Grilling Bobby Hicks

Well, I have sooo much to say about my experience filming for Grilling Bobby Hicks, that it will either be one monstrously loooong post, or I'll break it up into manageable chunks. I guess I'll just start typing and see what happens.

First of all, I have to say that the cast, locations, script and chemistry was just phenominal. Everyone whom I met and spent time with were great people. Everyone seemed very friendly and they all really wanted to make this the best independant film they could possible make. I felt kind'a bad being the newbie guy who wanders in to town and stinks the place up with my second-rate performance. I was completely humbled to see this cast in action and I kind'a felt that my scenes were a little second-rate in comparison. I fully expect them to be cut (more on this later) so I atleast hope they end up on the Special Features / Deleted Scenes portion of the DVD. haha.

As for the cast, I got to spend the most time talking to West Cummings (who plays one of the leads - Wayne), also Luke Francis (as Obie), Scott Hilley (as Sheriff Butterworth) and Two Foot Fred (as the attourney Wilford). These were a great bunch of guys... totally funny and really into their parts. Here is my impression of the people I interacted with :

West Cummings (Wayne Donohue)
This is that guy in highschool that all the women fawn over - confident, but also appearing to be a little shy and reserve at the same time. He played keyboard and guitar for a while on night and seemed pretty adept at both.

Luke Francis (Obie)
This guy is a looney. Don't get me wrong, he's an extremely likeable, very friendly looney, but a looney all the same. You know that buffer that keeps you from saying every crazy thing that pops in your head at any given moment? Yeah, his is broken. He was super funny, played a mean guitar and was a great singer, and is not half shabby at throwing down at a party.

Scott Hilley (Sheriff Butterworth)
Scott Hilley was one of the most interesting members of the cast. He is a very talented guy, who has done a lot of interesting things and it was always very entertaining to speak with him. He is a wealth of comedy bits and cartoon voices, and has done work on one of my favorite cartoon shows of all time - Aqua Teen Hunger Force. I definitely would like to cross paths with him sometime in the future, and after our discussion of how small the world is, there's no doubt that I will.

Two Foot Fred (Milford Whitlock, attourney)
I was particularly impressed with Two Foot Fred, who was an absolute riot. We ad-libbed a couple of our lines and it should be really funny if it makes it into the film.

Bill Oberst (Juan Wampler / Old Man Wampler)
Bill and I only had one scene together, and we didn't spend a long time chatting, but he seemed like a really nice guy. He's played everything from John F. Kennedy to Jesus of Nazareth, and was so into his role as Juan Wampler (who is kind of an ignorant redneck mechanic), that it was a little scary...especially considering our scene together.

Angela Mitchell (Linda Hicks)
What a chameleon this one was. I didn't get to meet Linda until the last day of shooting. I saw her walking around all white-trashy-hot and she didn't really say anything (not that I could hear), so when the cameras started to roll and she was this loud-mouthed white trash redneck hoochie, I was a little unsure how much of the accent and attitude was real. At the end of the day we shot my last scene, and she turned out to be a very normal, extremely sweet person and easy to cut up with. It also helped that she was smoking hot and it's not every day I have a girl who looks like that tugging on my zipper. (It was a scene, guys. Settle down.)

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I met most of the principal actors / actresses, but a lot of them I only got a nod in, or a "hey, nice to meet you" and that was pretty much it. I'm sure they were friendly enough, we just didn't socialize much.

As for the movie experience, I really enjoyed it overall. As I said, I don't think I did a super job, but as my first acting gig in the first real movie I've ever been in, it wasn't so bad. The reason I'm thinking I might be cut is that I'm not super instrumental to the story and I don't think my performances were strong or memorable enough to warrant my inclusion in the film. I'm somewhat suspicious that my role was a favor part since I slept with already knew the Director through his brother, Aaron.

I don't really want to say much about what I did for the film, since I don't wanna give away any spoilers that haven't already been revealed, but if you want to know, email me and I'll be glad to spill the beans.

Lastly, I wanna thank Shannon Cruey and Tommy Wood for the opportunity to play around and have fun for a weekend. I hope I did stuff that was actually useful to the film, and I hope to have more experiences like this in the future. I also want to thank Matthew Miller, the Assistant Director, who kept everyone informed and in line and was also a very personable and likeable guy.

Well, that's it. I told you it would be long.... and yet I still have more to say. I will be leaking it out from time to time, but until then I bid you a fond farewell...

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