Want to see something totally random and kind of cool? Below is the one music video I ever shot, for Robert Miles’ “Children.” Go to 1:32 to see me (check out my rockin’ Vans!), and then to 2:53 to see a very young Izabella Miko, who later ended up starring in Coyote Ugly, among other things.
Let me tell you: one of the most embarrassing things in the entire world is auditioning for a music video, especially when you’re not exactly a professional dancer. For this audition, do you know what I had to do? I had to stand in a big room with a million very cool MTV-VJ model types milling around. I was then called up all by my lonesome and told to stand in the very center of the room – where everyone could watch me. And then they turned on some music, and told me to DANCE. Alone. With zero direction. In front of a million very cool MTV-VJ model types.
And of course I was wearing palazzo pants, platform boots, and a baby tee (hey, it was 1996), because maybe my agent forgot to mention that I’d be, you know, DANCING.
I remember being a little grumpy on that set – I had decided to grow a rebellious bone and break my curfew the night before, so I was exhausted at the 5AM call in Coney Island. Izabella was great, but I felt extremely insecure around her: a dorky little kid next to a tall, beautiful model. And then they asked me to do a scene where I had to kiss a guy in a pickup truck (the guy whose tummy is pictured above, although the kiss ended up being cut), and I had never kissed anyone on-camera before. And to top it off, the guy completely despised me on sight…and let me know it. I believe there was actually sighing and eye rolling between every take. Nice.
But like I said: totally random, kind of cool.
Click here for another little stroll, in the form of my 1994 Frosted Flakes video, and here for more audition horror stories.
