Son of Zorn appearance. Network TV Premiere!

So this past weekend I had a co-star role in the show Son of Zorn. It wasn't until it aired and I was watching it on television that I realized that this is my first role on network television. Lady Dynamite is considered a TV show, but technically it's on Netflix so it's not something that you have to catch live on television.

Anyways, it was a pretty good role. I recently updated my reel and put my scene and it can be seen below. Most of it is in there, which is good because I usually always fear getting cut out.

It was an interesting experience acting opposite a cartoon. They would usually do a first take with a stand in. In this case, it was a girl wearing a large green box and like a green ski mask covering her face. Then they would do a second take without the stand in and I would have to just remember where they were and use points on the wall as a point of reference and the stand in would talk to be from behind the camera. My scene wasn't even that complicated, but it was really weird. I can only imagine what it would be like with more complicated special effects and stuff.

Anyways, it's the end of the year. It had its ups and downs. Preparing for next year. Blah blah.

Stanley Wong Comedic Reel from Stanley Wong / Travis Ashkenasy on Vimeo.

New videos and stuff!

Kind of lagging on updating this, but I have some updates to post.

First off, I have this video finally finished. I think it might be the weirdest thing I ever made. So much so that I sat on it for over a year because by the time I finished shooting and editing it I realized it didn't really work and I didn't know how to make it work. I guess after a year I just embraced that it is what it is and released it. Props to Jordan Garcie for making the sweet song, which is way better than the video deserves.

Also, I hate dancing so I'm not sure how I convinced myself to do my terrible dancing skills running around Sunset Blvd. (It's supposed to be a weird homage to Footloose BTW).


Next up, I have this short that I starred in. This is a channel 101 short, which is a monthly screening of webseries episodes where the audience gets to pick what they want to see next month because they only pick the top 5. I went to channel 101 two years ago and watched a short from a pair of filmmakers that I loved and I talked to them in hopes of being able to work with them in the future. It took two years, but I was able to be in this. We also got voted into the top 5 so be on the lookout for more of these.


Other than that, I have a Hand Fart screening as part of the San Diego Asian Film Festival and I recently finished up shooting on my first music video for my friend Peter Su. I'll be trying to get that done for the end of the month so I'll post that as well.

Interpretations Contest entry Molotov Cocktail

There's this contest that's run by YOMYOMF, which is an Asian media blog of sorts. The whole point of the contest was to make a short using only the lines "Don't do that. Of Course. I have my doubts. What is it?" We were initially hesitant to do the contest at all because a lot of the previous examples seemed very much like products of their limitations and I didn't want to spend a lot of time on a short that would just end up feeling like it only belongs in the contest. We dug up one of our old ideas that required no dialogue though and just added the four lines in. Ultimately, I feel like we made a short that stands apart from the contest and works on it's own.

I found out today that we didn't even make the top 15, which came as kind of a surprise because I really thought we had made something special considering the limitations. That being said, there could be a number of reasons why it wasn't chosen. There's some great camera work by Nate Elegino, who I worked with for the first time, and music by my longtime music collaborator Tyler Koontz and even though we made a decent version of the molotov cocktail explosion in the end, Tyler Kelley who did the explosion in my Hand Fart movie provided VFX to really take it to the next level. Jes Vu Produced and did all of the graphics and was awesome to work with too.

Lately I've been putting a lot of effort in contests and grants and haven't been coming up too successful just yet. Kind of wondering if I should switch strategies. Anyways, this is a great short that sprouted from the simple idea of me wanting to actually throw a molotov cocktail and wanting to create a music montage of sorts like in the beginning of the movie "Up". We actually tried to throw a real molotov cocktail in our desert AirBnb location and failed miserably. It is hilariously captured in the video below.

One of the biggest disappointments of my life. My failed Molotov cocktail attempt.

A video posted by Stanley Wong (@swong37) on Aug 9, 2016 at 7:29pm PDT

The next thing I'm working on is a short for the HBO visionaries contest that was recently announced. I have to make a 10-15 minute movie that has something to do with Asian Identity. I have a limited sense of Asian identity since I grew up in Louisiana and pretty much was just the only Asian. I do have an idea I'm working on that'll be inspired by the short below. For those of you that don't know, it's the short Vin Diesel made to get discovered. Steven Spielberg saw it and put him in Saving Private Ryan. Anyways, hopefully something can come of that. If not, at least I will have made another movie.

