors was not hiring a publicist. But hindsight is 20/20, and I soon found myself without an agent, without a job, and without a prayer, living in New York City.

       The Next Step

      There aren’t many jobs for out-of-work actors besides

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