THE PERFECT AGE OF ROCK AND ROLL
This is my hip and cool project. How can it not be with this subject matter? I play an ex-fashion model who was married to a rock star. He died of an overdose and left me a single mom with two kids. My relationship with my daughter (Aimee Teegarden of "Friday Night Lights" - a fantastic TV show), stinks. The relationship with my son borders on sick as I keep him too close, and worry that he will follow in his father’s footsteps. The story is told from the point of view of one of his bandmates - a childhood best friend giving an interview to Rolling Stone Magazine. A very cool cast: Kevin Zegers, Jason Ritter, Taryn Manning, Peter Fonda, Kelly Lynch, etc. My roll is not that big, but it’s important, and I was excited to be a part of it.
Scott Rosenbaum was a first time director, but it was being produced by Spike Lee. Scott had been shadowing Spike for a long time, and if he had confidence in his abilities, then why shouldn’t I? Scott was great. From what I gather, he used to be on Wall Street, but music and movies were his passion. So he chucked his career (ballsy!), and wrote the script with his best friend who was a real rocker. Scott threw away his suits and assumed the wardrobe of his new lifestyle. I used to tease him because his ‘distressed’ jeans were really brand new and cost $200. I think I embarrassed him, of which I feel bad. He’s such a good guy, and I’m glad we’ve maintained a friendship - a rare occurrence in our profession’s gypsy lifestyle. I haven’t seen it yet, Scott is busy finishing the music, editing, etc., but I have high hopes. Sometimes you can just tell it’s gonna be good when you’re on the set.
Time Flies…
The experience was a little shocking and bruising to my ego, however. I played Jason Ritter’s mother. Wow, even now when I just write that sentence I swallow hard. In my mind we are contemporaries……guess not. When I went for my first wardrobe fitting, there were all these Polaroids of Jason in various costume changes on the wall. As I was trying on my clothes, I was repeating in my head over and over “he’s NOT playing my boyfriend, he’s playing my SON.” Ugh. Plus everyone kept referring to the movie as a ‘period’ piece. It takes place in the 90’s!!!!!! Oh, that was a decade ago. Time flies, and I sound like my grandmother. I’ve got to figure out a way to match what I feel like to what I look like, otherwise all my time is gonna be spent confused.
I love Jason Ritter. He is so damn talented and sweet. I loved working with him. On my last day I finished at midnight. At 4:30 am I was getting picked up for the airport. I was going to be my sister-in-law's birth partner, and she was dilating. I packed up my stuff and met Jason in the lobby of our hotel. Everything was closed, but I brought a bottle of vodka from my “starting the film gift basket,” and two glasses from my room. We sat in the lobby and drank and talked until my pick-up came. Great conversation, but considering the state in which I showed up at my sister –in-law’s, good thing Charlie wasn’t born for another week!
