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Looks
innocent enough. There I am playing bocci ball with my husband (played
by Christopher Upham) and a couple of neighborhood friends. But this will
be an eventful, life altering day. For me, only a brush with death, but
for an onlooking stranger, a paradigm shift in outlook for the rest of
his life. |
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I was just a
day player for this feature. There's an earthquake in San Francisco
and the principals of this film are stuck walking to their destinations
due to the temporary suspension of public (and private) transportation.
Two of the stars (a disenchanted, drop-out med student, and a yuppie
who has lost his sense of priorities) come upon this group of bocci
ball players. They stop and watch for a while, thankfully, because a
catastrophe is about to occur.
Steve Liu directed
this feature. He's tucked this first feature away and has moved on to
L.A. and a recent job as production manager on a children's TV show.
Best of luck, Steve. And looking forward to that eventual second feature.
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Oh, my God!
During a break from playing ball, we all snack on Foccacio bread and
I start choking! I'm going down. I haven't got long. Alas and alack,
what will happen to me? At least we've got it all on film.
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To
the rescue, the young ex-med student rushes out of the crowd and Heimlichs
me into a complete recovery. You can see the foccacio bread just above
my face and to your right (the small white blob). We must have shot this
moment at least 15 times. The man to my left and your right was obviously
pretty used to this scene by the time this shot was taken, and my Heimlicher
was looking pretty exhausted. I was even given my own assistant who would
rush to me between takes with bits of foccacio bread and a glass of water
so I could ball it up in my mouth, preparing it for chucking. Being a
method actor, I swallowed, choked and spewed with ferocity. Obviously,
my co-star was also of the method. His Heimlichs were really wearing on
my ribs. |