Giant Penis Retrospective

I actually have a lot more thoughts concerning this one role and I felt like it'd be interesting to add on to the previous post.

I shot this about a year ago now in July of 2015. When I first got the audition, I didn't think much of it and I really didn't think I was going to get it. I went to the audition and there were a bunch of other actual Japanese guys there who were speaking to each other in the language. Me being not Japanese at all, I figured I wouldn't get the role for that reason alone. I wasn't going to out Japanese them, but maybe I could out crazy them. I went into the audition and did my few lines and just really committed to it. I had to pretend that I got stabbed in the neck and I really fell to the ground and pretended blood was gushing out of my throat. I based how I would talk on how announcers in the Japanese Street Fighter tournaments that I watch scream while they're broadcasting. The casting director thought it was hilarious. But, I just left immediately after to go on a Vegas vacation and forgot about it.
It wasn't until I was in the middle of my Vegas vacation when my former agent called me and said that she wanted to personally congratulate me on getting the role of a Giant Penis because she doesn't get to say it very often. (Exactly how often do you get to say that?) I had very mixed feelings because I now had to wonder if this was the kind of role I would want to take. I had just come off of shooting my best role yet on The Big Short and now I was going to be doing something potentially racist and weird in the form of doing a couple of lines in a giant penis costume while doing the Asian accent? But.... part of me just went with it cause at least it would be comedy and it didn't seem to be too derogatory. That and I didn't feel like I was in a position to be turning down work just yet I guess (The struggle).

So I came back from my Vegas trip and shot for Lady Dynamite. I remember it being a very recurring joke to everyone that I was coming in as the Giant penis. I didn't take many pictures, but this was one I knew I had to take.

A photo posted by Stanley Wong (@swong37) on Jul 21, 2015 at 6:09pm PDT

There were light jokes here and there like "Hey, who brought this dick around?" and people wanting to take pictures of me in costume. I didn't really mind it. I do remember having a distinct feeling of WTF am I doing? when we had to shoot this dancing scene in this giant penis costume. No one actually said it, but I kept hearing in my head the words "Dance Monkey! Dance!" This picture shows maybe how I felt about it.

A selfie in my costume for the show Lady Dynamite. This will probably be something I regret later in life. #tbt

A photo posted by Stanley Wong (@swong37) on Sep 22, 2015 at 12:37am PDT

There was one actual Japanese guy there and I asked him how an actual Japanese person would say my lines. Apparently Pussy Noodles is said more like PU-SHEE NEW-DAH-RU. I recorded him and practiced the way that he said it. If I was going to "do the accent' I wanted to make sure I was doing it authentically. Even if everyone else thought the version I made up in my head was good enough to cast me in the role.

When it was all said and done, I really wasn't sure how to feel about it. I remember my sister called to ask about it and she told me that she felt ashamed for me. I wasn't quite sure how to take that. Was I supposed to feel shame for taking that role? I talked to other friends who thought it was awesome. I went to my ten year high school reunion shortly after filming and when people asked me if I had any projects lined up in the future I would mention The Big Short and when they asked what else a mental image of me dancing around in a giant penis costume popped up in my head and I would reply with "That's it!"

A few months later I watched the show Master of None that specifically had an entire episode dedicated to Asian American people auditioning for shows that require you to do the accent and what it was like to be an Asian actor and fighting for the representation that you want to have. I felt inspired watching it, but disappointed because I had already technically sold out. But with the rise of whitewashing of Asian roles and yellowfacing of others I still decided to stand up. I started turning down auditions that I felt were emasculating towards Asian men or just weird and exploitative. I went to a Golden Globes party and got to run into Aziz Ansari briefly in passing. I told him I did a shameful role where I did the Asian accent, but it was only after I saw his show. He did one of his trademark "Nooooooooooo"'s then said that it was alright and that he forgave me. It helped.

A few months ago, Lady Dynamite came out on Netflix and I begrudgingly watched it. As I got through it though I realized that it was actually a pretty great show and that part was funny. Apparently they thought so as well and used it as a viral clip that got a couple million views. I don't know if there are people out there that are hating on me for taking that role (like they have for every other role that I've taken), but I can say that in this particular case I'm proud of the work. Not sure if I'm going to be putting it on my reel anytime soon though.

