I’ve been bad this Christmas

When I was young I would hardly sleep at all on Christmas Eve; Christmas was exciting, if I had been good, Santa Claus would put lots of gifts in my stocking. If I hadn’t been good… well then I was in for a rude shock. So Christmas is about being good? Actually Christmas is really about being bad…

Perhaps some people reading this blog have not been particularly good this year. Perhaps you’ve stolen money, cheated on your spouse, beaten your kid or run away from home. If that’s the case I guess you’re not expecting anything good in your stocking?

Christmas however symbolizes God’s incredible gift of grace, love and forgiveness to not the “deserving” but to the undeserving… so wherever you are this Christmas understand this one thing… God is with you and he is listening.

Two tired to blog…

Imprisonment is good for the soul…

For some unknown reason I find myself drawn to the biographies of great men who have spent a considerable amount of time in prison. At the moment I am reading “Letters and Papers from Prison” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer; a German theologian who opposed Hitler and was in jail for 3 years before he was executed.

When I was young I read “Taken on Trust,” the story of Terry Waite, a man who went to the middle east to talk peace only to be kidnapped and held hostage for four years.

Another time I found myself reading Nelson Mandela’s ” A Long Walk to Freedom;” A book that was largely written during his 27 years in prison.

All these men learnt an incredible amount from the solitude that imprisonment forced upon them. Why? I guess it forced them to think a lot about life…

Talk to inanimate objects

Today I spent some time with James Reece, a renowned acting coach in Hollywood; it was fantastic. Some of you will probably think that this is a little crazy but he told me that I should practice talking to inanimate objects. For example: I just had a really great conversation with a roll of toilet paper before he went off to work…

What the point of all of this?

An actor in a film is often forced to interact with an animate object when the other actor is not present on camera. “In who framed Roger Rabbit” Bob Hoskins delivered all his lines to a tennis ball.

Interestingly enough even inanimate objects have a story to tell…

The phone is ringing…

Your life can change in one second, one phone call, one instance… you are not really in control, it’s an illusion. This is what makes faith so good.

Sometimes when I am depressed with how slowly my life/career is moving I remind myself that everything can change in an instant. This change could be for better or it could be for worse… especially if you believe in fate as opposed to having faith.

Forgive me for getting a little “christian” on you but I faithfully believe that in spite of what I see, in spite of what I experience… things are ultimately going to get better. Believing in a specifically personal, singular God is not very hip these days… it’s all about the universe.

Unfortunately the universe is not really specific and personal enough to care about you when you are going through your “lonely” moments this Christmas… excuse me while I go answer the phone…

What Ryan is getting for Christmas…

I’ve met up with my homeless buddy Ryan nearly every day this week. He’s getting easier to talk too (I’m not feeling quite so uncomfortable) and today I managed to find him a new pair of shoes, courtesy of another kind friend. I am struck with how normal Ryan is… he reflects a new and uncomfortable reality… a lot of people are now on the street through no fault of their own.

I am away from family this Christmas so I have decided to buy a gift for my new friend. Ryan loves the NFL but he won’t tell me exactly which team is his favorite. But I know he has lived in both Indiana and Miami for some considerable time… so I have bought him an NFL cap from both of those regions.

The spirit of Christmas is a “gift for the undeserving”. Find someone who doesn’t deserve your gift this Christmas.

This is a terrible story…

I believe that all stories are essentially good but not all stories are well told… Do you agree?

There is very little value in an idea for a film… 99.9% of the value is in the telling.

This means that you don’t need to protect your idea. Instead you need to work really hard at becoming excellent at storytelling.

Can you think of a bad idea for a film or television show? I bet you can’t.

The mystery of an open life

A lot of actors are afraid of being “open” in their private lives because they are afraid that it will destroy their mystique. I believe the opposite is true… the more open a person becomes… the more alluring, the more fascinating, the more mysteriously wonderful they will become.

When you are closed, you present a facade, a representation of yourself that is very easy to define and quantify. Just as it is impossible to fully know or comprehend the depth and breadth of God, so in a similar way it is impossible to fully know or comprehend the depth and breadth of another human soul. It is this continual exploration, the joy of searching, finding and knowing that allows a “few” brave souls to continue to grow in openness and intimacy till the very end of their lives here on terra firma…

To know and to be known… these are the reasons for breathing…

Inviting in the homeless

Today I waited for Ryan, my homeless buddy. At 3 pm there was still no sign of him and I finally accepted that I probably would not see him again. I walked across the road to the gas station to buy a coke and there was Ryan weighing up his options… a drink or a sandwich… he clearly didn’t have enough coin for both.

We sat on a bench and ate sandwiches and drunk cokes together. Ryan told me that he wasn’t allowed in the coffee shop and that one of the men often chased him out. Understand this… Ryan is not loud or obnoxious (unlike many film people who sit in the coffee shop), he doesn’t smell; the worst thing you could say about Ryan is that his fingernails are a little long and grubby.

So I took him into the shop and asked the waitress if I could please have a coffee for my friend Ryan… then we sat at a table for a couple of hours and watched NFL highlights on my computer… It was awesome.

Kicking out the homeless

I have been working from a very plush coffee shop in Beverly Hills. On the way back from lunch I passed a young guy sitting on the concrete who mumbled something about a cigarette. I don’t smoke but he said that he was hungry so I went to McDonalds and bought him lunch. Ryan was extremely grateful, he even offered to reimburse me…

Unfortunately later that afternoon Ryan, whilst in the car-park made the fatal mistake of asking a coffee shop patron for a cigarette. This patron complained to the staff in the shop and they called the police.

Tomorrow I shall find Ryan and he shall eat with me in that coffee shop, and he will eat the most expensive item on the menu and drink as much coffee as he desires.