Why do you do with what you do? I kind of addressed this/that issue a little bit in one of the recent/previous blogs. But, it’s not so much that the previous blog sent me to thinking about this subject, but more to the fact, another element of the whole concept of doing and giving popped into my mind.
 
Thinking back, I remember there was this one guy who wrote an entirely negatively biased, completely untrue essay about me and posted it on a website a million years ago. One of those sites where rebuttals could not be posted. I think it's still out there??? A bit later in the game, he came at me and asked me if I would give him one of my movies on DVD. The reason he wanted it was, as he put it, to write a review about it, but he'd only see it via one of those offshore, illegal, streaming services that were common a decade or so back. Maybe they still are??? Okay…
 
Anyway, that guy asking me for a free movie not only made me laugh, but it also showed me the fucked-up nature of so many people. First, he completely presented a false, misleading, and erroneous essay about me and my filmmaking doings, and then he wants something from me for free so he can write a negative review. I think we all can agree that's pretty much bullshit. Plus, he didn’t even possess enough honor to take down the aforementioned posting after I explained to him that what he was saying was entirely false. He was just trying to make a name for himself.
 
While I’m in the Flash Back mode here… I was recently reminded of this one girl who came to Hollywood from Japan hoping to be a star. I provided her with her first role in a feature film. She rose up the ladder a bit after that and got some real roles in some real films. She was very pretty and she, obviously, spoke Japanese and that was where she found her niche. Good for here! I was very happy for her.
 
A few years later in the game, she wrote an autobiographical book. It was only published in Japanese. I know it got panned by some people, as a book like that was a bit above her pay-grade and her standing in the greater theatrical community of stardom at the time, and all of that kind of stuff. It’s out of print. I don’t believe it sold many copies, as it is now impossible to find a copy. But, she did write it. I thought that was cool. Good for her!
 
Anyway, and in any case, in it, she does mention me. The curious/funny thing is, she quoted actual words I spoke to her, (over a phone message), but completely turned around the context.
 
As the story goes, I offered her another part in another feature film I was going up on. She told me, via message… …This was back in the days where we all communicated via Voice Mail and carried a pager. …She told me she was going to start doing Extra work and she wouldn’t be available on the day I was planning to film her. In my response, I explained to her that doing Extra work was not good for a career, as back then, Casting Directors really looked down on people who worked as an Extra, and, in many cases, would not hire them for an actual acting role once they entered the Extra game. That was very true in that time period, and perhaps even today??? I also said to her, that being in Indie Films, like mine, was a good steppingstone process as from appearing in them you actually come away with footage of yourself acting, which you could show agents and stuff. They all wanted, “Actor’s Reels,” back then, which is something that Extra work did not provide. However, in her book, she quoted me, with the words I spoke. All true. But, she took the words I spoken and turned them around as if they were something really negative and I was a total asshole. I was trying to help her as I knew the game and she was new to it! She ultimately proclaimed, “He was a horrible man!” In Japanese, of course. This made me smile.
 
What she didn’t mention, however, is how she clamored to get the initial role I gave her. How she called me and called me. How I was still in Post-Production for The Roller Blade Seven when I was casting the film and only had a few minutes, so I drove over and bought her a latte at a café near where she lived and I never asked her to audition. I just cast her. Providing her with her first speaking role in a feature film that had international distribution. Plus, I always hyped her up on my website. Instead of a, “Thank you,” I get a, “Fuck You.”
 
Like the old saying goes, “At least she spelled my name right.”
 
That guy, I never responded to. I unfriended him on Facebook, or wherever it was that he asked me for the DVD. I just don't need people like that in my life, digitally or otherwise. Do you? The actress, had she not mentioned me in her book, I would have never thought of her again. I guess her career eventually fell away, as is very common in Hollywood, and she got into other stuff.
 
I’m sure all of you people out there, who are not in the Film Game, could care less about any of this. But, we are all in the Life Game. And, what people do, the way they behave, and the way the describe other people, putting their own spin on another person’s life, sets a whole long list of events into motion; leading to???    
 
Anyway, and the point being, most of the people who would ask me for a free movie, and/or an acting role, or anything, I happily gave it to them. If I have it or can do it, GREAT! Let me hook you up and help you out. Isn’t that the way life is supposed to be?
 
The thing I’ve watched, via time, is that each of these people, whenever they based their life in any form of judgement or negativity or hurt, it always comes back to haunt them. They never truly succeed. They all, (eventually), feel the brunt of their karma. Yet, though I have discussed this and similar subjects many a time, as have so many other people, these individual never hear the calling. They never go back to where the damage they created was created and fix it. Thus, they are forever damned by it. They are ultimately kept from truly becoming that what they wished to become.
 
You know, there's been some people that have been very supportive of my career(s) over the years. And, I do use the term, “Careers.” There's been some people that have done things like purchased my presentations of the rare movies every time I would do a limited release of one of those films. They'd be the first to pick it up. Thanks! I always really appreciated that! This was the same with people that have purchased my books and my art, my music, and my... Or, the people who have voiced positive things about me. Again, I always appreciate people who support me out there from afar. Big thanks! It doesn't go unnoticed. They are the ones out there caring enough to do something. They obviously live their life from a place of goodness and giving, not just for me but for everyone. It's that a good thing?
 
Then, there is the other side of the coin, those people who attack from afar. I mean, I only interacted with the aforementioned guy one or two times via DMs. The girl, except for the latte I bought her and her hour or so that she was on my set, I never saw her again. Yet, I am the focus of their focus. Why? Don’t they have anything better to think, speak, or write about? Why drag someone into their melodrama? Why create a melodrama? Does melodrama ever equal anything positive?
 
Think about this... Think about this the next time you're thinking about taking, saying something, writing something, doing something... Think about this the next time you're thinking about giving. Because ultimately, what's better taking or giving? I believe we all know the answer to that.