Giant Penis

It's been a long time since I did my last post. There was a time that I was trying to do it once a month, then it turned to me wanting to do a post every time something new I made came out or something.... Anyways, here I am today to report a few things!

The co-star of me playing a guy in a giant penis costume for the show Lady Dynamite came out. It's super weird and I didn't really want to post about it much because of how strange and possibly offensive it was. The show is actually really great though and I really recommend that everyone watch it. For those that one to watch it, catch Episode 2 "Bisexual because of Meth" or you can see the clip that I'm in at the link below because apparently it's the weirdest clip from the entire show so they decided to use it as a viral clip.

Here are also two very contrasting pictures of how excited I am to play a giant penis.

Anyways, I'm told as far as one line roles go this is pretty cool so I'll just stick with that.

LA Asian Pacific Film Festival / Hand Fart Premiere

So the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival was this past week. It was also the premiere of Hand Fart. The last couple of months had led up to this moment and honestly I really wasn't sure what the reception of it all would be like. Going to all the parties leading up to the screening, it was always weird having to tell people my movie was called Hand Fart while still being part of this exclusive Armed with a Camera Fellowship. I really thought that most people wouldn't get it and was fully prepared to have it screen and have maybe 10% of the audience laughing, if that.

When the premiere came though and my movie started up, people started responding immediately. The movie doesn't really have any overt jokes throughout it, but people were laughing almost from the start, which was great. It got a huge response, which I honestly did not expect at all. After the screening, there was literally a line of people waiting to tell me how cool I was (exact words mind you). It was a really great experience and reminded me of why I love being a filmmaker more than an actor honestly. That screening was a bigger moment to me than anything associated with all of the "big" acting achievements I've accomplished over the last few years because I felt like it was more of my contribution to something.

The festival officially ended on Thursday and a lot of people said they would be on the lookout for what we had coming next. Expectations were very high, but we met a lot of contacts who were also willing to help out for any future projects and such. I have a few projects in the pipeline coming up and I can only hope it lives up to Hand Fart. That's all I have to say about that.

Trailer for Hand Fart

So, pretty excited about the upcoming screening of Hand Fart. It's probably the best thing I've made. I asked my roommate if he could cut a trailer and it came out pretty well. So yeah, check it out below.

Hand Fart

So they just released the festival page for Hand Fart. This is the moment that I've been waiting for. When I got a call that my movie titled Hand Fart was picked as part of this Film Fellowship promoting the Asian American Voice in cinema, I was excited to see the page where the title Hand Fart would be among a bunch of other movies that were much more Asian focused.

http://laapff.festpro.com/films/program/vc_digital_posse_ver_2016_2016

Anyways, I'm extremely proud of how this movie came out and really happy with the process of getting it made too. I was going to write a post about the production of it, but it was basically just a really great experience. There was a lot of planning beforehand and it all paid off and the production went extremely smooth. The footage is beautiful, the performances worked, everything just worked out. This might be one of the best example of a movie that came out almost exactly how I wanted it to from conception.

So yeah, check out the other page below. If you're in the L.A. area in 4/24, come out to the screening. It'll be in a state of the art 850 person theater and will be a blast.

http://laapff.festpro.com/films/detail/hand_fart_2016

SAG Awards Recap pt 3

The food there was a little better. It was super crowded in the after party and I have a feeling that they opened it up to more people because there were a lot of people I didn't recognize. Eventually I found out that there was a reserved table for people from The Big Short and I got to sit and talk with Adam McKay and Maria Tomei a bit. It was there that I found out that there was a cooler after party that was happening at Sunset Tower. They didn't stay long and eventually they left and I decided to walk around and try to talk to random people as well.

A video posted by Stanley Wong (@swong37) on Jan 30, 2016 at 7:48pm PST

Going to mainly hurry it up since I've taken forever on this....

So basically I walked around and got to talk to random people here and there. We eventually met up with these people who were producers/actors who were really cool and actually interested in what we had to say. They eventually asked us if we wanted to go out with them to dinner and then partying afterward or something. Jeffry said we shouldn't leave the party just yet, so we decided to meet up with them later. We basically stayed at the party for another hour or so and then called the private car to go meet up with those people. On the way we got our SAG Swag bag though. It mostly had makeup and stuff we really couldn't use though.

