October and November were busy with auditions leading to 3 bookings: a feature film, Eve of Abduction, a short film, At The End Of The World and a pilot for the new TV comedy, Booked, which I co-wrote and developed with fellow actor, Nick Newbould.
After a final rewrite, Nick has cast, Booked, and he is looking to shoot the pilot early in 2018. I hope the show takes off as I may pop up in each episode as the teacher who refuses to accept that she has been sacked from her role in the daytime drama, Heart & Soul. Fun stuff and a nice way to start the new year!
In November, I spent a week camped out at the AFI Fest in Hollywood watching the American independent films, the AFI Conservatory Thesis Shorts and I attended interviews of Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman), Sofia Coppola (The Beguiled), Martin McDonagh and Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) and Angelina Jolie and Loung Ung (First They Killed My Father). But the highlight of the festival for me, was the extraordinary documentary, Filmworker. The original aim was to document Stanley Kubrick’s genius but the film ended up as a fascinating chronicle of the life of his right-hand man, Leon Vitali, an English actor who gave up his career in front of the camera in order to work alongside Kubrick for thirty years until Kubrick’s death in 1999 and who still continues to curate Kubrick’s work today.
November also brought my final interview with US immigration and the arrival of my Green Card in the post two weeks later. It is a huge relief to have been granted permanent residency and I celebrated over a few drinks with my friends at Granville, Studio City.