Ordinary Life Unordinary

Memories of AFFs past

I don't know if I've ever posted this story before.  I am in the process of completing an e-interview for the Austin Film Festival to post on their website, however, and thought that it seemed appropriate to sneak preview-ify with a little retrospectacle from my first visit to Austin, TX.

After the Friday night screening of SHOP GIRL at the Paramount Theatre, I somehow ended up chatting over beers for hours with director Anand Tucker and stars Jason Schwartzman and Claire Danes.  I kept pinching myself.  I mean, whoulda thunk?  As I recall, I finally landed in bed around 2 AM.

I woke up feeling slightly hungover.  I also woke up feeling completely LATE!  I was scheduled to be on a panel at 10:15, and a quick peek at my cell phone informed me that was in exactly 25 minutes.  I didn't shower.  I barely splashed water on my face.  I think I brushed my teeth.  I threw on jeans and a T-shirt, and tossed a sport coat on for good measure.  I wanted to at least look, you know, somewhat “professional”.

Right as the panel was beginning, Kelly Williams, the film festival director walks in and taps me on the shoulder.

"Hey, Bill.  You're going to the awards luncheon today, right?"

Now...when a film festival director asks you a question like that, how are you supposed to answer?  "Absolutely!"  ...Right?

Not me.

"No...I'm heading out for a run and a shower after this panel."

Kelly got this look on his face.

"You sure?  It would be great to have you there in support of your movie."

"One of our producers, David Viola, is the guy with the actual 'film credentials',” I told him.  “I'm here on a panelist's badge.  I don't think I can get in.  Maybe David should go."

I grabbed my cell phone.  "You want me to call him?"

"No, no, no," Kelly insisted.  "David can do what he wants.  We'd love to have the writers from all the competition movies at the luncheon.  I’ll get you in.  Just show up."

All right, I thought.  I sighed.  The shower would have to wait.

After the panel, I got my run...sprinting across downtown to get to the Austin Club in time for the luncheon, that is.

I get to the door, and a very nice person working security informs me that my name is not on the list.  I try on a "Kelly Williams told me..."  No go.  After five minutes or so of trying to wrangle my way into the place, I turn and start heading down the steps.  It’s not gonna work.  Just then…

"Bill True..?  RUNAWAY..?"

Next thing I know, a very official-looking person holding a clipboard is grabbing my arm.  She's literally dragging me back up the steps and into the main ballroom.

A minute later, I find myself seated at this table right in front of the stage.  Across from me is the cast and crew from one of the other movies in competition.  These are the folks that were going to win, I thought, because they were sitting at the table closest to the stage.  I was very happy for them.

And then a strange thought occurred to me.  I was also sitting at the table closest to the stage.  And Kelly Williams had been acting very strangely when I said that I wasn't planning to...  Could it be?

Naaaaaaaaaah!

I put the thought out of my mind completely.  I sat back and enjoyed the free meal.  I had a glass of wine.  I chatted.  I got to listen to Harold Ramis talk about how some of my favorite movies of all time came to be.  I got to see Karl Williams win his legendary screenplay hat trick (I am convinced the guy can't write a bad script!).

And then someone got up on the stage.  And then they were talking about the "Narrative Feature Award."  And I was taking a swig of pinot.  And then, all of a sudden, I heard the title of my movie.

And then I heard nothing.  Because no one was talking.  It was like a bomb went off.

I scan the room, waiting for someone to rise.  Everyone else is scanning the room, too.  It felt like hours were passing.  Dawn was breaking quite slowly in the molasses of my conscious mind. 

I eventually turn to the guy sitting next to me and chuckle: "I think we won."

He grabs the wine glass out of my hand and starts slapping me on the back.  "Dude!  YOU WON!"

Oh, my god!!!  He was right!

I spring to my feet.  Now I feel like a real fool because everyone was staring at me.  But I dare not move, lest I be wrong.  I wait for some other screenwriter to head toward the stage to accept an award.  'Cause I don't win stuff like this, I reminded myself.

There are no takers, and the people at me table, like, pushing me toward the stage.  I still don't know what I am doing, but I decide it's safe to mount the stairs.  And then people are shaking my hand.  And then they put this thing in my hands that weighs about 15 pounds.  And then I'm in front of the microphone.

And as I scan the expectant faces of Hollywood's best and brightest, about to open my mouth and wing my first-ever acceptance speech, a profound thought occurs to me: I really wish I had taken that shower this morning.

The Gift of Exhaling

I have been holding my breath since I was 12.  For those of you in the studio audience who are counting, that's 31 years.  Three decades.  And [read with sarcastic tone] thanks for counting in the first place.

Whether you're counting or not, it's a helluva long time to wait to exhale.

One day when I was 12, my mom asked me to grab something out of her dresser drawer.  There, I found a picture: the smiling faces of three of my siblings as children--ages ranging from about 12 down to about four.  But there was a fourth child in the picture--a beautiful little girl about age 10.  She was smiling like the rest of them.

What struck me, though, was that she looked so much like my siblings.  Like she belonged.  Part of a set.

When I asked my mom about the little girl in the picture, she broke down in tears.  Over the next four hours, I heard a story that my 12 year-old brain could barely wrap itself around.  By the time my mom stopped talking, we were both exhausted.  And all cried out.

The little girl in the picture was my sister.

I won't go into all the details around her departure from my immediate family.  The past deserves to stay in the past.

But she was gone.  Strangely enough, adopted by the brother of my mom's first husband and his wife, which legally made her a cousin to my three other siblings in the picture.  Sometimes God has a wicked sense of humor.