A photo posted by Stanley Wong (@swong37) on Jan 30, 2016 at 10:21pm PST

So then we started heading to the restaurant where they were at. When we got dropped off, there was like a lobby that we had to check in with and they asked us which party we were with. We told them the name of the person we knew and they said it wasn't on record, so then I had to text the person and ask them under who's name it was and eventually they told us. So we finally go up there and tell them who it was and they say we're only allowed to bring one person down, but we could get in contact with them to see if they wanted to bring more than one. So, I texted them again telling them those details and waited even longer. While we were waiting, we were talking to these girls who were also waiting to hear from their party to allow them to go up. They asked us why we were in tuxedos and we started cheesing and saying we just came from the SAG awards and we were in the big short and they started geeking out and asking to take pictures. The host came up to us and said we were allowed to up now and we told them we wanted to sit back and talk to these ladies a little longer. Eventually they got the confirmation to go up and we were like oh, we'll follow you. Then the host was like "Actually, your party is leaving and you're not allowed to go up anymore." So we had to stay in the lobby, which was embarrassing. Eventually the people we met came down and apologized and said that they were tired and going to go home. So, me and Jeffry attempted to go to the next party.

We had heard from Adam McKay earlier about the exclusive party at Sunset Tower so we asked our driver to take us there. We got dropped off and tried to walk in, but we were stopped by a guard who asked for our name. So I gave my name and he said we weren't on the list. I told them the director of The Big Short said we could get in blah blah and he basically just cut me off and said that's not how it works. So we kind of got double rejected, so at this point we didn't really have anywhere to go, which was disappointing because I didn't want the night to really end. We didn't really have any ideas at this point so I remembered that one of my friends was having a karaoke birthday thing at a bar so we drove to there. We walked in and just sang Karaoke with some friends. Some people were wondering why Jeffry was in a tuxedo and he would say he came from an awards show. Other people just asked me if I worked at the karaoke bar since the owner was Korean or something.... eventually we all left from there and I told my friend if he needed a ride back to our apartment building we all shared in a private car since they walked and we "rode back in style".

Anyways, that's basically it. Oscar party is tomorrow. Hopefully there's something interesting to say about that.

SAG Awards Recap pt 2

Picking up where the last one left off. Been really busy because Pilot season has been starting and I've been getting a lot more auditions. That and I'm shooting Hand Fart this weekend, which will be the biggest shoot I've done in pretty much my whole life. Anyways...

So, the award show kind of starts. I hadn't really watched award shows lately, so I didn't really remember what to expect. But when people ask me what it was like to be at the actual award show, I mostly just tell them that it's like watching it at home except you get to eat really bland food. I would say that only about half the people there were eating the food. The portions were really small too. I actually finished all of my food before the first award even got announced. I remember Steve Carell's wife, Nancy Carell, immediately noticed and asked if I wanted her food because she wasn't going to be eating it and I said no I shouldn't. Then she just plopped her plate down on top of mine and I was like ok....

Awards show food... Disappointed.

A photo posted by Stanley Wong (@swong37) on Jan 30, 2016 at 7:14pm PST

Apparently the big moment when The Big Short was announced as a best cast ensemble nominee, the camera did a sweeping pan on everyone at the table. I didn't even realize it was going on so I was just eating at the time. A lot of my friends said it looked rehearsed, but even if it wasn't, it was so "me" that they thought it was the great moment of the awards for them.

My big moment at the SAG awards captured in motion.

A video posted by Stanley Wong (@swong37) on Feb 4, 2016 at 9:40am PST

An interesting thing, I remember the first time I left to go to the bathroom and came back there was this guy that was sitting at my seat. I didn't know what was going on so I asked him what was up and he said "Oh, someone told me sit here." I didn't know if I was being relocated or something, but we had assigned seats and my spot had my name on it and everything. Eventually I figure out that every time you get up they have professional seat fillers to take your spot. I was kind of wondering why when I first sat down the guy who was sitting at Ryan Gosling's spot was definitely not Ryan Gosling....

