Once Upon a Time in Hollywood....err, Scottsdale.

Worlds colliding Jerry!  Worlds colliding!!!!!!

Welcome back!!!!!!

Don't call it a comeback, I've been here for years. 2 years to be exact since I've last blogged anything. But oh my what has transpired in those two years.  There are many reasons why it's been so long and hold on, we'll explore a few of those shortly.  But after recently seeing the Quentin Tarantino film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, I suddenly felt some inspiration to write a new blog.  Which was sort of confusing because I'm not much of a  Tarantino fan really, but this film is fantastic, with some incredible acting and great story telling, I'd highly recommend it. Despite the fact that he took a true story, merged it with pure fiction and then rewrote real history with a crazy ending involving a flamethrower.  All the back and forth of truth and fiction nearly made my head explode.  Don't worry film nerds, if you haven't seen it yet I didn't just ruin it for you.  Besides if you are such a Tarantino fan you should have already seen it by now.

I may not have written in awhile but I'm always FIRED UP!

If you read my blog previously(and if you haven't do it right now......I'll wait.......) then you learned of my crazy entry into the world of entertainment.  Quit shaking your head, its really happened, deal with it!  Keep in mind my whole life I've worked as a white collar professional.  I was never in theater as a kid or in school nor had I acted in any way before all of this started a few years ago.  Most co-workers I've had have zero idea that I act, most of my neighbors don't know and even some of my friends either don't know or are back in Michigan and somewhat suspicious of anything I may have shared.  The main reason being I have a hard time considering myself an "Actor", I do act, at least recently, but I have a hard time saying I'm an actor.  It has all happened out of the blue and so quickly and I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of my friends and family or anyone really, typical insecurity I suppose. But I have come to learn and accept that I do have some acting talent and I have done a deep dive head first into studying, training and learning all I can.  It's led to some incredible opportunities as well as some wacky and interesting situations. I'm trying to accept it all and be better at talking and sharing about it as it's not going away anytime soon because one thing I quickly learned is that even the worst day on a set is a million times better than any day of regular work in an office. Who wouldn't want more of that?  So as  I continue to work on my craft, I thought writing again would also be helpful to me from a creative standpoint as I search for my true essence.  Finding my inner being, the place I can go to, to get deep into character.  After all, I'm an artist now.  Right? Maybe?  Whatever. You're here now so you might as well read the rest of this.  Just know I won't be invoking any revisionist history with my life in telling these exploits, just what actually has happened or not.  Well, at least that's my plan, we'll see how this goes, in the end rewriting history may be a better choice.

Look for it in theaters.  Keep looking.  Keep looking.
Keep.......looking........
Cool poster though.

My last blog entry detailed me playing a lead role as Detective Rudy Gehrhardt in the feature film Men of Mercy. A gritty, urban thriller where I chased a teenage gang while trying to solve a murder. In so many ways this was an abrupt education into film making and the industry and for someone as new to it as me I chose to look at it that way and get all of that value out of it for myself.  As an independent film it was done on a shoestring budget, which meant long periods of delay in filming and in post-production.  I quickly learned that as an actor you are basically a hired gun.  You are contracted to act the scenes but then you have zero control over what may or may not happen after that.  So you sit around waiting a lot or just move on to something else.  I did see a final-cut version at a cast party in January of this year and overall the movie turned out solidly.  What happens now, you know as much as me.  But the conundrum with any independent project is that if you are trying to sell it then you cannot have any kind of public showing.  Even some Film Festivals have exclusivity rights so depending on your desire you could have a finished product just sitting idle, hoping to sell it, waiting for something, which is what appears to have happened here.  However the other real takeaway for me was meeting fellow actors, imparticularly the main star of the film, KK Starrs and her mom and dad, Erin Marie and Barry.  They have all become great friends; KK is easily the most talented person I've ever known(more on that forthcoming) and Erin Marie has in many ways become my de facto Manager while Barry is still waiting for the Bears to get even an average FG kicker.  The thud you just heard was Barry throwing his IPad across the room. But since no one will likely ever see this movie and since I had a tremendous amount of scenes and if I can be objective, I think I did a solid job.  Maybe not award-winning, but then again, chances are you won't see it so let me restate that and say I gave an Oscar-worthy performance and I will await my award next year.  I'd like to thank the Academy, my parents, my friends and to all of those people that encouraged me along the way.  You are all my heroes!  Baba booey!