Occasionally, I would hear reports about her from my siblings, who would see her at family gatherings of the "Mom's 1st husband's family" variety.  But I had never met her, never seen another picture.

Late last fall, one of my other sibling's called me and told me that she and my sister had not only been in contact, but had experienced a full-fledged reuniting.  They got each other back.  The four children in the picture were back in the picture again.

Then came the best part of the news: that my sister had expressed a wish for me to be in the picture, too.

The upshot of all this is tomorrow, after 31 years, I get to join my siblings--my sister included--at a family gathering.  Robbye, Zach, and I are going to my sister's cabin to meet her and her husband and all their kids for a day of fun and (apparently) of devouring every type of barbecued meat imaginable.

I am a little nervous, but in a good way.  To think of it brings to mind the final scenes of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION.  The ones where Red is heading across the border to meet Andy Dufresne in Mexico.

"I hope to see my friend," Red says.  "I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams."

I hope, too.  And I am hopeful.

More than anything, I am grateful.  Finally...to exhale.

Happy New Year!

Hey, everyone.  It's been awhile.  Feels like we haven't touched base since last year (I never get tired of that one).

I know we have a lot of catching up to do.  I promise to dish on all comings and goings in short order.  Today, though, I just wanted to say hi and I'm back.

While you're waiting...Over on Facebook, this "25 Random Things About Me" list thing is all the rage.  I got suckered into it, too.  It was kinda fun, and I thought I would share my list here as well.  Enjoy...

1. I had both a pet squirrel named Frosty and a pet crow named Sidney when I was growing up.

2. I grew up on an 80-acre farm nearly three miles from the nearest tar road and about 13 miles from the nearest town. Most people don't believe me when I tell them this. They think I grew up in some suburb.

3. I have eaten field mouse fricassee, courtesy of my wildlife management college roommate, Pat.

4. I am a convicted thief. It's a long story.

5. My first name is not William--it's Wilmont. And to the best of my knowledge, my grandfather, my dad, and I are the only people in the world who have or had this as our first name. (update! my friend Brett informed me that there is an NFL player with the first name Wilmont.  I am NOT ALONE!)

6. I spent the better part of the first day I met my wife, Robbye, avoiding her at the harvest party we were both attending because I thought she was too young for me.

7. I lived in my car for a month when I was 19 because I wanted to experience what it felt like.

8. When Robbye and I got married, I changed my middle name to Austin, after my great-grandfather that came to the US from Ireland.

9. Although I went through most of my life as "Wilmont James True III", my birth name was really "Wilmont James True Jr.", the same as my dad. My dad didn't want me named after him, so my mom named me after my grandfather when my dad was away at work. As a result, the Social Security Administration thought my dad and I were the same person for many years. They still think my grandparents are my parents.

10. I turned down an offer to perform off-Broadway when I was 20 in the Tim Rice rock opera, BLONDEL. I'd been the title character in the US premiere, and Tim liked my work. I moved to LA instead to pursue an offer to attend the screenwriting program at USC, which I never ended up actually attending.

11. I was a 7th level letterman in choir in high school (my only letter), and I think I am still in second place for highest number of letter points achieved in the history of my school (the highest number, 10 more than me, was achieved by my friend Deb Berndt the same year).

12. I was a store manager for Radio Shack in the late 1980s. At the time, in fact, I was the only part-time salesperson every promoted directly to store manager. I attribute this distinction more to the fact that no one wanted to manage the store as opposed to my mad sales skills.

13. I have been general manager for two small retail chains: one for pet supplies and the other for Black Hills Gold jewelry.

14. My two high school jobs were working on the City of Isanti maintenance crew (where I painted all the fire hydrants one summer and managed the city sewage plant the next) and playing drums in my parents’ country & western band.

15. I am allergic to horseradish.

16. I begged Robbye to take me to see THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS 2. And, hell yes, I cried…just like I did over the first one. (“Why did Bailey have to die?!?”)

17. I am red-green colorblind. But it’s a rather insidious disorder, because I can see certain shades of red and green but not others. I have oft bought a piece of clothing I thought was grey only to find out later that it’s the crappiest shade of green. No wonder why it was 70% off.

18. I don’t like the sound of my own voice.

19. Amy Jo Johnson (the Pink Power Ranger, who was briefly considered for the role of Carly in RUNAWAY) was afraid to meet me in person after she read the script for RUNAWAY. When we finally did meet, she couldn’t stop laughing because it turns out I was “just a suburban soccer-dad type.” She is, btw, the only celebrity I’ve met that truly excited my kids.

20. I unexpectedly aced the ACT (35 out of 36), getting a perfect score on (of all things) the math section. The Physics and Math departments at my college both offered me scholarships to study in their fields. But I was a theatre major.

21. I finished the Twin Cities Marathon in 4 hours and 10 seconds. I would have made my goal to finish in less than 4 hours, but in a moment of K-2 proportions, I ran 50 yards back to retrieve my running partner, who had stopped running.

22. I am known for coming up with horrible titles for my own works (e.g., RUNAWAY was MICHAEL’S LETTERS, INCARNATION was THE ANGEL ON THE HORSE).

23. The only fan letter I have ever written was to Elvis Costello (via his website). And I was thrilled when he answered it!

24. I only recently realized I love sauerkraut, thanks to my wife, and that my favorite sandwich is a Rueben.

25. I almost died at age 17 from chickenpox, as they threatened to grow on my central nervous system. I missed nearly six weeks of school because of it and had to finish my junior year at the same time as I was starting my senior year of high school.