During commercial breaks is when people tend to get up and start talking to everyone else. Considering I don't really know that many other people in this elite crowd, I was mostly talking to Jeffry and the people at my table. At one point Steve Carell and I talked a bit and I mentioned that I ate his wife's food and he offered me his food, which I tried to refuse again, but then he put his plate on top of mine so I just ate his plate too. I made a point to try to talk to people who I knew were originally from the New Orleans area so I went up and talked to Anthony Mackie (Captain America, Hurt Locker) and Jay Duplass. Both were super nice and happy to see that another Louisiana guy was around. I introduced myself as Stanley, but they made a point to ask for my full name. I guess hopefully in the future we'll run into each other again. They were both disappointed to hear that I was actually from the Mandeville area instead of the "proper" New Orleans area though. I tried talking to Ellie Kemper since we both worked on 21 Jump Street together, but she was too busy talking to Tina Fey for me to get a word in at that time. Jeffry wanted to get a word in with Leonardo DiCaprio, but he usually had a line of people trying to talk to him during breaks.

What you see when your speech is going on too long. This was for Leo's speech #sagawards

A photo posted by Stanley Wong (@swong37) on Jan 30, 2016 at 8:20pm PST

So coming into the award show, I had read some predictions on who would win the big award. The Big Short was favored, but it was still a bit of a coin toss between it and Spotlight. Unfortunately the award was announced and Spotlight got it. It was a huge disappointment because I was really looking forward to being able to go up on stage. Once that award was announced, it ended pretty quickly and everyone started shuffling towards the after party.

I'll make a pt 3. Too long again.

SAG Awards Recap pt 1

So this whole experience was pretty amazing. It had it's share of disappointments, but obviously overall it's just incredible to just be a part of. So, I got a call on Thursday asking if I was available to go to the SAG awards. I was allowed to invite a guest, so again I asked Jeffry Griffin (Ryan Gosling's assistant in The Big Short) to go with me. When they found out that I was asking him to be my guest they actually offered to buy his flight from New Orleans to Los Angeles and they thought it was awesome that we were keeping in touch. They told me they were providing me with a private car and I should dress up etc. It was all happening so fast.

The next day I was scrambling to get a haircut and grab a tuxedo. I personally thought that it seemed weird for me to rent a tux for the event. Or at least to rent the same kind of suit everyone else was wearing to look like I fit in. The stylist there recommended that I wear a white jacket with a black shirt and black pants. I showed a picture to my sister and she said it was a "hard no" and that I looked like I was going to prom. I took a look at the time and realized I was already running late for the hair appointment. The stylist assured me that it will catch people's eye without being too bold, so I decided to just go with it.

The next day Jeffry came in and I helped him pick up his tuxedo. Then we went back and got ready for the private town car to pick us up. Apparently there was some mix up and while we were sitting around waiting for the call to come on my phone, Jeffry realized that the driver had contacted him 20 minutes earlier. So we went outside and got in the car and started heading out there. The driver was nice and related to us because she has a lot of family from Louisiana as well. The drive took a long time though (about an hour), and we ended up getting to the venue about 4:00 PM.

As we got out of the car I could see a crowd of people already screaming at some of the other people coming out. I spotted Susan Sarandon, Jim Parsons, and a few other people getting out the same time as us. I didn't really have any idea what we were supposed to be doing so I called one of the paramount publicists and she told us to just walk up and try to find them. So we ended up checking in through security and then started approaching the red carpet. From my experience from 22 Jump Street, you still needed a publicist to get you through it though so we waited around for them to find us. When they eventually got to us, they told us that unfortunately there wasn't enough time to walk us down the red carpet anymore and we had to go around the side into the venue because we needed to be in our seats by 4:30 PM. It was pretty disappointing, but we just walked through the side and went inside.

In the shit.

A video posted by Stanley Wong (@swong37) on Jan 30, 2016 at 4:13pm PST

Once inside, we were asked to show and scan our tickets like three times. We had assigned tables and seats and I was surprised to see that our seats was literally right up front next to the stage. I was sitting at the head of the table right next to Ryan Gosling, Marisa Tomei, Christian Bale, and Steve Carell. I had a more prominent spot than even the director and some of the other main co-stars. We were also seated at the table in front of the Game of Thrones table, but I don't watch the show so I didn't really recognize too many of them. I got to meet with Bryon Mann and Christian Bale for the first time and I had short conversations with each of them. Soon after the awards started and we were all asked to sit down



I'm going to make a pt 2 because this is taking too long. To be continued...