I always seem to have plenty of scripts to read.  I keep a lot of them, even a few of parts I didn't get to see if they ever turn into something.

With all the delays in filming Men of Mercy I started doing as many auditions as I could in Arizona and in California.  My thought was to just audition as much as I could, even if I thought I had no chance for a role, because every audition would be a learning experience. Amazingly I started to get cast in all sorts of things.  I'm sure I'll have some of this out of order, but I got cast as a Professor in a Sci-Fi short called "3631" which led to the Director writing a contest short around me called "The Sugar Project". That led to me getting a lead role in a gritty, true story short film called "Loop" that was shot at the Universal Studios Backlot.  I played a drug-addicted father.  It was a really difficult role to play. I studied addiction heavily and let myself go a bit to get really uncomfortable in my own skin.  It was a challenging week of rehearsing(which we did on the set of the Showtime hit Ray Donovan) and filming, which took place on Wisteria Lane, the old set of Desperate Housewives.  Playing that tough of a role/person stayed with me a day or two afterward.  The Director was hoping to sell the short into a feature but it didn't happen.  However, filming a movie at Universal Studios and being on the backlot on a live set when the tour trams come around with tourists snapping pictures, it was definitely a cool and surreal experience.

On the set of Loop at Universal Studios with Director Cecil Green and Mattea Lee who played my daughter.

I had been fortunate at this point to have gotten a number roles but there were probably twice as many that I didn't get.  Including the role of a solider in an incredible short film, My Sekret War.  One of the few times I was truly disappointed.  But if you ever get a chance to see that, do it. But that's part of the process and I had a regular job and this is all just sideline stuff. But then I got what I thought was the ultimate role for me to play the Head Coach of a Professional Football team in a TV pilot entitled "The Head Coach".  It was more of a serious, issues drama rather than football driven but the whole concept was incredible to me to think that I would be the lead in any TV show.  The script was solid, but I learned another lesson in that not everything transfers from script to screen in a smooth way.  Ultimately it didn't turn out as great as I hoped, but nonetheless it was a great experience.  I brought my parents to a day of filming and they could not have been any less impressed or enthused.  After about 5 minutes my dad actually said, "Can we go now?" only to be topped by my mother after filming one scene and her watching the playback, "Is that it? 2 minutes? You spent all this time for a 2 minute TV show?".  Needless to say staying humble is a non-issue for me.  I love you mom and dad!

Even though my parents weren't captivated in the least, don't worry, they still love and support me.
Meanwhile I made the ultimate boss move in getting Ana an extra role in my first film Dream Big!(now on Netflix) when we were first dating.  It worked, for awhile.  Hmmm, I better find another movie I can get her in.

The real key to all of this was that I was building a resume of work(I don't have enough time to share every project I've done) and mostly in lead roles which would prove valuable when auditioning in the future.  Soon I was cast in a psychological thriller feature film called "Seven Devils".  Filmed in Seattle, LA and Phoenix, I had a big role playing a menacing character who sets up the whole movie.  I saw playback of my scenes and a few other people saw it as well, and it turned out fantastic. That movie is still in post-production and hopefully will be available by the end of this year.  That led to the Director asking me to be in a music video he was shooting for a southern rock artist, Christopher Shayne.  The video was for the song "Burn Me Down".  It was great fun to make and I will not be objective when saying it may be the greatest music video ever!  I even got my friend Jack to play my boss and I've replayed the moment of choking him every time I see him.  Not really, relax, Jack gets the joke.  But I suppose that since we live in such a sensitive society these days, I feel like I have to let everyone know I'm just joking.  Look for my apology on my Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter later today....

Seven Devils up top and Left, it's going to be a great film.
Christopher Shayne and I Burning it Down on the right.

