It’s since changed. I’ll explain.
Podcaster Adam Carolla has an interesting theory about birthdays: celebrate your achievement day instead. Everyone was born. That’s easy. Why not instead honor the date of something you’re very proud of accomplishing?
Last year, I had only a few days to memorize what was essentially an eight-page monologue that was the climax of a Lifetime movie. Daunting, but I knew it could be big for my career.
I spoke to my friend Jay Mohr about it, and he told me about his life-changing role in Jerry Maguire. Jay studied his lines night and day. He ran the words as Bugs Bunny, and in a Russian accent. He had friends call him randomly and mention a word from his lines, putting him on the spot to finish the sentence. He wanted to be prepared in every way on set if they started and stopped at any of his words. I followed suit.
The morning of July 27, 2019, I was dragging, having shot late the night before. But as I arrived at the home on location where we were shooting, the lighting guy came walking out the front door and joked with me to make the night scene go quickly. Suddenly I became empowered and joked with him, “For you, I’ll do it one take.”
Before we shot that scene, I had some very physical action, in which I was hit in the stomach first with a bat, and then with a pool cue. I was beat up and sweaty as we broke for lunch at 11 p.m. I thought about going over my lines for the big monologue, but then I thought, nah, I’ve got this.
As we blocked the scene, running the lines quickly, I knew every word. The director, Lisa France, was blown away. And then when we shot, I owned the set. I performed the scene in the middle of the night, with lots of words and physical business, and was in the zone. It was my favorite moment of acting ever. My achievement day.
Take a moment and think about yours. Though keep in mind, these days, existing is a pretty remarkable achievement.