Awards shows and Now You See Me red carpet story

I got invited to go to the SAG awards tomorrow. I will do a write up on that when I get the chance. I was talking to my friend about all the weird celebrity stories and he encouraged me to write them out so I thought this would be a good place to do it and this one was a good one to start off on.

Even though I was in 21 Jump Street, I wasn't able to go to the premiere because I had just gotten a small role in the movie Now You See Me at the same time the premiere would have happened. I had already bought my plane ticket to Los Angeles, rented a car, found lodging, and everything. But then I found out I booked this role and I was on the fence on whether or not I should go to the premiere for the potential to network, or take on an actual role in a movie that was waiting for me in Louisiana. I asked for advice from Phil Lord (one of the directors from Jump Street), Henry Griffin (my screenwriting teacher from UNO), and my co-stars in Jump Street. All of them said I should just take the work. There are always more premiere to be had and honestly they're not very cool anyways.

So I did take the role and it did end up being a great experience. I did want to follow up on going to other premieres so I asked early about going to the premiere for Now You See Me. At the time, I was already living in Los Angeles, but not actually working that much, and I found out that the premiere would actually end up being in New York. Because my role was really small, I felt like it would have been kind of a waste to fly out to New York for the premiere. However, they did tell me that I could go to a press screening that was happening in Los Angeles. I figured a press screening was just a small screening for people in the press to watch and give reviews or something, which isn't glamorous but I could at least watch the movie.

I rolled up to the movie theater wearing my office clothes because I had come out of working as a temp in the HR department of some office in Koreatown. As I walked up to the entrance of the theater I noticed that there was a red carpet with a line of photographers and everything. Apparently, even though it's a press screening, it's still a red carpet event and was actually pretty much another premiere. I got nervous and hung around the sidelines because I wasn't sure if I was supposed to just walk in like everybody else or if I was even allowed to go on the red carpet. I was also by myself because I invited my friend Brett (who was also from Jump Street) and he told me last minute that he was bailing out.

So as I'm hanging on the sidelines, I see the director (Louis Leterrier) also standing around the side. I was debating on whether I should go up and talk to him, but was worried that he might not even remember me since I had a pretty small role. Eventually, he caught a glimpse of me and walked straight up to me. He definitely remembered who I was. "I've been editing this movie for months! How can I not remember you?" He asked if I was living out in L.A. and about how I was doing etc. Then near the end he asked if I got a chance to walk the red carpet. "Am I even allowed to walk the red carpet?" He then told me of course I was. I was in the movie. Why wouldn't I be?

So, I decided to try and make my move. After all, the director told me I can go up right? I started walking up to the red carpet. I noticed Jesse Eisenberg had just started walking down and I was going to go in right behind him. I stepped up to the entrance of it and this big guy stops me and asks what I'm doing. "I'm in the movie. The director said I'm allowed to walk down the red carpet." The guard kind of scoffs a bit and just says "Yeah right" then gets some people to escort me away into the theater.

Because I already felt like I didn't belong at all, I really didn't have the strength to try to back any of it up and I just let them escort me away. It was pretty embarrassing. He told me I don't belong there and I pretty much agreed with him. I eventually walked into the theater and just sat in my seat. I watched the movie and saw my part and my eyes lit up for a second. Then I realized my part was less than 10 seconds and before I knew it I was gone. I finished up the movie and left the theater. That was it. I guess premieres really aren't that cool.

New Podcast and Videos!!!

So I finished one of the videos that took forever. Tried handing it off to two different editors before finally just doing the final touches myself. The video came together because we all met up to shoot one video and we realized we weren't ready to shoot it at all. So we came up with an idea on the spot and ended up shooting this. Go ahead and watch it. It came out pretty ok.


I also went on a podcast today called Box Office Breakdown. It was the first time I was a part of a podcast that was at a studio so that was an interesting experience. Thanks to SchmoesJTE for inviting me on that one. Hopefully I get more chances to talk about random stuff.


Edit: I was on another episode of JTE Movie Thinks so here's the link for that one. It's the 1/26/16 episode.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/jte-movie-thinks!/id955398045?mt=2

Golden Globes

So this past Sunday the Golden Globes happened. Leading up to it, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to partake in any of the activities, but The Big Short was nominated for four awards. About a week before the awards, I got an invitation to attend one of those parties where companies just give you watches and stuff to wear to the awards. I wasn't actually invited to the awards themselves, but my manager definitely me to just go to get free stuff. Unfortunately, the day before that party actually happened, I got a notice that the list was severely shortened and unfortunately my invitation was a part of that short list. It was kind of strange and disheartening, but I figured it just wasn't my time yet.