It may seem like I have done a lot of things, and I've only touched the surface, but my regular life of work, running, friends and hobbies was all going on as well.  There is so much downtime in this industry and often times the shoots are only 1 day or a couple.  So you can do a lot in a relatively short period of time.  I still ran the Phoenix Marathon as I have every year since I moved here in 2012.  In fact this year I trained harder than I ever have(sadly not with my best results).  My friend Gregg and I hiked Mt. Humphreys again in Flagstaff.  Something we've done almost every year.  Hiking over 12K feet is no joke!  I did any number of long bike rides with my Phoenix friends, those are always great fun.  My life-long friend Bacon flew in last fall for the MSU-ASU football game in what turned out to be the hottest recorded game in ASU history.  Which is saying something, it was pretty gross.  Had a really difficult breakup.  And I had great trips back to Michigan including tons of fun with my friend Doug and  a crazy trip on his boat to Beaver Island.  The whole group of us will remember that forever.  So my regular life still happened and still does to this day.  I don't take every role that's come my way and I've turned down auditions when I knew the project would interfere with my job or life.  I suppose if acting was my life I'd never do such a thing but I don't regret the way I've handled anything so far.  No reason to dwell on anything, just move on and in the words of Doug, Live Life!  He does that better than anyone I know. I try.

Always trying to Live Life and beyond blessed to have so many people to enjoy it with!

I share a lot of good things, of course, but like everyone else, not everything in life is positive.  I did lose my Uncle Al this year.  He was 90 years old and unfortunately cancer knows no boundaries.  He lived a great life and we always had a special connection.  He and my Aunt Rae retired to Arizona 25+ years ago and live near Las Vegas.  When I first moved to Phoenix I didn't know anyone and there were many weekends I drove the 3.5 hours to their place and he and I spent hours in the Laughlin Casinos sportsbooks watching and betting on football and basketball.  We had many parallels in our lives, so many similarities.  He shared stuff with me he's never shared with anyone else and I did the same.  We had that kind of relationship.  Rare for men, but how lucky I've been.  I always looked forward to spending time at their place. He thought it was so incredible that I had found my way into the world of movies and TV and I'd spent so much time at their place they often referred to their spare room as Chris's room, much to my cousins(their kids) chagrin.  But because of that, purely as joke, I gave them a signed 8x10 of my headshot.  To my surprise they actually hung it up in the room and it still hangs there for all to see.  Silly, yes, please don't think I take myself that seriously.  But the times we spent and all the life lessons I learned from him will be cherished forever.  You will be forever missed Uncle Al!  Definitely send me some betting tips from above, I'm guessing you might have a way to get inside information.

Holding my headshot, and always smiling and laughing.
Thanks for being in my life Uncle Al! Your legend will live on forever!

There is no good segue from that.  But the picture above was earlier this year and it's been quite a year already as far as projects go.  In January I got a really fun role in a feature film called "The Deadbeats" which will be out around Halloween.  I don't want to spoil any of it but I get into a physical altercation with a clown and I got to work with Tori Osborn, who I have seemed to work with 7-8 times.  We've played about every iteration of a relationship possible and in this movie we were a (un)happy couple throwing our daughter a birthday party.  My favorite role with her was in the music video.  Watch it again and you can see her throwing things at me.  She was way too happy to do that I might add.  But when you act in Arizona you tend to run into the same people a lot and she and I certainly have and I know we will work together again.  I then did a run of commercials.  I filmed a series of them for the website Curated.com where I played a dimwit named Uncle Larry. A fun departure.  I did a commercial where I played a felon, that really turned out well. Then I did a Sam Adams Beer commercial which was really cool in theory but when I saw the finished spot you can only see my chest with a beer in front of me, not my head(or anyone else's, how dare they made the beer the focal point!).  After that I was contacted by my talented friend KK who had written a script and was going to make and Direct the movie herself and she asked me to be in it.  Keep in mind she's a teenager!  She's won awards for her acting and now she's writing and directing, are you kidding me?  But I was delighted and we made the film "Liberty".  It was a challenging role for me but it was great fun and it turned out really well.  She's had the film accepted by Film Festivals and it will be showing at one this fall and more later on.  Anything she's attached to turns to gold and I'll gladly glom on like a barnacle if possible.

