CHAPTER TWO.

REHEARSING FOR “LOVEINCRAZY.”

A couple years past and I didn't see Benny much at all. We didn't have much in common, even though I liked him. I would see Benny's mom, Samantha now and then since she was a friend of Jean's. Samantha wanted to be Jean's lover but he only wanted the friend angle. They liked some of the same movies and discussed politics, but she was a little shallow in her understanding, and spoke in not very interesting monologues. She'd go on and on about the most trivial of things. This irritated people, including Jean, so much that it unfortunately detracted from her sweetness and generosity.

When Jean mentioned to me Samantha offered her house to shoot “Loveincrazy” in, I wasn't sure if it'd work out. After all, the other choices in locations fell through, why wouldn't this one? But because of Samantha's kindness, her house was to be the one.

While I rehearsed with the semi-original cast, Benny was around the house, along with Samantha, her adopted daughter, and grandchild. They all lived there but didn't seem to mind a low-budget film was taking over. Only one weekend's worth of rehearsals went by when Bernardo and the last remaining professional actor quit. Frazier and Maya were all that was left. I decided to cast myself as one of Jack Henry's sons.

The cinematographer, Kristianna, and sound man, Jonathan, came by the location to check out the rehearsals, and talk things over with me. Jean came by often, as well, and suggested I use Benny as the brother in the film. To me, it was a stroke of genius. Benny's face was strikingly cinematic and unique, again that cross between Christ and Rasputin.

Benny never acted before but in many ways I preferred non-professional actors. There was more openness, freshness, originality about them. Professional actors, including the ones I cast, had a difficult time with the improvisational, loose structure I wanted. Professional actors needed rigid outlets to express themselves. If in the “Loveincrazy” shoot we were ambling, finding our way in the dark, it became confusing, unsettling, awkward, too personal.

For non-professionals, taking in the moment, instinctive direction, and following through with rehearsed and rehearsed but still impulsive acting, was more natural to them. There were no formula behaviors they could rely on – no Tom Cruise tricks, no Matt Damon tricks, no Robert DeNiro tricks – so the responses given were completely their own.

Benny had no problem being himself. That was part of it, but being oneself wasn't all one had to do. The non-professional couldn't make it work just by being a non-professional. The person had to have a personality in front of the camera, one that fit the role and the story. Or, like what I did, change the story to fit the actor.

My opinion was that anyone could be a good actor. One just had to mold the film for them and not vice versa. Actors were off the mark – professional or non – if they were forced, by themselves or by the director, to say a line, do a movement, not natural to them.

I noticed after the first set of rehearsals with Benny, he had a hard time memorizing lines. But this was not the only reason I ended up breaking down the script into scene blocks on cue cards. Besides my own problem with memorization, I didn't want to memorize the lines and direct and produce and do all the little things a low budget filmmaker had to do at the same time.

Frazier had a hard time remembering lines as well, despite his numerous years of experience. Maya was also unfamiliar with the process of memorizing. Finally, though, I just didn't like the dialogue. Why not just write down what happens in the scene, what I wanted the actors to talk about and that's it? The story structure remained intact, and what each scene dealt with thematically remained the same.

Now, though, as actors we had the freedom to say the lines in our own separate ways. I would tell everyone what was important to communicate, then let it rip. It was a true collaboration with me leading the way. Since we spent several weekends rehearsing every scene, everyone was familiar enough during the production to have the necessary confidence to make improvising work.