A day before the awards, I got a notice that I was invited to the Viewing and after party hosted by Paramount Pictures. I found out I was also able to bring one guest. My first go to choices were either my sister or cousin who had always begged me to invite them to something like this. Unfortunately both were busy. From there I wasn't really sure who to invite, but then I had the idea to invite my co-star from the film Jeffry Griffin since he was still in Louisiana and wasn't really getting invitations to stuff like this. So I told him he could crash at my place and he offered to fly up and the plan was set in motion.

The next day I picked him up at the airport and went straight to the party at the Chateau Marmont. This was apparently a famous party hotel for the Hollywood elite. I wasn't really sure what we were going to walk into, but I was preparing myself for what might possibly be the biggest night of my life. We dropped our car off at the valet, took the elevator to the penthouse floor, and walked into the party only to find that there were only like ten people there. I was really confused actually. I didn't really recognize anyone (though I imagine anyone I would have recognized was probably at the awards themselves). Me and Jeff got some food and sat at a table and met Emma who was the fiance of Jeremy Strong, he was in the scene with us. She knew who we were when we walked in the room and we talked to her mostly through this. The costume designer of the film and her husband were also around and talking to us. Still, this was not quite what I expected for a big exclusive Golden Globes party.

We watched the Golden Globes and ate food. The big disappointment of the night was losing best comedy to The Martian because most of the blogs and critics had Big Short favored to win. While the Big Short can't really be classified as a straight comedy, The Martian most definitely is not a straight comedy either. I imagine they'll change some of the criteria for the award in the future. Either way, once that happened the energy in the room quickly died. Once the awards were over people started leaving and we asked people what was supposed to happen and the best answer we could get from anyone was "We'll have to see. A lot of people don't even want to go out because we lost." So me and Jeff were at this party that was breaking down at like 8 PM and we were wondering if we should just go home. Around the moment that we were getting read to leave though, Brad Pitt walks through the door and someone exclaims "Oh, nevermind. Looks like the after party will be here after all."

So little by little, everyone who was at the awards starts to show up. I got to catch up with Jeremy Strong and Hamish Linklater who were really cool and excited to see me when I went to the first screening. Had a decent conversation with Finn Wittrock about what he was doing next and how he felt about everything. He was a cool guy. There came a point where me and Jeffry kept trying to find our in to talk to Brad Pitt and Adam McKay who were sitting at a couch with people surrounding them. Eventually a girl (I forgot her name) must have seen how clueless we looked and made a point to walk us up to introduce us. Had a short conversation with both. It wasn't much, but I guess we got to let our presence by acknowledged.

Eventually the focus started to turn to getting into the WME party on the ground floor. I wasn't really sure if we could really get in because it seemed like we could barely get into the Paramount party. Hamish was really cool though and made a point to champion our way in. He walked with us down to the first floor and tried to starpower his way in. Unfortunately the doorperson even turned him away, which must have been a little embarrassing. He then called up his girlfriend Lily Rabe (I think?) and eventually the door person must have gotten word from someone and we were allowed into that party.

This party was absolutely nuts. Like shoulder to shoulder with people and it was crazy because every single one of those people were celebrities of some sort. I saw 2-3 people walking around with Golden Globe statues themselves. Had random mini conversation with people like Selena Gomez, Aziz Ansari, Eric Wareheim, the daughters of Eric McLeesh (one of the actual lawyers from Spotlight), Jonah Hill (who mostly wanted to talk to about my mom), Rick Famuyiwa, Sam Smith, etc etc. It was just a crazy night. Pretty much everyone who was at the Golden Globes was at that party. Not sure what else to say. Around 3 AM the party started shutting down so we left.

I came out of it feeling like I had just done one of the most Hollywood things so far in my L.A. journey, but at the same time I felt like I'm pretty much the same person the next day. Even though I got to briefly meet a lot of people, I'm not sure if I really solidified any real relationships with anyone. Maybe I did it wrong, not sure. Anyways, it was neat. I'm going to post again soon with a video I made recently. Also I'm excited for the new year. 

P.S. Hi Melanie, since I think you're the only one who reads these posts.