A collection of some of the films Tori and I have done, me with Mr. Patches in The Deadbeats, and shots from Liberty.

Then as summer came along I was fortunate enough to get cast in two more TV pilots.  Both completely different types of shows. The first The Circles Under Our Eyes, I play a lead role as the patriarch of crime family.  We will be shooting 3 episodes of what will hopefully be a 10 episode season.  It has just started filming and it is going to be wild.  Plus it's given  me the chance to work with two of my friends, Greg Wave, who is the main lead and plays my son, and Stew Jetson who plays my villainous brother.  I've acted with both guys before and become friends with each of them. Greg also wrote a short film called "Into the Fray" which he asked me to be in.  I played a psychiatrist and from all the footage I've seen already it's going to be fantastic and should be done this fall and likely will be accepted to many festivals.  The other pilot may be the most meaningful project I've ever worked on entitled "Learning Laron".  In the show I run a large law firm and Laron works for me and let's just say I'm not a great boss.  I've filmed all of my scenes and I know they turned out well. The guy playing Laron, Alan R. Johnson, is fantastic and we worked really well together doing some intense scenes.  I expect this show will get picked up and seen somewhere it's way too good not too.  This month I fly back to Sacramento to finish filming "The Diner", a twilight zone-esque thriller, and bigger budget SAG feature film where I play a principle role as a Real Estate Developer who must atone for some misdeeds.  We are not allowed to share virtually anything about this but I know it will turn out great and should be done and out this fall as well.  But one of the most exciting things for me is the Phoenix premiere of a short film I did called "Anita".  It will play at the Filmbar in Phoenix as part of the Arizona Filmmakers Showcase at the end of the month.  It's won awards at Festivals and it is something I am very proud of even though it is incredibly dark and disturbing and I play a horrible person.  It may likely be the most challenging role I could ever play.  I filmed it last year with Kelcie Weber, who plays Anita, and who might also end up being in the Circles TV show.  She gives an incredible performance and it was quite an experience making this important film.  If you are in Phoenix I expect you to be there.

Learning Laron with Alan and Director Jermaine Shoulders, a behind the scenes shot of Into the Fray, a shot of another pilot I did with Greg, Dealin' with the Dead where I play his attorney. Two shots of Anita, one of us rehearsing.

So needless to say the last two years have been quite a whirlwind and there were a number of other projects I was fortunate enough to be a part of and great people that I've worked with.  Not every project turned out well or was probably even that great to begin with.  But if you want to act you have to do anything you can and learn and improve. I've embraced that and I'm trying harder to share and truly embrace the fact that acting has now become an integral part of my life.  For most of the time is was just a cool thing that happened and then another project would happen and then another.  With every dry spell I just assumed that was it and I never wavered from my regular life.  I still don't know if I ever will try and devote myself solely to acting but I know this; we all encounter forks in the road of our lives and not all forks are bad or necessarily tough decisions, merely a different path to take.  For whatever reasons I have taken some unlikely paths and continue to do so. I've studied hard and learned as much as I can and I'll put my acting training and classes and management up against any one's, but the real key is everything I've done has worked for me and  I've done my best to learn from it and to try and be the best actor I can whether I've had a lead role or a smaller part. It's all still amazing to me and I appreciate every opportunity I've been given. It's even led to me writing my own short film script and getting a production company to make it.  That film is called "Purgatory" and we'll be shooting it the end of September.  It's really exciting and unbelievable to me that any of this has happened.  Starting and writing this blog 7 years ago was really just a way for me to keep in touch with my family and friends in Michigan.  It turned into great therapy for myself as I was divorced and living alone for the first time in my life in a state where I knew no one.  But I think it also fueled my creative side, a side maybe I either never realized I had or thought I could pursue.  But after all this time I think I am now able to admit and proclaim to myself and anyone else that I am an indeed an Actor!  Everything that's happened to me is a lot like a Hollywood tale, it's just been made in Scottsdale.

But no matter what happens from this point, now I know all I need is a Red Apple cigarette and a flamethrower and I can blow everything up and start over!  It's the Hollywood way.

Christopher Studenka, Actor